BENEFITS OF
 HOME EDUCATION
(Article by Beverly McCord and Donna Harp excerpted from the
1998 Handbook for Texas Homeschoolers revised January, 1998)

Although it was the predominant form of education during six thousand years of recorded human history, many post–World War II Americans consider home education a new idea. During the time when our country was the most literate, our Founding Fathers received education from their parents at home. For those who are unfamiliar with it, we identify the major benefits of home education and discuss them below.

The major benefits of home education fall into one of two categories: (1) the academic superiority of home education, and (2) the opportunity for better character (spiritual) development of children.

Academic Superiority

Low Teacher-to-Student Ratio

Home education affords a much lower teacher-to-student ratio than does the conventional classroom setting. The typical private school classroom has 15 to 25 students, limiting individualized pupil attention. They report a per pupil average of one to three minutes, during a 45-minute class period. Researchers who study the time teachers spend in the classroom say the figure is probably much lower. One study concludes: during the average 45-minute class period, a teacher spends 15 minutes filling out paperwork, 15 minutes handling disciplinary problems and only 15 minutes presenting a topic. On the other hand, the average teacher-to-student ratio in a home school tends to be one teacher per two or three students, allowing her to target the needs of each child.

Instant Feed-Back

The natural result of a low teacher-to-student ratio is that the home educator receives instant feedback from her pupils during class time. Mother knows instantly whether Johnny has grasped the concept of long division because (1) she knows her boy better than anyone else in the world and (2) she does not have to teach 30 other children long division that day.

Customized Curriculum

The home educator selects from a multitude of materials, the curriculum most appropriate for each child at his own developmental level. Children of the same age are not all on the same developmental level. Some are one or two years "ahead" in reading. Some are one or two years "behind." The same child who is developmentally ahead in reading may be behind in math skills. The classroom teacher must use the same curriculum for all the children. She has little opportunity to vary the regimen because (1) she has so many children to teach in such a short time, and (2) she spends so much time on non-teaching activities such as paperwork and disciplinary problems. Therefore, the children who are ahead, called "gifted," and the children who are behind, labeled "learning disabled," are not having their needs met, because the curriculum is appropriate only for those children within the "norm."

It is true that many public schools offer "special education" classes for the handicapped and slow learners. Despite their lower teacher-to-student ratio, these programs are often inadequate for a particular child’s needs. Many public schools also offer classes for "the gifted and talented," but many parents complain that these classes do not offer advanced academic skills, but rather indoctrination into secular, humanist thinking. Because Out-Come Based Education is now in use in the public schools, its major changes in teaching methods and curriculum mean all children are potentially at risk.

Fewer Distractions at Home

Many children, particularly those with short attention spans, find the distractions from 30 other wiggling, giggling pupils in the classroom environment far more interesting than memorizing the multiplication tables. Exacerbating this problem is the fashionable "open classroom" setting in which several classes study in a large area without benefit of permanent walls separating the classes and sealing off sound. In a home school the noise level is lower, and the distractions are fewer. If a crying baby or an active toddler becomes a problem, scheduling home school sessions during the little one’s nap time remedies the situation. A quiet room is usually available somewhere in the house where even the easily distracted child can study.

Economy of Time

The conventional classroom setting wastes much of the child’s valuable time. At home it takes roughly one and a half hours a day to teach a first grader what he would learn in the average seven-hour day in public school, according to Dr. Raymond Moore, author of many books on home education. This is because the teacher must assign "busy work" to most of her pupils while she (1) fills out administrative paperwork, (2) handles disciplinary problems and (3) gives extra attention to pupils with special needs. This "busy work" usually does not further a child’s education, but merely keeps the student quiet for the time being.

Many home educators spend more than one and a half hours a day with their first grader, yet the child has much more free time to play, explore, and invent. Home schooling lends itself to accelerated academic programs. Given the low educational standards on both the secondary and collegiate levels, it is quite possible to prepare a child to enter college by age 13 or 14. As a rule, home educated students do very well in college and in the market place.

Greater Flexibility

Home education provides greater flexibility than conventional classroom instruction. Home schooling families need not schedule their vacations during holidays and summer months when facilities overcrowd with tourists and the rates are high. They can travel during the quieter, less expensive off-season. Home educators often combine vacations with educational opportunities, getting more value out of their time together. Home educated children can take more field trips to a wider variety of places and get more out of them. For example, it is difficult for a class of 40 students to examine a painting in an art gallery. Several of the students will be giggling and whispering. Other students in the back of the group won’t be able to see the painting or hear the tour guide’s explanation. Enthusiasm for the finer things in life is much easier to transmit to the next generation in a small, familial group.

