Home schooling
...ty level of education given to the students. Involvement in public school extra-curricular activities ensures the normal growth and maturation of social and emotional skills. Are home schooled students properly socialized? A study by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute found that an average home-schooled child participates in 5.2 activities per week outside the home. These children are involved in music, dance, drama, and art classes, visit museums and zoos, and join home-schooling groups or local churches. They form athletic teams and compete in home-school tournaments. They participate in book and foreign language clubs, scout groups, and have pen pals. Home-schooling parents, believe these groups teach positive social skills: kindness, patience, generosity, trust, empathy and cooperation. Not only may home-schooled students have more time to focus on and nurture a talent, proponents of home schooling contend, they may also be able to choose more diverse experiences. Many home schoolers are involved in different extracurricular activities, just as public schoolers are. Their children can be involved in anything from music classes, volunteer work, or group sports. Ninety-eight percent of home-schooled children are engaged in at least two of these activities with people other than family members. What measures education success? Educational success is generally measured in terms of academic achievement. If this standard alone were applied to home schooling, most people would agree that home schooling can be a successful alternative to public school. Testing evidence shows that home schooling is effective in terms of academics. The average home-schooled student scored 81 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) than the general population in 2000. At the National Spelling Bee in 2000, the top three winners were home-schooled. Studies show that home-schooled children also tend to score higher on basic skills testing than do public school children. What research shows: On average home schooled students tested in the 77th percentile of standardized tests, while the public school students only tested in the 50th percentile. This data supports the fact that home schooled children are advancing at a perfectly normal (if not advanced) rate. Also, on average, home schoolers score 1100 on the SAT, compared to the national average of 1019 for the general population. Lawrence Rudner of the University of Maryland showed that the average home schooler scored in the 75th percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, whereas the national average was the 50th percentile. A 1992 study at the University of Florida compared 35 home-schooled children with 35 public schoolers. The home-schooled children were found to be more patient, less competitive, more prone to exchange addresses and phone numbers, more willing to introduce themselves to others, and also found to fight less. Children who are home schooled often achieve more academically and economically in the long run, and become very active citizens in their respective communities. Research conducted on the socialization of home-schooled children lends support to the arguments of home-schooling advocates. One study, according to Patricia Lines, found that home schoolers were as well adjusted as public school students when measuring aggression, reliance on others, perception of support fr...