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of college-bound students are willing to pay for computer
programs, books and courses to help their children
enhance their scores on the crucial American College Test
(ACT) and the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), used by
colleges in accepting applicants. But last minute study
techniques, which only marginally improve performance,
cannot overcome 11 or 12 years of substandard education. The latest set of scores on the ACT demonstrates that if parents really want to invest in their children’s success, they should spent time, not money, teaching their children. On a test that has 36 as the highest possible score, students who have been home schooled scored an average of 22.8, compared with the national average of 21, according to the most recent ACT results. A 1.8 difference is notable—and home schoolers’ edge is growing. A year ago, the average scores were 22.5 (home schoolers) and 21 (national average). I recently appeared on a Fox News Network program discussing home schooling. Guests included the typical array of opponents to home education—a psychologist and a representative for a national association of school principals. As usual, both the principal and the psychologist harped on the supposed failure of home schooling to deliver a “well-rounded” education because of a perceived lack of opportunities for socialization. Two things were revealed in their approach. First, the public education establishment has conceded defeat on the academic front. Adding the latest ACT study scores to the pile of previous evidence, public school officials have tacitly conceded that home schooling indeed offers a superior academic result—even in high school. But, as the familiar refrain goes, “What about socialization?” I asked the psychologist on the show how many home schoolers she had ever met. “Four or five” was her answer. Any psychologist who is willing to render a diagnosis of 1.7 million children based on an encounter with four or five students needs to pick up a book called “Psychological Statistical Analysis for Dummies.” Would anyone pay serious attention to a psychologist who offered an opinion about Hispanic students based on brief encounters with four or five of them? Establishment experts have been willing to offer dire conclusions about home schooling ever since the modern phase of this movement was launched in the early 1980s. At first, home schoolers were told that we could never successfully teach any child. But that was quickly proven wrong with the early successes of several thousand children in the elementary grades. Then the “experts” begrudgingly refined their barrage to charge that we could never successfully teach science and other courses at the high school level. The recent ACT scores have proven those charges also to be false. Like their predictions of academic failure, the public school experts’ warning of dire consequences for home schooled children are long on opinion and short on facts. No matter why you are interested in the social success of home schoolers—whether you are thinking about home schooling or your grandchildren are being home schooled or you are a public policy maker—the proof of socialization success is readily apparent to anyone who has ever taken the time to meet a representative sample of home schooled students. I have raised more home schooled children than the average public school “expert” has ever met. And in my “sample” of 10 children, three of our children have graduated from high school. Our oldest was elected student body vice president at her college, where she graduated with a 3.98 grade point average. Our second oldest spent a year in Romania working as the secretary for the president of a college and also working part time in an orphanage. Our third daughter was a four-year standout in high school athletics, thanks to Leesburg Christian School, which generously allows home schoolers on its teams. Whether the concerns are about academics or socialization for high schoolers, don’t listen to people who have had inadequate contact with home schoolers. Meet some home schooled children for yourself, and I think you will join the ranks of those who find home schooling to work well at all levels. REPRINTED
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