As a teacher, I thought homeschooling was for crazy, overcontrolling parents and for religious extremists. My only exposure to homeschooling had been during childhood through religious fundamentalists in the rural town where I grew up who took some of my friends out of school to concentrate more on Biblical teachings and to limit their exposure to scientific concepts, such as evolution, and to unwholesome influences (like me, I suppose, and my obsession with the movies Footloose and Dirty Dancing).
But then I stopped teaching and started a doctoral program. Soon after, I began to tutor a girl who was a former student in the private day school where I had taught. Her parents had taken her out of both public and private schools to home school because they felt that these educational options were not meeting her needs. She was exceptionally bright, delightful, and curious, and I began to question my prior assumptions a little bit.
As a researcher who is interested in both current sociological and cognitive trends in education, I’ve learned more and more about how the homeschooling movement has changed and will become a powerful influence on American schooling.
Here are new facts that I have learned and that surprised me:
1. The number of home schoolers is growing rapidly as more and more parents perceive homeschooling as a viable option for their families. In the 1970s, when I was born, there were probably only around 10,000 to 15,000 children who were home schooled. Today there are around two million. That’s still only 2% of the total student population, but it’s growing each year, according to Professor Joseph Murphy’s definitive study of home schooling in America.
2. While still the most common reason for home schooling, with about a third of families citing it as their main motivation, religious or moral rationales are becoming less and less common as families become increasingly dissatisfied with public schools.
3. New technology has revolutionized home schooling education. Home schoolers are not sitting around with dog-eared encyclopedias and old library books. Home schooled kids can increasingly customize their educations. Thousands of platforms and technological options abound for kids to stay connected and to participate in online classes.
4. More and more, homeschooled kids are not in “the home.” The options for them to take classes and participate in structured educational experiences at museums and other community resources are limitless. Meet-ups, support groups, specialist classes at public schools, and play groups are common in many communities, and homeschoolers don’t need to be isolated.
5. Home schoolers seem to do fine academically.
6. They appear to do well socially as well. According to Professor Murphy, they generally score well on standardized tests, are accepted and go to college in similar number than children in traditional schools, and suffer from no social deficits.
6. More research is needed on home schooling. While it’s probably the case that home schoolers do just as well as other students, scholars in the field advocate for more data collection about what home schoolers are doing and their educational outcomes. While the debate about charter schools includes a rich discussion of data, there is much to learn about homeschooling.
7. Parents are more and more likely to leave public schools when they become overcrowded, when more low-income students enroll, and when test scores decrease. Many education scholars write about charter schools and private schools as educational options, but forget to consider the increasing impact of home schooling.
8. There are many other reasons why families choose home schooling: concerns about the special education, frustration with mental health services, requirements for frequent travel in parents’ jobs, even nut allergies.
9. Thus, the “typical homeschooler” does not exist. They come from all social classes and from all religious backgrounds. In fact, Muslims are the fastest growing religious group who homeschool.
And here is my last thought, my biggest concern about homeschooling, as a teacher, parent, and researcher of education:
10. Public schools are at risk for a “death spiral“: as more and more children exit public schools because their parents perceive them unable to meet their needs, they are more likely to become even more “inadequate” with less funding and parental support. Funding, which is calculated on a per-student basis, disappears for these schools. Even more services and individualized attention for students could disappear from public schools, and even more parents may opt to take their kids out of these “failing” schools.
What happens to other kids — the ones “left behind” in struggling public schools — when the best kids and many involved parents leave for charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling?
Please let me know what else I should know to understand the homeschooling experience. What do educators and scholars not understand about why families choose homeschooling and about their experiences?
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My understanding is that the primary purpose of school is to educate children. A secondary purpose is to “socialize” them, and a third purpose is to give them someplace to go while their parents are at work.
But, as you write, children don’t have to attend school to learn the things that school teaches. They don’t have to attend school to find friends or meet people from different walks of life; they don’t have to attend school to contribute to their community or to become productive citizens or to prepare for college or a job. Finally, many parents have to make childcare arrangements while they work at night, on weekends, or during the summer, and parents can manage to do likewise during the traditional school year, too, if need be.
Therefore, there is no reason to send children to school.
