Starting Study Shows Homeschooling is on the rise.

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The National Center for Educational Statistics released some scary numbers recently showing a increasing rate in children whose parents are opting to home school them. Some of the figures that stood out to me:

• An estimated 1,096,000 children were home schooled in 2003, a 29% increase from the 850,000 children being home schooled in 1999.
• 31% of parents opting to home school their children listed safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure as the most important reason for home schooling.
• 30% of parents said they are choosing home schooling to provide moral or religious instruction.
• Only 16% of parents said there decision was due to dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools.

I am not sure if it is just me or the feeling is shared by others but this can not be a good thing. Growing up and going through school is a vital part of the socialization process in my opinion and to have this many children missing out on that, combined with an growing disconnect due to the Internet, cell phones, video games, etc, is setting these youngsters up for failure. Where will they develop their basic people skills? Where will they learn the simple things such as sharing, problem solving, team work and every other little thing one encounters throughout the process faced in a regular school setting.

I understand religious and moral values are incredibly important to many parents, and that is perfectly fine. Send them to Sunday school, get them involved with church programs and other “religious teaching tool” outlets but do not take away their youth and right grow into young adulthood side by side with their peers. Maybe I am making a bigger deal out of this then it really is, but I do not think I am and hopefully this trend does not get any more out of control then it all ready is.

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