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Over the years the philosophy of how to go about educating children has been changed and molded into whatever the current trend may be and yet, there is still something lacking. Society has tried many different approaches to teaching, everything from less children in the classroom, all boy or girl classes, earlier school days, later school days, more homework and even less homework. The outcome of America's educational system is not changing. We have the poorest outcome per dollar spent and compared with twenty-four nations and we rank as number eighteen. Forty years ago America

had the highest graduation rate. Now, America ranks as the nineteenth. What can possibly be the missing ingredient?

Perhaps the public education system needs to stop and look towards the homeschool movement for answers. Why do homeschoolers score in the higher percentiles upon testing then those in public schools? What can homechoolers possibly be doing different that is causing them to excel at learning? It can't possibly be those who are teaching homeschoolers since most do not even hold a teaching degree. We can also cross out dollars spent per student because they are still excelling at learning with minimum dollars spent.

Our public school system is filled with over stressed children who are also suffering from poor self esteem. The yearly media reports on school killings clearly show us just how evident this stress level is. If kids need to fear for their lives either do to worrying about school massacres or bullying then how can they possibly be expected to relax, open up their minds and absorb the knowledge being handed to them ?

Another missing ingredient within the teaching system appears to be the students total lack of joy in the learning process. The learning process is dry and based totally on memorizing facts , chapter by chapter. Even if they pass the chapter tests it only proves their book knowledge. The major difference between public school children and home educated children is that those who are home educated not only pass the tests but, they also know how to apply the knowledge that they have learned.

No matter how much book knowledge one has or how good they are at passing tests it will be useless knowledge if they do not know how to apply it to everyday life. Public school children are learning mathematics and even science equations but ask them to apply it outside the school building and they can't do it. They can figure out tax on worksheets but not at the grocery store. They know nothing about how to use addition,subtraction or even multiplication in everyday life. Meanwhile, their peers who are home educated are learning how to use math in cooking or balancing a checkbook.

When the educational system learns to apply basic home education techniques within the public school system; they will indeed have found the missing ingredient.

Learn more about this author, Sharon Meyer.
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