For all the working parents, however — and for all the kids you call “left behind” — I can see a need for a nationally funded daycare system. And as long as it didn’t look anything like school, I would consider enrolling my child in it! But not every day (unless my child wanted that). We have too much fun living and learning at home and together in the community. It’s a great life, partly because we can do without the alarm clocks and school lunches and bullies and lockers and bus routes and report cards, but mostly because we just plain enjoy ourselves. Which I suppose is the best reason I can think of to homeschool: it’s a great life, and we mean to enjoy it.
Imagine if more children were raised to know that it’s a great life! Imagine if school looked more like camp than school — if it were a place where children were eager to go and learn things. Imagine if more children grew up eager to wake up in the morning and get busy with their projects, if more children grew up loving life and wishing to help make it even better. What a lovely world we would have.
School is an institution you can not be socialized in an institution you can only be institutionalized. Other than that I loved your reply to the article.
That would be amazing if we could have a world in which kids were so excited about getting up to be “at school”! Your kids sound really lucky! And I think it’s a wonderful option for many kids and families. I think you’re right in outlining the basic responsibilities of a school (I might also add a “civic” component — raising kids about how to be responsible, historically knowledgeable members of a society). But I think it’s also true that it’s not feasible for most kids to have that option. Thank you for the very thoughtful comment!
I tried to answer the question “What do educators and scholars not understand about why families choose homeschooling and about their experiences?” (It’s fun and rewarding! What else is there to understand?) I also hinted at how to keep schools from entering that “death spiral” and how to make schools better for the kids who are not lucky enough to have supportive families or a healthy environment: change schools radically. Make them more like camp or more like daycare. Eliminate the requirements; allow kids to choose what activities they want to pursue; allow them to choose what they want to learn. Archery, swimming, building things, computer games, reading books, drawing, photography, filmmaking, interior design. This is what homeschoolers can do (and, as demonstrated, it works!), and what schools could do if they were set up more like summer camp and less like a child-processing factory. I think that if schools changed radically in this way, then kids would look forward to going there, and they would value the community found there, and they would care naturally about this community and the larger community and want to contribute to it (that’s “civics”). But if “school” continues to mean lots of kids sitting in rows learning — without a vote, without direct representation, without a choice, under threat of detention or expulsion or even jail time if they’re truant too often — what they’re told to learn regardless of anything else happening in their head, heart, or life, then school will not improve. And children will continue to dread it.
The American public would not stand for such changes, I know. (Students choosing *for themselves* what they want to learn? How could they possibly know? They’re only children, and children have no brains!!) And this is too bad, because it means that many students will continue to be “left behind.” And education reformers will continue only to rewrite the “standards” (and rewrite them again) and rewrite the tests (and rewrite them again) and move the desks around (rows? circles? small groups?), looking for that magic arrangement, instead of finally throwing them out.
As the feds take over indoctrination of our youth homeschooling will only increase. My daughters are well behaved well rounded play video games and participate in mainstream culture and social media. I have three of them and one because of her need for social expression we chose to leave in private school but the youngest two we withdrew and taught at home from middle school through high school. One of my daughters flunked out of her first college experience (the one that continued in private school) she is now back at college and doing well, My two home scholars have excelled in college making straight A’s.
My results are not isolated, the homeschooling community we were a part of shows me that the kids we knew from back then all bear the same results. Straight A students every one of them that we know. Homeschooling is not for everyone but every one of the home-schooled kids I know make excellent grades and have had much success in college and the few that I know who have already finished college have great jobs.
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There will always be a need for a public school system. The government, however, is woefully inadequate in running it, and the waste of money is a major frustration for parents. Many states spend approximately $10,000/per child. If I had that much cash to spend on my one, very bright 8th grader at home, I could give her an education that would include a trip to Italy. It’s ridiculous the poverty of education that results from such an a flow of tax money.
Parents have been encouraged in the past few decades to focus on the child, build their lives around the child. They are no longer concerned about building the citizenry, sustaining community schools. Most families don’t live in a community long enough to establish a connection to its school. They will choose the educational model that serves their child, and they will sacrifice to do so. Recent educational trends have told us all to individualize a child’s education; is he a visual learner, an auditory or a kinesthetic learner? There is no education more perfectly suited to each individual child, than homeschooling. Now that homeschoolers are doing better than their public school counterparts in college, the results are IN. It won’t take long before parents with resources realize that their children won’t just do okay at home; they will do better.
Unfortunately, the public system has not changed adequately with the times. It was formed to produce a unified, literate citizenry. It did that successfully for decades. Now there is perhaps no institution in the nation that does more to damage literacy than our public system, in my opinion. I taught in private schools for 16 years, and have placed my kids in private, public, and home schooling.
