| Is There Some Middle Ground? | | | | Homeschoolers come from all walks of life. Rich |
| Even though home schooling is on the rise | | | | people, not-so-rich people, professionals, |
| (increasing by 10-15% per year depending on who | | | | non-professionals, strong believers, non-believers; |
| you ask), there are still some stigmas attached | | | | it's all over the board. There is no conclusive single |
| with the concept that makes it completely out of | | | | demographic for people who want to educate |
| the question to ever do for many folks. | | | | their children themselves. As a matter of fact, if |
| Some people don't feel qualified to do it. They | | | | you compare the early educations of Thomas |
| think they will embarrass themselves in even | | | | Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln, |
| trying to do it. They think you have to have a | | | | you would find that they were all homeschooled, |
| teaching degree or even a college degree of any | | | | learning to spell, read, write and do their numbers |
| kind to teach their kids. It's an understandable | | | | at home before taking advance classes at |
| feeling to have, but not fair just to blow the | | | | colleges at an older age. And that turned out |
| whole thing off without looking into it further. | | | | pretty well didn't it? |
| There are some great resources out there, | | | | Many people doubt their child will ever get into a |
| especially with the Internet being so handy now. | | | | good college if their homeschooled. This is also |
| Get more information before you decide not to | | | | erroneous. |
| do it on these grounds. Lots of people felt this | | | | Homeschooled children are not only accepted, but |
| way at first but just rolled right into it and found | | | | are also recruited by top universities around the |
| it was a lot easier than they thought originally. Like | | | | country. Homeschooling makes young people |
| a lot of seemingly complicated problems, if you | | | | more mature with strong academic skills and |
| just break it into pieces it becomes a lot simpler | | | | creativity. They are also more independent |
| to solve. There are a lot of ways to work around | | | | thinkers than kids from public education |
| shortcomings if they're there. Special course | | | | backgrounds. Homeschoolers ranked highest on |
| material, tutors, videos, community college classes | | | | the college entrance exams SAT scores in the |
| and the list goes on. Check out what's available to | | | | year 2001. Time magazine reported in September, |
| you before giving up. | | | | 2000, that 26 percent of 35 homeschooled |
| Some say homeschooling is just for the religious | | | | applicants had been accepted that year into the |
| nuts or held-over hippies and that's just plain | | | | freshman class at Stanford University. That was |
| wrong. Sure, some homeschoolers practice putting | | | | roughly double the rate of overall acceptance. |
| more faith and moral instruction into their | | | | On balance, homeschooling just has so much going |
| curriculum, but that's their prerogative which | | | | for it, it would seem, that it would be a shame |
| homeschooling allows them to do. By my count, | | | | not to give it a good look. There is so much |
| there aren't too many "hippies" left in this country, | | | | possibility for a great foundational education. |
| at least not still in their child bearing years! | | | | |