Myth 1: More “Qualified” teachers, especially for advanced subjects
A consistent comment I see against homeschooling is that parents can’t possibly be as qualified to teach, especially advanced subjects like higher math and science, as public school teachers are. While it may be true on “average” that a public high school math teacher has more knowledge and experience with say, trigonometry, than a homeschooling parent, that isn’t always the case. Many states require as little as 15 hours of training in the subject area being taught. While it is true that most teachers have well above that minimum requirements, most would agree that 15 hours of training does little to separate one from being “qualified” and “unqualified”. Another issue is the use of paraprofessionals and long term substitute teachers in the classroom. My home state uses a large percentage of paraprofessionals and long term substitutes. While these individuals have a strong passion and commitment for teaching, often times they have had little professional training and no degrees (the requirement for being a paraprofessional is a high school diploma and the requirement for being a long term substitute is an Associates degree in any subject). Beyond requirements, I would like to give a personal experience I had with a student. This student had just been hired at a teacher in the largest school district in my home state. She explained to me that she had been hired to teach advanced mathematics, including trigonometry and calculus, to high school students. I was stunned when she revealed to me that she was nervous because quote “I have never even seen a trigonometry book before”. She had disclosed this information to the hiring board, and they chose to put her in this position anyway. That is not to say she won’t be a great teacher and do a fine job at teaching these challenging subjects. The purpose it to note that she is in the same position as many homeschooling parents – no background in the subject matter. However, from my experience, most homeschooling parents send their children to public schools, community colleges, hire a tutor, or enroll them in on-line courses for advanced math and science courses they have no background in. I am sure the parents at my former student’s school would be quite shocked their child’s teacher was very unfamiliar with the coursework she was embarking on.

Myth’s 2: Socialization
Another major complaint I hear about homeschooling is they will miss out on socialization opportunities and have trouble adjusting to the “real world”. When we think of socialization we must be clear in our definitions. Being liked by your age mates and interacting appropriately with your peers are very good things. However, socialization is much bigger than being able to adjust to people, who for all intents and purposes are quite similar to you. The greater world is made up of much more people that don’t live near us, don’t look like us, and are definitely different ages and in different stages of life. Public schools students actually have less opportunity to socialize than their homeschooling counterparts. Talking in class is often not allowed; especially side bar and off topic conversations. In my home state, “silent lunch” is the number one “punishment” doled out for talking during class! This literally means the student is not allowed to interact with anyone else during lunch – no talking, no whispering, no laughing, no giggling, and any other interaction that would make the least big noise; they must sit there and eat their lunch in silence. In some schools, even talking during the changing of classes in the hallways is forbidden. In my experience as a working adult, we talk all the time! We talk during meeting, we talk from one office to the next, we definitely talk in the halls; we get off topic so much in meetings that high paid facilitators are brought in for important meetings and even they can’t keep us for tangent conversations at times. Socializations comes from interaction and contrary to the myth, public school students have somewhat limited opportunities to truly interact.

Myth 3: Readiness for the Real World
That public school prepares students for the “real world” is one of the biggest myths I have come across. The “real world” is not limited to individuals in your designated neighborhood area nor is it comprised primarily of individuals born within twelve months of your own date of birth. In fact, the inability to work cross generationally is one of the biggest weaknesses of young people today (as children today spend many more hours in school and around only age peers than in times past).
In the “real world” we rarely have to ask for a pass to go to the bathroom nor do we have people laying before us all of the requirements of our day in a fine neat order with helpful hints and due dates attached. And I don’t know about you, but turning in my “real world” assignments only 70% correct not only wouldn’t give me a passing grade, I would probably be fired in short order. Tell me, are you okay with your local fast food restaurant getting your order even 80% correct? Would you put your local grocery store on an “honor roll” if they got your bill 90% correct or gave you correct change 95% of the time? Are you willing to write a letter a recommendation for an accountant that got your tax return 85% correct two plus years in a row?
Mastery is expected in the “real world”, but is almost impossible to foster and achieve in a public school setting. Timing, resources, and the sheer number of students make helping each student move to mastery an unattainable goal. In this respect, I give homeschoolers the upper hand.

Again, I am not against any school choice for parents. I did, however, feel the need to address these myths that seem to plague homeschooling in regards to public schools and other traditional school environments. Homeschoolers are not disadvantaged just as those in public schools are not disadvantaged. Each type of school choices has strengths and areas of challenge that must be overcome. Some families are better at overcoming those challenges than others, but that is the way the world works. Very few, if any, experiences are perfect and we all have challenges from the decisions we make. The grass is only greener on the other side due to the lens that you are looking through. As long as we are all doing the best we can do with the resources we have for the best opportunities for our children – we are doing great.

1. To Give Your Child an Appropriate Education
There are just some things in life that everyone should know. This includes a historical knowledge – at least in the form of a timeline. Mathematics is also something everyone should know, up through at least Algebra. Proper writing and reading skills are up there on the list. However, the most important skill I think everyone should have is that of critical thinking. The person with the ability to “think” can master almost any challenge that comes their way, make good and solid decisions, and be an asset to society from everything to obeying laws to voting in government elections. However, in the mass of getting ready for standardized tests many traditional schools have to set aside formal class work in developing critical thinking skills. Another reason why critical thinking is set aside is due to the fact that in traditional schools, certain subjects have to be taught at certain times. It doesn’t allow for students to digest information slowly and work their way through finding out the true “why” behind information. Due to this phenomenon, children are often told to just accept information as true and right because they were told rather than getting to those conclusions themselves. This can truly stifle critical thinking. When you home school, you can truly foster critical thinking by making it a part of the majority of activities that you do. It doesn’t have to be relegated to “school” work, but in problem everyday issues as they come up in the life of the child. Since you know all of the academic material the child is encountering, you can easily incorporate newly learned concepts into everyday problem solving. If your little one recently learned fractions you can ask for their help in halving a recipe. If you little one recently entered the world of Algebra you can help them determine just how much gas you will need to buy as you plan your trip to Disney World. They will use the information they learned to solve problems in the world in which they live, so you never have to hear “I will never use this, why do I have to learn it!” Even history will be relevant as your child can get a better understanding of conflicts between countries today that are based on disputes that took place hundreds of years ago.

