Home-schooled Evanston teen accepted by Harvard, Yale, more — chicagotribune.com — And the home schoolers win all the spelling bees too. What’s wrong with this picture?
In what has been called the most competitive year ever for college admissions, Chelsea Link defied the odds to get accepted into Yale. Then Harvard.
Then came the fat envelopes from Princeton, Columbia, University of Chicago, Stanford and Northwestern University.
Making that feat still more extraordinary, Link has been home-schooled since age 5.
I don’t see anything wrong? Can you give us a clue?
Any kiddie that has involved caring parents who support and encourage their kiddies to do well at anything, will tend to do better at those things than abandoned feral orphans.
Add in genius level intelligence and high family income—why isn’t this kid doing any better? Should skip over college and collect her Nobel directly?
#1 You forgot the most important thing is the kids themselves have to want to learn.
Home schooling should be outlawed. All children must go to state-controlled indoctrination centers. When Johnny is home-schooled, unions don’t collect as much cash to enrich the union leaders. As we all know, the leaders of teachers unions are not fatcats and they only want what’s best for the children.
"The Links—who own their own marketing-analysis business—have been assuming responsibility for their only child’s studies since kindergarten."
Is it reasonable to conclude that the parents don’t have teaching credentials? It’s no wonder then that Chelsea was educated properly.
#2–jetfire==motivation would be on the list if that was part of the differentiation between being homeschooled vs institution?
On the more general question of what makes better students, motivation is high on the list but exceeded by being healthy?
Such horrible parents, abandoning the public schools like that.
oookay… she’s a smart girl with supportive and smart parents with a good amount of money. Your point being?
Oh of course, everyone should be rich and have parents and tutors who support their ambitions throughout life. Let’s all get on that right away.
And of course it’s all the teachers’ unions fault for our current education system and its failures.
Idiots. It’s the parents’ disinterest in their kids that has been the issue, as well as the legislatures’ inability to change paths and pick a goal, not tenure or credentials.
Not to mention stupid voters who vote in tax breaks constantly without analyzing the effects on the society around them. But of course, it must be the teachers’ fault, not yours.
I think the point to take from this is not that traditional schooling fails all kids, but that traditional schooling particularly fails bright or gifted kids.
High achievers are hindered by their slower-learning peers resulting in boredom, acting out, inattentiveness, and finally misbehavior. Home schooling is one answer to these children especially when the school system cannot motivate or stimulate them.
My own children are bright, but I recognize that while I have the desire to home school, I have neither the skills nor temperament to do so. I recognize this in myself, and have decided that the best course for my kids is to let them go to traditional school and supplement their education in the areas where I feel they are lacking as best I can.
Just a few questions:
What about the discipline problems? Is he or she sent to the “principal’s office” when needed? Does one make a call to the parent and then answer the same call? What about suspensions? How can a child, while on suspension, not be allowed to attend school? After all, isn’t he or she sent home, or back to school?
Is there any “Zero Tolerance” policies mandated by the Fed’s on home schoolers? Will his dad have to surrender his shotgun kept in the gun safe downstairs? The one he got from his father when he was 12!
Does the home schooled child ever have sexual fantasies about his/her teacher? Once accepted into college, will the home schooled child insist the other students leave his classroom?
Finally, not having lived surrounded by, or having adjusted to, those with “average intelligence”, will this child’s head explode upon contact?
For further info read:
Forrest Gump: A Memoir – Jenny wanted me to pee on her…she called it a Golden Shower. (D&D 2002) Idle Hands Publishing.
I bet the crazy xtian fundie kids who are home schooled could never do as well.
In the UK home schoolers have pretty much total free reign. Legally, the only requirement is to ‘provide your child with an education’…. there isn’t really anything specified more than that. Is in the same in the US or do you have to follow certain curriculum’s etc?
This kid is the exceptional child that would have excelled regardless of where she was taught. She is neither a plus nor minus to home schooling.
#10–julieb==I tuned in to Larry King tonight to yell at Ben Stein but instead got treated to an hour on the FLDS fiasco in Texas. Yep, all home schooled.
My dad used to tell me the main purpose of school was to “socialize.” Learning you could do on your own-as he said “Learn in spite of the teachers.”
Dad===I knew you were smart, but never that smart. I wonder what he saw that gave him such insight?
Home schooling like any other issue has pro’s and con’s==just like public education. Probably the very worst things about home schooling are avoided if you don’t get it on an isolated compound==and your parents aren’t one guy and 14 women?
What’s wrong with this picture?
According to the Marx Brothers the piano legs collapse, the case falls apart and only then can the harp be played!
Harvard and Yale have admitted a lot of celebrities too. Are we supposed to think that they are all geniuses too?
Where to people get the idea that the Teacher’s Union is this strong union? I was a high school teacher and the only thing the teacher’s unio did for me was take money out of my pay heck.
#10 – julieb – I bet the crazy xtian fundie kids who are home schooled could never do as well.
Agreed. The majority of the home schooled kids are home schooled so that their minds and behavior can be controlled by the parents. I don’t see a flood of home schooled becoming highly educated. This truly is an exception… that’s why it make news.
#10, 16: Unfortunately you’re right. For every homeschooled kid that has parents that actually teach them about the world as it really is, there are probably 10 to 20 that are taught the universe is 6000 years old, that religious books were written by God, and that humans and dinosaurs once lived together.
17, I would love to see your statistics on that? What is your source? Oh yah, you just made it up, typical neolib, make up your own facts to support your argument.
