Home schooling: Is it for religious reasons or personal reasons?

Question

After watching a very popular documentary on the overwhelming amount of evangelical children that are home schooled in the US, I started to question the motives of the parents that home school their children. Is it something that is fueled by your religious beliefs, if so what is your reasoning, and what do you hope that it secures for your children? If it's for other personal reasons that have nothing to do with your religious preference, then why have you chosen to home school your child or children? For both parties, what are the pros and cons?

Answer 1

We homeschool for eduational/personal reasons as well. As a matter of fact, I dont teach bible studies at all....I am agnostic and homeschool strictly for the intrinsic rewards that come from it...like having a closer family and being the person in my kids lives that help them to reach their goals...which otherwise (in PS) would never be an option.

As a parent, I have found that my children have learned (through their peers as well as the school faculty) that they do not need to have to respect myself or their father. They didn't have behavior issues...they excel in things like history and math and the teachers could not accomodate them. (Thanks, no child left behind laws!) They were also learning about things like s*x and boys that were in no way shape or form okay in my book....more than that the school would discipline my kids and not tell me...So, here I am....running a daycare, homeschooling, mothering, and being a dutiful wife....

Homeschooling is wonderful...and like other parents have said...it works for us, but it might not for other families.

Answer 2

We are Christian but we don't homeschool because of that.   We started homeschooling because of my son's autism.  

We continued because we enjoyed it.   We do it now because we are hooked on the lifestyle.   We love the freedom it provides.

Answer 3

read what i wrote in response to this question and it should answer it for you....

Answer 4

We are Christian, but that doesn't have much to do with why we homeschool.  Prior to homeschooling, my son attended a secular private school for gifted children.  When we moved to another state, we found that there was no school within a 45 minute radius that could accomodate his needs.  So, we homeschool.

He is highly, bordering profoundly, gifted, and no school in our area (public or private) can accomodate (or keep up with) him.  It was different when he was in a class of kids who were all on his level - he absolutely loved it!  Now, our only choices are homeschooling or allowing him to be bored and get in trouble.  So, we chose homeschooling.

It has been the best thing we could have done.  He loves to learn, and I love learning with him.  It's not always easy - he's hard to keep up with - but it is so, so worth it.  Homeschooling's not right for everyone, but in our case, it's definitely the right choice.

Answer 5

It is for various reasons. Some of which are religious. Other people feel that they can provide a better education for their children in a safe environment without the distractions of school. Statistically, home schoolers are very good spellers and readers. However, they tend to be weak in math and science. More significantly, their social skills are not as well developed as they are limited in scope to the types of people with whom they interact, not to mention the day to day situations. To compensate, some of the parents have developed groups that allow home schoolers to study with other home schoolers. But doesn't this not create another school that is merely private?

Answer 6

We homeschool for academic reasons. When you're blind in our school system, they automatically assume you're mentally challenged as well, or at least they treat you like you are, and I was sick of being told that I couldn't attend pep rallies because they were "too dangerous' or getting detention for simply walking to class by myself and sitting where I want to at lunch. I was supposed to be in the IB program, but that would have meant ordering new books in an accessible format, so the school convinced my mom that because I'm blind I "wouldn't be able to handle the stress." They also have very low expectations for blind students around here... No one took me seriously when I said I wanted to major in computer science and design educational software. They don't expect or encourage half the blind kids in this county to even go to college. It's ridiculous.

But the blindness thing is only a minor reason. The MAJOR reason I'm homeschooled is because we believe the educational system as a whole is broken. No Child Left Behind holds back the intellegent students, and there's no more focus on learning to learn and think like an individual (I wonder if there ever was). Now all they teach you in school is how to memorize, regurgitate, and march to the tune of the lowest possible standards. It's a joke. There were kids in my Honors English class who didn't even know what a noun was! Kids in honors Biology who didn't know what the difference between Biology and Chemistry was! And if you want to hear about the history classes I've had to put up with, there's a nice article on a homeschool website about it somewhere. Yourstudentnews, or something of the like. I was sick of wasting my time learning ABSOLUTELY NOTHING while other kids goofed off  and screwed around all day. i was sick of teachers who assigned repetitive busy work with no educational value simply to justify their paychecks. I was sick of being trained to be a good little lemming who never questions the way things are done, why something is the norm, and why the world works the way it does. Homeschooling provides me with the academic (and social) advantages and freedoms I need to get a REAL QUALITY education.

