Homeschooling

I am a big believer in homeschooling and think it is the best solution for some kids and parents. Reading this list of famous home-schoolers is definitely interesting as are the comments on the article. There are several perspectives that I had never considered in the context of homeschooling. Escape to public school to escape a dreary, wretched home and family is one of them.

While it is great the the kid gets a break for a good part of the day everyday, they must inevitably return to that terrible place called home - until they are able to leave for good and strike out on their own. To use public school to escape a deeper, more fundamental problem is like suppressing the symptoms without curing the disease.

If a parent is not dedicated to giving their child a good education the outcomes could be equally bad whether the kid is home-schooled or not. The ability of the parent to teach the material is obviously important and it would help the credibility of all home-schoolers if their primary educators were properly vetted and accredited before they started schooling their kids.

There is the constant refrain of social ineptitude among home-schoolers because they don't get as many opportunities to socialize. That is easily corrected by a slew of extra curricular activity options available to school age kids all year long. Any or all of those could be opportunities for social interaction. A lot of home-schoolers are actively engagement is such activities. I do know parents who send kids to public school and expect the system to take care of them from that point on. If the school or television does not provide it, the kids have to do without it.

The missing piece of the puzzle appears to be an assessment to determine if a parent and a child would be a good fit for and well served by homeschool. Based on that, parents can be offered guidance on their strengths and their weaknesses as the would be educators of their children. Clearly, this is not a one-size fits all kind of deal.