If you want your children to gain more optimism and satisfaction in life, you should consider homeschooling; that's one of the takeaways from a new education poll on the social and mental qualities of school-age children.
The survey showed a 30% increase in the number of students who were homeschooled in the years between 2019 and 2021, while public school attendance dropped by more than 2 million.
And as the number of the homeschooled continues to rise, it becomes clearer that the longer a student homeschools, the more of an academic and personal edge a student gains, according to Texas Home School Coalition Founder and Chairman Tim Lambert.
"The longer a student is homeschooled the better they do academically from the standpoint of test scores, so this just seems to be another one of those areas that the longer a child is homeschooled, the more advantages they have."
The Cardus Educational Survey indicates that some of the results of homeschooling include students growing up with an overall more optimistic and satisfied view of life, exhibiting fewer incidents of depression and with much less tendency to “feel helpless dealing with life’s problems.”
One reason for this may be the core influence students feel: in public schools, students are more influenced by teachers in various temporary situations, while homeschooled kids are more influenced by family in a relatively permanent setting.
"We see among homeschooled families that the family has much more impact on those children, which makes sense. Y'know if your child is in a public school for eight hours a day, then the teacher and that environment has more impact than the family does," Mr. Lambert said.
Families that homeschool their children still have personal and familial problems just like all others, of course, but they do seem more closeknit and better adjusted, he adds.
"These families are generally closer, they spend more time together, they have higher church attendance, and I think all of those things lead to the possibilities of better marriages and long-term stability later in life."