2. To Tailor Curriculum to the Needs of Your Child
We all need to learn certain things, but we aren’t all going to learn them in the same way. Being able to work one-on-one or two-on-one or in our case three-on-one allows the parent to tailor the curriculum to fit the learning styles and levels of the child. Some kids can grasp a mathematics concept by simply hearing it explained a couple of times, others need a book with detailed instructions, while others may need to work with manipulatives so they can “see” the solutions come to life. Unfortunately, in a traditional classroom concepts may only be taught one or two ways. So, if your child doesn’t conform to those ways they may struggle. Also, in traditional schooling – the bus keeps moving. If you are still stuck on addition and it is time for subtraction studies you will be left behind. With that said, the bus also makes frequent stops. So, if you get information quickly and are ready to move ahead, tough – sit back and find something else to do because you picked a “local” and they are going to go over every concept at its appointed time no matter if you have already mastered it or not. This phenomenon cause a lot of hardship for students, teachers, and parents as discipline problems quickly follow the children in both groups. When you home school, you can allow your child to be the bus driver while you operate the station. The bus can stop when it needs to stop and go when it needs to go. You determine the route the bus must take and the child can help to guide when it gets to each destination – truly wonderful experience.

3. To Truly Develop a Love of Learning
It is my belief that in every child is a love and desire for knowledge. However, not everyone wants to learn the same things at the same time. I often call my twins “Ying” and “Yang” as they seem to be complete opposites. Even as young babies they mastered skills at different times. One rolled over before the other one; however the late roller became the early crawler. They both learned everything a baby should know, just at different times for the most part. There are also many ways to learn information. Let’s take reading. It is common knowledge that they way to better reading skills is to read, read, and read some more. However, in many schools, the material children read is limited to what the curriculum calls for or the desires of the teacher. This can be a huge problem for children who not only have no interest in the required materials, but even more so for a child that absolutely detest those materials. By the age of three, my oldest had an extreme love for books, but also trains. We wanted to feed his love of reading and we fed it with every train book we could find. It worked great for him. I can’t imagine I would see a curriculum with trains as the primary source of reading materials. With that said, I can’t imagine making my other two kids only read about trains themselves. We found the materials that interested them. The goal was to develop reading proficiency, comprehension, and to foster a love of reading. When you home school you have an opportunity to do just that for your child.

5. To Provide Depth and Breadth
This is usually most important for parents of gifted children. Gifted children love deep knowledge. They not only want to know “what”, but “why”. This is often not possible in a traditional classroom because of the number of students that are in class as well as limited supplies and the strict structuring of the school day. Going deep often takes time and can throw scheduling off. This is not an option in traditional classrooms. A child is not allowed to say, “Hey, I am really into the mathematics equation and want to solve it before I go to English class – how about giving me another 20 minutes”. Sorry, the bell has wrong and you must stop thinking in “math” mode, gather your things, and move on the English class. Maybe when you get home tonight you can get back on a roll with that equation and get to solving it again. But, we all know as parents that when the moment has passed, it is almost impossible to recreate that passion, focus, and drive. Athletes often call this being in a “zone” – an intense focus where everything becomes easier because things are falling into place. We know the team with the best momentum going into the quarter or the half is usually going to be the victor. That momentum is often broken in the traditional classroom on a daily basis because it is driven by bells and schedules. When you home school, your child is able to take advantage of those moments and seize the opportunities. You will be able to see passion, drive, and self directed learning in your child on a regular basis – all the things we want to foster in our children. Also true for the breadth of subjects to learn, preparing for a family cruise my foster a desire to learn about specific countries. With a set curriculum in a traditional classroom, this dichotomous road would not be allowed. In home schooling, every educational opportunity can be taken advantage of.

5. You Will Be Doing it Anyway!
Now here is the kicker! Ask any parent of a traditionally schooled child how much time they spend helping out with homework, volunteering at school, going to parent/teacher conferences and you will find those hours turn out to be pretty close to the number of hours per week the average homeschooling family spends on “formal” school work. The problem is the work isn’t always fun or at least engaging, all the material is determined by someone else (be it the teacher, school administration, or even the school board), and even “how” you teach and reinforce is often dictated by outside sources. So, would you rather work with your child in learning about the Roman Empire by reading a dry text neither one of you like – or would you rather watch documentaries that visit ancient ruins, conduct archeological digs in the backyard, reconstruct an aqueduct system in the bathtub, and reenact Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in full costume! Oh yea, and read age appropriate text on the Roman Empire that is not only historically accurate, but engaging and fun for your child to read as well. There is a false belief that people that send their children to traditional schools have it easier than families that home school, but this simply isn’t the case. It is the difference between being a business owner and an employee. Both work very hard, one just gets to make the rules and the other has to simply follow the rules. Homeschooling simply puts you in the driver’s seat of your child’s education. Being in the driver’s seat might mean you purchase a “curriculum in a box” so that a lot of the planning is done for you or you enroll your child in some virtual classes or it can mean you write and plan everything your child gets introduced to. The big thing is that you will have choices as to the best way to educate your child.

Doresa (KDES)

Doresa (Key Destiny Educational Services)

Key Destiny Admin