Responding to Other People's Concerns About Your Decision to Homeschool

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Effectiveness of Education/Qualifications to Teach
The concerns in this group are related to the effectiveness of homeschooling and generally come from two assumptions. One is that someone who doesn't have a teaching credential or education can't teach effectively. The other is that someone who does have a teaching credential or education can teach effectively. Both assumptions are not based on reality. Let's address the first assumption by considering the following points:

• Homeschoolers outperform their counterparts on standardized tests. On average, homeschooling simply works better than institutional education does.

• Homeschoolers can learn more efficiently than institutional school kids, which results in more learning in the same or less time. Actual instruction time in most school situations can be boiled down to 2-4 hours per day when you take away all the wasted time, such as commuting, various breaks, waiting for administrative activities, and so on. Plus, homeschool's pace can be set for each student, unlike the typical classroom in which the pace is usually based on the lower end of the performance spectrum, often leaving high-performing students bored and unchallenged.

• Two of the factors most cited as being critical to successful education are the level of commitment (involvement) of the teachers to their students and the ratio of students to teachers. Homeschooling comes out way ahead on both of these counts. No one cares more about your children than you do, so you are highly motivated to ensure that they are educated well. And, your student-to-teacher ratio will be far better than any institutional situation. If you have a large family with 5 kids, your ratio is still only 5:1 while a typical public school class might have a 25:1 ratio.

• Although you are the primary teacher in your school, you aren't the source of all the information provided to your students. You use the same or better textbooks than institutional schools use. Plus, you have much better access to other resources and can take advantage of these resources more easily than traditional schools.

• You can, and should, take advantage of tutors and outside classes to supplement areas in which you might not be able to teach effectively or just to broaden your children's experience.

• Homeschoolers learn to think independently. Because they aren't part of a "pack," homeschoolers tend to develop more independent thinking skills than do their school counterparts. This better prepares them to succeed in college and careers.

• You know your students much better than any formal teacher would. This enables you to tailor your instruction more closely to each student's personality and needs better than that which might happen in a public or even private school.

The fact that someone has a teaching credential by no means guarantees that they are an effective teacher. I am sure anyone who was educated in an institutional school (as I was) can confirm this. Plus, teachers are often overloaded and don't have the time to spend making sure students are learning to their potentials, especially if a student doesn't learn well using traditional techniques.