16, so are you saying its better to send your kid to a government school, so he or she can be have their behavior and ideals controlled by school staff, who have a very, very biased view of the world?
She is hardly the first home schooled kid to be accepted to one of those schools. I know a home schooled kid from out in the sticks in Alaska who got an all expenses paid scholarship to Stanford, and made it. He went for a pol-sci degree, IIRC.
This is one of those subjects where we need statistics.
#18 – Bob – I would love to see your statistics on that?
38 percent had parents who cited religious reasons. And I’m sure a lot of religious folk are in the 49 percent of home schooled students had parents who cited the ability to give their child a better education… I know my fundamentalist Pentecostal neighbor claimed the latter (despite both parents being low educated and quite ignorant), but the real reason was to avoid having their little girl’s brain poisoned by crazy ideas such as evolution.
#18, Bob,
so he or she can be have their behavior and ideals controlled by school staff, who have a very, very biased view of the world?
OK, where are YOUR facts and statistics that school staff are very very biased?
Maybe this had something to do with the fact that the student’s high school transcript was prepared by her mommy?
I do not think anyone disputes the fact that it’s possible to get a decent education through home schooling (although this will vary greatly depending on who the parents are).
The problem with home schooling is that the student may have no exposure to the outside world. You can only keep someone in a bubble so long. Eventually this girl is going to have to learn to get along with people who are not exactly like her.
I would bet she will end up at some Fundie school to stay in the bubble just a little longer.
#12 “This kid is the exceptional child that would have excelled regardless of where she was taught. She is neither a plus nor minus to home schooling.”
And you have the data to back this up? LOL
#23, pat,
Apparently you didn’t read the article.
First, if you had you would have noticed that her parents have money, education, and created a support network of other like minded parents in order to offer their gifted child a better education than mere home schooling OR a public school.
Cindi Link … started a group called Home Schooling Gifted Students, which now has about 100 families in the metropolitan area who meet regularly to share instruction, experiences and resources.
Second, her acing the SAT and ACT is evidence that she is exceptional. Her hybrid education is only icing on the cake to that achievement. Very few students, even with all the extra help she had, achieve that accomplishment. Between 2 and 7 people out of 10,000 will ace the test.
See also,
http://tinyurl.com/n2ukc
Third, She also relied upon courses from outside:
Link’s transcript includes courses ranging from tiny Shimer College on the South Side to the Sorbonne in Paris, along with plenty of accredited online instruction, from groups such as the Stanford University’s Education Program for Gifted Youth. To further bolster credibility, a stack of glowing recommendations from tutors and mentors, … .
Does this satisfy your quest for substantiated data?
#22 – I’m sorry, but I just have to address this.
“Maybe this had something to do with the fact that the student’s high school transcript was prepared by her mommy?”
Actually, every single grade or score on my transcript came from a third-party source, such as Northwestern University, Stanford University, or the Sorbonne. If it was a self-taught course, such a U.S. History, I backed it up with credentials like an 800 on SAT Subject Test in U.S. History and a 5 on the AP U.S. History Exam.
“The problem with home schooling is that the student may have no exposure to the outside world. You can only keep someone in a bubble so long. Eventually this girl is going to have to learn to get along with people who are not exactly like her.”
I’ve actually participated in a lot of activities with other kids. I’m not sure what you mean by “not exactly like” me – if you mean non-homeschooled, then you’ll be happy to know that almost all my friends went to (or go to) high school, some public, some private.
“I would bet she will end up at some Fundie school to stay in the bubble just a little longer.”
A Fundie school like Harvard University? I was NOT home schooled for religious reasons. I have been home schooled because, when I was five years old, I asked my parents to home school me. Simple as that. My reasons were purely academic. In fact, the reason I even agreed to be interviewed for this article (which I rather regret after seeing my character assassinated all over the internet) was to show that home schoolers do NOT have to be religious fanatics, social outcasts, and/or academic failures. I was trying to provide the world with an example of a healthy, happy, normal home schooler, so that hopefully future generations of alternatively educated kids won’t have to face the stigma I did.
I’m sorry if my attempt to set the record straight has offended anybody, but I am honestly getting really sick of being excoriated all over the web for a variety of odd reasons. I recommend that the next person who wants to rake me over the coals start by actually reading the article in question.
– Chelsea
Congratulations Chelsea,
Pay no attention to the comments. Its unfortunate the way that homeschooling is thought of by even educated people. Clearly you are going to do better than any of the fools who feel the need to try to bring you down. I have no doubt that you will be more successful than many others at Harvard or wherever you choose to attend. Thanks for putting yourself out there. I am sure we will be hearing more about your achievements in the future. Best of luck!
* Sorry – 740 on the U.S. History Subject Test. Oh, well.
Chelsea, your parents essentially crafted a transcript so that you could get into a prestigious university. Reading the article, you seem like your parents narcissitic object. How sad. Harvard and other Ivies are not the only schools worth attending, and many more astute students who develop genuine interests early on realize that. (By the way, has your mother picked herself up off the floor yet?)
Frankly, you don’t impress me.
I follow what you are doing every now and then, and you seem self-righteous and ignorant, not someone who seeks knowledge and truth. Is this what Harvard produces nowadays? After you grow tired from pumping your fist in the air, you might want to hunker down and quietly and humbly submit yourself to truly studying. Start by learning more of the ancient languages and immersing yourself further in history. Then you might be worth a listen. You have a long way to go.