Yes, You Can do it

There are many people, including those who belong to groups such as the National Educational Association – America’s largest teachers’ union, who think they are the only ones qualified to teach children. They believe that unless a person has earned a teaching certificate, they should not teach children. This scares some parents, who would really like to home school, into putting it off. They are worried they are going to get in over their head, mess up their children’s brains, cause them to be behind academically, and then end up having to send them back to public school to get fixed.

A lot of professional educators want you to think you can’t successfully give your child a solid education at home. They are in the business of education. Your children are their consumers. Liberal sociologists dislike home schooling because they don’t like the idea of what is being taught in the home school. In all actuality it is what isn’t being taught that they find objectionable. Therefore the message is passed through the media by statements made at meetings or during interviews that most people are not qualified to teach their own children. Pulling your children out of public school is a big step, the message is there, you can’t handle it.

The truth is, home schooling can be surprisingly easy if you are careful not to make the mistake of public school duplication. A fundamental point about teaching is this. The key to being a successful teacher is to know just a little more than the person you are teaching. I know this is wrong on many levels. You can say, “No, you are not successful unless you teach the child to read.” Or you may think that there is so much more to teaching than knowing a little bit more than the student. Again, this is true. But the point I want you to understand is this. Teaching is explaining. That is all there is to it.

Teachers use all types of tools to help them explain things. They use pie charts, graphs, construction paper, computers, DVD’s, video games, board games, contests, essays, homework, visualization, memorization, work books, worksheets, role play, flash cards, conversation, etc. A teacher uses tools to explain something to another person with the intended purpose that the information is memorized and applied.

Teachers teach one step at a time. If a history teacher is going to give a lecture about the making of the U.S. Constitution, he would do so in steps, in chronological order. If he didn’t, it wouldn’t make sense and nothing useful would be taught. Cooking the evening’s meal requires a step by step process. Your children learn as they grow older, not all in one day.

As a home school parent, you don’t need to worry because you forgot your fractions or can’t remember your Shakespeare from high school. If you forgot everything your algebra teacher ever taught you, that is just fine. You see, you just have to stay one step ahead.

I am absolutely 100% positive that anyone can home school their children if they can read. Teaching your children can be fun and easy. There are many tools to use. Pop in a DVD when its algebra time. Or maybe you study business math instead. You are the teacher. You decide.

And finally listen to this. In 1990, the National Home Education Research Institute released a report entitled “A Nationwide Study of Home Education: Family Characteristics, Legal Matters, and Student Achievement.” The study involved over 2,163 home schooling families.

The study concluded that the average test scores of the home school students were at or above the 80th percentile in all academic categories.

The study found that only 13.9 percent of the mothers (who are usually the teachers) had ever been certified teachers. There was no difference in the students’ total reading, total math and total language scores-based n the certification status of the mother.