HOMESCHOOLING IS SMARTEST WAY TO TEACH KIDS

 The following is excerpted from "Homeschooling is the smartest way to teach kids in the 21st century," Business Insider, Aug. 20, 2016: "

Alison Davis doesn't see homeschooling as some strange alternative to traditional school. If anything, says the mom from Williamstown, New Jersey, when it comes to raising her two children, she's doing the sensible thing. 'You're not going to be put in a work environment where everybody came from the same school and everybody is the same age,' she tells Business Insider. 'In my opinion, the traditional school atmosphere is not the real world at all.' 'Homeschooling,' she says, 'that's the real world.' 

Davis' satisfaction with keeping her kids out of local public and private schools is one shared by a growing pool of parents around the US. Recent data collected by the Department of Education reveals homeschooling has grown by 61.8% over the last 10 years to the point where two million kids--4% of the total youth population--now learn from the comfort of their own home. 

Contrary to the belief that homeschooling produces anti-social outcasts, the truth is that some of the most high-achieving, well-adjusted students are poring over math problems at their kitchen table, not a desk in a classroom.  

According to leading pedagogical research, at-home instruction may just be the most relevant, responsible, and effective way to educate children in the 21st century.

 Davis says her son Luke struggled early on with reading. Even into the second grade, he didn't enjoy it and found it overwhelming. In any other school, teachers may not have been able to spend the necessary time helping Luke become a stronger reader because they had 20 other kids to worry about. That's not the case in the Davis household. 'I could take that extra time with him,' Davis says. Plus, reading time became more than just a push toward literacy; it was Mommy-Luke bonding time--something no school could compete with. 'Now he devours books in like a week's time or less,' she says. 

The long-term effects of personalization are equally massive. According to a 2009 study of standardized testing, homeschoolers scored in the 86th percentile. The results held true even when controlling for parents' income level, amount of education, teaching credentials, and level of state regulation. 

Research also suggests that homeschooled kids get into college more often and do better once they're enrolled. 

The biggest stereotype surrounding homeschooling is that constant one-on-one teaching deprives kids of the socialization they need to thrive. Not so. Homeschooled kids are just as likely to play soccer and do group projects as any other students. 

Davis' family is heavily involved in their local church, so Luke and his older sister Amanda both have friends in the choir. They both play an instrument, so they have friends in a homeschooler orchestra. 

It's not just that homeschooled kids enjoy the upside of normal school, though; they also get to enjoy the absence of its many drawbacks, namely peer pressure and cliques. On several occasions, Alison says, other kids have expressed jealousy that Luke and Amanda get to learn at home, away from the social hierarchies of normal school."