College Planning: Why Students Find it Hard to Study in Schools
There are a lot of students who do not study seriously. In fact, a public school will have children go to school without any clear cut ambition to do well in life or benefit from the education. The homeschool environment is different. Here, the focus is not on short term retention. There is a conscious shift towards the spirit of inquiry and learning for long-term benefits.
Students don't study because they are not motivated or the subject simply does not get them interested. The homeschool subjects are more tailored towards helping the students explore their area of interests and choose those subjects which they like. If you like something, the chances of doing well in that area are greater. The homeschool believes in personalizing education so that there is enough accountability of what he or she is doing. He or she does not feel sidelined like in public school. The home school student learns from life rather than just plain books. In fact, the bookish environment and the compulsion to get better grades to outpace other colleagues stresses out the child in the public school. He will likely step out of the competition. Also, children don't study because their minds are not organized and get diverted to other things. The homeschool works in the system of time-management. Children consciously adhere to the timings and lay out the time when they should study and when they have to play. There is an equal opportunity for the homeschool child to build on his academic knowledge as well as boost the other important extracurricular skills.
It is all in prioritizing things and being ambitious about what you want to do in life. The homeschool students do not fall in the trap of being a victim of peer pressure and joining the ‘bad' group. Many times children get into a vicious cycle of credit card spending and buying exorbitant things to be in sync with the trends. To settle the debts, children can take the wrong way and end up in trouble. Many of these anxieties plague the mind of the concerned parent when the child is in the public school. In homeschool, however, the child is constantly in the eye of the parent. There is no way his attention can be diverted from the task on hand. He knows the value of education and the importance of studying and staying focused on the subject of his interest. The homeschool student will not have any sort of inferiority complex or intimidating behavior in him. Since he learns to be tolerant, he understands the value of being sensitive and practical in life.
The homeschool student is aware that children do not study because they are not guided properly. He does not take the guidance given to him for granted. Children in the homeschool draw references from their parents and the people they look up to. A homeschool students studies well compared to his public school counterparts because he draws inferences from life and not from within the four walls of college. Another reason why a homeschool student studies well is that he thinks outside the box. He just does not delve into a subject in a one dimensional manner. He looks, watches, observes and studies things from all angles. That is the hallmark of a homeschool student.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.