Answer 7

My siblings and I are home-educated for personal and social reasons, there's no religious element to our family's choice to home-educate at all.

Answer 8

My mom chose to HS me and my 3 younger siblings after putting 3 kids through the locul schools and was tired of all the politics and the lack of education since it seemed that the schools were more concerned about sports. So since she already had a teaching degree she decided to homechool

Answer 9

I homeschool for academic and personal reasons. There are no cons for our family. Homeschooling is what you make it. It might not be right for everyone but it fits us like a glove.

EDIT: The presumptions about HS parents limiting their children to a certain social group is a stereotype. Remember that HS kids are often out in the real world being exposed to a wider variety of experiences and people than their public schooled peers. I'd also like to see the research that claims that homeschool kids do not excel in math and science compared to their public school counterparts. We are far more science oriented in our home than the local public schools.

Answer 10

We homeschool because the system was graduating our son from grade to grade without him learning the material that was taught.   He spent 8 hours away from home in school  (I count travel time)   He came home to work on homework for 3-4 hours and still did not know proper punctuation,  spelling, sentence structure or basic math.     We decided to stop the insanity of doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results.    We began homeschooling and he began learning.

What I hope homeschooling secures for my son is for him to be able to know how to learn.    I want him to be able to read and write well enough to fill out applications for jobs and/or college.   I want him to be able to be able to solve problems and to think creatively.   I do want him to have character and high morals but that was not the reason that we took him from public school to teach him at home.

Answer 11

The media have their way of focusing on what they know will get a lot of attention--which means focusing on the religious reasons for homeschooling is going to be better known than others.

While we are Catholic, our religion had nothing to do with our decision to homeschool our kids. I used to teach in elementary school and my husband still teaches in jr. high. I had issues with the social atmosphere at the elementary level and my husband didn't like what he saw socially at the jr. high level. Academics ended up factoring in when we saw how advanced our daughter was--it made no sense to throw her into a system where she'd be bored and wouldn't really learn to challenge herself, on top of throwing her into a system where she would be more likely to adopt or have to continually fight against at a young age the social behaviours around her. We have since had our son and are even more convinced of it being the right thing for him. We have also thought more and learned more about other aspects and think that homeschooling is in their best interests in general. We are a decent family, we have lots of social time with others, we are committed to them--I see no reason at all to send them to school. And given I grew up always being the one who wouldn't go along with the norms simply because they were the norms means I have absolutely no issue with not following what everybody else does. :)

Lots of pros summarized: academic, social (30 other kids the same age are hardly good social models, plus homeschooling gives my kids the opportunity to interact regularly with a variety of ages without thinking twice about it), morality, family (not only more time together but my kids aren't growing up peer-dependent) and other things like it's a less stressful lifestyle, they have a lot of time to just be kids, follow interests and more.

Cons: naysayers. 99.9% of the time their negativity has nothing to do with actually knowing anything about homeschooling but with their ignorance, prejudice and presumptuous dispositions, or even just their need to defend their choice, as though our choice to homeschool is a put-down on them.

Answer 12

For our fmily it's both. Personal reasons include a school that wants my 4yo on ADHD meds because he's a little active> he had just turned 4 and has mental delays. 4 hours of home work nightly for the older child and failing schools are the personal reasons. Another personal reason is I want my kids to get a true education not the public school indoctrination. I want my kids to learn that evoulition is a theory and a bad one at that. I think all children should learn about intelligent design as a vaible theory. I am not attaching a god to the theory just that we might have been made. For us it was God Almighty but to a muslim it would be Allah and that's fine just teach both.

Religous reasons: I want my kids to have a bible based education.

What I hope it secures for my kids is a strong education that can help them in college. I want them to be prepared for the big bad world.

The pros are: We don't get up at 6 to get on the bus

  We don't have 4 hours of home work just four hours of school work and it's done for the day.

