Home Schooling: More Than a Conservative Notion
Stuart Nachbar
December 16, 2008
The Winter 2009 issue of Education Next features an informative story on home schooling called: Home Schooling Goes Mainstream. The author, Messiah College education professor Milton Gaither, provides many facts that people for or against home schooling are unlikely to know. Read the article at http://www.educationnext.org/ or visit Gaitherīs blog at http://gaither.wordpress.com/.
Some of these included:
Home school is counter-cultural on the left as well as the right. Conservatives reject secular education and progressivism in the public schools while liberals reject conformity.
Seventy percent of parents who home school their children have non-religious reasons for doing so. These include education and instruction, concern about school environments and special and developmental needs. Also among the home schooled are highly skilled students who are involved in the arts or competitive sports such as gymnastics or motocross.
An estimated 2 to 2.5 million children are home schooled. By comparison, 2.3 million children attend Catholic schools (see: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-04-09-catholic-schools_N.htm ).
Home schooling is not limited to families of evangelical Christian faith and vendors of faith-based educational materials have noticed competition. Rural reservations, Orthodox Jews and Amish are among the societies that home school their children.
Home school is not necessarily limited to one home, one teacher; families cooperate to poor their expertise, develop a curriculum and purchase course materials.
Liberal and conservative home schoolers have joined to oppose publicly sponsored virtual charter schools. Cybercharter schools operate in 22 states. Home school advocates do not believe that government should try to force home schoolers and tax dollars back into the public school system.
Home schooled students often participate in public school sports and other extracurricular activities.
Two states, Florida and Washington, operate programs that allow home schoolers to take college courses for free.
Gaither makes another interesting point; that home schooling has become an educational alternative that legislators have become more reluctant to oppose—because it saves money. Home schooling involves no transfer of public funds to send children to privately run schools, nor does it involve tuition tax credits. It is an attractive educational alternative for families that can gather and share resources and have the knowledge to share. I know, for instance, in my own life, that my mother could have taught arts, literature and social studies and my father could have taught math, chemistry or physics; they helped me with my homework all the time. But my father worked as an engineer, and engineering paid far more than teaching. It still does.
I find it very difficult to oppose home schooling. Had my mother been my teacher, the difference would have been personalized instruction versus classroom instruction. The difference between my mother, who did not have a teaching degree, and the teacher would have been the education classes, including classroom lesson planning and management. My mother knew as much about art as any art teacher. But those tools are essential for teaching a group of students, not conveying knowledge onto one or two people. School boards should not get excited if a group of parents believe they could teach their children better than the public school teachers. They should be thankful that they are not being asked to pay to send those children to another school.
Some of these included:
Home school is counter-cultural on the left as well as the right. Conservatives reject secular education and progressivism in the public schools while liberals reject conformity.
Seventy percent of parents who home school their children have non-religious reasons for doing so. These include education and instruction, concern about school environments and special and developmental needs. Also among the home schooled are highly skilled students who are involved in the arts or competitive sports such as gymnastics or motocross.
An estimated 2 to 2.5 million children are home schooled. By comparison, 2.3 million children attend Catholic schools (see: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-04-09-catholic-schools_N.htm ).
Home schooling is not limited to families of evangelical Christian faith and vendors of faith-based educational materials have noticed competition. Rural reservations, Orthodox Jews and Amish are among the societies that home school their children.
Home school is not necessarily limited to one home, one teacher; families cooperate to poor their expertise, develop a curriculum and purchase course materials.
Liberal and conservative home schoolers have joined to oppose publicly sponsored virtual charter schools. Cybercharter schools operate in 22 states. Home school advocates do not believe that government should try to force home schoolers and tax dollars back into the public school system.
Home schooled students often participate in public school sports and other extracurricular activities.
Two states, Florida and Washington, operate programs that allow home schoolers to take college courses for free.
Gaither makes another interesting point; that home schooling has become an educational alternative that legislators have become more reluctant to oppose—because it saves money. Home schooling involves no transfer of public funds to send children to privately run schools, nor does it involve tuition tax credits. It is an attractive educational alternative for families that can gather and share resources and have the knowledge to share. I know, for instance, in my own life, that my mother could have taught arts, literature and social studies and my father could have taught math, chemistry or physics; they helped me with my homework all the time. But my father worked as an engineer, and engineering paid far more than teaching. It still does.
I find it very difficult to oppose home schooling. Had my mother been my teacher, the difference would have been personalized instruction versus classroom instruction. The difference between my mother, who did not have a teaching degree, and the teacher would have been the education classes, including classroom lesson planning and management. My mother knew as much about art as any art teacher. But those tools are essential for teaching a group of students, not conveying knowledge onto one or two people. School boards should not get excited if a group of parents believe they could teach their children better than the public school teachers. They should be thankful that they are not being asked to pay to send those children to another school.
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