” (McDonald). This is a parents’ worst nightmare come true. Places in which they trust that their child is safe to learn and prosper constantly haunt them. Home schooling is the only true way to escape this fear. Ever since I was a child I was told to look both ways before crossing the street, it is about time that parents’ started looking out for their children because there does not seem to be any future help from the government. Home schooling accounts for only three or four percent of America’s schoolchildren but, there is a brisk movement with a fifteen percent annual growth rate of at home students. In 1997, the top three National Spelling Bee contest winners were products of the home-schooling system. On standardized national tests of skills and achievement, home schooled kids scored better than seventy or eighty percent of all test takers. In 1999 home-schooled students scored 67 points better than the national average. By the eighth grade the median performance of home-schooled students is almost four grade levels above that of students nationwide. (Anderson) It seems that these students bring motivation, curiosity and responsibility to their education, some things in which public schools do not offer. Although public school officials constantly frown upon at home education; these statistics prove that this form of learning is very effective. I knew some home-schooled students from interactions in after school activities. They seemed well educated, and were lucky to have parents that encouraged them to learn. Word Count: 875...
