Homeschooling has become an increasingly popular alternative to a traditional education. Children who have homeschooling often flourish academically and go on to achieve success later in life. Here are some examples of highly successful people who were homeschooled. Did they go on to do bigger and better things? You be the judge.
Thomas Edison
This well known inventor of the phonograph and light bulb is an example of the power of homeschooling. Edison initially attended a traditional school but couldn't tolerate the rather stern teaching methods of the schoolmaster. His mother subsequently took over his education, discovering a quick mind in the form of a willing and able student. Thomas Edison's facile mind readily absorbed the literature and science books his mother gave to him. It's reported that he completed every experiment he found in his science books.
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson was one of several presidents who were homeschooled. Others included Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, John Q. Adams, and George Washington. Wilson was primarily taught by his father who gave him a practical education, taking him into the marketplace to learn first hand the mechanics of the economy and how it functioned. He also instructed him in science and literature in a homeschooled environment. Surprisingly, Woodrow Wilson didn't learn to read until the age of twelve. Some surmise this may have been related to a problem with attention deficit disorder.
George Bernard Shaw
This Nobel Prize winning playwright didn't enter formal schooling until the age of ten. Until that time he was tutored by his uncle. Having had such educational freedom, when Shaw entered a formal classroom at age eleven, he despised it. Shaw went on to be an outspoken critic of formal education as manifest by his famous quote, "What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child."
C.S. Lewis
This well known author grew up in a home rich with music and books and a strong belief in the power of education. Educated at home by his mother until age ten, Lewis developed a fondness for literary works of all types. Upon his mother's death, Lewis was sent to boarding school where he experienced abuse at the hands of a stern headmaster. This forever changed his perception of formal education for the worse.
The list of famous people who were homeschooled also includes such well known names as Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, Irving Berlin, the Wright Brothers, Albert Einstein, Booker T. Washington, Patrick Henry, John Marshall, Mark Twain, Daniel Webster, Will Rogers, Ansel Adams, and Clara Barton, among others. Who can deny the incredible potential of homeschooling with these successful “graduates”?
