Why some homeschoolers benefit from an online college program.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s experimental Household Pulse Survey reports that by October 2022, over 11% of households with school-age children are doing some form of homeschooling. That’s double the number compared to the prior school year.
There are many reasons that parents choose homeschooling, which usually revolves around either the education itself, the educational environment, or the student themselves. By customizing their child’s schooling experience outside of the classroom, parents are successfully turning out highly academic, socially adept, and independent learners. Students that study online during high school develop behaviors, needs, and expectations that may not be met as part of the traditional college experience. While these terms are often used as a veiled (and quite undeserved) accusation of socially challenged kids, this is not so here. The behaviors, needs, and expectations that we’ll look at are overwhelmingly positive, and simply cannot be nurtured by the traditional college education system.
Just like tailored clothing, homeschoolers get a singularly designed, individually delivered education. So if your son doesn’t like geography – it’s off the curriculum, your daughter is a budding scientist – chemistry, physics, biology – the more the better! The result is an achievement that cannot be reproduced in a classroom setting where one size fits all (even with small alterations) is the best that can be delivered to 20, 50, or even 100 students at once. A student reared on flexibility, choice, and specialization is simply not served in the mass education model. This isn’t about spoiling your teen, it’s about continuing to give them access to education that fits like a glove. Total Testing has programs that deliver flexibility and choice – one student at a time – building on student success, rather than trying to patch up a system that wasn’t designed for them.
One criticism of homeschoolers is that they lack proper research skills, and can’t identify credible sources and content. In-person college degrees come with a centuries-old model of exposing students to education and developing research, a description ratified by the fact that the higher up the academic echelons you progress, the more research is expected. Two ways to address this problem are to either shoe-horn your child into a new learning style and environment, in the hope they’ll make it; or, choose a degree learning methodology that works with, and enhances the favored styles and skills honed in the home. Programs like those from Total Testing work to continue your child’s winning style, not change it. Homeschoolers have consistently been assessed to have superior self-study habits and self-motivation, and to adjust to different teaching styles, add the higher scores on tests such as SATs, and you get a picture of success that needs support, not adjustment. Remote online degrees are a great alternative to traditional college, and you can channel all the energy developing a star pupil, into a program that works with them.
Mass education requires a small number of faculty to educate a large number of students. This requires a certain level of ‘group-think’ and ‘group-do.’ For a student who has grown to love learning in one of its most open and fluid forms, to be told when to learn, how to learn, where to learn, how long to learn, and with whom to learn can come as quite a shock. Remote college education like Total Testing supports the flexibility of when what and why which is precisely what will bring out the best in homeschoolers. And for those that may need extra time to succeed, or for others who may want to accelerate their degree, flexibility is designed into the program, not just ‘accommodated’ or ‘figured out later.’
We did it! We got through a whole discussion of degrees, college education, and homeschoolers without discussing socialization! That’s because socialization isn’t the issue – it’s all about learning. Traditional college learning may be popular, but it comes at a cost. It actually comes at two costs – first, it’s really expensive, and second, to someone schooled individually to their strengths, college may appear inflexible, rigid and ill-fitting. Take a look at the other, more adaptable and less expensive choice from Total Testing.