Props to our friend Carol for turning us on to this fascinating research on homeschoolers. While not dogmatic about it, the Duchess and I are homeschooling our four boys. She herself was homeschooled, as were my sibs. I wasn't, and look how I turned out. This alone should be enough to convince you to teach your kids at home. If not, take a look at some of these stats:
Academic Attainment -- "In the general U.S. population in this age range (18-24), 46.2% had attained some college courses or higher; 74.2% of the home-educated had attained some college courses or higher."
Citizenship -- "71% of subjects were participating in any ongoing community service activity (e.g., coaching a sports team, volunteering at a school, or working with a church or neighborhood association), while 37% of similarly aged U.S. adults and 39% of all U.S. adults did so."
Faith and Religion -- 94% strongly agreed or agreed to the statement, "My religious beliefs are basically the same as those of my parents." Other data I've seen places it at 80% for Christians educated in public schools.
Happy With Homeschooling? -- "The findings regarding the participants' attitudes toward having been homeschooled are presented in tables and figures. On a 5-point scale (i.e., 1=Strongly Agree, 5=Strongly Disagree), the mean response to "I am glad that I was homeschooled" was 1.3. The mean response to "Having been homeschooled is an advantage to me as an adult" was 1.4."
Obviously whenever a research group has an axe to grind, we should take stats with a grain of salt. For example, the Alan Guttmacher Institute is operated by Planned Parenthood (not that the press generally mentions this when quoting its reasearch on "women's health" or abortion.) The same dynamic applies here. Nevertheless, the study should be encouraging to anyone teaching their children at home.
Posted by Discoshaman at novembre 13, 2003 02:28 AM | TrackBack
"I wasn’t and look how I turned out."
LOL My brother and I survived public school, but my parents learned a thing or two :-) and homeschooled my younger sister.
I thought you might like this quote: "We agree that Moses' character was so formed by his mother's training that his Egyptian education did not ruin him, but if pagan education did not ruin Moses and does not ruin true Christian young men today, we should give glory to God's grace instead of being satisfied with pagan education. Just because a young man survives pagan education is no reason for subjecting him to it. Children sometimes survive diphtheria or infantile paralysis but we do not try to give it to them," says Gordon H. Clark.
Posted by: Carol at novembre 13, 2003 04:57 AMFor some (if not all) of the categories, I'd be interested to see a study where every effort was made to ensure that the parents in the two classes (homeschooled/non-homeschooled) represented the same or similar populations. I would assume that most parents of homeschooled children have at least a high school diploma, and probably some college themselves. Is this true of the general population?
It would be difficult to match the parent populations closely: the parents of the non-homeschooled—even if Christians—would not be likely to have the same distribution of opinions about government, morality, and home-schooling. I'm not sure what's significant about the study, given these possible flaws in the sampling.
What is most interesting is how homeschoolers learn to follow each glass of beer or whiskey with a water chaser...
Posted by: Ron Lusk at novembre 13, 2003 04:12 PM
During the last two weeks, about 97% had not had 5 or more alcoholic drinks in a row (on a single occasion) (mean=.07, s.e. mean=.007, median=.00, n=5254).
Ron -- you make some good points.
If the purpose of the study was to prove that homeschooling is better for kids, then your sampling concerns are highly significant. Therefore, the study should not be used to prove too much positively about homeschooling.
But ISTM that if the purpose of the study (Or what you want to take from it) is that homeschooling is not bad for kids, then the differences between the sample and the general population are not so significant. It doesn't really matter, when assessing whether homeschooling makes kids into drooling anti-social non-participants, whether it's because of the homeschooling or because they had educated parents. The point remains -- homeschooling does not make kids into drooling anti-social non-participants.
As for your last point -- LOL.
Posted by: pentamom at novembre 13, 2003 04:51 PMCarol-
Thanks for the quote. I collect them. And that one is GREAT. :)
Ron-
I think you make some good points. But I have to (as always!) agree with pentamom. Reading the analysis of the study by those who commissioned it, their aim seemed more apologetic in nature than anything else.
Posted by: Discoshaman at novembre 15, 2003 01:56 AMRon-
I just added you to the blogroll, btw. I like your site!
Posted by: Discoshaman at novembre 15, 2003 01:59 AMGood point Ron L. I think it could be said, in general, that those who *care* enough about their children to take such an active role in their upbringing as to home-school them, put their children in a more stable family environment from birth through leaving the next, regardless of their specific educational instruction. Maybe home-schooling isn't the critical factor, but responsible parenting. Anecdotally, I have seen close friends try homeschooling as a way to fix their childrens problems. The family problems run much deeper than whether or not the kids learn from mommy or the nice teacher, and they would not be part of these blessed statistics.
Can you dig it?
Posted by: Russell Mann at janvier 19, 2004 08:30 PM