Three Things You Never Knew About Home School

For years, students who are schooled at home have been looked upon as strange, out-of-touch, or backward. Such is not the case with the modern home school students who are now vying for some of the top scholarships being awarded by some of the nation's top institutions of learning.

Take the case of Kerry Anderson's remarkable academic success story. Terry was home schooled on the road in the back seat of a big-rig tractor trailer by her mother who drove the truck and made deliveries during the day, and taught her daughter in the evenings. Now 26 years old, Kerry went on to make it through community college and was eventually awarded a full scholarship to Harvard University.

The Number of Home School Students Are Increasing

According to USA Today reporter Janice Lloyd, the number of students who are schooled at home has continued on a steady rise over the past five years. In 2007, the number of children home schooled in the U.S. increased 74% since the U.S. Department of Education started keeping track in 1999.

"There's no reason to believe (the numbers of home schooled kids) would not keep going up," according to Gail Mulligan, a statistician for the National Center for Education Statistics at the Department of Education. It seems the reasons for parents bringing their own children home for their education are not simply based on moral or religious reasons.

Parents May Be Losing Confidence in Schools, Gaining Confidence in Home School

Indeed, some parents think the standard curriculum methods and standardized testing widely used in traditional schools may be counterproductive to their kids receiving a top-notch education. In our own family, we were faced with a school administration that refused to change or alter curriculum that was clearly beneath some of the students abilities and academic aspirations.

In Rhode Island, Johnston High School is in danger of losing it's accreditation with a state agency which put the school on academic probation five years ago. Loss of state accreditation means any students graduating from that school will not be allowed into most colleges or universities. If you have a kid in Johnston High who wants to be a doctor, what do you tell him? It's no wonder people are losing faith in the schools and turning to home school as an alternative.

Student Safety at School is a Big Concern for Parents

Even though recent statistics show a decline in public school violence around the U.S., parents are becoming increasingly concerned with the personal safety of their own children in a public school environment. The facts show that in 2009, 11.1% of kids in grades 9 through 12 reported being in a physical fight at school, according to a 2010 Youth Violence survey published by the Centers for Disease Control.

And even though schools have tightened security, 5.6% of these students surveyed still carried a knife, gun, or club onto school property on one or more days in the 30 days preceding this survey. Almost 1 in 5 public school students reported being bullied within the preceding 12 months of this survey. For me and my kids, that's just too big of a risk to their personal safety and possibly their lives. Home school does not have any of these problems.

Sources:

CDC.gov, "Youth Violence: Facts at at Glance"

National Center for Children Exposed to Violence, "School Violence"

NPR.org, "Cab-Schooled Student Earned Ticket To Harvard"

Ed.gov, "Statistics About Non-Public Education in the United States"

USAToday.com, "Homes schooling grows"

RedOrbit.com, "Crisis at Johnston High"