There are several things that I want to respond to here. First of all, I think your facts are correct. I didn’t know about Muslims being the group growing the most in terms of homeschooling numbers. But the part of your article that I most strongly responded to was the last paragraph about the children being “left behind”. Well, if teachers are teaching and there are less children in the classroom, wouldn’t there be MORE of an opportunity to explore topics of interest to the children there? Education is not and can not be a one-size-fits-all. A smaller class size would allow for customization. And it seems logical that if the numbers decreased to a certain level, something would have to change in the way public education is funded. No reason to continue to operate when the climate has clearly changed. In addition, I believe the teacher’s unions in various states are preventing education from moving forward and being better. Teacher’s unions are about teachers and their money, not about children and their education. Perhaps that needs to change as well. Lastly, it doesn’t matter if you are the parent of a homeschooler or if your child attend public school. You must be involved as much as you can be. The parents of these children “left behind” must act responsibly on behalf of their children. At the end of the day, the buck stops with them and their child.
Yes, I agree that parents should take a great deal of personal responsibility for children’s education. But the academic and social consequences of a good educational foundation begin well before kindergarten, and the gaps between children of privilege (relative or extreme) and poverty start before a child can learn to read. There are millions of children who have parents who have neither the academic nor personal capacity to intervene on behalf of their children or to enrich their education; they are working multiple jobs, absent altogether, have issues with addiction or illness, or too broken by cycles of intergenerational poverty to expand their children’s education in the ways that middle class or affluent parents do. I just think that as educational options for children expand, we do have to ensure that many children don’t get “left behind.”
These children are already being left behind. Maybe small classes where all students are in the same boat, i.e. behind and underprivileged, can result in teachers teaching in a waybthat reaches all stud3nuts, not just those in the middle.
I’m a teacher… and am considering homeschooling for two reasons: to give my daughter an environment more conducive to her learning styles and because I’m very, very tired of having to continuously defend my profession. I’m tired of working long, hard hours and putting so much care into what I do… only to have it returned to me in the “teachers and their money” narrative. I DO believe that a parent is the child’s best advocate. However, your logic is flawed. Less students in school will not mean smaller classes- teachers are hired based on the numbers of students in a school. Schools will simply hire less teachers.
Hillary,
THANK YOU. From a fellow teacher, who teaches in a state without a union, I also am so tired of having to defend what we do every day. I am learning that homeschooling is a fabulous option, for the one reason that educators have known for ages: adult to child ratio. Teaching is about time. Time is divided among the people (students) who need it. When you only have your 2 or 3 kids to do this with, results will be faster, more rewarding, and more in depth.
Fewer.
Schools will simply hire *fewer* teachers.
Fewer.
Please? You’re a teacher.
When my children were in school I found an incredibly politically-driven response to my son’s needs. Our biggest issue we needed the school’s cooperation on was dietary. He does not have full-blown allergies but intolerances that create behavioural problems. These are not documented with a doctor as the medical arena doesn’t recognize intolerances. He does have sensory processing disorders that are documented, though even these are on the mild side.
We also had an issue with a bully. My son and his best friend were major targets for the bully and in the end the principal and teachers refused to take effective steps. Not only was my son in the same class, they rode the same bus. I only received highly politically correct words and saw absolutely 0 action.
There are other things we’ve noticed since we began homeschooling. When in public school, neither of my kids got enough sleep. They didn’t eat as healthy or as often as needed for their brains and bodies to be properly fueled, and this shows up in better behaviour when they do eat well. Then there’s the influence factor. My son is 12. The language and interests he came home with was rather concerning many times. We allow him to continue visiting one of these friends who is a less-than-awesome influence, though now those visits are more supervised and less frequent. We don’t wish to control who they’re friends with. However my son has a tendency toward obsessions and daily interaction with this particular friend, as well as a few others, fueled a technology obsession. He could not have what he wanted, he thought about it all the time, and could hardly function at home with what technology time he was permitted (too much is over-stimulating) due to the obsessiveness. Something else we found after bringing them home – they now have friends through homeschool groups with lifestyles closer to ours. My kids aren’t the odd balls in the lunchroom anymore as many of the homeschoolers share similar dietary choices and those that don’t, aren’t heckling our choices. Furthermore, when we’re at a homeschool event, the parents are most often present – which means when kids act out, are mean to one another, etc. it’s handled right then and there, no third party. Also if there’s a reason we’d rather not associate with someone, my kids aren’t forced to be in their presence. Likewise the reverse is true for those who find us unpalatable.
