Homeschooling and Home Learning

Impact LabHomeschooling these days has less to do with religion, and more to do with wise parents who want to give their children better opportunities for self-development than government schools are willing to offer.

Home schooling has grown most sharply for higher-income families. In 1999, 63.6% of home-schooling families earned less than $50,000. Now 60.0% earn more than $50,000.

Cate says many highly educated, high-income parents are "probably people who are a little bit more comfortable in taking risks" in choosing a college or line of work. "The attributes that facilitate that might also facilitate them being more comfortable with home-schooling."

Among the other findings:

• 3.9% of white families home-school, up from 2% in 1999.

• 6.8% of college-educated parents home-school, up from 4.9% in 1999.

Michelle Blimes home-schools her three daughters in Orem, Utah. Initially it was for academics, and now she sees social benefits. "They should be able to enjoy playing and being kids before being thrown into the teen culture," Blimes says. _USAToday_via_ImpactLab

Another interesting article on child development from Impact Lab deals with exposure to an "always on" television in early childhood.

Parents talk less to their children if the TV is on and youngsters also speak less, American researchers have found.

A study of children and babies from two-months-old to four-years-old found that for every hour the television was on, parents said between 500 and 1,000 fewer words to their children. _Impactlab

Very young children crave face to face contact with other humans -- particularly their parents. If parents delegate the responsibility of helping the child's mind grow to a television set or other disinterested party, the child is likely to suffer.

The developmental windows of brain development pass very quickly in early childhood. Modern methods of child-raising tend to ignore these passing windows, thus dooming future generations to live as only fractional versions of what they could have been.