Why Home Schooling ≫ Public Schooling

The quality of public schools in America is rapidly declining. Drug and alcohol busts, fights, and negative peer pressure are things that many public school students face every day. Most students don't bat an eyelash as they walk through metal detectors each morning, nor are they surprised when police spray pepper gas at the Jr. High dance. For many students schools are no longer places of education, but constant headaches they are forced to carry with them for twelve long years. There seems to be no escape, and for many who can't afford private schools--no better option. But unbeknownst to many, there is one: home schooling.

For most, the stereotypical home schooling family is this: a housewife in a denim jumper dress, a strict, fundamentalist father, and their fifteen sheltered children. While home schooling families like these exist, they are certainly the exception, not the rule. Many are unaware that homeschoolers lead perfectly normal lives. In fact, most know nothing of homeschooling beyond the usual myths.

What are these myths? The first is the probably the most popular: homeschoolers are unsocialized. This is a common misconception, and has no real credibility. Many criticize home schooling because they believe homeschoolers can't develop real world social skills, as opposed to those in public schools. However, let's look at the social skills students supposedly learn in public school. Most schools are composed of those from a single region; classes are made up of around eighteen people, all of them are very close in age. Students grow up with the same people, and as peer pressure is everywhere in school they almost always have a circle of friends who act as a comfort zone. How is this supposed to develop social skills for the real world? In the real world you must learn to cooperate with people of all different ages, with different backgrounds and beliefs and from different places. You're not going to have a pre-packaged social environment where everyone is similar to you. Home schoolers are in a much better setting to learn real world skills, as they have more opportunity to make friends in many different places. In other words, they can actually experience the real world.

Another myth is that home schooling is expensive. The truth is that home schooling costs a fraction of the price that public schools spend on each student per year. This price averages around $8000. The typical cost