Available to Experience a Variety of Occupational Choices

Home educators can adjust their daytime school schedules around job opportunities. It provides the young person time to investigate different occupations, crafts, and skills. Apprenticeship and part-time jobs build responsibility, money management skills, and a healthy resume.

Character Development

Today’s children spend 30 to 40 hours a week, 9 months of the year for at least 12 years during their impressionable youth, artificially segregated according to biologic age. Home educated children avoid destructive peer group dependency. The home schooled child learns in a multi-age group setting. Although he has "biological peer" friendships in the neighborhood and at church, he spends a greater ratio of his time with adults (and children of other ages) than does the average classroom child. Therefore, he tends to model much of his behavior after the adults with whom he associates, rather than his biological peers. Additional benefits accrue:

Parental Values, Not Peer Values

In a home school setting, parents, not peer groups, instill values in the children in at least two ways: (1) Parents select textbook suppliers or design their own curriculum reflecting their beliefs instead of using government-mandated textbooks. (2) Parents model positive values personally before their children. This is of critical importance to those parents who wish to pass on their religious faith and family heritage to their children.


Relates to Other Age Groups and Cultures

It is not unusual for a child educated in the conventional classroom setting to have difficulty relating to people outside his biologic age group. How many of us have run into the tongue-tied teenager who is incapable of sustaining a conversation with an adult, but who carries on lively conversations with his biologic peer group, employing their own peculiar jargon? The home schooled child, on the other hand, spends most of his time in a multi-generational setting. Interaction with younger children does not embarrass the home educated young person, and he enjoys the company of adults. He has learned to relate to all age groups. His experience with multi-cultural social environments increases as he travels with his family to civic functions, the grocery store, and job site. This socialization is a more accurate reflection of the world in which we live.

Better Self-Esteem

It is much easier to establish a child’s self-esteem in a loving home environment than in the conventional classroom setting. Children tend to taunt and ridicule one another. A child who genuinely likes his teacher and his school work usually receives the "teacher’s pet" label. A well-behaved child becomes a "sissy." Experiencing social rejection in conventional schools is sheer torture for some children (particularly sensitive, bright ones). Such children are better off in a home school setting.

Courage to Make Independent Decisions

The product of today’s classrooms frequently lacks courage—the courage to make a decision based on what is right, no matter what "the group" is doing. Peer group pressure is so intense that many children are afraid to do, say, or wear anything that "the group" would not approve of. This "herd instinct" is nonexistent in the home school setting because home educated children don’t study in herds, eat in herds, or play in herds. They have a stronger sense of their own individuality. They don’t derive their self-worth from "the group," but from the values and family heritage presented by their parents. Many adults marvel at the maturity, articulation, and wisdom of home educated children. It is a natural benefit of training in a supportive, loving, and positive setting.

Avoid Destructive Competition

American society is destructively competitive in at least three areas: the business world, the athletic world, and the academic world. In the conventional school, comparing children and their performances is the basis of grading, both in the classroom and on the playing field. Encouraging competition with the objective of winning produces stress and wrong values. Biblical standards tell us not to compare ourselves with others, but to love and serve one another and to put others first. In the home school setting, parents can avoid destructive competition. Instead of encouraging children to compete against each other, parents encourage them to work toward specific, individual, and family goals.

Avoid Damaging Influence of School Records

Testing and comparisons of scores begin soon after children enter school. Test scores accumulate in a child’s school records following him, like a ball and chain, through his entire academic career. Woe to a late developing child who scores poorly during first and second grades. He carries forever labels like "learning disabled," "dyslexic," or "developmentally retarded." Each year thereafter when his new teacher reviews his records, she may unconsciously pigeonhole him in a particular category and not demand enough of him. If she has 35 other students to deal with, she may simply write him off as a failure and allow the stigma to follow him throughout his school career.

Young Thomas Edison did poorly in first grade. Fortunately for him, his teacher expelled him from school half way through first grade because she found him unruly, disruptive, and developmentally retarded. His mother turned to home education. Edison learned differently, but accomplished much in his life.

There are, of course, many other advantages of home education. Suffice it to say that home education is an exciting alternative whose time has returned.

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