Amazing, Famous Homeschoolers

Taught at home!

^{by Rob Kerby, Senior Editor}

Some of the greatest people in history were homeschooled, writes Teri Ann Berg Olsen, author of Learning for Life, Educational Words of Wisdom, who compiled a list for the website Famous Homeschoolers, “Homeschooling has been around for centuries. In fact, until the mid-19th century, most children in America were educated by family -- or like young Abe Lincoln, taught themselves by the light of the fireplace. This was before the push for development of public schools began in the 1830s-1840s. If you look at references to education prior to the existence of a public school system, you will see phrases such as ‘tutored at home,’ ‘self-taught,’ or ‘no formal education,’ referring to individuals we might now call homeschooled.” Here are several Olsen listed – as well as some others from throughout history, researched by the editors of The Best Colleges.

Taught at home!

Serena and Venus Williams – champion sisters who have transformed professional tennis. Other homeschooled athletes include: Jason Taylor – NFL football player; Tamara McKinney – World Cup skier; Jim Ryan – Olympic runner; Balaram Stack – award winning surfer; and Lia Del Priore – Olympic gymnast. A number of states have moved to pass laws similar to Florida's allowing homeschoolers to play on public school sports teams. In Alabama and Arkansas, the legislation is called the "Tim Tebow Law." Tebow has always spoken highly of his homeschooling experience and seems to enjoy confounding stereotypes of homeschoolers. After being asked how he felt about being the first homeschooler nominated for a Heisman Trophy, Tebow replied, ‘That’s really cool. A lot of times people have this stereotype of homeschoolers as not very athletic – it’s like, go win a spelling bee or something like that – it’s an honor for me to be the first one to do that.’”

Taught at home!

The Jonas Brothers, performing artists. “Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas, the three brothers who make up The Jonas Brothers band,” says Best Colleges, “got their start on the Disney Channel and now tour the world playing to sold out stadiums of swooning preteen and teenage girls. Their latest album, Lines, Vines and Trying Times (2009), debuted at no.1 on the charts. All of this is a long way from their musical experience at their father’s Pentecostal church, but the brothers remain outspokenly religious. The guys are known to wear purity rings to signify their commitment to avoid pre-marital sex. Denise Jonas, mother of the Jonas brothers, recently gave an interview about her experience homeschooling her little rock stars.” Other homeschooled entertainers include: Hanson – the brothers band that was a big hit just before the Jonas Brothers, Alan Alda – actor; Charlie Chaplin – actor, director; Christina Aguilera -- musician; Dakota Fanning – actress; Frankie Muniz – actor; Hillary Duff – actress; Jacob Clemente – Broadway Actor ; Jennifer Love Hewitt – actress; Justin Timberlake -- singer; LeAnne Rimes – teen-prodigy country music singer; Louis Armstrong – king of jazz; Whoopi Goldberg – actress; and Yehudi Menuhin – classical violinist.

Taught at home!

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, “was homeschooled by his mother until he was about 10,” writes Olsen. “It was at this point that she started to go deaf and didn’t feel she could properly educate him any more. Her deafness inspired Bell to study acoustics and sound later in life. Other homeschooled inventors include: Benjamin Franklin – invented the lightning rod; Cyrus McCormick – invented grain reaper; Eli Whitney – invented the cotton gin; Elias Howe – invented sewing machine; Guglielmo Marconi – developed radio; John Moses Browning – firearms inventor and designer; Orville and Wilbur Wright – built the first successful airplane; Peter Cooper – invented skyscraper, built first U.S. commercial locomotive; Sir Frank Whittle – invented turbo jet engine; and William Lear – airplane innovator.

Taught at home!

Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. “Angelina Rice knew her daughter was special,” says Best Colleges, “but when she took a year off from her job as a high school music teacher to homeschool little Condoleezza she had no idea she was laying down the educational building blocks for the first black, first female and youngest provost of Stanford University, and the eventual National Security Advisor, then U.S. Secretary of State, the first black woman ever to hold either position. The woman Forbes magazine would twice declare ”The Most Powerful Woman in the World” grew up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama.” And she was certainly not the only homeschooled political leader …

Taught at home!

Woodrow Wilson, U.S. President during World War I, “studied under his dad, one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church in the United States,” writes Olsen. “He didn’t learn to read until he was about 12. He took a few classes at a school in Augusta, Georgia, to supplement his father’s teachings, and ended up spending a year at Davidson College before transferring to Princeton University, where he served as president.” Other homeschooled U.S. Presidents include: not only the four on Mount Rushmore, but also John Quincy Adams, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland, James Garfield, John Tyler, William Henry Harrison, James Madison, and John Adams, who was the first Vice President of the United States, as well as America’s second President.

