1. Introduction to Homeschooling and Modular Learning
What is Homeschooling?
What is modular learning?
Seven reasons why modular learning is the future of school
How technology is expanding access to homeschooling
10 Homeschooling Myths Busted
For a while, we’ve been hearing that homeschooling is the future of school. US homeschooling rates have tripled since pre-pandemic levels. This movement is beginning to be less populated by outliers and more populated by innovators who are attracted to the flexibility, mastery-based learning, personalization, and even opportunity for world travel that homeschooling affords. A whole host of tech startups have emerged to support this growing industry. Nir Eyal, Rachel Thomas and Jeremy Howard, Naval Ravikant, Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, David Perell, Albert Wenger, Eric Ries, and Marc Andreesen are among the many trailblazers in tech who’ve publicly discussed their decision to homeschool their kids.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a homeschooler, you may be teaching your child to read, helping them with homework, finding them a math tutor, tinkering together at a makerspace, enrolling them in an afterschool dance class or online history program, exploring adaptive learning apps or sharing your expertise in some way - such as running a robotics club for your child and friends. You’re practicing “modular learning.”
Despite this growing trend, many families find the idea of homeschooling and modular learning completely overwhelming - that they don’t have the time, money, or the expertise to do this well. They may be afraid that their kids won’t have friends if they homeschool. Or that getting more involved in their child’s education will lead to a constant battle of wills.
At Modulo, we disagree. We don’t think children need to learn in the same place at the same time, in the same way, to learn effectively and make friends with a large, diverse group of kids. And families shouldn’t have to quit their day job either, because there are more flexible, cost-effective childcare options than 8-3 pm school.
What’s more, as the key stakeholders in their education, parents, and caregivers are ideally suited for this role of educational guide, especially with the thousands of new educational resources that have emerged to support them.
Who created this guide
This guide was created by child life specialists, learning experts, teachers, curriculum designers, data analysts, homeschooling families, and education entrepreneurs.
Over the last ten years, we’ve interviewed hundreds of secular homeschooling families, done in-depth studies of trends based on over 100k comments in online secular homeschooling groups, and tested hundreds of educational resources with our own students at Modulo (thanks, kids!). From there, we’ve amassed a lot of experience about best practices for homeschooling and modular learning (from choosing curriculum to making friends to accountability). And we’ve also seen what can go wrong.
Who this guide is for
We hope that any parent, relative, or caregiver looking to play a bigger role in their child’s education could pick up some new ideas here. For families that want to homeschool or improve their homeschooling, we’ve learned a ton of best practices from the secular homeschooling community and want to save you time from feeling like you have to reinvent the wheel. Independent teachers, microschool founders, curriculum designers, edtech entrepreneurs, VC’s, foundations, and policymakers can get a better understanding of this exciting movement in education and how they can contribute to expanding access to all kids.
Like it or not, families will continue to play a more prominent role in shaping their child’s education. And that’s why we’ve created this guide - to make it easy for parents to help their child (and the whole family) flourish, not only academically but socially and emotionally as well.
This guide is jam-packed with information, stories, and statistics.
If you’re already convinced and don’t need to know more, see our quick guide to getting started. Otherwise, read on!
1. What is homeschooling?
Technically, the word “homeschooling” refers to the situation when a parent or caregiver chooses to withdraw their child from traditional private or public school and educate them themselves. The person responsible for their education, taking attendance, planning curriculum, and in some states, doing the teaching is their parent or guardian. Generally, if a child is over six and the family chooses not to enroll in private or public school, they have to register as a homeschooler, following the guidelines from their State and City’s Department of Education.
However, many families who attend online schools, umbrella charter schools, or microschools also identify as homeschoolers and participate in homeschool activities. For example, in California, it’s very easy for families to set up a small private school of one (PSA) in their house, which gives them a lot more freedom over how they homeschool. In some states, families can also enroll in public school and do an independent study at home. As we’ve pointed out, even some public school families consider themselves homeschoolers, incorporating classes, homeschool meetups, tutors, and parent-led instruction into their homeschooling.