So, I hope this rather long blurb has been of some benefit to you. I don’t know what will happen to the public schools. I do know that were our school district more concerned with the actual education of the children (not knocking the teachers here – too many care but have their hands tied) and less focused on the numbers both in enrollment and testing (why is it every year about half the class needs to re-take at least 2 subjects?), and more willing to work with parents in handling what individual children need I would have been more apt to let them continue in public school. Not that I definitely would have, but pulling them out would have been a more difficult choice. As it was, it was a very easy choice for our family.
Thanks for “listening” 🙂 ~ Katie
Thank you so much for telling your story! It’s so much more affecting to hear people’s stories than to get exclusively bogged down by data and dollars. It definitely sounds like you’ve made the best choice for your family.
I hope you don’t mind my commenting again. I reread your post a bit, and realized I didn’t answer your question from the heart. I spouted off a few ideas in my head, as an educator. But you asked what the experts might not be understanding, regarding why parents choose homeschooling. The other commenters touched on some. Parents who long to spend more time — much more time — with their kids, choose homeschooling. Parents who want to be innovative about their kids’ educations, choose it. Parents who determine their children will get a significantly better education than they did, homeschool, because they feel they must ensure that it happens. Parents who long for their kids to experience adventure, a flexible schedule, lots of travel, or more hands-on education, choose homeschooling. I LOVE that I can get up in the morning, decide to take my daughter (or all 4 kids, when they were home) on a field trip, pack a picnic, jump in the van, and take off. No headache. Lots of fun. Change of schedule if I like, and nobody cares. No notarized permission forms — ugh!! The sheer relaxation of this lifestyle is very appealing. Stressful? Being at home with 4 kids? Yeah, sometimes, but you KNOW your family, and if you’re all stressed, you know what to do to de-stress. Go outside, throw a frisbee, play Scrabble, turn on a movie or documentary for an hour. Families who are stressed with their traditional schooling scenario are usually stuck, and the only way to “address” it is with endless meetings, memos, tears, and few solutions. I’ll add that the bullying factor is HUGE these days. And sometimes the sympathy is with the bullies, if they come from dysfunctional or broken families. Kids from stable, intact families are encouraged to be “understanding” and tolerate it. This happened to my daughter. It was horrible.
Homeschooling can be a joy much of the time. Parents who learn how to find the joy in it, are hooked. Oh, how I love the flexibility and ease! And the 1:1 ratio means that my daughter accomplishes her academic tasks quickly, doesn’t have to wait all day long for other kids to finish tasks, is done with school by lunch usually, and has many more hours for that thing that children are starved for today: play. I have a MA in literature and taught high school English for years, so yes, I admit that perhaps it’s not the most efficient use of my skills to be teaching only one child. But I’m not slapping both of us back in a classroom. It’s not worth the paycheck, and I’m loving giving her (and myself) the education that will enrich her mind with wonder for the rest of her life, when I’m gone. I don’t hear that from public schools these days. I hear “end of grade test!!” My husband went to the local high school recently to proctor a test. The teacher was in the room. He wasn’t there to monitor the students; he was there to ensure that the teacher didn’t cheat on the tests. That’s how far the system has fallen.
Please forgive me for rambling. It’s a subject I think of every day.
There is a reason that many of the homeschooling families that I know were once former teachers-not all but very many. As a former teacher, I knew that I wouldn’t want my own child in my classroom being taught to a stupid test and having to move on when the kids didn’t understand because the district said I had to. Now as a homeschooling mom, I actually get to teach and educate. I get to get my child excited about learning and make it, gasp, fun!!!
I love homeschooling my son, and don’t worry about him, as I know that I am doing a much better job than I was ever able to as a public school teacher.
Thank you for this article. We chose to homeschool our children initially for two main reasons, but other reasons have tacked onto the list over time as well.
