About 4% of all educated children in the US are homeschooled. This number is even higher if we contemplate on the fact that home school is growing across the globe. There is a growing home schooling movement in South Africa, Kenya and other parts of the world. In the US alone, this number has exploded due to the plethora of online sources and materials that make it easier to educate from home. Another reason is that parents are looking to give their children an advantage to allow them compete in the world. (“The Home Advantage,” Coure Hero, 2011).
Finally research that gets it right! No more sidelined to the periphery, I hope such study will ignite much needed debate and gain attention from UNICEF and UNESCO. These two global bodies can only strengthen education by paying attention to the home schooling advantage and observe how it can be copied in other places; especially amongst the worlds’ disadvantaged.
Imagine if the girl child who is barred from attending school outside of the home had an alternative? Or the child who has to walk hours to reach a school only to find the teachers not there and no books? Imagine the young and old getting a second chance to learn to read, write and to educate themselves? What other educational problem could home school not solve? The home school advantage can benefit on a global scale if international bodies like the UN acknowledged the potential. How many more children would be educated if homeschooling was removed from the periphery and given its rightful place as a solution to this global problem.
Research has also found that you need not be college educated or rich to home school. The key ingredient is parental involvement. Empowering parents as key educator benefit the child. It’s only wise for the world to pay attention to this method and not dismiss it as fanatical; at best. Textbook producers and online businesses are surely paying attention; home education is a million dollar business. All that is needed is the UN to come on board.
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