How come usually the smartest kids are the ones that are homeschooled, just look at most spelling bees or...?

Question

geography bees, or jeopardy contestents, i'd bet money most of them are/were homeschooled.... and you don't have to be an expert in a subject to teach it to the high school level, hey, most teachers aren't experts anyways.

i doubt most of them do it for 12 hours a day, its just that so little time is wasted when homeschooling that its so much more efficient to learn and learn so much more, becuase you don't have all the distractions and other kids that's hooked on drugs (ritalin) disturbing the rest of the class slowing them down from learning.

and... i was never homeschooled, my other siblings were, so i think i have a pretty good idea of the comparisons.

Answer 1

Your right. We don't have some distractions that are at a school (although we do have other kinds of distractions) and I only work for about 4-6 hours a day. You can work at your own pace and your teacher (parent) makes sure you know what you are doing before you go on.

Answer 2

There are different factors.

One is that some parents keep their gifted kids out of school because there is nothing in place for gifted kids in their local schools. By having the children at home, they are able to excel.

Another is that some homeschooling parents take their children's education very seriously and demand high standards.

Another would be that even just an 'average' homeschooler could, if inspired by a spelling bee, spend a considerable amount of time focusing on just that, especially since they wouldn't have to be in school for 7 hours a day and then have homework to do at night, THEN study for spelling bees on the side.

There are probably other reasons.

I doubt, however, that most of the contestants in spelling bees or on Jeopardy are/were homeschooled. Homeschooled students probably represent a higher percentage than public schooled student--I mean in terms of the percentage of homeschooled students participating vs. the percentage of public schooled students participating--but they are probably outnumbered in these competitions by public and private school students.

Answer 3

You'd bet that all those kids are homeschooled, but you don't know, right?

Anyway, by your description of the situation, it's not that the kids are smarter, but that the homeschooling system is better. That may or may not be true, but I can't help but notice that decades of snide criticisms from people who don't even send their children to public school hasn't seemed to have helped anything out. High school clearly does not exist to make experts out of its students. That's not the goal of a high school education at all. Is that the goal of homeschooling? To produce an expert in a particular field by the age of 18? Are parents/instructors who homeschool supposed to be experts in everything they teach?

There are valid criticisms of the public school system. None exist here.

Answer 4

Most often, the parents of homeschooled children have made education a huge priority in their children's lives. The kids study hard and some do schoolwork for 12 hours or more a day. Just like young athletes training for the olympics, these kids are preparing everyday for months to participate in these competitions.

Answer 5

I totally disagree with your statement. I do NOT think home school kids are any smarter than kids in public or private schools. All kids are different and "smartness" is not just measured by how well you can spell, know geography or trivia questions. Common sense and learning to get along in our society, dealing with everyday problems, knowing when to be a leader and knowing how to be a friend is also sooooooooo important. Home schooled children are often sheltered to the real world and do not do so well when put out on their own. Being well rounded is the key to success.

Answer 6

im homeschooled myself and ive met ppl that go 2 school and they watse time time yelling at the class and extra stuff like gym and art and when they get the homework they didnt learn how 2 do the homework because the teachers spent the whole class yelling.

Answer 7

Do you really think the ability to spell "lipopolysaccharide" is an accurate indicator of intelligence?

The ability to do well in "bees" is all about rote memorization.

Answer 8

Being great in one area does not make a person smart. Going to school allows students to be exposed to many areas of interest. Then, if they want to focus on one specific area, they can.