In the United States, families have a legal right to pull their children out of school and educate them as they see fit. In some countries, homeschooling is illegal. However, even if homeschooling is illegal in your country, you can still take a modular approach to your child’s education.
Each U.S. state has different requirements as to how much-standardized testing children need to do and what types of materials parents have to teach. While some states require that the child’s parent or caregiver is the main educator, many homeschooling families hire homeschool teachers or tutors, send their children to homeschool classes or homeschool co-ops (which may be led by a hired teacher or through a work exchange with several families). Families should consult the Department of Education website in their state and city to see the up-to-date homeschool laws and contact the official homeschool coordinator to clarify any questions.
Homeschooling isn’t pandemic schooling or The Little House on the Prairie
When most families think of homeschooling, they think of pandemic homeschooling or traditional homeschooling.
Traditional Homeschooling
When families think of traditional homeschooling, they often envision a woman in a house in a homemade skirt (perhaps on the prairie) standing at her kitchen table, giving bible lessons to her children on a chalkboard for six hours a day. And then, perhaps, she makes homemade bread and cleans the house.
Pandemic homeschooling
Pandemic schooling conjures up images of exhausted parents (in-between conference calls) bribing, coercing, or pleading with kids with cabin fever to sit through six hours of zoom school - and then assist them with several hours of homework based around a very specific (and often complex) method of teaching aligned with common core. And then, they attempt to work from 9 pm-1 am. During the covid-19 pandemic, we helped 100k families through school closures via our non-profit hotline and information platform, schoolclosures.org, and saw first-hand how unpleasant pandemic schooling can be.
Veteran homeschoolers are quick to point out that pandemic homeschooling is not homeschooling.
In reality, modern-day homeschoolers live in urban, rural, and suburban environments. They’re teachers, technologists, entrepreneurs, artists, healthcare workers, and other innovators. And they’re not at home but out in the world.
5 styles of homeschooling
Here are the five main styles of homeschooling and what they describe. (Within this, there are numerous subcategories: Worldschooling, Forest School, Montessori, Waldorf, Carschooling, Youtube schooling, documentary schooling, and even Gameschooling! While some families lean more heavily on one or two styles of homeschooling, most are applying modular learning to some degree.
Traditional homeschooling (home at school) is where most of the homeschooling is led by a parent at home using a curriculum aligned with school standards. Traditional homeschooling follows a similar schedule to school. Historically, traditional homeschoolers use a standardized curriculum, though sometimes they create their own curriculum.
Online schooling (school on the computer) is where most of the schooling is done online via a live teacher or asynchronously via recorded classes with assessments, homework, and quizzes. If families enroll in an accredited online school, they don’t have to register as a homeschooler. Online schooling often follows the same curriculum as traditional school, though some newer online schools have adaptive educational software and live tutors.
Unschooling (no school) In unschooling, learning is largely self-directed, with children driving their own learning with no structure or schedule imposed by parents. The word unschooling is often used synonymously with modular learning or any type of secular homeschooling. It can range anywhere from neglect to highly scheduled traditional homeschool using a secular curriculum. Modular learning is our attempt to define a specific type of unschooling we’ve seen frequently within unschooling communities.
Hybrid schooling (half-school, half-homeschool) includes some combination of traditional homeschool, online school, or unschooling with a homeschool co-op hybrid school, learning pod, or microschool. These hybrid schools can help support families with social and childcare needs.
Modular learning (customized education, social, childcare, and accountability). In modular learning, families draw from a mosaic of styles and activities to optimize social, educational, and childcare outcomes for their child. These modules frequently include a combination of mastery-based curricula, social gatherings, adaptive technology, nature-based activities, tutors, mentors, parent-led instruction, and extracurriculars.
A few key differentiators between modular learning and other homeschooling styles
There’s more structure and accountability than pure unschooling but much more time for self-directed learning than traditional homeschooling with built-in accountability mechanisms.
