A Cardus Educational Survey (CES) has discovered that homeschooled children outperformed their non-homeschooled peers on various psychosocial issues. Between 2019 and 2021, school enrolment declined by 2.1 million while homeschooling increased by 30%.
The trend was largely influenced by the pandemic when homeschooling was mandatory. However, many parents continued to teach their children at home even after physical classes resumed.
The CES report that studied adults between adults 24 to 39 years old analyzed economic, mental health, civic, spiritual, and family formation among homeschooled and non-homeschooled individuals.
It categorized the subjects into short-term homeschoolers (1-2 years of homeschooling), medium-term homeschoolers (3-7 years), and long-term homeschoolers (over 8 years). The individuals attended traditional public schools, Catholic schools, Protestant schools, nonreligious independent schools, or were homeschooled.
One key finding was that homeschooled adults exhibited better mental health than their non-homeschooled peers amid the nation’s ongoing mental health crisis affecting teens and young adults.
The report found that long-term homeschoolers had the highest levels of optimism, gratitude, and life satisfaction. They were also the least likely to “feel helpless dealing with life’s problems” or report depression and anxiety symptoms.
Similarly, short-term and long-term homeschoolers were more likely to volunteer and give to charity in the last 12 months compared to medium-term homeschoolers or those who were never homeschooled.
Homeschooled individuals also reported higher rates of belief in God and participation in religious activities compared to non-homeschoolers. The rate of religiosity was proportional to the number of years spent homeschooling.
“The prevalence of religious belief and practice increased with the number of years spent in the homeschool sector,” the study stated.
This is hardly surprising considering that the education system is highly anti-religious while allowing other negative ideologies to thrive within the learning environment.
Long-term homeschoolers were also more likely to be married, have more children on average, and had the lowest divorce rates. The study did not attribute this finding to any ideology but the school system has been pushing anti-family ideologies such as feminism and LGBTQ+, which greatly undermine family formation.
Given the diverse nature of the study subjects, it is likely that these results are more nuanced than reported. If the study isolated individuals who attended public schools, where woke culture thrives, vs homeschooled individuals, the results would likely be groundbreaking. Many religious and private schools still instill conservative values and are free of the woke culture that plagues public schools, thus potentially neutralizing its effect.
Another concerning finding of the CES survey was that homeschooled individuals were less likely to be full-time employed compared to those who physically attended school. Given their tendency to have more children on average, getting married, and being less likely to be divorced, it was likely that some were stay-at-home parents taking care of their families.
Likely, their decision to take care of their children instead of pursuing a career resulted in better mental health outcomes for themselves and their children. No amount of financial success can substitute for good mental health and a nice family when the “achievers” live in a perpetual state of mental anguish, anxiety, helplessness, and silent desperation.
As the study indicated, long-term homeschooled individuals had better mental health, were happier, more grateful, and were the least likely to feel helpless, and contributed more towards charity.
While the short-term financial gains might be appealing, they are costly in the long due to depopulation which is an existential threat. The mental health crisis also requires more funds to address, resulting in the loss of otherwise productive members of society through depression and suicide. Likely, that is why nearly 60% of all “gun crimes” in the US are suicides instead of accidental shootings or homicides.
