This study does not surprise me. All four of my grandparents were educators for their entire career. And as a result, my parents decided to unschool my brothers and I.
In trying to be as objective and self-aware as possible, it is clear to us that the homeschoolers/unschoolers we built a community with are vastly better prepared for adulthood, regardless of level of general intelligence. There is a reason the acceptance rate at Stanford is ~27% for homeschoolers vs. 5% for those who went to school. [1]
Regardless of the pursuit, it seems like our friends who went to school the whole time are stuck in this weird immature pergatory where they can't make decisions or stick to things.
For the most part, the unschooler/homeschoolers are similar demographics, and from all different "walks of life", and yet invariably omit this issue of accepting adulthood.
Our thesis was always that school spoon feeds you, and you have to learn the pain of learning independently to be successful and learn a real growth mindset. But who knows. It is a complicated issue.
I was a failure in public school because of A) poor social interaction B) focus on testing instead of learning and C) not fitting in the mold.
I did private school, independent study, public school in two states (CA and TX), and Homeschool.
Homeschool and public school can be the most easily abused. It's hard to abuse private schools since there is usually more focus on the students.
However, it's clear to me that homeschooling is the winner for most people. You can completely customize the curricula and learning methods to help people learn the best.
The social interactions in homeschool are also far better. Rather than learning how to deal with childish peers only (being locked in a classroom for 8 hours a day), you can actually go explore the world and learn how to interact with every age level. There are thousands of homeschool groups though if you really want to have that peer-pressure stuff.
I think this is due to self-selection. Generally, children who are homeschooled have parents who are obviously extremely active in their child's education - an important factor in long-term academic success. Also, homeschoolers tend to be a special group of people on either end of the intelligence spectrum which led them to decide they need the specialization not offered in regular schools. The kids applying to Stanford would be on the high end of the spectrum.
In trying to be as objective and self-aware as possible, it is clear to us that the homeschoolers/unschoolers we built a community with are vastly better prepared for adulthood, regardless of level of general intelligence. There is a reason the acceptance rate at Stanford is ~27% for homeschoolers vs. 5% for those who went to school. [1]
Regardless of the pursuit, it seems like our friends who went to school the whole time are stuck in this weird immature pergatory where they can't make decisions or stick to things.
For the most part, the unschooler/homeschoolers are similar demographics, and from all different "walks of life", and yet invariably omit this issue of accepting adulthood.
Our thesis was always that school spoon feeds you, and you have to learn the pain of learning independently to be successful and learn a real growth mindset. But who knows. It is a complicated issue.
[1]: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1011320109.html?FMT=AI&pubn...