Modular learning puts strong emphasis on 1-1 mastery-based instruction, allowing children to learn at their own pace and evolving teaching methods as they go.
In contrast to traditional school, hybrid school, and online school, modular learners don’t recreate school at home. They customize academic, social, and childcare experiences to ideally suit their family. Social and childcare experiences are not seen as supplemental, but integral to a well-balanced education. They also customize their goals and accountability framework.
Due to the focus on 1-1 mastery learning, students only need 1-2 hours of formal study per day. Modular learners have more time to socialize, direct their own learning and pursue extracurricular activities. And parents & caregivers have time to work at home and take breaks.
Unlike online school and traditional homeschool, modular learning is highly personalized. The curriculum is flexible and diverse and always changing to better suit the child’s needs at any given time. One reason we like it a lot as an approach to homeschooling is because it echoes best practices in user design and product development.
2. What is modular learning?
Our description of modular learning is based on patterns we’ve identified from direct observation, interviews, participating in groups, and reviewing conversations of over 100k secular homeschoolers (many former teachers) all over the world who are successfully educating their children way above grade level.
Modular learning describes the most common patterns we observed in how they approach their child’s academic learning, social and childcare experiences, which have been developed and refined through years of testing, iteration, and exchange of ideas within secular homeschooling communities.
Modular Learning vs. Traditional School
In traditional education, all students have the same schedule, the same curriculum, the same assessments, and the same amount of playtime & collaborative learning with children the same age. Schools provide the same amount of childcare to each family, in accordance with the typical national work schedule in the early 20th century.
For public schools, this standardized approach is designed to ensure that on a national and state level (for public school) or on a school level (for private school), the maximum number of children are learning and socializing adequately for a particular time period in history, according to the federal and state standards for that time. For private school, standardization helps ensure the school is performing at levels that will reassure parents and donors that the school is performing better than the public alternatives, and for the most competitive private schools, that their tuition dollars are resulting in higher levels of acceptance at elite colleges and universities.
Here’s the problem: while standardization may help schools, they might not provide the optimal learning, quality & quantity of social interaction for any individual child or the ideal childcare schedule for every family.
In contrast to thinking of education in one place at one time with one set of resources, modular learners think about their child’s education as a mosaic of educational resources that come together to optimize each individual child’s whole child development & support the entire family’s well-being.
School can be a module or not, but it is not the only module or, necessarily, the most important one.
In traditional school, the family relegates responsibility for a child’s education to the state or private school. In modular learning, the person who takes responsibility for the child’s education is the family. The family sets goals and iterates based on academic and social outcomes. And, what is sometimes a little more scary, but equally exciting is that the parent or guardian is not absconding responsibility, but answering directly to the child (and the future adult), ensuring that they are engaged right now, while simultaneously preparing to lead a happy, successful life, hopefully one that makes a positive contribution to their community and the world as a whole.
Vestigial School
Not surprisingly, many families who homeschool or start microschools re-create aspects of school that are remnants of a system designed to standardize education even if it’s not the best fit for their child or family (such as an 8-3 pm schedule) or using a curriculum aligned with state standards (as opposed to one aligned with their own goals, based on academic readiness, their child’s interests and strengths, the science of learning or evidence-based developmental milestones).
School is designed to serve a large number of students adequately in a classroom setting.
We discourage families from assuming that the ways things are done at school must have an underlying reason that they can’t identify. As engineers, product developers and entrepreneurs know, it’s crucial to identify untested assumptions, especially if you care deeply about the outcome. It might seem scary to start from scratch. By describing some of the best practices of modular learners, we hope to support you in creating a homeschool experience that best fits the needs of your family.
