Home-Schooling Broadening Horizons

Posted by Ryan Owens on Feb 24th 2012

Home-schooling is making a comeback across America…

Do you remember growing up and there was that kid down the street that no one really knew all that well? They didn’t attend the same school as you, in-fact, they didn’t attend the same school as anyone else you knew either. No, they participated in a completely different kind of classroom setting. Their parents beliefs, in one way or another, led them to being home-schooled, a way of life frowned upon by many at that time. However, times are definitely changing and so is the general definition of home-schooling.

In many new developments across the United States, home-schooling is now not only acceptable; it’s the general way of life. As mentioned in a recent article by USA Today, an entire community has arisen in central New Jersey known as Homeschool Village Co-op. Here, as in many other similar communities across the country, home-schooling groups are formed to help provide opportunities for parents to network and for children to socialize, all the while providing a strong learning environment. According to Homeschool World, children learn in an interactive classroom setting through science experiments and mathematical games and are given the chance to participate in sports and other outdoor activities, much like they would in a traditional public learning environment.

Secular organizations such as these are beginning to pop up across the country in ever-growing numbers. Though many are still based on principles of faith as they were years ago, large numbers are solely formed because of parents’ views of the shortcomings in public schools. Across the country, a large number of reports can be found on the failing grades of many public school districts. It’s statistics such as these that drive parents to seek better alternatives for their children’s classroom learning environments. Though many view private schools as a better alternative overall, most households in these distressed education regions simply cannot afford the average cost of the private school system. Though private schools are consistently seeking to lower costs by switching to classroom furniture and supplies providers that offer good products at a competitive price, many still have a relatively high entry fee for the incomes in these areas.

According to a recent survey by the federal government’s National Center for Education Statistics, a little more than 1.5 million children are being home-schooled throughout the country, almost half a million more than in previous years.

“A Home School Legal Defense Association study in 2009 by the National Home Education Research Institute showed home-schools, on average, scored 37 percentile points above public school students on standardized achievement tests,” state experts from USA Today.

Many home-schooling environments like the ones mentioned above provide a complete classroom environment, including traditional school furniture, and are built with education in mind, just like many public and private schools you’ll find today. In many areas, we believe they are simply a better alternative.