Taught at home!

Jonathan Krohn. Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" once referred to Jonathan as "Doogie Howser GOP,” says The Best Colleges. The youngster “became something of an overnight political sensation after his three minute speech at the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference when he was 13, garnering coverage from several major American media outlets and worldwide attention on YouTube. A year prior to the speech Krohn published his first book, a conservative political manifesto called Define Conservatism, which he dedicated to Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and William F. Buckley, Jr. Krohn has since written a second book, Defining Conservatism: The Principles That Will Bring Our Country Back, which is described as “a history lesson, a manifesto, and a roadmap for the future” designed to get the Republican party and the conservative movement in America back on track. Krohn, who has been homeschooled since 2007, is a regular contributor to the conservative magazine Human Events.”

Taught at home!

Winston Churchill, British statesman and prime minister credited with inspiring the British victory in World War II through his oratory and strategic leadership. A difficult child who developed an early love for cigars, Churchill did poorly in school until his family decided to educate him at home. Other outstanding homeschooled political statesmen include: Alexander Hamilton – Revolutionary War hero, statesman; Alexander the Great – Greek Ruler; Benjamin Franklin – diplomat, inventor; Clara Barton – Started the Red Cross; Daniel Webster – Congressman and orator; David Dixon Porter – Civil War admiral; Davy Crockett – frontiersman, Congressman and hero at the Battle of the Alamo; Douglas MacArthur – U.S. general; George Patton – U.S. General; Henry Clay – Congressman and orator; John Jay – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice; John Marshall – U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice; John Paul Jones – Father of the American Navy; John Pershing – U.S. General; John Stuart Mill – Free-market economist; Konrad Adenauer – leader of post-WWII Germany; Patrick Henry – statesman, orator; Robert E. Lee – Civil War general; Sam Houston – lawyer and first president of the Republic of Texas; Stonewall Jackson – Civil War general; Susan B. Anthony – reformer and women’s rights leader; Thomas Paine – political writer during the American Revolution; William Jennings Bryan – congressman and orator; William Penn – founder of Pennsylvania; and Sandra Day O'Connor – the first woman named to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Taught at home!

Jedediah Purdy, law expert. “Jedediah Purdy is a law professor at Duke University and the author of several popular books on American culture and history,” says Best Colleges, “His first book, For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today, was published in 1999, when Purdy was a 24 year old law student at Yale University, and made him something of an intellectual and political celebrity. Purdy, who is known for his earnest demeanor and unabashed concern for things that matter, described the book as ‘one young man’s letter of love for the world’s possibilities.’ Purdy was homeschooled until age 13, eventually making his way to Exeter Academy and then Harvard University, before completing his law degree at Yale. Purdy recently finished a book on the nature and origins of private property.” Other famous leaders who were homeschooled; William Carey; Jonathan Edwards; Philipp Melancthon; Dwight L. Moody; John Newton; John Owen; Hudson Taylor; John Wesley, Charles Wesley; and Brigham Young.

Taught at home!

Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie books, was homeschooled until her parents finally settled in De Smet in what was then Dakota Territory, writes Olsen. “She started teaching school herself when she was only 15 years old.” Other famous authors who were homeschooled: Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, studied mostly with her dad, but had a few lessons from family friends Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Pearl S. Buck, bestselling author. “Buck was born in West Virginia, but her family moved to China as missionaries when she was just three months old,” writes Olsen. “She was homeschooled by a Confucian scholar and learned English as a second language from her mom.

Taught at home!

Robert Frost, the great poet and author, “hated school so much he would get physically ill at the thought of going,” writes Olsen. “He was homeschooled until his high school years.” Other homeschooled writers include: Agatha Christie; Alex Haley; Amy Lowell; Beatrix Potter; Bertrand Russell; Bill Ridell ; Brett Harte; C.S. Lewis; Carl Sandburg; Charles Dickens; Charles Louis Montesquieu; Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Gabriela Mistral; George Bernard Shaw; Gloria Steinem; Hans Christian Anderson; Isabel Paterson; John James Audubon; John Muir; Laura Ingalls Wilder; Louisa May Alcott; Margaret Atwood; Margaret Mead; Mark Twain; Mercy Warren; Phillis Wheatley; Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain); Sean O'Casey; Virginia Woolf; Walt Whitman; Will Rogers; Willa Cather; and William F. Buckley, Jr.

