{"id":16125,"date":"2017-01-25T22:18:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T22:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/?p=16125"},"modified":"2017-03-26T23:18:02","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T23:18:02","slug":"the-top-home-school-stories-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/?p=16125","title":{"rendered":"The Top Home School Stories of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Obama’s Education Secretary \u201cConcerned\u201d About Homeschooling<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In September, U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.<\/a> <\/span>voiced his\u00a0concerns<\/a> <\/span>about children who are homeschooled because they aren\u2019t \u201cgetting the range of options that are good for all kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story ruffled the feathers of many homeschool families\u00a0and primarily made headlines on conservative media sites. King did not cite any study data, and existing studies<\/a><\/span> show that homeschoolers out-perform their public school peers.<\/p>\n

The secretary\u00a0seemed to also be unaware that homeschoolers also out perform\u00a0public school students on average SAT scores<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Black \u2018Family of Geniuses\u2019 Show off Benefits of Homeschooling<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This article<\/a><\/span> by the Atlanta Black Star was the most shared article of 2016.\u00a0The incredible academic achievements of the multi-talented family from\u00a0Boca Raton, Florida, took social media by storm, racking\u00a0up almost 75,000 Facebook shares.<\/p>\n

Homeschooling is the smartest way to teach kids in the 21st century<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The second most shared article of 2016, receiving over 61,000 Facebook shares and 500+ tweets, came from Business Insider<\/a>.<\/span> The article was published on August 20th and featured a New Jersey mom who argued that homeschooling is a more “sensible” option than attending public school.<\/p>\n

“You’re not going to be put in a work environment where everybody came from the same school and everybody is the same age,” she told Business Insider. “In my opinion, the traditional school atmosphere is not the real world at all.”<\/p>\n

What changed this teacher’s mind about home schooling<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In February, the Chicago Tribune\u00a0received 44,000 Facebook shares when it published\u00a0a public school teacher’s reflections\u00a0about home education. He\u00a0thought\u00a0the most important benefits missed by stay-at-home kids were\u00a0the socialization aspect<\/a> a<\/span>nd the critical thinking and communication skills learned from group dynamics in a classroom.<\/p>\n

However, once he started\u00a0teaching at a college level, everything changed. Read the rest of the story to find out why<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

This Is Why All Those Weird Moms Homeschool<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Jessica Smartt’s blog, Smartter Each Day,\u00a0racked up 32,000 Facebook shares and 800+ Pinterest pins of her\u00a0blog post,\u00a0This Is Why All Those Weird Moms Homeschool<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Homeschooling,” the blog post begins, “I\u2019ve been dissing you a lot lately, and I\u2019m sorry about that.\u00a0We had a rocky start, you and I. Honestly, I thought we\u2019d get along easier. You know, with me being a teacher and all. You were shockingly difficult at times.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Her beautiful prose and captivating writing style\u00a0are well deserving of the attention she received.<\/p>\n

Home School Mentioned In Trump’s Plan For First 100 Days<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This announcement by Homeschool Base<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>was shared almost 26,000 times on Facebook. It was our most shared article and the 6th<\/sup> most-shared story of the year. Because very little was known about Trump’s policy on education, this article generated lots of conversation.<\/p>\n

More Black Families are Choosing Homeschool Over Traditonal Learning. This is Why.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This\u00a0contributor article<\/a> <\/span>to The Huffington Post garnered around 25,000 Facebook shares.\u00a0Apparently, there are many factors that explain a shift away from traditional schooling for black families.<\/p>\n

Many Black people are now waking up to the fact that the public school system cannot offer their children a liberating education, where their natural gifts are nurtured in the right cultural context. I have been homeschooling for 20 years and the rewards incredibly outweigh the challenges…”<\/span> Read the full story<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

NPR’s\u00a0All Things Considered\u00a0covered this topic as well –\u00a0In African-American Communities, Growing Interest In Home-Schooling<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

How Homeschooling Helped Propel Simone Biles to the Olympic Gold<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This was one of many viral\u00a0headlines of the 2016 Rio Games. PJ Media published this headline<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and it received 21,000+ Facebook shares. The story gives an inside scoop\u00a0into the life of \u00a0Olympic Star athlete Simone Biles and her decision to\u00a0opt-out of a “normal” high school. Biles said that she missed being around her friends at school, but “in the end, it worked out.”<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2017, Home School Base.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"image_pdf\"<\/a>\"image_print\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obama’s Education Secretary \u201cConcerned\u201d About Homeschooling In September, U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. voiced his\u00a0concerns about children who are homeschooled because they aren\u2019t \u201cgetting the range of options that are good for all kids.\u201d This story ruffled the feathers of many homeschool families\u00a0and primarily made headlines on conservative media sites. King did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":16130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"wp-image-borders","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/serveimage-234.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bgnN-4c5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16125"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16131,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16125\/revisions\/16131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}