Our future homeschooling

“We have a reading crisis, a mental health crisis, less than half of public school kids are proficient in math. Long story short: the kids are not okay.” This is a quote by Alex Clark, a top pop-culture podcaster and commentator who dedicated an entire Podcast episode to talk about homeschooling.

It's a well known fact that the number of children being homeschooled in America has been on a steady incline since Covid. There has also been a 40% increase in homeschooling in the UK during the last three years. Of course, the main catalyst for this rise in homeschooling worldwide was the Covid-19 pandemic which brought about a huge concern for the physical and mental health of our society. Every division of our society is still on a road to recovery from the pandemic, especially our healthcare and education systems. But despite the return of face-to-face interaction, the number of children being homeschooled is still increasing.

Many articles have been written on this topic so I am here to add my own view. The top 3 reasons given by parents for homeschooling their children, that I have gathered, seem to be concerns about the school environment, dissatisfaction with the academic standards and desire for religious/moral foundation. These are all concerns that I completely understand and will dive into in future posts, but for today, let's talk about the negative stigma associated with homeschooled kids.

Many people used to believe that only religious groups of people homeschooled their children i.e. extremely conservative Christians or Catholics. There was a trending bias that most homeschooled kids grew up in a very strict, overly-religious and overly-sheltered home. I mean, you've probably seen the homeschooled kid portrayed in a show or film as being 'weird' or 'naïve'. Essentially, they are said to lack social intelligence and ultimately, become the odd ones out who get picked on and bullied.

That is obviously not true...It's an exaggeration used for the purpose of the movie/show!

The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) released some fast facts on Homeschooling, last updated in January this year --> check it out here. They reported that "research facts on homeschooling show that the home-educated are doing well, typically above average, on measures of social, emotional, and psychological development" and "87% of peer-reviewed studies on social, emotional, and psychological development show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in conventional schools (Ray, 2017)."

It seems like parents who homeschool their children are very aware of the lack of social interaction that naturally comes with staying indoors compared to going to a physical educational institution. To compensate for this, homeschool kids are also enrolled in a variety of clubs and activities where they can socialise with others, build friendships and meet different types of people. This exposure at a young age is very beneficial for the psychological development of children and even leads to an above average development in these areas for homeschooled children compared to those who are not homeschooled.

So if you've had a negative bias towards homeschooling or you're thinking about homeschooling your own children but you're worried about the long term impact on their psychological, emotional and social development, I hope this sheds some light on those thoughts. There is statistical evidence that homeschooling your child may actually be more beneficial for them than going to a physical school. Homeschooling, of course, requires a lot of proactiveness and adjustments from the parents/family however, in the long run, it not only helps your child but can strengthen the bond of the nuclear family as well.

What are your thoughts? Would you homeschool your children? Do you think the benefits of homeschooling outweigh the costs?