The concept of getting an education at home is becoming increasingly popular, according to the latest available statistics. Within a 10-year period, between 2003 and 2012, the number of homeschooled students in the United States increased by 61.8 percent.
While more students are getting their educations at home, the majority of 7|8 and high school students still attend public or private schools with traditional classroom settings.
If you’re a homeschool student or are considering taking that path to an education, you may have heard criticisms that students schooled at home lack social skills or aren’t really learning. Those claims are untrue. In fact, homeschool students are likely to perform better on standardized tests than students who attend traditional schools, and some incredibly successful people were homeschooled.
Check out these famous homeschool alumni:
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift was just 14 years old when she began writing music, and by age 24, she had won seven Grammy Awards and 15 American Music Awards. But she didn’t abandon her education to pursue a career in music. Swift finished her junior and senior year coursework during 12 months of homeschooling and graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA.
Venus and Serena Williams
Venus and Serena Williams were born one year apart and from an early age took an avid interest in tennis, practicing for hours a day. Their father homeschooled the girls, and both of them went on to earn several championship titles in their sport.
Serena Williams is the highest-earning tennis player of all time, with a net worth of more than $130 million, and at the height of her success, she enrolled in a Florida school to earn her certification as a nail technician. Venus Williams recently launched her own line of athletic clothing.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Homeschooling isn’t a new concept. Prolific Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in 1756, was homeschooled by his father. Mozart began playing music for audiences at the age of 6, and he spent much of his childhood touring Europe and performing. His father continued tutoring him in music and other school subjects while they were on the road.
These alumni are just a few of the many homeschooling success stories. Several U.S. presidents, the inventor of the telephone and the first woman to receive a U.S. medical degree were also homeschool alumni.
Homeschooling gives young people the opportunity to learn at their own pace, and with today’s availability of fully accredited online courses, students have even more options for a homeschooling curriculum that prepares them for success in life.
