Homeschooled son progresses twice as fast as public schooled daughter

[stupidusername]

I mentioned this in another thread, but decided it deserves its own post. 

 

I have two kids: an11-year old son who is homeschooled and a 14-year old daughter who is in a public school.

 

My son has completed 14 chapters of Latin for a New Millennium in the past 8 months. He has averaged about 1 hour and 45 minutes per week on it. That is less than 80 hours in total. We have made no particular effort to go fast. We just move at whatever pace he needs to master the material. 

 

It took my daughter about 15 months to get that far in the same book. She sat in her public school's Latin class for about 4 hours per week. On top of that, she occasionally had some homework. In totality, that's probably at least 200 hours.

 

So on a chapter/hour basis, my son is progressing more than twice as fast as my daughter did.

 

The two kids have similar age-adjusted ITBS scores in language. I doubt there is much difference in aptitude. My daughter was older than my son when she began Latin (12 years old vs 10 years old); if anything she should be capable of moving faster than him.

 

The major difference is that my son is homeschooled -- and thus can progress at his own pace -- whereas my daughter was in a public school and had to progress at the same pace as everyone else in the class. 

 

The fact that homeschooled students can move faster than their public school counterparts isn't a surprise. But even some supporters of homeschooling might be surprised by the magnitude of the difference.

[Laura Corin]

Going at their own pace does not necessarily mean that home educated pupils will (or should) move faster than those in school.  Often the benefit is in being able to go more slowly, and parents shouldn't feel any pressure to go fast.  As you say - mastery is the key.

 

When I was teaching Calvin maths, some chapters took four times as long as others - I am convinced that taking some parts really, really slowly enabled him to get a really solid foundation.  Hobbes has to stick with the class, as he is now in school, and I think his foundation is much more sketchy.

[My3girls]

I agree somethings go more slowly and some things go more quickly. The benefit of homeschool is being able to do so.

[SarahW]

A group class needs to take the pace of the average student. If a student can move faster a private tutoring format will allow the student to move faster.

 

But that's supposing that the individual can motivate themselves to put in the daily work. I motivate my kid and we are pretty good about him staying on task, even on days we spend the day in the car running around town. But for myself....without the motivation of showing up to class I'm pretty much a lazy bum.