Great article in Canadian paper
Campbell
Hi all, Just when we are getting really tired of hearing the old line.."How
are your children socialized" ..out comes a great article on the front page
of the National Post (one of Canada's national daily papers).
Read on and enjoy!
Brooke in BC
Children schooled at home have better social skills
Challenges orthodoxy
Julie Smyth
National Post
Peter J. Thompson, National Post
Home schooling parent Pamela Christie helps her son Nolan, 7.
Children who are educated at home have better social skills and achieve
higher grades on standardized tests than students in private or public
schools, according to a new report.
Contrary to the popular belief that children educated at home are
disadvantaged because of a lack of peers, the study by the Fraser Institute
shows they are happier, better adjusted and more sociable that those at
institutional schools. The average child educated at home participates in a
range of activities with other children outside the family and 98% are
involved in two or more extracurricular activities such as field trips and
music lessons per week, the report says.
Home-schooled children also regularly outperform other students on
standardized tests.
Children taught at home in Canada score, on average, at the 80th percentile
in reading, at the 76th percentile in languages and at the 79th percentile
in mathematics, the report shows. Private and public students perform, on
average, in the 50th percentile on mandatory tests in the same subjects.
In the United States, students educated at home also achieve the highest
grades on standardized tests and outperform other students on college
entrance exams, including the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), according to
the study.
Parents of home-schooled children in both countries are generally higher
educated when compared to the national average.
They tend to be in two-parent families and have a higher-than-average
number of children than the overall population.
Patrick Basham, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a conservative
public policy group in Washington, and author of the report, said he was
surprised to see such positive results linked to home schooling.
"People think these children are neurotic, unsocialized and can't function
in normal society. But the opposite is true. I think the fact children
educated at home do better than private school students would also surprise
people. It is not something that is widely debated or studied," he said.
Home-schooled children are still a tiny minority in Canada, although an
increasing number of parents are opting for this style of education. In
1979, 2,000 children were educated at home. By 1996, 17,500 students --
0.4% of total enrollment -- were home schooled. The most recent figures
show the number has risen to 80,000 children.
Parents educate their children at home for a variety of reasons, including
the desire to impart a particular set of beliefs and values, an interest in
higher academic performance and a lack of discipline in public schools,
says the report.
"Although parents home school their children for myriad reasons, the
principal stimulus is dissatisfaction with public education," said Claudia
Hepburn, director of education policy at the Fraser Institute, a
Vancouver-based conservative think-tank.
Home schooling is legal throughout Canada, but most provinces require
parents comply with provincial education legislation, which means they must
provide satisfactory instruction. Alberta is the only province that funds
home-based education.
None of the provinces requires that parents have teaching qualifications.
However, having one parent who is a certified teacher has no significant
effect on the achievement of students educated at home, the research shows.
Gary Duthler, executive director of the Federation of Independent Schools
in Canada, the association for non-public schools, said children educated
at home likely do better and are more sociable because of the smaller
student-teacher ratio and the fact students of all ages learn together.
"In institutional schools, there is social pressure for 10-year-old
children to behave like other 10-year-olds and they tend to not play with
any older children at school.
"In a home setting, that same pressure is not there, so it helps the
children mature."
He said they probably also do well because they have access to education
resources and teaching expertise over the Internet but their parents are
controlling their education.
wegirls@...
are your children socialized" ..out comes a great article on the front page
of the National Post (one of Canada's national daily papers).
Read on and enjoy!
Brooke in BC
Children schooled at home have better social skills
Challenges orthodoxy
Julie Smyth
National Post
Peter J. Thompson, National Post
Home schooling parent Pamela Christie helps her son Nolan, 7.
Children who are educated at home have better social skills and achieve
higher grades on standardized tests than students in private or public
schools, according to a new report.
Contrary to the popular belief that children educated at home are
disadvantaged because of a lack of peers, the study by the Fraser Institute
shows they are happier, better adjusted and more sociable that those at
institutional schools. The average child educated at home participates in a
range of activities with other children outside the family and 98% are
involved in two or more extracurricular activities such as field trips and
music lessons per week, the report says.
Home-schooled children also regularly outperform other students on
standardized tests.
Children taught at home in Canada score, on average, at the 80th percentile
in reading, at the 76th percentile in languages and at the 79th percentile
in mathematics, the report shows. Private and public students perform, on
average, in the 50th percentile on mandatory tests in the same subjects.
In the United States, students educated at home also achieve the highest
grades on standardized tests and outperform other students on college
entrance exams, including the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), according to
the study.
Parents of home-schooled children in both countries are generally higher
educated when compared to the national average.
They tend to be in two-parent families and have a higher-than-average
number of children than the overall population.
Patrick Basham, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a conservative
public policy group in Washington, and author of the report, said he was
surprised to see such positive results linked to home schooling.
"People think these children are neurotic, unsocialized and can't function
in normal society. But the opposite is true. I think the fact children
educated at home do better than private school students would also surprise
people. It is not something that is widely debated or studied," he said.
Home-schooled children are still a tiny minority in Canada, although an
increasing number of parents are opting for this style of education. In
1979, 2,000 children were educated at home. By 1996, 17,500 students --
0.4% of total enrollment -- were home schooled. The most recent figures
show the number has risen to 80,000 children.
Parents educate their children at home for a variety of reasons, including
the desire to impart a particular set of beliefs and values, an interest in
higher academic performance and a lack of discipline in public schools,
says the report.
"Although parents home school their children for myriad reasons, the
principal stimulus is dissatisfaction with public education," said Claudia
Hepburn, director of education policy at the Fraser Institute, a
Vancouver-based conservative think-tank.
Home schooling is legal throughout Canada, but most provinces require
parents comply with provincial education legislation, which means they must
provide satisfactory instruction. Alberta is the only province that funds
home-based education.
None of the provinces requires that parents have teaching qualifications.
However, having one parent who is a certified teacher has no significant
effect on the achievement of students educated at home, the research shows.
Gary Duthler, executive director of the Federation of Independent Schools
in Canada, the association for non-public schools, said children educated
at home likely do better and are more sociable because of the smaller
student-teacher ratio and the fact students of all ages learn together.
"In institutional schools, there is social pressure for 10-year-old
children to behave like other 10-year-olds and they tend to not play with
any older children at school.
"In a home setting, that same pressure is not there, so it helps the
children mature."
He said they probably also do well because they have access to education
resources and teaching expertise over the Internet but their parents are
controlling their education.
wegirls@...
marianne
How
would never learn the social skills she needs to get a job.
My ds went to ps, and is academically gifted.
I have sent him part of this article to do with socializing and
testing!!!!!
Now we will see what he has to say.
Marianne
> are your children socialized" ..out comes a great article on thefront page
> of the National Post (one of Canada's national daily papers).doing my 13yr old dd no favours by not sending her to school - she
> Read on and enjoy!
> Brooke in BC
>
>
> I have been getting some flack from my 34yr ds, who told me I was
would never learn the social skills she needs to get a job.
My ds went to ps, and is academically gifted.
I have sent him part of this article to do with socializing and
testing!!!!!
Now we will see what he has to say.
Marianne