In a previous post, we mentioned Elizabeth Bartholet’s recent call for a ban on homeschooling. One of her arguments was that homeschooling academically handicapped children.

In a chapter from Hold on to your kids by Dr Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté, the authors mentioned in passing that home-schoolers are favoured applicants of some big-name universities. They go on to quote Jon Reider, former admissions official at Stanford University in California that they are desirable because “homeschoolers bring certain skills – motivation, curiosity, the capacity to be responsible for their education – that high schools don’t induce very well.”

This was twenty years ago, but interesting nonetheless. In my experience of homeschoolers, these words ring true. And I am a high school teacher.