Many parents choose the home-school route for their children for one very general and important reason: they want their children to receive more than public schools can offer. This may sound simplistic, but it covers a lot of territory. Parents, whether their children are in home or public school, are showing increasing concerns about the type of education their children are receiving in government and district-regulated public schools. Seeing the pressing need for students to receive more individualized attention and having an understanding of their unique interests and learning styles, more and more parents are choosing to home-school in record numbers. These parents, many of whom are affluent and can afford the best private schools, are choosing to home-school in order to ensure that their children will be able to discover and explore their creativity along with learning the basic school subjects. A strong belief has driven many parents to choose home-school as the best method of education: that children will do better as adults if they have learned to recognize and nurture their creative talents.
Home-school students tend to be more confident in their abilities, more willing to take risks when it comes to achieving goals, and more open to the different possibilities of life. Rather than being sequestered and sheltered from the real world as many home-school critics proclaim, home-school students are usually quite comfortable in many different situations with many different kinds of people. The flexibility and freedom of home-school lends itself to teaching children how to “think outside the box” while still being able to use their unique talents and strengths to contribute to society as a whole.
As more parents are choosing to home-school, more home-school critics seem to come out of the woodwork. Citing such reasons as child isolation, poor parental teaching skills and unacceptable curriculums, many critics are beginning to propose that stricter regulations and guidelines be imposed on home-school families. Thus, they ensure that home-school will more closely resemble public school. Though each criticism of home-school that is stated can be soundly refuted by home-school statistics, critics continue to voice concerns that are unfounded. Many of these critics are trying to disguise the real issues that governments and school districts know exist: that public schools are failing more and more to give our children the education that they need to succeed in the modern world. Statistics on home-school are making this even clearer. Home-school students are excelling in every grade, and are going on to succeed quite well in college and in their chosen careers. It is apparent that the majority of parents who home-school have made the right decision. This leads to the conclusion that the public school systems need to take a hard look at themselves and make drastic changes in order to meet the needs of today's children.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.
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