Three reasons you don't need a teaching degree to homeschool your child...and do it well

 

There are a few arguments commonly employed by those who oppose the privilege and right of parents to educate their own children at home. Recently, while perusing an online message board I was stopped in my tracks as I read through a number of harsh responses to a woman who asked for advice because she was considering homeschooling her child. Predominate among the many discouraging comments was the idea that a parent without teaching credentials is not qualified to give their child a suitable education. This is simply not true in most instances.

There is little, or no, correlation between teacher credentials and student achievement.

While I realize that, for many people, this may be difficult to believe, it is true. Studies have consistently shown that the quality of a student's education is not dependent on a teacher's certification. According to Chris Klicka, Senior Counsel for Homeschool Legal Defense Association, in his article The Myth of Teacher Qualifications:

One of the most significant studies in this area was performed by Dr. Eric Hanushek of the University of Rochester, who surveyed the results of 113 studies on the impact of teachers’ qualifications on their students’ academic achievement. Eighty-five percent of the studies found no positive correlation between the educational performance of the students and the teacher’s educational background. Although 7 percent of the studies did find a positive correlation, 5 percent found a negative impact. Those who push for legislation requiring certain teacher qualifications for homeschoolers have no research to support the necessity of such standards.”

Many people of renown were largely homeschooled, or self-taught.

Presidents- George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and more

U.S. Supreme Court Justices- Sandra Day O'Connor, John Marshall, John Rutledge, John Jay

Scientists- George Washington Carver, Albert Einstein, Blaise Pascal, Booker T. Washington, and more

Artists- Claude Monet, Leonardo Da Vinci, Grandma Moses, William Blake, and more

Writers- Robert Frost, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), and more

Also among the homeschooled are many well-known statesmen, educators, entrepreneurs, military leaders, religious leaders, and more. Please visit the longer list of Famous Homeschoolers (posted by Bridgeway Homeschool Academy) from which the above-listed names were taken.

It doesn't take a degree to teach a subject. It only takes a love of learning, a sincere curiosity about the world, and a willingness to learn the unknown alongside the student. If you can adopt and impart those qualities, you can teach.

The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask which he finds it hard to answer.” (emphasis mine)

~Alice Wellington Rollins~

Learning to find answers is superior to memorizing facts.

No one knows everything. No one needs to know everything, not even teachers. Just ask the football coach who taught my high-school level Oklahoma History class! More important to your students than your expertise is your commitment to teach them to learn. If you can lead them to a library shelf full of information they want to know, guide them in experimentation (even if you follow a manual), carry out instructions alongside them, read to them until they can expertly read to themselves, and even play an awe-inspiring dvd, then you can give them the keys to unlock their own doors of learning.

Many of the people we study and admire discovered new things never before imagined. They could not have done this through teacher-dependency. If students must rely wholly on teachers to spoon-feed them, then they will never go anywhere new. They can only retrace the teacher's steps. I'm not afraid of my children knowing more than me. In fact, that is my goal. I will teach them what I know, but much more than that, I will teach them how to learn what I never will. If they learn to love learning half as much as George Washington Carver learned to love it as an unschooled boy playing in the woods, then I will be pleased.

Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible.”

~George Washington Carver~

© 2009 by Tonya Hudson. All rights reserved.

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