In a nice safe community with a well funded school system, happy, helpful teachers who are actually smart and teach in facilities with top flight lab and shop and computer equipment that would be hard to beat with homeschooling.

For homeschooling to work you have to be a motivated self-starter who also unschools religiously (you have to educate OUTSIDE the box, the box being School in a Box like Penn Foster), take place in outside activities such as bolwing, karate, softball, going to the movies just to go to the movies, shopping just to shop.

You also need a buget to invest in things. You’re doing chemistry some lab equipment would help, because you will have that in high school or a college.

So you have to be ready to drop some $$ at Edmunds Scientfic, Radio Shack (electronics kits and stuff) and buy some physics toys, maybe a telescope or microscope.

You have to go to the library and research and you have to cover the ground a College or Job would expect.

Now, homeschoolers with lots of attention, good programs, books and tools tend to be 2-3 grade more advanced than public schoolers by age 8

More than 40% tend to be college ready by 16 more than 60% by 17.

The failure rate of homeschool is far lower than brick schools, about 20-25% vs 40-60% national avarage.

A homeschool FAILURE would learn more at public school where teachers rote it into you and you are FORCED to absorbe some of it just by being there. But not much. So a goof off would get 10-15% more education in a public school than at home where they can goof off much easier.

The top 15% in homeschool advance because they can simply by next years Abecka or Penn Foster course now and be 12 years old and in the 10th grade.

Homeschoolers SHOULD take at least two testing sessions at age 12 and 16 just to see where they are. The Stanford or Minnesota tests are the most widely used.

Right now the national highschooler is below stanine on both of these tests by 1-5 grade levels.

Any homeschooler at or above stanine is doing better than 60% of the country.

Public schools are unable to offer students the one-on-one time they need. Even a homeschooling mom with 10 kids in different grades is able to give her children more time than a teacher can in a class of 25.

Public schools are unable to offer any real discipline… the children are unruly and expected to be so. Homeschooling parents can have more appropriate expectations for each child, and discipline accordingly.

Public schools (atleast where i am) are brainwashing children to believe that there is no absolute right and wrong. Without first consulting the parents, they teach biased theories about religion and ethics. A homeschooling parent can ensure that her children are being taught the truth. Here in canada the public school teaches a post modern ideal that nobody has the right to tell anyone what to do (which, by the way, is their way of telling us what to do!) I don’t agree with this idea, i think it leads to irresponsibility at best, and chaos at worst. I refuse to expose my children to this sort of brainwashing

As for what has been said about colleges looking more favourably on student who went to publc schools, that is changing. Many colleges have special admissions procedures for homeschooled kids. The university of ottawa actually has an admissions director commited solely to admitting homeschooled students. There are even special scholarships and bursuries available only to those who were homeschooled.

And the claim that children need to go to public school in order to make social connections is ridiculous. Many children would make social conncections everywhere you go if you let them. Homeschooling families can meet together regularily for field trips or phys. ed. class, providing wonderful social opportunities. If you homeschool your children, you also know what type of social connections your child is making… you don’t have to worry about them hanging out with some bullies at school… you know exactly who they’re spending their time with.

None of my children have been in public school, so I cannot give you any feedback about public school as a parent, but I can tell you about MY experiences. I loved school, overall – the learning part. But I hated the social part and the part where I had to stay unchallenged so many times because I was further advanced than others in my grade. Luckily by the time I got to middle school, I had the option of attending honors classes and was less bored. One thing I really disliked about public school were the class sizes. There were just too many kids in there, imo, even though I went to a school with good numbers. I think ideally about 10 kids per teacher would be good, but we all know that is not likely in public school. Plus, I thought it was totally BORING to be inside a building all day long. Once you get past elementary school, you get NO outside time and I hated that.

Just like public school, I only know my experiences on one side, as the parent. There are many reasons that I believe homeschool is better for OUR family (I do believe that it is not best for all families, by the way). For our family, here are the pros:

1 – We can afford to be a one-income family while mom stays home with the kids

2 – We both have lots of energy for our kids and interest in their well being.

3 – Our children thrive in the “family” setting, meaning they are most comfortable to be themselves with their parents and siblings and have no reservations to their learning and interests and expression while “at home”.

4 – We live in an area with LOTS of extra-curricular opportunities, lots of homeschool groups, lots of museums and places to go for field trips, lots of places to explore.

5 – Flexibility for each child to work at their own pace, follow their own interests, explore as they wish, and even to choose NOT to participate when they don’t feel like it.

A motivated parent can determine what their children excels at and where they are weak and develop a full, well-rounded course of studies. Most home schooled children are very independent thinkers and look at things in unconventional ways, as they are not bound by the 4 walls and traditional methods of learning.

Public schools tend to be overcrowded, supposedly lack the budget for books, paper and the basic educational tools. The ratio of students to teacher is preposterous and many parents expect the teachers to do it all: educate, socialize and discipline the students.

My short answer: depends.