Taught at home!

Akiane Kramarik, artist, “Akiane Kramarik is considered to be the youngest art prodigy in history,” says Best Colleges, “Kramarik taught herself to draw at age four, began painting at age six, and started writing poetry when she was seven. She also speaks four languages: Lithuanian, Russian, English and sign language. Kramarik’s first painting sold for $10,000 and she has since sold paintings for as much as $1 million, making her one of the wealthiest child art prodigies in the world and one of the richest teens in the United States. Other artists who were homeschooled include: William Blake – painter; John Singleton Copley – painter; Claude Monet – painter; Grandma Moses – painter; Charles Peale – painter; Leonardo da Vinci – painter, sculptor, inventor; Andrew Wyeth – painter; Jamie Wyeth – painter.

Taught at home!

Ansel Adams, the famous photographer, was homeschooled at the age of 12 after his “wild laughter and undisguised contempt for the inept ramblings of his teachers” disrupted the classroom, writes Olsen. His father took on his education from that point forward. Other famed innovators include: Andrew Carnegie – wealthy steel industrialist; Amadeo Giannini – Bank of America’s founder; Horace Greeley – newspaperman; Soichiro Honda – founder of the Honda automobile company; Peter Kindersley – book illustrator and publisher; Ray Kroc – founder of McDonald's fast food restaurant chain; Adolph Ochs – New York Times founder; Joseph Pulitzer – newspaper publisher who established the Pulitzer Prize; Colonel Harland Sanders – started Kentucky Fried Chicken; and Dave Thomas – founder of the Wendy’s restaurant chain.

Taught at home!

Francis Collins, scientist. “Francis Collins is best known for his leadership of the Human Genome Project,” says Best Colleges, “which completed a genetic map of the entire human genome in 2003. Collins grew up on a farm in rural Virginia, where he was homeschooled until the sixth grade. An outspoken Evangelical Christian, Collins published The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief in 2006, arguing for the compatibility of science and Christian faith. President Barack Obama nominated Collins to the position of Director of the National Institutes of Health in 2009.” Other homeschooled scientists include: George Washington Carver; Pierre Curie; Albert Einstein; Michael Faraday; Oliver Heaviside; T.H. Huxley; Blaise Pascal; Booker T. Washington; Erik Demaine – founder of Popular Science magazine; Elizabeth Blackwell – first woman in the U.S. to receive a medical degree; Harriet Martineau, the first woman sociologist; Lester Frank Ward, often called the “Father of American sociology; and; architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Taught at home!

Erik Demaine, artist and scientist. “When Erik Demaine joined the faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was 20,” says Best Colleges, “and the youngest professor ever in the history of the school. Demaine homeschooled while traveling around the United States with his father, a goldsmith and glassblower. Demaine started college when he was 12, and finished his bachelor’s degree at age 14. In addition to being a mathematical and computational genius, Demaine is also an artist. He wrote his dissertation on the computational logic of origami, and is known as the leading theoretician of origami mathematics, which uses paper origami models to understand mathematical concepts and apply them to disciplines like architecture, robotics and molecular biology. Other homeschooled scholars include: Amos Bronson Alcott – innovative teacher, father of Louisa May Alcott; Catharine Beecher – co-founder of the Hartford Female Seminary; Jill Ker Conway – first woman president of Smith College; Timothy Dwight – longtime president of Yale University; William Samuel Johnson – longtime president of Columbia College; Horace Mann – "Father of the American Common School"; Charlotte Mason – Founder of Charlotte Mason College of Education; Fred Terman – longtime president of Stanford University; Frank Vandiver – president of Texas A&M University; Booker T. Washington – Founder of Tuskegee Institute; and John Witherspoon – President of Princeton University.

Taught at home!

Joey Logano, NASCAR racing champion. “Homeschooled from the fourth grade, Joey Logano is known in racing circles by his nickname, ‘Sliced Bread,’ as in, ‘the greatest thing since…’ ,” says The Best Colleges, “He has certainly established himself as one of the best young stock car drivers around. Logano starter racing when his was six and won the national junior stock car racing national championship just a year later. Logano went on to becomine the youngest driver ever to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup race, the youngest to take home Rookie of the Year honors, and the youngest to race in the legendary Daytona 500. Being homeschooled allowed Logano to devote more time to racing than many of his peers. When an interviewer asked the then eleven years old Logano in 2001 if he felt like he was missing out on life with all the racing and training he was doing, his reply was, ‘I have home schooling and I really like that. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything by not going to school. I feel like I learn more that way.’”