The Core Needs
As an approach to nurturing whole child development for each family, modular learning is focused on optimizing whole child development through a combination of activities that address the following core family needs:
Cognitive development & academic readiness
Modular learning helps children learn effectively and efficiently at the right level of challenge by choosing the best mix of curriculum and teachers to support their unique way of learning and adapting along the way. While being behind in school (or lagging on standardized tests) is not necessarily reflective of intelligence or future success, modular learning resources can also help with academic readiness, ensuring the door stays open if kids want to go back to school at any stage. See more in our complete guide to homeschool curriculum.
Social-emotional development
Modular learning incorporates the right amount of play and collaborative learning with a diverse social group to nurture healthy development. Modular learning also focuses on building community for families and plugging them into networks to help raise and educate their kids. See more in our comprehensive guide to socializing.
Childcare
Depending on their work, families will need different types of childcare. Modular learning is focused on finding the ideal childcare to support every family’s unique schedule, budget, and type of work, whether it’s remote or in an office. It should be noted that childcare is not just something families can use to help them earn income. Childcare can also contribute to the health and happiness of a family by giving parents time to themselves or with each other. See more in our section on childcare.
Accountability & support
Modular learning focuses on finding the right tools to ensure children are on track intellectually, socially, and emotionally, drawing on developmental milestones, assessments, learning support specialists, and social services. See more in our section on accountability and support.
Here are some examples of modules and how they contribute to each of the core needs listed above:
The Modular learning schedule
Modular learning is fully curated, intentional, secular homeschooling: custom education, custom socialization, and custom childcare with custom accountability & support.
Nearly every style of homeschooling incorporates some level of modular learning, but this is what we’ve observed “full-on” modular learning most typically looks like in practice.
This approach has emerged from decades of secular families collaborating, iterating, and improving upon homeschooling methods within secular homeschool communities.
3. Seven reasons why modular learning is the future of school
A 2021 poll by Mckinsey revealed that thirty-three percent of parents felt an alternative model (hybrid homeschooling, remote learning, homeschooling) would be a more ideal fit for their child ”than five days a week in a traditional brick-and-mortar school.”
In decentralized systems, the key stakeholders can make quick decisions, adapt and scale quickly to optimize outcomes. Following the general trend towards decentralization (in travel, work, and transportation), families are also recognizing the benefits of customizing their children’s education and having the freedom to choose the best learning resources, technology, and teachers to support their learning.
Here are some of the main reasons families are choosing modular learning
Mastery learning leads to better learning outcomes
Mastery-based learning is an instructional strategy and philosophy coined by Benjamin Bloom in 1968. When students learn for mastery, they learn at their own pace, mastering each concept before moving on to the next. 1-1 instruction is the ideal mode of delivery for mastery learning. In 1968, Bloom’s 2 Sigma Problem demonstrated that students learning through 1-1 instruction learn 90% better than those who learn in a group setting. That’s two standard deviations above the norm. And this is true whether or not the instructor is a trained teacher or not.
It’s no surprise that children learn better through 1-1 instruction, but it’s extremely difficult to deliver mastery learning in a school at an affordable cost due to the nature of schools and classrooms themselves.
The explosion of mastery-based edtech tools and physical curriculum in recent years has made it significantly easier for families and caregivers to guide mastery learning. While some subjects are still taught better in a group setting (such as theater or foreign language), families can see how mastery learning helps students learn subjects like math and writing much more quickly and efficiently than in a group setting.
For more on mastery learning, see what is 1-1 mastery learning and why is it so important?
2. Homeschooling is on the rise
After schools re-opened in 2020, experts expected families to return to school. Instead, the opposite happened. According to US census data, the global population tripled, growing from 3.3% (pre-pandemic) to 11.1% at the start of the 2021-2022 school year. The most significant jump was in Massachusetts, where homeschooling grew from 1.2% in May 2020 pre-pandemic to a staggering 12.1% in September 2020.
As more families homeschool their children, more educational resources emerge to support them, social groups group and the stigma around homeschooling lessons, paving the way for more families to join the movement.
For more statistics on the growth of homeschooling, see 21 statistics that show homeschooling is the future of school.
