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Homeschool Statistics and Research Illustrate that Success is Common!

There are now several studies available which document homeschool statistics. The National Center For Education Statistics, Home Schooling Goes Mainstream, and the Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998 are just a few that I encourage you to take a closer look at.

What I don't want you to get hung up on is whether or not you fit into the "successful" demographics talked about in these reports on homeschool statistics. Individualized learning is another important factor in the success rate of homeschoolers, as is learning to accept the pace of your child's learning capabilities.

I for one, DO NOT fit into most of these categories:

1. I make very little money
2. I am a single mom, and
3. I am not homeschooling for religious or environmental reasons

We live in a nice rural area with nice rural schools and I am sure my kids would be perfectly safe and happy hopping on that bus every morning at 7 am and coming home every evening at 4.

But I don't want to do that. I don't want to miss out on all the learning that takes place during the day - I want to be a part of it.

All parents can be successful. Even parents with nothing more than a high school diploma, because what really sets the homeschooled kids apart from the public or private schooled kids is love.

Pure and simple. Parents love their kids like no teacher in the world could. When you have a vested interest in something, like your child's academic success, then you:

1. Work harder at it
2. Pay more attention to it
3. See all the little baby steps of progress that would otherwise go unnoticed

When parents take control everyone wins. Hasn't the public school system been saying that for years now? Get involved, read to your kids...blah blah blah. You don't need homeschool statistics to tell you that the homeschool mom is the ULTIMATE involved parent, yet the National Education Association is AGAINST homeschooling?

"Home Schools Run By Well-Meaning Amateurs - Schools With Good Teachers Are Best-Suited to Shape Young Minds" That was a headline on the NEA's website for years. This article written by Dave Arnold took offense to homeschool parents exclaiming that "teaching isn't as hard as it looks". He was insulted and hence wrote this fateful opinion about how parents couldn't possibly know how to educate their children when they've never been "told" what to do. The NEA has since removed the article, but their stance on home education remains defiant.

You can read the public stance the NEA, our public school teacher's union, has taken on a variety of political and social issues here. I am just not sure that a public school teacher's union should be so politically and socially active. Ask yourself what purpose that serves.

Here is the bottom line as far as statistics go: homeschoolers perform well on standardized tests They win competitions and scholarships Get into colleges and universities Play sports Travel, and Go on to live productive lives Dave Arnold, the custodian who wrote that pathetic article, doesn't know what the heck he's talking about. Parents CAN

1. Teach their children better than the schools
2. Do it easily and efficiently,
3. Do it while spending THOUSANDS of dollars less than the government

And YOU can too!