Thank you for writing this article.

Of the the three kids we Home schooled, two got into Wheaton College (”Harvard” of Christian colleges tho some others “Hope College, Vestment, Pepper dine,” would disagree)

The oldest got a full ride Scholarship to CAL Berkeley but the place disgusted him, so he went Jr. College then to Bible College.

The Baby who was NOT home schooled, struggled and struggled in public school but is now in a CU swimming against the tide in Ki Alpha and Real Life, (Campus Crusade)

While the SF Chronicle would classify us as white Evangelicals, my wife could pass for North African, tho her mother’s family is swiss origin, I’m not digging into the family tree but they are really dark… and beautiful and highly intelligent… and Christian.

Interestingly, our home schooled kids were “A” students in public HS when they went in order to play big team sports – Football, Baseball and women’s lacrosse.

So as far as all that goes, public School took 5 hours LONGER a day to produce an inferior result, the home school children on average were a year ahead of their peer group.

My wife was educated thru eighth grade in a one room school taught by a mean Canadian in Kashwazahki Japan — Missionary kids.

… as were her siblings … of the wife’s “One room Schooled” siblings,

One is a linguist at Harvard — Japanese. One A Psychologist married to a PhD from Berkeley, Economist, — on Wall Street” (met at Wheaton), One Graduated from Notre Dame Divinity School with a PhD in worship & Music, is Music Director of A Catholic Church in Florida, and my wife teaches Classical Piano, did Graduate Work with Mary Saurer, Principal Pianist for the Chicago symphony.

It’s not a brag, but there was something superior in their education and upbringing and it all started with a one room school for Missionary kids on the north coast of Japan in the middle of nowhere.

Yep–I did my K-12 between 1954 and 1967, and it was ALL order. A misbehaving kid would be sharply corrected. It’s hard to relate to what’s going on now.

Except…only exception was 6th grade. I had a thirty-something female teacher, who was nice, funny, spontaneous, but she was definitely in the newer mold and she lost control of us. The principal complained constantly and of course we thought she was just a poopy head.

And get this, I really liked the teacher, BUT for some reason I also hit my personal nadir and ditched school for a week until I was caught by my mother. WHY did I ditch school when I liked the teacher so much?? I never behaved like that either before or after 6th grade.

So, I think maybe playing the Nice Guy or Ms. Wonderful isn’t the role of a teacher.

First of all, my wife is a stay at home wife who takes care of our three children. Her “job” is 10 times as hard as mine, and I know that I wouldn’t be able to do it.

With that being said, my three children are 15, 13, and 4. That would be a high school sophomore, and eighth grader, and a preschooler. What we have done is a combination of home schooling and private school. My wife has prepared my children for school by doing the home schooling for pre-school with the intention of sending them to a Christian based private school starting at kindergarten.

While this has been a serious financial burden for our family, I feel that the sacrifice is well worth the burden that we are encountering. My children have a respect level that I find hard to envision with any of our friends children that are in public school. On top of that, the quality of education by far exceeds that of the public school system in my state (GA). An example of that would by son’s composite ACT score of 20 (the school offered all high school freshman the option of taking the ACT), placing him into the upper percentile of high school graduates as a freshman.

Although this has been a difficult process, I feel that the ends more than justify the means with children who are respectful and well prepared for the future. You might notice that I didn’t mention that I am a black male head of household. This is because the principles discussed above should apply to anyone regardless of race. I am just extremely GLAD that more black families are getting the picture.

I and my wife have homschooled our children for the past 10 years. The oldest two went through college on full academic scholarships. (The youngest is in high school.

What precipitated our decision to homeschool was that — despite going to a school system in educated suburbia (the NASA/Clear Lake area in Houston) my middle son was functionally illiterate in forth grade. He was, however getting “A”s in English and reading. This was a child who was neither stupid nor learning-disabled. (He has an academic scholarship now that he is in college.)

The school system was using a “whole English” system of teaching reading instead of phonetics. This creates the illusion that a child can read more quickly, but is really an attempt by (IMHO) lazy and overreaching educators to short-cut the basics for near turn gain. It turns English into hieroglyphics. We bailed, because we did not wish to risk our children’s future any further than it already had been.

Against a life not spent asking “You want fries with that?” all of the issues of socialization, learning judgment, and being exposed to other points of views really shrinks to insignificance.

Our choice was not one of that however. My friends whose kids are currently in public schools are NOT being exposed to a wide variety of opinion. They are being exposed to one very limited view –if you disagree with it you are in trouble. Their kids are not allowed to be children. Many are being medicated for being “disruptive,” when being disruptive is just being a kid or simply challenging the established order.

Further, when I compare my kids — who are all well-adjusted, friendly, outgoing, and open to other’s opinion — to my brother’s family (they chose to send their kids to public school, because they were afraid of what would happen if their kids were not properly “socialized”) I am even gladder that we ignored everyone else’s advice. His kids are obsessed with “the right clothes,” “the cool ideas,” and are dysfunctional, and well . . . paranoid. They think putting other people down is the height of wit.

I don’t regret the choices that my wife and I made for our kids. It required a lot of sacrifices, but I look at two kids well launched on life, and a third on track for success, and that is all the reward I need.

Hmmm, I wonder if this is a chicken-or-egg question. Does the father who stays have more interest, or do fathers who have more interest stay? I am not sure it has much bearing on your interesting post, but it certainly would be important to a woman seeking to marry.

Trey

La Shawn Barber has an interesting post on the rise of homeschooling among black families…

I have the most appreciation for the posts that emphasise balance, whether they lean pro or con homeschooling.

We are into our 12th year of homeschooling (almost done). Our daughter (now age 20) had been in public school (PS) for 2 years. We saw her love of learning begin to fade. Our son was about to enter kindergarten. He never went. To be brief, after prayer, we were led to HS. I sought the Lord’s wisdom every fall asking was it time to PS. His direction was always HS.

My point is this: some HS out of fear; bad idea. Whether parents HS or PS, the basis should always be faith (meaning ‘confidence’, not the term denoting a religious belief); confidence that this is the best thing for your child/childern and family situation.

Not all families can HS, nor should they. I’m a product of PS; my Mom is a retired PS teacher (won’t go into detail about that; I would need my own blog). Public education is a necessity. It is probably the most noble use of our tax dollars and I cheerfully support it.

We were not financially well-off so for our family it’s been a severe financial sacrifice. But the greatest rewards are seeing that our children can think for themselves; they can research facts, verify truth by eternal standards rather than by ‘passion’s flavor of the day’. They’re not by any means flawless individuals but they can read the Founding Father’s documents and clearly see how far our country has gone away from original intent.

Good character makes for good citizens and good citizens benefit society as a whole. Good schools, public or home, incorporate this into its education.

Oh, as a footnote, ’socilazation’ is not a problem. The kids have PS and private school friends as well through church, scouting, sports, etc.

Exactly.

http://homeschoolblogger.com/schooldaze

Some public school employees apparently have a disconnect between their attitudes towards public education and what is good for their own kids.