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As with many things of this nature, the correct answer is always, "It depends". Specifically, it depends on the child or children and the parents. It also depends, to a lesser extent, on the school system in question.

However, in my experience, given the right tools and attitudes, homeschooling can be far superior to the average public school experience - doubly so for "gifted" children. There are several arguments that are tossed out as reasons that homeschooling cannot possibly compete, much less surpass, our standard public education system. I will address each of these concerns in turn.

First concern: A parent couldn't possibly begin to know how to teach their child as well as a licensed, accredited public school teacher. The reality is that everybody is home-schooled for the most important developmental years of life. Somehow, we expect parents from every walk of life to teach their infants to walk, talk and do all the things kids learn how to do before they get to school. Amazingly enough, almost all of them do.

But as children grow older, their subjects become more involved. Can the average parent teach a child chemistry, biology, physics and higher mathematics? In short, yes we can. Just as we don't expect each and every teacher to write their own textbook, we shouldn't expect home-school parents not to avail themselves of the many quality resources available on the market.

Buckminster Fuller once said, "Anyone who has done anything of importance or value has been essentially self-taught." And a bit of simple observation will bear this out. When someone falls in love with a subject, be it poetry, baseball statistics or Geology, they become ravenous and devour everything they can about the subject. They don't need to be motivated, they ARE motivated. If there's something that they don't understand, they find a way to get the explanation they need.

As humans we are, in essence, learning machines. It comes as natural to us as breathing. Unfortunately, there is something inherent in public schooling that corrupts this natural state. The peer pressure, the regimentation and one other thing dull our children down, blunting the keen edge of their curiosity until the only thing they can ask is, "Will this be on the test?"

The one other thing is the fatal flaw of public education (and frankly in some homeschooling situations as well). Public schools do not comprehend or appreciate the concept of MASTERY. Mastery is how we learn as infants and toddlers.

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