Frequently people think that it is the child who is doing poorly in school that needs to be homeschooled. But what about the child that is doing well in school? Do they need to be homeschooled? My answer is a resounding yes!
1. Public School does not teach a child to think, so your “smart” child may not be equipped to reach their potential.
I homeschool one child that went to public school until 6th grade, and I can assure you that she was a very “good” student. All A’s.
The problem was that she was one of those kids of whom you could ask, “What color was King Arthur’s white horse?” and she was unlikely to recognize the answer. In other words, she hadn’t learned to think.
She has amazing potential, and a desire to be something big in life, but public school was going to fail her. Through homeschooling, which in our house includes lots of living books and narration, she has learned to think. She is not just answering a list of multiple choice questions; now she is contemplating things, and asking her own questions.
2. Good students are frequently the ones who know and do what is expected of them.
Well now, that doesn’t sound like a problem, does it? Actually it is, because in many cases the student does exactly what is expected of them, in order to get the grade they want. Then they are done. My “good” student got all A’s in public school, so the first time I asked her to repeat math problems similar to those she had missed, she was not impressed. In her mind, her overall grade was good enough.
But really, isn’t that the question: what is good enough? Is the public school’s standard for an A grade good enough?
I was a very “good” student – top grades in advanced classes – but I’m here to tell you that I was not nearly as smart as I thought I was. I might even modify that to say, I was not nearly as smart as I was lead to believe. Unfortunately, when I finally came up against a very hard class in college, I was devastated to learn that I was unprepared! I had goals that I couldn’t reach, because I had never learned how to deal with any work that didn’t come fairly easy.
It is not going to benefit your child to get straight A’s in public school if it comes easy. When things come easy to our children, it’s time to challenge them a little more. If public school cannot do that, then it’s time to homeschool.
It will be said with truth that most children delight in school; they delight in the stimulus of school life, in the social stir of companionship; they are emulous, eager for reward and praise; they enjoy the thousand lawful interests of school life, including the attractive personality of such and such a teacher; but it seems doubtful whether the love of knowledge, in itself and for itself; is usually a powerful motive with the young scholar. The matter is important, because, of all the joyous motives of school life, the love of knowledge is the only abiding one; the only one which determines the scale, so to speak, upon which the person will hereafter live. Charlotte Mason, Volume 3 – School Education, pg 245-246