3. Homeschooling is more cost-effective
It’s no secret that private school is exorbitantly expensive, costing upwards of $40,000/year in major cities. However, public school also comes with its costs. Between afterschool, summer camp, back-to-school supplies, and education technology, even going to a free public school can get expensive. A study by Deloitte showed “concern that students falling behind causing 51% of parents to increase spend on virtual learning tools” and that homeschoolers were likely to spend 15% less than the average parent in traditional school.
In contrast, the average homeschooling family spends $500/year on their child’s education. Homeschoolers have a lot more options about how they can distribute their education spending, and there are also a lot of free resources available. Over decades of evolution, the homeschooling community has developed creative solutions for reducing or eliminating the cost of childcare and education that have become ingrained in homeschooling culture. It’s less typical to outsource education and more typical to do it yourself or share with friends for free.
For more on the cost benefits of homeschooling, see how to afford homeschooling.
Families are also increasing spending on their children’s mental health, which leads us to reason #4…
4. Families want to leave hostile social environments: Systemic racism, bullying, and gun violence
Since 2018, there have been 121 school shootings in the United States, leading former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to suggest that every family boycott school until gun control laws are passed. According to the NCES, One out of every five (20.2%) students reports being bullied, and only half of those students tell an adult. Despite the research on the critical importance of unstructured play for healthy cognitive and social development, according to the CDC, the average kindergartener still only has 26 minutes a day of recess at school.
Systemic racism, homophobia, and struggles with gender identity are also causing families to leave school. The Black homeschooling population has grown more than any other group, with many citing “White-washed” history as a primary reason.
For more on the social benefits of homeschooling see But what about socialization?
5. Standardized testing
The opt-out movement caught nationwide attention when in 2015, 20% of New York public school families opted out of standardized tests in protest. According to a study by Columbia University Teacher college, this movement is largely driven by “opposition to evaluating teachers in part by their students’ test scores (37 percent), (2) a belief that standardized tests force teachers to narrow the curriculum to only the subjects covered on the tests (34 percent), (3) opposition to the growing role of corporations in schools.”
Families are deeply concerned about how these tests shape their child’s education and the private interests they benefit, leading many to not only opt out of standardized tests but opt out of standardized school altogether.
6. Teacher Attrition
48% of teachers reported that they’re considering leaving the profession.
In addition to helping parents and caregivers learn to teach, homeschooling offers students the opportunity to connect with the best teachers selected by their families for their passion, expertise, and rapport with their kids.
Homeschooling offers entrepreneurial opportunities that make it possible for the best teachers to thrive through tutoring, teaching online classes, leading homeschool co-ops, or developing curriculum.
7. Decentralized systems are the future
New Technology has enabled many systems to become decentralized (travel, transportation), making them more affordable and personalized to the individual experience but still holding users accountable through systems like ratings and reviews.
“As technology evolves, the most profound and destabilizing change is likely to be the transition from centralized internet services to decentralized ones.” -Tyler Cohen (Bloomberg)
Decentralized education makes more sense for K12 education, too: In both private and public systems, the decision makers are several steps removed from the key stakeholder, the child. In a decentralized school system, those who care the most (parents and teachers and local communities) can quickly adapt to suit the needs of the individual child based on the context of their local environment, the time in history and their lives, and their future aspirations.
Let’s talk a little more about how technology is paving the way for a decentralized school system.
4. How technology is expanding access to homeschooling
Over the last 20 years, tens of thousands of online resources have emerged to support k12 education. 51% of K12 parents report spending more on online classes, virtual tutors, and other e-learning resources than ever before.
“The pandemic has been a catalyst for parent-driven, technology-enabled educational change that will have a large and lasting impact on the education sector.” -Marc Andreesen (Invest Like the Best)
This explosion of edtech resources is significant in more ways than one:
Access to teachers: Kids have direct access to the best teachers in the world through online tutoring, classes, and free media platforms (podcasts, youtube, etc.).
