Homeschooling Works!

West Virginia homeschoolers score 20 or more percentile points higher on nationally normed achievement tests than their public school counterparts according to a West Virginia study commissioned by Christian Home Educators of West Virginia.

But what about families who can’t afford the fancy curriculum? While the amount of money homeschool families spend varied from practically nothing to more than a couple thousand, the study found no correlation between the amount of money spent on educational materials and the students’ performance on standardized tests. In other words, bells and whistles are not what makes the difference!  Parents often claim that the difference is made by education that is tailored to each child’s needs. Homeschoolers are known for quoting, “One size doesn’t fit all.”

While the study found a “moderately significant” relationship between the parents’ level of formal education and student test scores, it’s noteworthy that students of parents with the lowest level of formal education still posted scores that were 20 points higher than the national average.

“No matter how you look at the data, homeschoolers are doing quite well,” said veteran homeschool father and former CHEWV board member David Richman.  Current board member Wendy Summers summed it up, “For most of our families, homeschooling is not just an educational choice; it’s a way of life."

One Homeschool Mom’s Experience

I describe my first few years of homeschooling as a roller coaster ride.  Sometimes I felt this was the best decision we ever made, and this was working so well!  I watched my children’s peers in school and knew we had the advantage.  But the next day, or perhaps the next week, I was dipping down into despair.  The school kids were doing things we couldn’t do at home, what were we doing, and what were we thinking?  We were ruining them for sure.  And so went the ride.  Up and down.  Peaks and valleys.

But with experience I got my bearings.  There’s something very motivating about knowing that your children’s future rests with you.  If it ain’t working, you better figure out why!  It turns out that love is a strong motivator.  What a parent will do out of love is much deeper and more intense than what the best teacher will do for pay. 

It also turns out that one-on-one education is quite effective.  A teacher usually faces 20-30 students; a mom faces one (at a time).  The homeschool mom pretty much knows what each of her students has mastered.  Our children can’t sit in the back of the classroom and avoid raising their hands when asked a question.  At home, every question is addressed to them personally.  And if they haven’t mastered 50% of the material, we don’t write a D in the grade book and go on to the next unit.  We teach the other 50% until they know it!  None of the other children have to wait on the slow one.  None of the other children are bored, because there are no other children in that grade.  One size may not fit all; but then we’re only teaching one.  That ideal teacher-student ratio turns out to be quite effective!

Plus the teacher doesn’t leave at 3:00 in the afternoon.  The teacher (and principal) are in charge 24/7.  The games played.  The television watched.  The places visited.  It all becomes a connected whole to teach not only academics, but worldview and values.  Every aspect of life becomes consistent. And that type of consistency is highly effective.  When everyone is vested, results come naturally. 

I’m not claiming that homeschooling can make a dull child an Einstein.  But it can effectively realize a child’s potential.  We can zoom through math while simultaneously remediating English.  Or vice versa.  We can apply what we’ve learned in every situation and every conversation.  Suddenly, trips to the store become learning opportunities.  Making a bank deposit becomes a field trip.  Visits to Grandma’s become practice for respectful behavior.  Life becomes the classroom.  Learning grows beyond the textbooks.  Botany includes yard work, gardening and raking.  Nutrition includes breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Economics is lived out in every home decision.  And education blurs into life as life blurs into education.  How did life ever become separated from learning we start to wonder... 

Unless we never learn to move past “school at home.”  It’s possible to merely bring the classroom home and never move past that.  It’s possible to make up a school room, sit them at desks all day long, make them work in books, take tests, and write down grades in a record book.  Ring the bell at 3.  Go off and do your own thing while they go off and do theirs.  Certainly parents can reproduce that ineffective way to learn - in the safety of their own home.  But most of us soon learn that that is a silly way to waste an opportunity! 

And so we gradually learn what it means to step outside the school “box.”  What if education is not what happens from 9 to 2?  What if it’s not what happens from August to June?  What if it doesn’t end on Friday afternoon and resume on Monday morning?  What if subjects don’t have to fit into neat and uniform 50 minute periods?  What if information doesn’t have to always be divided out into separate subjects? 

It’s no wonder that homeschool graduates are not overly intimidated in real life situations - it was their classroom.  Am I saying that all homeschoolers end up as extroverted, violin-playing, spelling bee champs?  Well, of course not.  Some are shy, introverted, learning-challenged children the same as children anywhere else.  The difference, perhaps, is that someone knows all about their abilities, limitations, and progress.  Every little detail.  Every day.  And our job is to help them overcome.  As you can imagine, we fail.  A lot.  But who else would ever invest in each child like we?  Who else would have the time? 

Not every homeschooling family is a beacon of hope and inspiration.  In fact, most of us fall well short.  But as a whole, our statistics are not too shabby.  This works.  And works remarkably well.  By stepping out of the proverbial box and embracing parenthood in its full intensity, our children reach their potential. 

At the end of their journey, I’ve not personally known any homeschooling parent who regretted doing it.  I know there must be some, but I don’t personally know any and I’ve been around homeschooling now for decades.  I highly suspect that the homeschool parents who regret their decision are a huge minority next to public school parents, many of whose children have caused them irreconcilable pain and disappointment. 

Marvel?  Yes, I marvel.  At God’s grace. So enjoy the roller coaster ride. Lord willing, it will soon be smooth sailing.

“The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.”

                                                                            ~ Robert Louis Stevenson