"I advise no-one to place his child where
the Scriptures do not reign paramount"
(Martin Luther)
There is an ever-increasing amount of research evidence to indicate that home educated children are advantaged academically. Dr. Meighan of the University of Nottingham School of Education published a paper entitled, Home-based Education: Now Does It Work but Why Does It Work So Well (1996) listed some home educated individuals acknowledged to be well educated, including Thomas Edison, John Suart Mill, George Bernard Shaw, C.S.Lewis and Bertrand Russel.
Others (Tizard et al 1982) observed that home-educating mothers used more sophisticated language and made more intellectual demands upon their children than do teachers at schools. They concluded that "this study suggests that child's intellectual and language needs are much more likely to be satisfied at home than at school". Amongst many others, Dr. Ray (1992) found, in a nation-wide study of home educated children in the USA, that those children averaged at or above the 80th percentile on standardised achievement tests in all subjects. (It is important to note that the national average for children in these subjects is the 50th percentile). This would suggest that acdemic achievement is not a problem for home educated children. It is also important to note that this information is to answer critisim - it is not suggesting that academic achievement should be the reason for homeschooling.
Home Education Handbook of the European Academy for Christian Home Schooling TEACH), pp.11-12.
"Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it"
(Proverbs 22:6, NKJV)