Less need for subject experts: Parents and caregivers don’t have to be subject matter experts to help kids learn. This is particularly important for kids whose parents didn’t receive a formal education or can’t speak the language in the country. In some cases, well-designed educational software has the same impact as 1-1 tutoring.
“When considering narrow knowledge of a series of facts, or basic skills taught at the elementary level, the effects of ML and DI can be Large for the general population and Extremely Large for disadvantaged students….
…With really good tutors and really good software, the effect size can indeed be Huge.” - Ricón, José Luis, “On Bloom's two sigma problem: A systematic review of the effectiveness of mastery learning, tutoring, and direct instruction”, Nintil (2019-07-28)
Adaptive learning apps: Educational software can help track children’s progress as they go, reducing the need for periodic standardized testing and zoning in on areas of challenge.
Technology connects people in person: Technology can help connect people, even in rural communities, creating more social opportunities for homeschoolers.
Educational software is extremely complex to build. And we have a long, long way to go before we build the perfect AI adaptive technology to personalize learning for the infinite variety of children in the world. Many families still lack internet and home devices.
5. 10 Homeschooling Myths Busted
We’ve heard every single reason families choose NOT to homeschool. For the most part, these reasons are based on anecdotes, impressions of pandemic homeschooling, or historical approaches to homeschooling. Homeschooling certainly has its pros and cons, which we discuss in greater depth in Pros and Cons to Homeschooling: Is homeschooling better?, but to help you make a truly informed decision, we’re going to start by dispelling some rumors.
We’ll start off with the most common and equally misguided myth about homeschooling.
#1 Homeschoolers are lonely, weird, and antisocial
Just as homeschoolers curate their education, they also curate their social experiences to include plenty of time for play with children of mixed ages in a diverse community. Often part of marginalized groups, secular homeschoolers form highly inclusive and interdependent communities that rely on each other for childcare and education. A survey of 877 families by Modulo showed 75.1% of homeschooling parents are satisfied with their children’s social lives, compared to 51.2% in traditional school. As the homeschooling movement grows, it will become increasingly social. Since this is such a prevailing myth about homeschooling, we’ve devoted a whole section to breaking it down and demonstrating how the quality of social experiences in homeschooling can far surpass those in school.
#2 I can’t teach because I’m not a teacher
With the growth of homeschooling, so too has there been a growth of resources specifically designed to help parents and caregivers lead their child’s education, both physical and digital. New technology gives access to educational software and great teachers to further support learning. Benjamin blooms research showed that 1-1 instruction with a parent or caregiver results in superior results to classroom instruction, regardless of whether that person is a trained teacher.
Some parents may be concerned about how they can teach specialized subjects they’re not strong at themselves (like chemistry or math). In this information age, there are so many free classes available online and at local community colleges that can support students’ learning that this is a non-issue for many families. Likewise, one of the best ways to teach is to learn with kids, ask questions and encourage them to solve problems. So, not being able to give the answers is often a pro, not a con.
Our section on parent involvement in education will help parents gain confidence about playing a bigger role in their child’s education.
#3 Homeschooling is a full-time job and/or very time consuming
Homeschooling doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Mastery Learning is far more efficient than classroom instruction, so children can learn the same amount of material in 1/10 of the time. There are only so many hours in a day that a child can even focus intently on learning, which is why most modular learners practice “Mastery Hours,” where kids reserve 1-2 hours a day for focused one-on-one mastery learning and fill the rest of the time with self-directed learning, extracurriculars and play.
We recommend families look at academic learning and childcare as separate issues. Even as a single work parent or if both parents work full-time jobs, it’s still possible to homeschool. They may even find that they save money and can be more productive by developing a curated childcare schedule. For more information about homeschooling and childcare, see: But what about childcare? Creating a flexible schedule that works for the whole family.
