Look how far homeschooling has come!

Learning at home

But things have changed – particularly because of the Internet opening horizons to anyone with a computer and a modem. No longer do school libraries have exclusive access to the wealth of human knowledge. Now, any young web surfer with an avid imagination and healthy curiosity can research whatever he or she wants from any home computer. But there are a variety of other innovations as well -- such as learning co-operatives in which parents pool their expertise. One dad teaches chemistry once a week to the whole group -- perhaps on-line, perhaps in a group setting. Then the next day, a mom teaches everybody equestrian skills, followed by algebra. Then the whole group goes on-line on their iPads, iPhones and iPods, attending a long-distance learning session on musical composition.

Learning at home

According to widely-repeated estimates, as many as two million American children are schooled at home, with the number growing at 15 to 20 percent per year. “Compared with other recent changes in the educational system,” notes the U.S. Census Bureau, “such as the growth of charter schools, home schooling has received relatively little attention. It could be argued, however, that home schooling may have a much larger impact on educational system, both in the short and long run. This is because home schooling seems to be taking place on a larger scale than other educational innovations, because home schooling may have a greater immediate impact on educational practices in existing schools, and because home schooling has brought new institutional forms into being that have the potential to grow over the longer term.”

Learning at home

“The term 'homeschooling' refers to the practice of parents educating a child at home, rather than in a conventional public or private school setting,” reports the Education Encyclopedia. “Technological innovations in the late twentieth century made home schooling an increasingly manageable proposition, as the availability of personal computers and the Internet permitted families to access computer-driven instruction, multimedia resources, and far-flung support networks. Families provide home schooling in many different ways, with tremendous variation in curricula, teaching methods, and technology, and in the amount of peer interaction that children experience. Some home-schooling parents bring their children together for group outings and field trips to provide enhanced socialization, while others have formed cooperative schools or charter schools to support their efforts.”

Learning at home

“Starting in the early 1980s, increasing numbers of parents chose to educate their children at home as a growing number of states relaxed their compulsory attendance laws to permit home schooling,” continues the Education Encyclopedia. “Previously, parents who home schooled their children were in violation of compulsory attendance and truancy laws, and were therefore subject to legal action. While Nevada (1956) and Utah (1957) were the only states with home-schooling legislation prior to 1982, thirty-four states passed enabling legislation between 1982 and 1993. By 1998, under the pressure of an increasingly active home-schooling movement, all fifty states had passed home-school laws specifying attendance, subject, teacher, testing, and record-keeping requirements for home educators.”

Learning at home

Today, continues the Education Encyclopedia, “state laws regulating home schooling vary widely regarding such matters as teacher licensure, testing, compulsory curriculum, and required paperwork. Some states impose exacting regulations on home schooling, while others legislate few requirements. Nine states place no restrictions on parents' rights to home school, providing the legal option for any parent who is interested. Ten other states simply require parents to notify the state when a child is being home schooled. On the other hand, twenty states demand that parents provide test scores or professional assessment to monitor the student's progress. Finally, eleven states impose stringent requirements that mandate that parents provide the state with test scores or professional assessment to measure the student's achievement, in addition to other requirements such as regular home visits or professional training.”

Learning at home

“One of the main objections to home schooling is that it is detrimental to the child's social skills,” notes Northwestern University. “This misconception is usually based on the assumption that home schoolers are stuck in their homes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Home schoolers have many opportunities to meet and interact with other kids. In fact, a study by Dr. Brian D. Ray found that the mean number of home school students' outside activities (for example music classes, field trips, volunteer work, sports, etc) is 5.2 activities per student. Also, because home schoolers are not limited to interacting with only people their own age, as would often be the case in a traditional school setting, they learn to socialize with people of all ages.”

Learning at home

Of major importance to home schoolers is government involvement in home schooling. Many people who feel that home schooling is detrimental believe the government should impose more regulations on home schooling. In a study of 5,402 home schooled students called, “Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America,” Dr. Ray compared the effect of government regulations on the academic achievement of home schoolers. He found that regardless of the level of state regulation, students all scored on average in the 86th percentile on standardized tests. He concluded that government regulations could be legitimately questioned since there is no apparent benefit to the students.

Learning at home

Some people also claim that homeschooled students won't be as well educated as their traditionally schooled counterparts. Multiple studies have shown that homeschoolers test higher on standardized tests across the board than traditionally educated students. In the Strengths of Their Own study, Dr. Ray found that the homeschoolers out performed their counterparts by 30-37 percentile points on standardized tests in all subjects. The results were confirmed in another study of 20,760 home schooled kids by Dr. L. Rudner entitled, The Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998. In fact, in that study it was shown that the longer a student was homeschooled the higher the percentile scores. In addition, another advantage shown in the Strengths of Their Own study is that race and gender of homeschoolers had no effect on their scores.

Learning at home

Home schooling provides other advantages that make it a good alternative to a traditional education. For instance, home schooling allows kids to learn at their own speed and is specially tailored to the needs of the student. Home schooling also allows a person to use his time more efficiently. For instance, consider a home schooled child who is talented at math, but is falling behind in science. Well, since he finishes math quickly, he can use the time that he could skip on math to catch up in science. If this same child was in a traditional school setting, he would have to sit in math and wait until everyone else was done, and then try to cram an extra half hour of science into his schedule.

Learning at home

“Talk to any homeschooling family who has been at it for a while, and you are likely to hear that they’ve made a shift away from the school model and towards something different. A move away from society’s expectations and towards the needs of their particular children,” notes Zaballos. “Take heed, school reformers! Let us show you why this happens, and how.Why do we shift? Because the needs of the child become so clear in a homeschool setting. When we watch our kids learn about something that electrifies them, that has them lost in thought, or talking fast, or reading into the night, or endlessly crafting, creating or building—we want more of that for them. We see the power of their engagement, and come to understand what real, deep learning means. And we try to help that happen more often.”

Learning at home

Zaballos continues: “We also witness when learning doesn’t work, when a child is bored, or frustrated, or simply sleepwalking through a task. This is the point when many homeschoolers let school-thought creep in. We worry that we need to push our kids through it, that they need to experience boredom and challenge because this is stuff of life. But then we recall those other moments, those times of engaged learning when we surely saw sparks in their eyes, and we begin to move past the school way of thinking. We begin to realize that any kid who develops passions will come across real-life obstacles in pursuing those passions—and that’s where they’ll learn about effort, perseverance, and doing things they don’t want to do. We don’t have to force those experiences on them in the guise of learning. It’s a waste of their time.