Why Homeschooling is Better

Homeschooling is better than not homeschooling. That’s a bold statement, and it’s not true for everyone. However, I’m going to explain why I think it’s true for many students based on my experience as a teacher. You’ll have to read to the end, though. My intention is to bring hope to parents who continually question their decision to homeschool.

Why Would We Doubt This Choice?

To begin with, parents often question the quality of what they’re delivering. While over half of homeschooling parents have some experience in education, it’s a nuanced skill to meet a child at every step of their development. Many parents feel overwhelmed and uncertain and ask themselves, “How do I know I’m delivering what meets my child’s needs?”

The next question that sometimes occurs is around socialization. This is not often an issue I find until adolescence, especially high school. Younger children generally do fine with this. It’s true, adolescents need a bigger world and a bigger herd of acquaintances, leaving parents of teens wondering”. We wonder, “Are my child’s social needs being met?”

A third question is around being able to transition back into “regular school” and/or “the real world,” especially approaching college age. This is another natural and valid concern. At some point, everybody has to graduate from homeschool and enter the larger world for further training, academics, or work especially after high school. Will they be ready? This is what parents most deeply want to know.

How Do We Answer These Needs?

All education is actually self education. It sounds strange, but it’s true. Watch a child of any age and you will see that they make things their own that they love or that otherwise make a strong impression on them. So, we know we are meeting our children’s needs when they are enthused. If they’re not, we need to adjust. Homeschooling, like classroom teaching, shouldn’t feel like pulling teeth. While challenge and struggle are important parts of the path, if we are delivering the right curriculum at the right time, the enthusiasm will be there to accompany them and help them succeed. There is a science to this; it’s not arbitrary. For example, teaching Business Math in 6th grade starts to meet the adolescent’s growing itch to get practical and understand their world. Parent education can also help us in this regard.

The next question about socialization is one homeschoolers are generally better at answering than the mainstream realizes. Just because a child homeschools doesn’t mean they live in a hole in the ground and only come out once a year. On the contrary, homeschoolers are just as, if not more, social than others. This becomes a bigger question during adolescence. Youth need to broaden their horizons, but that doesn’t mean school is necessarily better. My advice is to get them involved in worldly, challenging activities they can sink their teeth into and develop a peer group around. I began learning to fly airplanes at age 13. This boy’s dream gave me every reason to choose the high road, take care of myself, and develop positive acquaintances. It made a far more positive impact on me than school.

Why Homeschooling is Better

Now, let’s answer the third question, and this is the reason for this post. What is it about homeschoolers I find so unexpected and inspiring? Why do I become more convinced of this path with every class I teach? Why do I find in homeschoolers a refreshing exemplar of what’s possible in children and youth? Time and time again it is this: they are wiser, healthier, and far more self-aware across the board than their peers. I have never met a homeschooled child, youth, or adult who was not well adjusted. It floors me how consistent this is.

The other day I asked my godson who has homeschooled nearly all of his fourteen years, “What makes you so wise beyond your age?” He responded, “It’s because I have time to reflect on stuff,” and that’s the crux of the matter, my friends. Homeschooling is the antidote to an unnatural, industrialized way of life and school. Public schools was designed around factory life, and it’s never changed. By contrast, homeschooling allows children to follow their natural inclinations, to play and play and play. It gives them space and time to breathe and digest all they are learning. While education should never be a free-for-all (and, I really mean that) it should have freedom built into it. When it does, humans thrive.

Thus, if you’re concerned about whether or not your child will be ready to meet the world, what could be better than becoming a young adult who knows themselves, who has skills, who understand the world of business? What could better than young adults who have values, who have learned to fix cars and build houses and grow food? And, perhaps even fly planes? Some schools do a good job providing these types of things, but most homeschooling families I find do an outstanding job. That, I think, is why homeschooling is better.