The ranks of America's home-schooled children have continued a steady climb over the past five years, and new research suggests broader reasons for the appeal.
The number of home-schooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2007, up 74% from when the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36% since 2003. The percentage of the school-age population that was home-schooled increased from 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007. "There's no reason to believe it would not keep going up," says Gail Mulligan, a statistician at the center.
Traditionally, the biggest motivations for parents to teach their children at home have been moral or religious reasons, and that remains a top pick when parents are asked to explain their choice....
I don't necessarily see homeschooling as a good thing some of the time.
I don't see the problem with sending your children to schools. They get to mix with other children and they get to learn things that I would not be able to teach them.
This being said there is a lot of garbage in the school systems. But as far as teaching them about God, we should be doing this at home and anything that the schools teach that is garbage, should be corrected at home.
A lot of the way children develop, I believe has a lot to do with their home life. I heard so much stuff in school that I know is garbage.
They get to socialise with people their age and get to go out of the house.
Also, we are told to witness are we not? If our kids give their life to Jesus, but are homeschooled, how can they witness?
Through our youth group, we have had so many kids become followers because of peer-to-peer outreach.
Some are obviously false converts or come to church as a social club, but we have had several genuine life changes.
We are called to raise our own children, morning, day, and night, and to teach them the way they should go.
- Deuteronomy 6:7, Proverbs 22:6
It is certainly no one elses responsibility and may we not dare ever pass our children off to someone else for them to raise them up and give them back for dinner time. How tragic as this is the terrible reality of many children being passed away day after day.
Many often say "But I'm not able". That is sadly only a shallow excuse. It is not an "ability" to raise your own children, it is a "command".
Raise them up! It is not a cursing, but a tremendous blessing. Raise them for the glory of Jesus Christ.
May your children be worth it. May your Lord Himself be worth it.
I really like that home schooling is growing. I wish all the Catholic schools would close down because I went to Catholic schools and they are not nice places to be. The nuns were really mean and did not treat me good. I was scared a lot.
Anti-antichrist wrote: "well-adjusted, productive" I interpret these words meaning: Conforming to the world, and being a cog in a machine.
You would, A-ac, you would.
Afterall, you see "antichrist" under EVERY rock: the government, the legal system, agriculture, the churches, the media, the marketplace, the education system, the healthcare system, the financial system, homeschoolers, sports, Subway, Applebee's, SermonAudio posters, gas stations, the coffee shop down the block, toothpaste, plumbing, your socks ...
What, in your estimation, should a product of homeschooling turn out to be?
Perhaps a maladjusted, dysfunctional, paranoid, vagabond-rebel who sees ......................... "antichrist" under every rock?
Homeschooling works. Need proof? Bring on the kids. Here's how they turned out: All grown–up and eager (well, at least willing) to talk about how homeschooling helped them become the well-adjusted, productive young adults they are today. It's the "Grown–up Homeschoolers" panel discussion at the national "Growing Without Schooling" conference in Waltham, Massachusetts. I think home schooling system is the best for kids. -------- Sanjeev --------
I'd bet that the number of homeschoolers nationwide is actually a good bit higher than 1.5 million. I know a lot of people personally who homeschool their kids but choose not to register them in the local school district which is a requirement here in Georgia. Hence, they don't get counted.
The face of homeschooling has changed dramatically over the years. When we first started in the 1980's, most of the moms at the homeschool gatherings and curriculum fairs were the jumper or dress wearing types with their long hair in a bun. Most of the dads were nerdy types. Now you see every type of mom imaginable from the conservative Christians to some that dress like hoochie mamas (and everything in between).
In the 1980's I believe most folks homeschooled for religious reasons. Lots of other folks got on board once they realized how well it works, how well homeschooled kids do academically and how family-friendly homeschooling can be.
One can't help why non-Christians want to home school, some perhaps for dubious reasons, but the decline of using formal schools for teaching children that parents may lack knowledge in is a little troubling, in spite of what the article said about it.
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unprofitable servant from georgia: "have to agree with frank on two counts. one..."
