When I first started this project, I actually wanted to talk about holistic methods of

treating illnesses. I kept ending up at cultural differences, like how ancient Chinese methods

developed and why people think herbal tea is so much better than scientific, proven antibiotics. I

thought all of that was a load of BS (partially because I am opposed to that train of thought) and

so I tried a new route. I ended up at vaccinations, and how they cause autism (even though the

scientist has since revoked his false evidence, and that it hasnt been actually proven) I kept

going in that route, even though vaccinations are a forbidden topic. I got to how refusal to

vaccinate is not allowed in public schools, except for valid religious reasons, and even then, it is

sometimes not allowed. I then wondered how people who choose not to vaccinate (even though

its detrimental to them and society) keep their children educated. Its the law that kids need some

kind of schooling. I reached the conclusion that many of them homeschool their children. I was

curious as to that works? I researched that, and that was the beginning of this journey.

Before I even began the inquiry part about finding connections between sources and

creating new questions based on those sources, I made a bulleted list of potential things to talk

about in this inquiry, since I didnt really know what I was to do, because I didnt read the

instructions on how to complete the project. I thought a good starting part was to brainstorm

many topics under the umbrella of homeschooling, and then go from there. One of the first things

I came up with was if homeschooling was a quality education or not, because parents, the usual

teachers of homeschooled students, are not certified teachers, nor experts in every field. For

example, no parent can teach their children higher level math, like calculus, as well as a ton of

US history, on top of analyzing Shakespearean literature, and biology, and advanced Spanish,

and world history, and statistics, and chemistry, and in-depth psychology, and the list keeps

going.
 I work at a daycare sometimes, and the kids there range from 6 weeks to 6 years. Kids

start kindergarten around age 5, and sometimes parents decided to homeschool their kids. When

children age 6 come in and theyve been homeschooled for a year and change, often times its

evident that theyre not developing socially on par with what they should be. The homeschooled

kids often dont pick up on non-verbal social cues from others, stay primarily to themselves or

their siblings, and more often than not, theyre not good at sharing. This isnt to say all

homeschooled children are like this, just from my experience with younger kids. I was thinking

about homeschooling, and this popped into my mind. Do older homeschooled children suffer

from social delays like what Ive seen in younger kids?

Then I began thinking about how homeschooled kids go to college. They cant get a

bachelors degree from an accredited college or university at home. I was partly curious as to

how their college careers went, from a social aspect, but mostly on how they get into college. I

know many schools require years of a foreign language, and a fine arts class, along with other

critical classes, like up to a certain level of math. Do the parents teach this, or do they go to

classes? How do the parents prove that their children are actually learning? I then got to thinking

about standardized testing, and how that factors in with homeschooled children. Since theyre

not at a traditional school, theyre not being taught how to take tests like the SAT or ACT. Do

they still take those tests? Does that allow them to be in a drawing for scholarships?

On the topic of standardized testing, I began to think about how the actual tests work. Are

they a measure of intelligence, or rather of test-taking abilities? Colleges seem to think that it is

among the best predictors of how well a student will do in a college setting. How do people

study for it? Theres such a variety of potential topics that could be covered, and its hard to

study for a test that you dont even know what might be on it.
 I kind of went on a tangent here and was thinking about how people learn, since I had

been thinking about studying. I was thinking about Pavlovs dog, and how he learned through

classical conditioning. In my AP Psych class, we learned classical conditioning along with

operant conditioning, and so my mind went there next. Does punishment and reinforcement

really help? Then I began to thinking about instincts and reflexes. Like how fight or flight

worked, and how people overcome instincts and reflexes. I hit a dead end here, and was nowhere

near homeschooling, which is okay.

I left these ideas to settle while I did homework for other classes and went on with my

life. I watched the news one day, and saw that Betsy DeVos was voted into Secretary of

Education by the Senate. First of all, she doesnt care if her department gets shut down. She

advocates for school choice, which is basically taking money from public schools and sending it

to private schools, while not changing the prices of private schools. Also, shes never been a

teacher, nor dealt with student debt. I was thinking how much I dislike her, and I dont even have

children in the school world. Would parents decide to homeschool their kids because theyre

afraid of what she might do? Would she reinstate common core, or leave it?

I then read the instructions on this project and figured out that what I did wasnt the right

way to do it. It was a good starting point, just not the whole process. I thought I had already done

most of the work, and I was wrong. I had to make a prezi, and that in itself was awful. Im not

technologically gifted, and I got too frustrated with prezi too many times. I started with two main

questions on homeschooling, why do people do it, and how does it work with college.

I started with why people decide to homeschool, and found a study by the US Department

of Education. From there, I asked whether or not homeschooled children have social problems,

since they are schooled alone. I also asked whether or not parents were educated enough to teach
their children, since they are not teachers themselves. I found that, often times, homeschooling

parents will join forces with others to help teach their kids together and better. I asked then how

kids develop compared to those in traditional schools, which connected with whether or not

homeschooled kids have social issues. I found a source that says otherwise, and that many

homeschooled kids would join soccer teams with each other, and parents would share resources.

Since they are not in school, I then thought about how they are regulated, since its the law that

children are in school. From that question, without another source sparking interest, I came up

with the question on how the development of children who are homeschooled is measured.

Going along the path of how it is regulated, I found an interesting source. It didnt talk so

much about regulation from the government, but how parents regulate it, and what typical

homeschool days are like from different families. I then wondered if homeschooled kids are ever

put into traditional schools, and found a source that says usually they are. Homeschooled

students who are now adults spent an average of 6-8 years out of traditional school. I then began

to think about the implications of that, and I wondered what those adults lives are like now.

However, I couldnt find anything on that, and reached a dead end.

I wondered how the development of homeschooled kids is measured, and one source

really stuck out to me. It was how to decide what level of instruction to give the students to help

them excel. I then wondered about the opposite, if instead of helping children excel,

homeschooling parents are neglecting their children. I found that some adults ended up reading

at less than a 5th grade level. I went on to the question about their current lives, which lead me

into another dead end.

Going back to the beginning, while talking about how it works with college, I came

across another good source. It was a collection of data from Ohio admissions officers, and how
they decide whether or not a student is able to excel at their school, talking about standardized

tests being indicative of their future, and how often times, homeschooled students do better than

traditional students in a college setting. I made a connection here to an earlier source. I also

asked why doesnt everyone homeschool if its so great. I called this a dead end, because I

couldnt find anything of substance. All I found was that homeschooling isnt for everyone, and

with very little factual information, but more from anecdotes and opinions.

I tried to be critical while researching these articles. I know that homeschooling is a

sensitive topic and many people are strongly opinionated about it, and so I was prepared to run

into many blog posts about it. I was surprised at how few I actually found, but I was asking more

intricate, specific questions than a lot of bloggers write about. Most of my information was

somewhat scholarly, coming from studies done by researchers. I used many primary sources, and

few secondary, as the secondary sources often put in their opinion while synthesizing the

information.