Homeschooling is facing a revival, and families of all backgrounds are finding that their best option for raising their children and ensuring that they have the best opportunities in life is by teaching them at home with the curriculum focus of their choosing. Families are leaving the crowded classrooms and stifled ideology of public education and finding that homeschooling opens doors they never thought possible with their children.
Who Is Homeschooling Today?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of homeschooled families had doubled by the start of the 20/21 school year. Homeschool families have increased from 3.3% before the pandemic to 11.1%, and many people have chosen to stick with it even as schools have re-opened their doors. The Census Bureau reports that the number of black families choosing to homeschool has increased to 16.1%, and the homeschooling rates of household within metropolitan areas has increased across the board. Of all the families in the Atlanta area, over 9% are choosing to homeschool. Detroit has seen an increase to over 15%, and the Riverside-San Bernadino area saw a jump to nearly 20%. With numbers like these, we know that something big is going on in the world of education today.
Why Are Families Sticking With Homeschooling?
Families are choosing to continue homeschooling for a variety of reasons. They want their children:
- To be surrounded by healthy influences,
- To be safe,
- To have a flexible schedule, and
- To have time to explore.
Healthy Influences
One reason is that they don’t want their children stuck in a building with 28 or more of their peers for six to eight hours a day. During adolescence, a young person’s peers turn into the greatest influence on a child. Homeschool parents have realized that they don’t want a group of adolescents raising their children. These young people could be the same ones disrupting the classroom, making it difficult for others to learn. With large class sizes and many parents viewing school as daycare rather than education, the influence of other students can be very detrimental. Spending more money on public education will not provide your child safety from biased curriculum and unfair (or non-existent) discipline policies. Why send your child into this type of environment when they could be bonding with you and learning edifying lessons from your experiences instead?
Learning from the loving adults in their lives is far more beneficial in the long run than from other young people who might not have the benefit of a solid homelife to guide them and who certainly don’t have your child’s best interest in mind. These parents don’t want their children learning to be bullies, learning to glorify alcohol and drugs, learning to “tolerate” undisciplined behaviors, or learning to be angry at the world rather than finding solutions to their problems. A parent can guide their students in the right direction for a successful life. Only a parent puts their child’s needs before the needs of anyone else. Parents who are sticking with homeschooling in a post-COVID world have seen that a classroom full of any number of misguided youths will never offer that to their children.
Safety
Unfortunately, classrooms are not always safe. From the negative impact parents have witnessed during distance learning of teachers yelling at the children in their classrooms to the constant bullying that goes on in the hallways of today’s schools, our kids are hit on all sides with feelings of insecurity and uncertainty. Many families are choosing to homeschool to alleviate the anxiety that schools have pressed down upon their children. Certainly, there are many wonderful teachers and administrators in public schools who do everything in their power to ensure that the children under their watch are safe and taken care of. However, the concern for safety isn’t with them. The safety concern arises with those individuals who are less worried about your child’s personal needs, and no one will ever be as aware of your child’s well-being as you are.
Parents who are choosing to stick with homeschooling have opted to say no to this type of environment and have chosen instead to help their children grow and learn in a nurturing, secure environment. Although no one can ensure safety for their children all the time, homeschooling families know what their children can and cannot handle. They won’t push them past their boundaries of anxiety and can more easily ensure that their children’s needs are being addressed and their limits recognized.
Flexibility
Not only is there time for your student to explore when they are homeschooled, but your family will also have the flexibility to bond wherever and whenever you want. Homeschool families are not restricted by the school district’s choice of vacation times. Your calendar is limited only by your own schedule.
With homeschooling, your children can visit with family members across the country, get to know their cousins or grandparents, all while completing their lessons online. They even have time to head to nearby relative’s homes after they’re done with lessons and help grandparents with daily chores and learn from the wisdom they have to teach, too.
Your family can travel whenever your adult schedule allows it. You know those crowded destinations that are full when everyone else is on winter or spring breaks? For homeschool families, there is no “bad time” to travel. You can enjoy the time with your family without the terrible crowds or long lines. You have the freedom of your own calendar.
Time To Explore
Another reason parents are choosing to stick with homeschooling is the realization that a ridiculous amount of time is wasted in classrooms today. From a ten- to fifteen-minute attendance procedure to stopping lessons to redirect disrespectful peers, parents have witnessed it all while working from home as their children were in online classes. They heard the constant interruptions to lessons; they saw first-hand the very small amount of time that was spent on actual instruction and the experience of learning.
When you homeschool your children, this time is recovered and can be spent on self-discovery and exploration into the topics your student is actually interested in. After the core lessons are completed, your child has the opportunity to research based on their interests, to plan an exciting self-directed project, or to experience learning with hands-on activities like going to a museum, creating their own experiments, or searching for evidence of their science lessons in the natural world.
Northgate Academy and Excel High School both offer those core classes, and we welcome families to enroll in individual classes to be sure the core subject areas are covered with fidelity, freeing up your time to help your student explore the world around them. You will have the time to offer opportunities for your children to find out who they are and what is interesting to them, and you will have the security in knowing they are being educated in a way that is as special as they are. Enroll today or give us a call to learn more!
