Saturday, May 23, 2015

U.S. Department of Education: Higher Educated Parents More Likely to Homeschool




U.S. Department of Education: Higher Educated Parents More Likely to Homeschool
by Dr. Susan Berry 23 May 2015
New data released by the U.S. Department of Education shows that the more educated parents are, the more likely they are to homeschool their children.

According to information from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the number of homeschooled students between the ages of 5 and 17 has increased dramatically over the last decade, soaring 61.8 percent. The data also indicates that the more educated the parents, the more likely they are to homeschool their children.

According to the newly released data, an estimated 1.6 percent of students whose parents earned a high school diploma or less are homeschooled, while 2.2 percent of students whose parents have received vocational/technical training or “some college education” are homeschooled. Additionally, 2.4 percent of students whose parents have earned a bachelor’s degree or received some graduate education are homeschooled, and 2.5 percent of students whose parents earned a graduate or professional degree are homeschooled.

Though homeschool support organizations emphasize that parental motivation to offer their children the best education – and not higher level education degrees – is most important factor in determining whether to homeschool, the data trend suggests that higher educated parents are perhaps seeing the value and high quality of a homeschool education.

However, as Breitbart News’ political editor Rich Tucker noted Saturday, philosopher Daniel Dennett recently voiced his view at The Atlantic that “unsupervised homeschooling” is a “contemporary habit that will be most unthinkable 100 years from now.”

Despite the federal government’s recent data suggesting that higher educated parents are more likely to homeschool their children, Dennett asserts the common gross misperception of narrow-minded parents choosing homeschooling as a means to brow-beat their children into accepting only one set of ideas:

When we come to recognize that willfully misinforming a child—or keeping a child illiterate, innumerate, and uninformed—is as evil as sexual abuse, we will forbid parents to treat their children as possessions whom they may indoctrinate as they please. They may teach their children any religious creed they like, but only if they also teach the uncontroversial facts about the world’s religions so their children can make an informed choice when they grow up.

Summing up what he terms the “silliness” of Dennett’s position, Tucker writes, “Homeschooling is taking off because it works, and because it empowers parents. The bigger question isn’t whether it’ll be banned in 100 years; it’s ‘what will government schools look like in 100 years, with dwindling student populations?'”

Mike Smith, president of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), agrees in a statement to Breitbart News:

This growth confirms what we are seeing at HSLDA as well. Homeschooling will continue to grow as more parents are being exposed to the possibility and benefits of homeschooling. The major reasons people are choosing home schooling is that the primary competition to home schooling – public schools – is continuing to look less desirable. Violence at schools, bullying, academic digression, and social activism is increasing rather than decreasing, and more and more parents have come to the resolve that they simply can’t subject their children to this environment. Until these issues are addressed and get reversed, home schooling will continue to grow.

Echoing Smith, William Estrada, director of federal relations at HSLDA, tells Breitbart News the federal government’s newly released data on the tremendous growth of homeschooling is “what we have seen on the ground in all 50 states.”

“More and more parents are choosing to homeschool their children as they see the successful social and academic outcomes of homeschool graduates,” he said.

Michael Farris, Jr., at HSLDA media relations, added his observation that many younger parents “are choosing homeschooling because of the flexibility it offers in tailoring an education that meets their child’s individual needs. The public school method is one-size-fits-all, and people are realizing that there are better alternatives out there.”

Homeschooling veteran Ellen Gerwitz of Florida tells Breitbart News that she and her husband graduated all three of their children from homeschooling, and found results much different from Dennett’s characterization.

“The benefits from homeschooling have been numerous,” Gerwitz said. “Among the top ones are children who are independent thinkers and have not been indoctrinated by the concept of institutional education; close family ties; individualized instruction; self-motivation; time management skills; and more free time for hobbies and part-time jobs as well as community/church service.”

In advising new homeschooling parents, Gerwitz recommends avoiding re-creating the model of institutionalized education in the home, since the reason why parents homeschool is to provide a more individualized education for their children.

“Homeschooling has continued to grow more and more popular because the socialist agenda in schools to dumb down our society for the purposes of control has become more and more visible to parents,” Gerwitz adds. “They may not know why the schools are not working for their children, but parents can recognize failure when they see it.”

Attorney Deborah Stevenson, executive director of National Home Education Legal Defense (NHELD), agrees there are numerous reasons why more parents are choosing to homeschool their children.

“Quite simply, it works,” she tells Breitbart News. “Homeschooling allows true parental choice, the freedom to learn in a way that makes sense for each child, and to allow students to advance at their own pace.”

