The Benefits of Home Schooling Special Needs Students
By Mimi Rothschild
One of the most appealing aspects of home schooling is that home schoolers receive all of the teacher’s attention, instead of sharing it with hundreds of students. Home schooling is especially effective when the parent is able to devote the majority of their attention to a home schooler with special needs, like dyslexia. The ability to solely focus on one student or a few students is next to impossible for teachers in traditional schools.
The Houston Independent School District has been in the news recently because of its inability to provide that attention to students who have been identified with dyslexia. Houston is just one example of a much larger problem within the public school system. Texas law requires “districts to identify and tutor students with dyslexia, a learning disability that affects 5 percent to 20 percent of all children” (Jennifer Radcliffe, “Schools fail to meet law on dyslexia”). This school year the Houston Independent School District only gave 256 of its 200,000 dyslexic students extra help. But who pays in end? Taxpayers like you and me. The National Right to Read Foundation estimates the nation spends nearly $225 billion a year on social services and lost income stemming from the problem of dyslexic students who aren’t receiving the proper help.
Crowded classrooms and bureaucratic policies make it hard for dyslexic public school students to receive the sort of attention they need. Home schooling students with special needs can work at their own pace and be given full attention by their home schooling teachers. Home schoolers with dyslexia and other disabilities greatly benefit from home schooling’s environment, flexible schedule, and the fact that their teachers are usually available for them 24/7.
To read more about the crisis in Houston and all around the nation click here.
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Thanks so much for posting this! As the mom of a dyslexic daughter, I can fully attest to the benefits of homeschooling. My daughter did one year at public school - kindergarten - that was such a disaster, by the end of it she was miserable and telling everyone she was “stupid.”
By being able to work with her steadily and one-on-one, she has progressed to the point that now she even easily passes her grade-level standardized exams, something I’m sure she never would have been able to do if we’d just left her languishing in the PS system, and she no longer thinks she’s “just dumb”.
Comment by Jenni — June 20, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
Jenni, thanks for sharing! Your experience with the public school system and your success with homeschooling is a shining example of how great homescholing is.
Comment by Mimi Rothschild — June 29, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Thank you so much for writing about kids with special needs. Not enough is written about them. My son, a single father, home schools his son who has Down Syndrome and I find many articles on home schooling regular kids but not many on special needs kids. Thank you for your interest in these wonderful children.
Comment by Bertie — July 25, 2007 @ 7:33 am