by L Young

Created on: August 28, 2010

 Home education vs school education continues to be one of the most emotive topics I have encountered. To be perfectly honest I can not understand why some people hold such intense views on home education without having done any research on the matter. For instance I have had a number of people express their concern for my child's education since he is taught at home. But if I inquire as to what their child is learning at school all I get is " I don't know, that's the schools job". Please forgive me for sounding harsh, but surely I would think most parents would take more concern for their own child's education than someone else's.

As to which is better though, for a child to be taught at home, or in school, their are no easy answers, and I believe this is because every child is different, every family is different and their is a huge difference between different schools as well. Academically, the average home taught child will learn far more than the average child taught in school, even when very expensive private schools are thrown into the equation. The differences in test scores for American home taught children will be 30 to 37 points, and the longer the child has been taught at home the larger the difference will be. But that is the USA, what about here in Britain? Well the odds of a boy from our background leaving school at 16 fully literate are 1 in 4. I am afraid I find that criminal, there is no excuse for so many children to lack even basic literacy. But what is more shocking is that almost all boys seem to learn to despise reading. In all my youth work, I never came across one boy who read for pleasure. By contrast, I am not aware of even one home taught child not reading independently by age 10, or one who does not enjoy reading.  I do not think there is anyone who has researched the facts who can argue that a home taught child does not receive as good or a better education than those taught at school. This is in spite of the fact that children taught at home usually spend less hours on schoolwork, allowing them more time to pursue their own interests, to take part in various activities, or just to play and be a child.

Even more important to me then the test scores is the child's joy in learning. Learning new things is a natural activity for children in which they normally delight. I am afraid formal education often takes the joy from learning, making into drudgery. Home educators usually work very hard to create learning opportunities

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