#4 Homeschooling is for the rich
In contrast to popular belief, homeschoolers are just as likely to be poor or near poor than non-homeschoolers. Homeschoolers have much more autonomy in how they spend their money on education. And as a community, they have developed systems for sharing childcare and education that significantly reduce costs. For more on affording homeschooling, see our extensive section on affording homeschooling.
#5 Homeschooling hurts public education
There’s a big difference between public school and public education. Ideally, homeschoolers will pave the path for a new free and decentralized K12 education system with better accountability measures in place to ensure all children get access to quality learning, which should be their civic right. In the meanwhile, homeschoolers are not taking resources away from public schools. Rather, public schools are so overcrowded that in some states like California and Nevada, there’s a 1:50 teacher-student ratio in many classrooms.
“A 2019 study found that predominantly white districts got $23 billion more than their non-white counterparts serving about the same number of students. The discrepancy is because property taxes are the primary source of funding for schools, and white districts tend to be wealthier than those of color.” - Edbuild.org
Instead of moving to an expensive area to get access to better public schools, families can stay in their neighborhood, sending their tax dollars to their local public school - and if they really want to help, volunteer their time to support kids in their neighborhood. Not convinced? Read Modulo’s blog “Does homeschooling hurt public school?”
#7 Public school is more diverse than homeschool
In 2020-2021, the fastest homeschool populations were Black and Latino students. In addition to problems with “Whitewashed” history, the gap between academic performance between White and Black students grew by 8 points during the pandemic, leading many Black families to give up on a system that’s continually failed them. Another big driver for families leaving school is gender identity and schools’ approach to sex education. Since families are leaving school because they feel marginalized, it makes sense that these groups would be more diverse and inclusive across race, gender identity, socio-economic status, religion, and politics. Kids hang out in groups of mixed ages instead of all one age group. Likewise, cognitive diversity (autism, dyslexia, profound giftedness) is a key driver in making families pull their kids out of school, so there is great diversity in how kids and their parents think and process information.
#8 I went to public school, and I turned out great, so it must be good for my child too
School has changed a lot in the last 20 years. One of the big shockers of the pandemic was that families got an inside look at what was going on in their child’s school today. Class sizes have grown, as has bullying, homework, and pressure on teachers to conform to standardized exams. Recess has shrunk. Likewise, trends of remote work and entrepreneurship mean that kids need to develop 21st-century skills such as creativity and resilience, but school has not changed a great deal to shape them for that future reality. Any family with this perspective will want to take a good look at their child’s public school today to make sure it’s still a good choice for their child today.
“I think it's the first time parents saw what their kids are getting in the classroom at the K through 12 level, in many, many years….Most parents, if you're in your thirties or forties and your kids are in sixth grade or eighth grade, you were taught in the classroom 30 years ago, it turns out some things have changed. So the current curricula is quite a bit different at a lot of schools. I know a lot of parents were just shocked, absolutely shocked at the stuff that was coming across.” He added that “some set of parents are like, I'm not sending my kids back to that.” - Marc Andreesen
#9 Homeschoolers don’t go to college
Every family is afraid of failing their child, and homeschooling can feel like a significant risk. But never fear; homeschoolers are more popular than ever at colleges and universities who love their autonomy, grit, growth mindset, and eclectic projects they’ve accomplished over the course of their K12 education. In 2015, Business Insider called homeschooling the “new path to Harvard,” and in 2018, the Harvard university featured profiles of several of its homeschooled students on its website. In our section on Accountability and Support, we explore how to get into college as a homeschooler (and some competitive advantages homeschoolers can have over students from traditional schools).
#10 Homeschooling is always the best choice for every child
While there are many benefits to homeschooling, it’s not the best choice for every family in every community. And not all homeschooling is created alike. Some communities have larger groups of secular homeschooling communities than others. Furthermore, at the heart of homeschooling and modular learning is a belief that diversity in educational models is critical to empowering all the diverse thinkers and families that are out there. Public school is a module. And some children love and excel at their local public school.
We encourage families to review the next section: pros and cons of homeschooling, to determine if homeschooling is the best choice for them.
