I came across some surprising data the other day while searching for the number of children who are homeschooled (which in 2007 was 2.9% of all school-aged children, compared with 1.7% in 1999). Apparently, the percentage of homeschooled students who are girls jumped from 51% in 1999 to 58% in 2007. When you combine these two statistics, it means that more than twice as many girls as boys joined the ranks of homeschooled students during that 8-year period. I'm struggling to understand why this should be. Could it be the influence of school sports teams such as football and baseball? Are parents becoming more concerned about girls in school?
Haven't got a clue. But I'm always leery of homeschool statistics. Many are put out by NHERI, a branch of the HSLDA which only polls members and their members tend to reflect more of a subset of homeschoolers rather then the whole population. Even those done by other groups or interests tend to be problematic. I'm also not sure the way you combined the statistics is valid, at least without a link to the original source.
Here's the source. In the article, they state: "As of spring 2007, an estimated 1.5 million, or 2.9 percent of all school-age children in the United States, were home-schooled, an increase from 1.7 percent in 1999." From this, I calculated the number of homeschooled children in 1999 to be about 880,000. This means an increase of 620,000. They also state: "In 1999, it was 49 percent boys and 51 percent girls. Now, boys account for only 42 percent; 58 percent are girls." 58% of 1.5 million is 870,000. 51% of 880,000 is about 450,000. This means that, of 620,000 new homeschooled students, 450,000 were girls. That's about 67% - just over 2:1 ratio of girls to boys. True, I didn't take into account overall population growth, but this won't affect the numbers too much. Does this make sense?
I should mention that someone quoted in the article claimed the larger number of girls is due to "mean girl" behavior in public schools. I can't believe it's such a big problem. There must be other factors at work.
Something to remember is that these statistics do not reflect the homeschool family that is not required to report or submit notification. How many homeschool families are out there that aren't recognized? If the statistics are based on a new federal government report and figures from the U.S. Department of Education, then the families who are not required to notify officials would be excluded from these statistics. Statistics are also about groups not individuals. Do these statistics take into account the boy to girl or girl to boy ratio in each individual home school? My sister has three girls, no boys. She homeschools all her girls. If she had three boys instead, they would also be homeschooled. My other sister has two boys and one girl. Both boys are homeschooled and the daughter recently graduated early through an independent study program. One of my friends homeschooled her two children, a girl and a boy. If she had more children, whether they were male or female, they would have been homeschooled as well. This is an important aspect that is left out of the statistical equation, but one that I believe is strong enough to debunk these statistics.
I would disagree - it is a "mean girl" mentality. This mentality has grown extensively within the past years to the point where there is no way I would send my daughters to a public school. Add to that issues with sex and acceptance, drugs, and the like, and it is just too much for a 14 year old to deal with. It was bad when I was in school as a teen, but what I see in the news, on yahoo, from friends, actually frightens me. It makes me wonder what we are teaching our girls and what environment we are sending them into.
You should also look at the boy/girl ratio of the regions that homeschooling is popular in, and see if it's in the ballpark. It could simply be that regionally there is a 58/42 girl to boy ratio in those areas.
I would agree with this poster too. My daughter is involved with many girls in public AND private schools through gymnastics. They are just rough! Rude. Mean. Say whatever they want without consequence. It's bad, and I'm talking a group of 8-12 year olds. I am not looking forward to when these girls have SERIOUS hormones raging through their body. There are 2 or so girls that my daughter sticks to. But there is a "clique". This happens in other forums where she's with girls that are in schools (public or private). Of course, it thankfully doesn't upset my daughter. Silly kid. She has a confidence and a strength. Her response is "why should I care what THEY think of me. I'm happy with who I am, I see no need to change for them". We just had a discussion the other day about one of the girls when she leads stretches or an apparatus warm up, and she'll skip stuff. Most of the girls will call her out on it and this girls response was "who cares?". Most of the girls are like "we do". My 9 year old says to me, that the real shame of it all is the only person that's really getting cheated is the girl herself. (this is the girl that tends to be the "band leader" too...she does not take it well when the girls don't follow her!). Well, all the girls did the RIGHT warm up - not skipping stuff. I'm proud that my daughter doesn't let folks run roughshod over her...but in a nice way, with a smile on her face. And usually when she has the courage to stand up to things, a lot of the other girls will follow. I do want to mention, though, I don't think the "mean girl" phenomenon is strictly in established institutions. We've encountered it in homeschool groups, as well. Again, my daughter usually tends to hold her own, but she just doesn't get why they all need to be mean. Just my .02
Because of the "mean girl" mentality is why we homeschool, both of my daughter's had been bullied by these girls when they were in public school. This does happen and probably was going on when my oldest was in school,but because she seemed to have a much stronger personality(or because of who she hung out with) she didn't get hassled. For some reason girls are alot meaner than in years past,or we are just hearing more about violence against girls more, and teachers seem to think that girls can't excell in subjusts like Math and Science,which ofcourse is so wrong,but in this respect education hasn't really caught up to this fact that girls are and can excell in these subjects.
