Archive for February 8th, 2008

Today on a VT homeschooling online group, a legislative homeschooling advocate posted the following:

I have a senator with a request to homeschoolers. He wants to know what it is that makes homeschooling work. Please give me your thoughts as to why you think it works. Most parents who choose to homeschool do not have a teacher’s license and almost no training in educating children.

So why does it work so well? If you can put your comments in a list format so it is easy for me to compile the comments I would be eternally grateful. I need this information as soon as possible.

So, what makes it work?

This was my response:

Pedagogy and teacher training is mostly about dealing with large
groups of children, which is why a teaching degree is not needed to
homeschool.

Homeschooling works because

- Children are not forced to learn things that they are not
cognitively or developmentally able to learn at that time, just
because some bureaucrat decided that it needed to be learned at a
certain time.

- Children can get rest, food, bathroom breaks, time off, a hug, fresh
air, or what ever they need, when they need it.

- There is no peer pressure about being *too smart* or *too dumb* so
kids can comfortably work at their own pace.

- Children do not have to sit at a desk for hours at a time.

- Parents can integrate the subjects into everyday life. Since parent
and teacher are one and the same, discussion is not limited to a 30-45
minute period M-F.

- Parents can tailor the material to the child’s learning style.

I’m sure there are more.

What would you add to that list?