5 Reasons Why You Should Homeschool

There are many great resources on the internet for those who choose to homeschool their children. One thing that is a little harder to find are definitive reasons why you should consider this option. Recently, I read a heartfelt entry at Steve Olson’s blog about how public schools crush souls. This entry was very close to my heart because of the problems that I had in school–especially in grades 3 through 8. Steve has chosen to send his children to Montessori school which is probably an equally good option. I prefer the option of schooling my children at home and I’m going to give some reasons here.

1. Debunking “The Argument”

I’m going to start my list by debunking the most widely used reason why you should not homeschool. “How will your kids learn to socialize?” is the question homeschoolers hear the most. This is really an easy question to answer. First, children in public schools don’t learn to socialize–at least not in a “real-world” sense. In public schools you socialize only with other people who are your exact same age. Where else in life does this happen? I can’t think of a single example. Are your social circles composed only of people who are the exact same age you are?

There are more than a few things wrong with this social conditioning. The biggest issue I have with it is that it turns so many kids into outcasts. If you advance more quickly or slowly than the average then you are far less likely to fit in. Everyone can remember the tall girl or slow boy who was teased. This type of social conditioning encourages youth to focus on sameness and to ostracize anyone who is different in any way.

When I was in the third grade, my family moved from Indiana to northern Minnesota. For the next five years I dreaded going to school because of the torment I knew I would face there. I was different because I had the Indiana drawl instead of the Minnesota “Yah, sure, you betcha.” There were other things that made my family and me different, but those are better saved for another time. Let’s just say that to this day, I remember being called “Bacon Man” in third and fourth grade because I smelled like woodsmoke. For that reason and others, a snow day was like a stay of execution from the governor.

If you need further convincing, just go visit your local high school. Stand in the hallway and see if you can find an example of the type of “socializing” that you want your children to experience.

2. Your curriculum isn’t someone’s agenda

A few years ago, I read a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. The book was very impressive (I highly recommend it) because it outlined many of the things that are taught in public schools that are simply wrong. It even goes on to tell you some of the reasons why these things are intentionally taught wrong.

The bottom line here is that if you send your children to be taught by someone else, someone else will have control over what your children are learning. In private schools this is lessened by the fact that they have to compete in a free market, but it isn’t wholly eliminated. At home, your children learn what you want them to learn. Of course this is a heavy responsibility, because it requires you to know what you’re talking about. But with the multitude of resources available, this shouldn’t be such a worry.

This brings me to one of the reasons I want to homeschool which is that frankly I am smarter than 99% of public school teachers. You may not be as cocky as I am, but even so you’re probably smarter than a good number of them. This doesn’t even matter that much, though, since even the smartest teacher is constrained to teaching what the administration or board tells them.

3. Your child will never be molested, murdered, assaulted… at homeschool

Go to Google and type in one of the following: school assault, school murder, school shooting, or teacher molestation. You may be surprised at all you find. Or maybe you won’t be since this stuff is in the news all the time.

4. Time

My wife (Alena) and I really, really wanted to have our sons because we want to spend time with them. Life is short and childhood is even shorter. So why in the hell would we want to give our kids to someone else for 7 hours per day, 180+ days per year? It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I have a 20 year old daughter, so I know how fast the time flies by. I regret every moment that I didn’t spend with her that I could have. Every one of those moments is a moment that we can never get back.

I’m selfish and I want to watch my baby grow into a toddler, my toddler become a child, my child turn into an adolescent, my adolescent blossom into a teen, and my teen transform into a man. And I want my wife and me to be the ones who give him guidance along the way. She’s great at that–that’s one of the reasons I chose her.

We want to instill our values in him. If we send him away, whose values will he be receiving? Who knows?

5. One (or two) on one (or two)

Ok, this varies largely depending on where you live, but average class sizes range from 25 to well over 50 in public schools. Private schools boast slightly smaller class sizes. But neither of these can come close to comparing to the class size of home schools. Alena and I can focus all of our energy onto our sons. If one of them is struggling with something, we can find ways to make that topic easier. The museum, zoo, park, historic site can become classrooms. We can customize our lessons without taking anything away from the other students–because there are no other students.