Facts About Homeschooling and Socialization

Many anti - homeschool conversations include a supposed fact: homeschoolers don't relate well socially.

Are you concerned about homeschooling and socialization?

The results are in.

The evidence is clear.

• Dr. Shyers (1992), a clinical psychologist, did a study that was awarded to be the most significant study in education during that entire year!

  He filmed students at play, sometimes structured, sometimes unstructured. He picked some publicly schooled, some privately schooled, some homeschooled children, and tried to match them demographically to make them equal in terms of parental education, income, etc.

  After filming these children he had clinical psychologists who had no idea what the child’s education was, watch the videos, and evaluate how each child socialized.

  When Dr. Shyers compared their clinical evaluations with who was homeschooled and who wasn’t, he found very little difference.

  The only noticeable difference was homeschoolers had significantly lower problem behavior scores (fewer broken rules, fights, etc.).

  Other than that, these clinically trained psychologists couldn’t tell who was homeschooled and who wasn’t!

• Dr. Gary Knowles (1991) studied more than 1,000 Michigan adults who had been homeschooled.

  A full 94% said that homeschool helped prepare them to be independent persons, and 79% said that it helped them to interact with those from other levels of society.

• Dr. Delahooke (1986) showed that homeschooled students are significantly less peer dependent.
• Dr. Montgomery (1989) showed that homeschooled students are just as active in extracurricular activities that promote leadership as were privately-schooled students.
• Andrews University in Michigan showed that the average home schooled student scored in the top third of the PIERS-HARRIS SELF CONCEPT SCALE, a standard test of social adjustment, and over half scored in the top 10 percent.
• Thomas C. Smedley used The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale as a diagnostic tool to assess the competence and/or "mental age" of a subject.

  The mean Adaptive Behavior Composite score of 115.55 for the home schooled children puts them in the top 16%! In terms of the socialization subcategory score, the home schooled students rank in the top 27%.

The social skills of the homeschooled child will usually be superior to the social skills of the the privately or publicly schooled child. Say good-by to the myths about homeschooling and socialization!

Glad to be dad,

LaVerne

All statistics in this article are from the handout to a speech entitled “Homeschooling: The Solution to our Education Problem”, by Dr. Jay L. Wile, Ph.D., Apologia Educational Ministries.

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