Homeschooling's Not Bad for You

For those of you who actually still visit this blog proper--and don't just read the posts in an RSS reader or on Facebook--you may have noticed I added a link to Sonlight's relatively new Homeschool 101 section.

And that's nice.

Digging into Homeschool 101 reveals Sonlight's Tour of Top Homeschool Resources. And browsing that list reveals Milton Gaither's blog. And he recently posted about a February 2010 Study of Homeschooler Demographics and Achievement.

As I noted back in December of '09, these results are initially disheartening to me. Seems that even though homeschoolers rock on tests, we don't really rock any more than those who also fall into our same socio-economic brackets. In short: It's not surprising that rich white kids from stable homes do well in school, whether homeschooled or not. Mr. Gaither concludes his analysis by saying

...homeschooling doesn't make priviliged kids do worse on tests than they would have done had they gone to school. Homeschooling is no academic disadvantage. That's newsworthy enough I think.

Okay, sure.

For those who wish to regulate or remove homeschooling, this is important information. But for those of us--like me--for whom homeschooling is an almost foregone conclusion, it'd be nice to have something with a little more punch. Simply stating that homeschooling isn't bad for us isn't very impressive or inspiring.

But the more I think about it, the more I realize how right I was back in December: This actually reinforces the fact that homeschooling is a great option! And Sonlight is one of the best of these really great options. Not because your students will suddenly become smarter, more gifted, test better, achieve great things or outshine their peers (though I wish that were true too <smile>). Sonlight is one of the best options because of the very thing we guarantee:

You will love to teach and your students will love to learn with Sonlight.

Your academic statistics will be more-or-less on par with other excellent results. Sonlight won't be what makes your students succeed any more than another program or system. But Sonlight will provide you with an incredible homeschooling experience that you and your family will love.

And if all other things are equal, that's what matters the most.

 ~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Surrogate Father