Study Compares Home- and School-educated Children
from MARS HILL Audio Addenda

A new study published in the Journal of Early Childhood Research compares the intellectual development of children who have been home-educated with that of those who have been school-educated.

Home-educated children, it reports, "demonstrated high levels of ability and good social skills"; they tested higher in many of the tests than did school-educated children. Speculating about why this would be the case, the article describes home-education and how it differs from school-education:

"Home-education is best described as an individually tailored education (ITE) whereby the children work from a home base but often spend a large amount of their time away from the home itself, instead attending group get-togethers and activities, visiting parks, museums, friends' houses, libraries and 'after school' groups. In general this is an education gained through 'living and doing' . . . ."

The article advocates individually tailored education and the elements of which it consists—such as high levels of attention from parents and family members and a pace of learning gauged to each child—to schools that wish to reform their education programs.