If you care about your kids, you want the best education possible for them. Your kids are THE most important thing in your life (maybe second only to God or your spouse!) The kids are your primary responsibility, and there’s nothing you wouldn’t do for them so they can have a more successful and happy life. So … what about homeschooling?

Do you realize that homeschool kids consistently do better than public school kids on tests, in college, with relationships and even in maturity studies? The following graphic gives you the statistical details. The bottom line is that you should consider homeschooling as a viable alternative for your children, if you truly care about providing the best education possible.

Created by: College At Home

Did you notice the “Average National Percentile” scores? They measure public school kids at exactly 50%… meaning the percentile was set to absolute average, with half the public school scores above, and half below. By comparison homeschool kids are at least 30 points above the average in every academic subject offered: reading, language, math, science, and social studies. I don’t know about your public school system but I’ve seen in our local public school that many of the academic opportunities I experienced in a 1960s era public school are no longer offered locally — this is in rural California. The use of boring worksheets in the public school here is legendary. What are the kids really learning? Is it how to investigate life, or how to follow instructions and fill in the blanks on worksheets? Lazy teaching doesn’t make children brighter and more inquisitive about the world surrounding us.

I appreciate the “certification” section of the graphic above. It shows that children who are homeschooled are doing above-average work regardless of whether or not their parents have certification as teachers. I believe that teacher certification is over-rated. There are some terrible public school teachers including some I recently saw featured in a shocking television program about internet predators. Have you seen that one?

I’m not implying that certified teachers are always predators, but only that predators know how to get jobs where they can be around kids! Scary! There’s nothing better for kids than keeping them close — at home — where you can be sure they’re protected. Certification doesn’t test people to see if they’re suitable for working with children. It tests them to see if they can regurgitate enough subject matter to be able to teach it. (Just my opinion, I guess… sorry I got off on that tangent but I just saw that horrible TV show a couple days ago.)

Near the bottom of the graphic there’s a statistic that shows 66.7 of homeschooled kids graduate from college compared to only 57.5 of public schooled kids. Let me tell you about a friend of mine. He was educated in the best New York City schools in the 1950s and 1960s. He started in a Catholic private school and progressed through that, and a private junior high school, into the top-rated NYC high school, where the “best” students received an upscale education. He remembers childhood as a time of intense study. He studied at school then spent about four hours each evening studying, doing homework. This was constant throughout his childhood education years. He was at the top of his classes and his mother had high expectations for him, and wanted him to become a doctor.

After high school graduation, he attended a local college for a few months, and hated it. He was so over-schooled by that time he didn’t have any desire to continue studying. It was a case of total educational burnout. He ended up quitting before the end of the first semester, and spent the next 17 years in the military. No education whatsoever! So an intelligent kid who received a private and public school education failed, and now he’s 60, unemployed, and depressed… never having had a career worthy of his intellect.

Excess schooling is treachery! I’m trying to say … that kids who are force-fed too much private or public school institutionalized education are burnt out by the time they reach college age, whereas homeschooled children are eager for more structured educational opportunities. This probably accounts in large part for the fact that more of them stick with college and actually graduate.

So, if you’re a loving parent seeking the best educational opportunities for your children, please consider homeschooling as a viable and workable alternative. Your children may not have as much information crammed down their throats but they will have the choice to enjoy and absorb a wide variety of educational experiences. Homeschool kids consistently excel whereas public school kids are prone to difficulties, failure, extremely bad experiences with other children such as bullying, and they’re in a place where provably they cannot be adequately protected from crime and violence.