Speaking for myself, I do not homeschool because of the "mean girl" mentality. Although I believe it is a strong force in the public system and a problem for many people.
Yes this is another reason some homeschool, while I originally started homeschooling because of the "mean girl" issue. We homeschool now so that each child could focus on interest, be it future career or other. Personally I like the fact that homeschooling is such a diverse educational choice, there isn't a one size fits all mentality and the people I have met on boards and in real life have been wonderful.
Maybe it has something to do with my completely unscientific observation that boys, in general, are more challenging to educate than girls. Boys may drive us to ship them off sooner and more frequently than girls! I know I've occassionaly looked at our son and then at that big, yellow bus passing our house and been tempted to run it down and put him on it. On the other hand, it is the challenges that makes me realize that homeschool is the right thing for him; I can make adjustments that school just aren't able to make in order to keep him engaged and excited about learning without the pressure to develop more quickly than is natural for him. Had he been the first child though, I may not have had the confidence to continue.
We homeschool because 1)the teacher student ratio is horrible. The school that our child would be attending has a ratio which is 25 students to 1 teacher. This is considered on the "low" end of teacher student ratios. 2) You never know what other parents are teaching or not teaching their kids, I remember when I was little my mother got "in trouble" from another neighborhood dad because when our cat had kittens I explained where the kittens came from, I was six or seven and the girl was six or seven, and the little girl asked me what pet store the kittens came from. I simply explained that our cat had given birth to kittens. That was on the tame in. In 2003 I had a six week internship at with a kindergarten class. Those children used such vile language towards each other and were very violet towards each other. That is not an educational enviroment it is a zoo. 3) I have say in what my child learns. I'm not religious so that is not a deciding factor for homeschooling. I do however think that maybe I should be able to decide if my child needs to learn more then a weeks worth of stuff about the vietnam war or if they are ready to move on from a certain subject without having wait on another. I always hated when teachers would say "I can only go as fast as my slowest student." That doesn't mean you have to ignore the ones that are ahead.
In some of our schools the teacher ratio is something like 35 studdents to 1 teacher, sometimes more...depending on the school. To me this isn't a learning environment it is a zoo, because the teacher(who I have great compassion towards) can not effectively teach. When my girls attended ps,they would bring home thier homework and we would have afterschool learning where I would be teaching them.
Our school is considered small in our district. The others are more like 35 to 1. When I was in elementry and middle school it was 30 to 1 so I spend most of my time reading a book... which brought a whole other set of problems. My mom said when she was in school (late 70's early 80's) they had a program for the kids which didn't thrive in which they placed them in a job. She says it was for the kids who weren't expected to go to college, but the program worked. Alot of the kids that attended (my mom included) were paid and taught a skill, some switched to different jobs every 6 weeks some stayed a whole year. When most graduated they had already established a good work ethic and were very happy with their skills they've learned. I think it is a good sounding program and they should probably impliment that in public schools again. I think that if the kids that don't want to be there should be given an opportunity to go out and get a skill set instead of making trouble in schools, taking away from the kids that do want to learn. I know most schools offer "tech schools" but this was different your training was by an employer not a school. Oh and yes those who did participate did recieve diplomas at graduation (if they did indeed meet the requirements which were math/english/history/science/gym and art). I am also not saying they should get rid of tech schools just offer a better alternative to them.....JMO
I agree there needs to be better alternatives for students who are just attending till the required age to drop out. My younger brother went to an alternative school because he was bored(in the early 70's this was a new thing) the school didn't offer advanced classes(for whatever reason). Here they offer Gifted & Magnet Schools which one request and then waits for the lottery to get accepted. They are very popular alternatives to the mainstream public schools.
"Mean girl" behavior is a more of a problem than in the past, my son-in-law is a high school math teacher. He is astonished at times at the fighting that goes on, and the amount of girl fights he has had to intervene in, and he says the girls fight meaner and nastier than the boys do. And as to their being more girls than boys homeschooled, I believe there are in general more females than males in the population.
According to current statistics, there are 6% more males than females worldwide age 15 years and under. For ages 15 to 64 there are 3% more males than females. That's based on the CIA info webpage. Perhaps it is because girls are more likely to report being bullied and thus pulled out of public school more often where boys "tough" it out even though it bothers them.
