Few things get folks riled up like the home school – public school – private school debate. Which one is best?
This is one subject about which people don’t just have an opinion, but they’ve wrapped their emotions all around their position and, eyes bulging and veins popping, they’re prepared to fight to the death.
But the truth?
We’ve all been homeschooled.
Yep, even you. Whether you’ve been a lifelong public school student, or you’ve got a diploma from an exclusive boarding school, you were homeschooled.
Regardless of where your classroom was located, your home had more influence on your education than any other single factor. Researchers followed 800 students in Chicago and Beijing, and determined that children who feel more responsible to their parents were more likely to stay engaged in school and perform better.
Not only did you learn to walk and talk at home, but your money habits were established by the time you were seven years old. And what your parents fed you when you were one will influence your diet choices for the rest of your life.
A study of about 50,000 American families revealed that a person’s routines and habits are unlikely to change past the age of nine. That means that many of your lifelong habits were locked in place before you finished the third grade.
Like it or not, you were homeschooled.
Johns Hopkins researches followed 800 Baltimore children for twenty-five years and determined that their fates were determined more by the family they were born into than by any other factor.
We are all homeschooled.
There are gobs more studies to illustrate each point I’ve mentioned, but I’m not trying to get you all upset or start an argument. What I am trying to get you to understand is that the atmosphere you are creating inside your home is going to affect your child’s future more than the school that you send them to.
I realize that there are the occasional exceptions who power past the norms, but a casual examination of the families you know well will remind you of the studies we’ve examined here. The most powerful influence upon a person’s life is his or her home.
How are things going at your house? What kind of example are you setting for your children?
Children are shaped more by what their parents (or parental figures) do than by the instructions their parents give. Words must match deeds to be effective.
Children are nurtured by the spirit that fills the house. I’m not speaking of the Holy Spirit, although that’s to be desired, but the spirit that your actions, words, and attitude produces. A contented and disciplined home where everybody is loved and mistakes are quickly forgiven will encourage growth and excellence. But in a house filled with ridicule and screaming and intimidating threats, dreams will shrink and self esteem will dwindle.
It’s not just the little ones that are molded by what goes on in your home, but your spouse and all the grown-ups are inspired or discouraged by its atmosphere, as well. Even you cannot escape the influence of your own home.
It’s worth spending a little more time paying attention to the kind of home we’re building.
Cause we’re all homeschooled.