1. No academic challenge.
We tried public school with our older son (now age 8) for two and a half years. He went into kindergarten knowing how to read, write, and spell (day one, his teacher on a whim asked him to spell ‘monster,’ he sounded it out and forgot the ‘e.’ Not bad). He knew his days of the week, months of the year, etc. He knew how to do basic addition and subtraction. The only thing on the school’s entry-skill request list he couldn’t do was use scissors and only because we had never thought to ask him – so we fixed that in an afternoon. Needless to say he was bored with “The A says aaaah” and “A pirate says ARRR” and all. Pajama Day for “P” was fun, but he was still bored. Add that to his inquisitive, outgoing spirit that was squashed by the idea of ‘sit in your seat,’ ‘no talking out of turn,’ ‘no wiggling,’ ‘no dancing’ and certainly ‘no singing’ nor ‘making up songs’ … and kindergarten took what was a bright, happy child excited about learning, and made him dread school. Not only school itself, but everything associated with it as time went on too, including homework and our attempts to teach him at home. We asked the school multiple times for individualized lessons to actually challenge him (this went on for two and a half years – so repeatedly through Grades K-2, this request was made) and the school would put him in the ‘advanced’ reading group but other than that, no help. I couldn’t see wasting any more of his youth with redundant lessons that were beneath his learning level.
2. Bullying and piss-poor handling of it. We were told we can, and should, sue.
So as a result of the aforementioned boredom, my spirited little boy would try to entertain himself in class. The school viewed this as ‘disobedient’ and had no leniency to afford toward considering that they were stifling a bright student. He sometimes made up songs in class, because he’s always been creative like that. He would high-five other kids and cheer their achievements, and I would get calls about “He hit other kids and Mr. Reed saw him!” (Mr. Reed can choke on his own member for all I care.) Other kids started getting annoyed by him. In his first week of kindergarten, Tyler punched him in the face. James, Tyler and Pano (?) stripped him of his shoes while he was in the bathroom once and threw his shoes into a stall where a child was going to the bathroom – then I got a call from the “Anti-Bullying Specialist” (biggest bully in the school with NO compassion nor concern for children’s feelings) about my son’s “sexual issues” and how he tried to “view another child using the bathroom” and “should see a therapist.” No, he was trying to get his shoes back. She never bothered to get my son’s side, so she didn’t know about the stripping of shoes until I found out about it when my boy got home, at which point she got one of many scathing return phone calls. They never mattered. He was punched, kicked and harassed on the playground, and they did nothing about it, they even over time started to blame HIM for it all and put it on his student record. I drew the line, and withdrew my son, when I found out that on one particular day when the same three boys came to beat up my kid at recess and surrounded him, pushing him down on the ground and punching/kicking him until he could fight his way out, he was suspended and the school called child services because when he went to tell a teacher and beg for help (which for awhile he stopped doing – even though we encouraged him to tell – because he said “the teachers don’t care”) – the teacher blamed HIM for “starting” the fight, suspended my son, called child services, and took the other three kids’ story that somehow he began the fight that resulted in him being beaten up like that. Next thing I know I get a knock on the door at home! … That was it. Too many meetings with superintendents, the principal, that anti-bullying bitch, and no result. The day after the beating there was still only one aide to watch 140 kids at recess on a playground that had ‘hidden’ areas like the spot used to beat up my then-second-grader. The child services person who visited met my son, got his actual side of each story that was told, and said she was horrified at what the school did to my kid’s student records – even she said we should sue to correct them. (May still do so. Haven’t ruled it out. I just don’t want to put my kid through that.) She sent us a clean bill of health letter to confirm we were a very healthy family and nothing was wrong. But the school’s call, we (she and I) found out? Was because they wanted to push my son into a new “Friendship Group” (group counseling) that the anti-bullying jerkoff was heading up, and were establishing grounds to do so by lying on my son’s records as they had. Unfreakingreal. No morals.
The same month we found out another family sued our local school district for being a “hostile district” and won $509,000.
So we contacted the Dept. of Ed., toured other schools, heard about our kid’s records that would be transferred if we went with moving to another school as an immediate option (thus the anti-bullying lady’s bullying of my son would follow him and bully him by way of altering the opinions of other educators elsewhere? Hell no) — and then found out that if we homeschool for a period of years before considering a possible reintroduction to school at some later time (maybe Grade 6ish, if my son even wants to go then), enough time will have elapsed to invalidate the old records to a fair degree because a new skill assessment would be needed to place him at the time he would be reintroduced to school.
So that’s the plan – except – my boys, the son I’ve mentioned and his younger brother, are THRIVING at home. My six year old knows all of the U.S. states and capitals, my older son has an interests in dinosaurs, history and electronics, both kids are reading above their grade levels and they love getting their socialization through Cub Scouts (both are involved) and Little League (my older one plays; the little guy might start this year). Healthy, supervised socialization with good kids who are on good behavior due to parents’ direct presence nearby (if not just their good character) is so much better than cramming students into each other’s company with one adult to watch 25 kids, or one adult to watch 140 (!!!), in hopes that they play nice.
