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How Effective is Home Schooling?

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Written by Joseph N. Abraham, M.D.

Tuesday, 18 March 2008

by JosephN.Abraham,M.D.

There is more and more discussion of home schooling. This should come as no surprise; it is at home that we learn most of what we know; and the best students have received their educational foundations at home. The strength of this approach is demonstrated by the rapid progress of many home-schooled children, even though they often spend much less time with textbooks than their peers.

Homeschooling is not yet the universal answer, unfortunately. There are parents who do not themselves have the education to teach their children; many of them are required to work, and therefore do not have the time; and, sad to say, too many parents simply do not care enough.

Given those three, it seems that schools are still necessary. And without a doubt, schools are still important for the foreseeable future: educational attainment in formal schools correlates strongly with every quality-of-life indicator. As it has been said, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

So yes, home schooling might be attractive, if it were universally available. But even when parents met the three requirements above, it is an unusual parent who can teach all disciplines all the way through the high school level. Very few people excel at all disciplines: sciences, math, humanities, arts, etc.

And for the handful of people who can do it all, everyone has limits: who has the mastery to educate a child through all the necessary college courses?

Should home schooling be the ultimate target of our educational systems? Should we begin designing a community wherein one parent stays at home, not so much as to cook, clean, and do housework, as to home-school future generations? Whereas the current trend is for educational systems to intervene earlier and earlier in our children's education, perhaps as we become better educated, we should instead encourage parents to take over more of their children's early education. Perhaps in some future day, we will have a situation in which the majority of our parents have the knowledge, time, and interest to educate their children all the way to adulthood.

Quite often, home schooling is superior to institutional education; when done right, it definitely works. Unfortunately, we are not yet to the point that it will work for all children, and for all parents.

About the Author:

Joseph N. Abraham MD is president of The American Public School Endowments and booksXYZ.com, the Nonprofit Bookstore Supporting Education. booksXYZ.com lists over 2,000,000 paperbacks, hardbacks, and audio books. Dr. Abraham is also the author of Happiness: A Physician/Biologist Looks at Life, an innovative self help book looking at Zen, biology, and fulfilment.

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