   They get a great education

  

Cons: Can't think of any

Answer 13

My reasons for homeschooling arent religious either.  I agree with what the other posters have said, and said so well. For us there was also the fact that our daughter hates a noisy, disruptive learning environment.  She hated the constant interruptions from other children, she felt that her good behaviour in the classroom was punished by the teacher who spent all her time on the naughty kids.  For the poster who criticised your spelling and grammar I would point out that very few teachers are able to spell correctly!  I can prove this, I have work here incorrectly marked by Western Australian school teachers.  Yahoo answers isnt a schoolroom and like most people we are on here for relaxation - so what? Sometimes we make typos like everyone else!  Hey we dont claim to be perfect!

Answer 14

Well my parents homeschool me because they know I cannot control myself. I was in public school from Kindergarden to 8th grade. Then i started slacking off, making bad decisions. And bad friends who got me into trouble.. So they homeschooled me for my 9th grade year. And then this year they let me go back to public highschool again. And yeah within two months I had 6 saturday schools, got caught ditching, bad grades, and again stupppid stuff. Now im homeschooled again :/

Answer 15

Many do, do it for religious reasons

Many also do it for saftey and morals reasons

A few do it because their school suck

Answer 16

I think being Home Schooled is for both Personal Reasons and Religious reasons for those parents who feel that way.

I'm doing a Independent Study Program, It's not Home schooling per say, I go to a Charter School Twice a week and do work and I have a teacher assigned to me. The year before that I was doing a Home Schooling Program Through the School I was in rolled in. I was doing it for Personal Reasons.

I feel if you are going to be Home schooled for Religious reasons then it's pretty d**n stupid. Home schooling is good for kids who aren't able to get themselves to school for whatever reason. Misfits and misbehaving kids shouldn't be pulled out of school for the h**l of it. They make schools now for kids with problems. Private Schools.

;D

Answer 17

There are many evangelical children who are homeschooled.  It is not usually, in my experience, for religious reasons.  Many times parents see that public schools do not teach kids so that they learn, they teach kids to repeat.  Other reasons are that parents want to protect children from the type of socialization they would get at public schools (gangs, drugs, etc.).  There are pros and cons to homeschooling, but I think the pros far out weigh the cons.  Public schools do not live up to parents expectations and homeschooling is a remedy to the problem.

Answer 18

Well what better answer can you get but from a homeschooler?? Well, in some cases, it is because of religious reasons, in others just personal. I was taken out of school at 1st grade because of prces for the school i went to, (it was a private one). They wanted to charge like 100 bux for my SAT scores. It was ridiculous. However I became invoolved in a for lack of a better word, religion, i wouldnt consider it religion, more of a life style choice. I wont get into  it because thats not what you asked me. Nonetheless I  chose a faith that is descriminated upon by the school system, and people in general. I thought you know I was the only one, but I wasnt. I met this young boy named julian who went to a nearby public school and every single day he was descriminated against because of his religion, ( may i point out, he is NOT jewish, but everybody called him 'jewish boy' and other racial slurs. ) many things happened and it even got to the point where the school called social services because he refused to eat pork. So he was taken out of school and homeschooled. So those are the two reasons you were wondering about. Sometimes its because of personal reasons, and by the way, if it hadnt been because of the outragous pricing for the sat's it would have been because kids picked on me because i didnt do or have 'this', and also because, and I'm not saying this arrogantly, I was honestly ahead of everyone in my class. And later on down the road, as prices go up, the need for money is stronger, so my mom got a job delivering this and that, and wouldnt be able to keep me in school because of time and places she would be. i hope his helps. It shows two true sides of reasons for homeschooling and also to some extent shows you the kind of descrimination that goes on at some schools. Hope this helps!! And if you are considering homeschooling you child if you have one, understand you dont have to get the same curriculum that they were using at his/her school. you can find new curriculum or even just go to sams club and get their school books. I used those all the time. God Bless and I hope this answers your question!!

Answer 19

Our decision was personal and based on academics and disappointment in the system.