“More parents understand they have the right to instruct their own children and more now know of the many success stories of homeschooled students entering college, earning degrees, and moving on to successful careers,” Stevenson continued, observing as well the benefits of homeschooling to students with special needs.

“Parents understand that providing individual instruction to children who have special needs is easier to obtain in a homeschool setting that it is to obtain from a public school, especially if the public school is inflexible about the kind of special needs instruction it is willing to provide, to pay for, or to make available.”

In addition, Stevenson notes the technology of the Internet has only increased homeschooling families’ access to many resources and supports.

“The rise of the Internet, social media, and homeschool support groups makes obtaining assistance and support for parental choices easier,” she explains. “There are more group academics and activities available for homeschooled children today than in the past.”

As the U.S. Department of Education observes the higher education levels of parents who are homeschooling their children, Stevenson also points out that institutions of higher learning are actively recruiting homeschooled children.

“Homeschooled students bring to the institution a varied background and a willingness to learn on their own,” she says.

“Parents may no longer be content to allow the public school system to compel their children to meet the needs of an inflexible curriculum,” she observes. “Providing an individualized curriculum allows a child the freedom to learn in a way that is specific to his or her needs, and is what fosters the best interest of that child.”

U.S. Department of Education
Race to the Top is a grant program for the U.S. Department of Education, and encourages adoption for the Common Core educational standards.

Note: Jeb Bush is a Common Core educational standards supporter, an advisory committee member for the Hispanic Leadership Network, a member of the Alfalfa Club, George H.W. Bush’s son, and was a board member for the American Action Forum.
Hispanic Leadership Network is an offshoot of the American Action Network.
Frederic V. Malek is the founder & board member for the American Action Network, a member of the Alfalfa Club, the chairman for the American Action Forum, and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Lauren Maddox is a board member for the American Action Forum, and was an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), the International Rescue Committee, the Brookings Institution (think tank), the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee, and a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Shirley M. Hufstedler was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the secretary at the U.S. Department of Education.
Achieve Inc. helped develop the Common Core educational standards.
Michael Cohen is the president of the Achieve Inc., and was the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education.  
Carnegie Corporation of New York was a funder for Achieve Inc.
Richard W. Riley was a trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the secretary for the U.S. Department of Education.
Newton N. Minow is an honorary trustee at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.                    
Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.  
R. Eden Martin is counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013       
James S. Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Lester Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Mortimer B. Zuckerman was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the owner of The Atlantic, and is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee.
Samantha Power was a contributor for The Atlantic, a board member for the International Crisis Group, Barack Obama’s aide, a director at the International Rescue Committee, and is married to Cass R. Sunstein.
Cass R. Sunstein is married to Samantha Power, and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Diane S. Ravitch was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, and a Common Core educational standards critic.
Race to the Top is a grant program for the U.S. Department of Education, and encourages adoption for the Common Core educational standards.
Achieve Inc. helped develop the Common Core educational standards.
Joyce Foundation was a funder for Achieve Inc.
Valerie B. Jarrett was a director at the Joyce Foundation, is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and her great uncle is Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Cyrus F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).   
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a senior director at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
James Cole Jr. was a director at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, and is the general counsel nominee for the U.S. Department of Education.
Michael Cohen was the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, and is the president of the Achieve Inc.
Achieve Inc. helped develop the Common Core educational standards.
Carnegie Corporation of New York was a funder for Achieve Inc.
David A. Hamburg is the president emeritus for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and an adviser for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank) was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank). 
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population control by involving the United States in war. Also to take over American history and take over the whole education system in America, so the children can be indoctrinated into accepting a World Government)
George H.W. Bush is Jeb Bush’s father, a member of the Alfalfa Club, a member of the Bohemian Club, and was the president of the George H.W. Bush administration.   
George H.W. Bush New World Order Speech
Jeb Bush is George H.W. Bush’s son, a Common Core educational standards supporter, an advisory committee member for the Hispanic Leadership Network, a member of the Alfalfa Club, and was a board member for the American Action Forum.
Hispanic Leadership Network is an offshoot of the American Action Network.
Frederic V. Malek is the founder & board member for the American Action Network, a member of the Alfalfa Club, the chairman for the American Action Forum, and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Henry A. Kissinger was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), is a member of the Bohemian Club, an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Mortimer B. Zuckerman was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the owner of The Atlantic, and is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee.
Samantha Power was a contributor for The Atlantic, a director at the International Rescue Committee, a board member for the International Crisis Group, Barack Obama’s aide, and is married to Cass R. Sunstein.

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