Our son is "twice gifted."  Highly intelligent and when we started homeschooling he was suffering from social anxiety bordering on social phobia.  This developed while at public school because he did not like talking about s*x and drugs and other things that many of his peers were into.  He witnessed lots of fights, a girl nearly dying from a drug overdose, a kid selling his grandmother's painkillers, a kid peeing on a car while his PE class was walking unsupervised to the practice field.  Got teased by at least one teacher in front of his peers - for being an outsider and having a funny accent and other completely weird and trivial things.  Was afraid to ask to go to the bathroom because some teachers publicly harassed kids who asked - and didn't have time to navigate the hallways and go to his locker and the bathroom and get to class on time.

He started hiding his academic ability so that he would fit in.  

He was in the gifted program.  Our last year, during a year end meeting with is gifted ed teacher, the teacher bragged about how the gifted kids had learned 10 new vocabulary words - ALL YEAR!

His science teacher gave extra credit for kids who would bring in anything related to a particular sitcom of which he was a fan.  The science teacher was not certified - he was a coach.  The school was unable to hire a certified science teacher.

Parts of the above explanation is one of the reasons I get so riled and sometimes take it personally when folks say that homeschooled children have social problems.

Our experience has been the exact opposite.  Our ds attended private school for about half of elementary and was a "social butterfly."  After a few years of public school that was gone!

Now that we have been homeschooling (starting with middle school - 9th now), our ds no longer suffers from social anxiety.  He talks to other kids, gets invited and goes to parties, does public speaking and on and on...  

And for those who say a kid has to experience the emotional and physical abuse that goes on within the walls of some public schools - I say - well, I can't say  it without getting reported!

He has developed so much more confidence rather than timidity.

He has developed so much more independence and self-initiative.

Plus, his academic giftedness is once again shining!  He gets invitations to college recruitment days - and we go and we learn a lot.  He is 2 - 3 grades ahead in most subject areas.

Will he be socially, emotionally and academically prepared for college?  Yes - by attending educational overnight camps on college campuses and community college courses - not to mention really learning to learn and think for himself.

So - a long winded way of saying we decided for healthy academic, emotional and social development.

I would view faith as more "icing on the cake" than reason for us.

Answer 20

You can find the pros and cons [if any] by searching back through this forum.

While we are Christians, that is not our reason for HS'ing.  Our son is profoundly gifted and no brick & morter school can accomodate his needs.  So the number one pro for him is the ability to go through courses at his own pace and study subjects he wouldn't have time (or resources for) in a public or private school.  He can also mix and match grade levels.  HS'ing allows him to have a very individualized education.

Answer 21

We homeschool for many reasons, not one of them being religious.

We homeschool to help our gifted children advance at their own speed, rather than being held back. We homeschool to help our autistic children succeed rather than being held back. We homeschool because I don't agree that grades are the reward kids need to learn, and that the public school system in inherently flawed in this modern age of expectations. I believe that humans are innately programmed to learn, and that schools do everything to destroy that desire. I believe that children are meant to be with their families, it is the way we are designed, and that modern educational facilities are replacing families with the idea of a global community.

Pros are that we can do all of the above. We have found  in almost three years of homeschooling no cons.

Answer 22

I personally chose to home-school when I was younger for the educational pros.

I have met many public school educated people that are of high intelligence but when I was in 3rd grade my mother and I agreed that the private school was holding me back (I was a straight A++ student) and I needed to pursue my education in a more open and less limiting enviroment.

I entered into a local homeschooling program that supplied the funds to operate a home schooled child's enviroment.

I started to take BYU's courses through the mail and went from there.  I personally enjoyed the freedom it created.

I was able to work any shift that most kids my age couldn't because I was available during school hours because I did my schoolwork at night when I was most productive.

Because of this I received a work ethic that most people are unfamiliar to.  I could do my schoolwork anytime I chose because if it didn't get done one day I could make up for it the next day without having to answer to a teacher.

I admit because it is less structured then you do run the risk of getting distracted and "slacking" but the creativity is limitless and the enviroment so adjustable that you can change it to any schedule that most helps the child.

I honestly want to have my children go to school in a private school from K-4th grade and then home-school while running certain courses through the school once a week so they can still socialize reguarly.

Home schooling is a wonderful program and experience :)