As homeschool is concerned, I am only sorry I didn’t withdraw my son sooner.
I think the “character” issue is something that doesn’t get talked about enough. As non-cognitive skills (social skills, decision-making, persistence) get talked about more and more in the media (such as Paul Tough’s new book), I wonder how many parents will decide that the schools aren’t capable of doing enough to cultivate these types of skills and habits in their kids!
Unfortunately, the philosophy now is that character traits can be educated into a child. Just tell him to be kind, or generous, or unselfish. Education does not do this. These are moral issues, and the public system no longer has any basis for introducing morality.
While your facts are mostly correct there are a few caveats. The secular homeschool movement is the fastest growing currently. While many do choose to homeschool for religious reasons many see it as simply another path to education. Homeschoolers don’t leave public school when low income families enroll. It has no bearing our individual choices. We also don’t leave when our children’s test scores are low. Many of us do not use the standardized testing/common core standards as a measure of learning at all.
Please realize that homeschoolers still pay taxes that go to the educational system. While schools do not receive federal funding for homeschooled students, they also do not need to spend over $10K on each student. Thus, they probably make out better by collecting our taxes and not having our children attend.
Lastly, it’s not our responsibility to keep failing public school afloat while the same arguments for education reform are instituted year after year. The children being left behind as stated above-are the public school children. Please do not assume that homeschool parents do not have the academic skills or that low income families cannot homeschool. Homeschool families/parents are deeply invested in the educational outcomes of their children’s education.
Homeschoolers are innovative and resourceful-far more so than current public education standards.
I completely agree! Individual families do what’s best for their kids. And while that is also separate from our public responsibility (in my humble opinion) for the well-being of all kids in our society (because those kids will affect the future of everyone), it also isn’t. Individual decisions have public consequences, and I don’t think it’s the responsibility of an individual person — in his or her role as a parent — to put the future of other kids’ lives in mind when he or she is determining how a child will be educated, I do think it is every parent’s role as a citizen to think about public education. Again, that doesn’t mean that any parent would make any different choice for his or her individual kid, but it does mean thinking about how not all children have these choices or opportunities and doing whatever is in your power (voting, talking, reading, contributing) to change our current educational system.
I just have to interject here: I know several low-income families personally. And a few of them homeschool. Not all of them are inner-city, but it is growing there, too. The families I know who do homeschool do so very cheaply, or as cheaply as they can, or they make lots of big sacrifices to do so. Some of them, that’s just plain how their community works. And they are doing an excellent job! The families I know who don’t homeschool DO know how to vote, talk, read, and contribute to society (and they do all of those things), and they DO know what the public schools are like because they went to them themselves. But they also DO CHOOSE to turn a blind eye to alternative educational methods, the down sides of public schools, and how good homeschooled kids are turning out to be. There are so many homeschoolers nowadays, you can’t NOT know about this alternative way of educating your child.
Yes, the non-sectarian community has always been the largest component of the homeschool community. These are people who are homeschooling not for reigious reasons. We pay taxes, we want our schools to suceed. We also know what works for our family.
We chose homeschooling primarily to meet the needs of a gifted child. My daughter needed to more learning at a faster pace than a traditional school setting would allow. This is our 5th year of home education and every year it seems I have more and more reasons for doing so. I do not believe that every parent could or should homeschool. However, in circumstances where they are able to, it is a fantastic education model. I could write an entire book on what homeschooling has done for my children and for our family. My daughter is part of a Classical education co-op one day a week, plays saxophone in a homeschool band, takes piano lessons, plays on a basketball team, swims on seasonal swim league, take scientific illustration classes, and studies Latin and Mandarin Chinese. She is in 5th grade and has had such a rich learning environment and has had so many opportunities. We do a variety of field trips to enhance our school experience. No two homeschool families are alike, but we all strive to provide the best education for our children. There is so much more to homeschooling than curriculum, lesson plans, and standardized tests. Though I use curriculums and lesson plans and do take yearly tests, it is so much more than that. Socialization (not necessarily same age peer) and character development that is also an important part of what we do and what we value in our home.
I have been homeschooling for 12 years. I think that most educators have been taught that there are certain, correct ways of teaching, and homeschooling just doesn’t fit into that way of thinking. Homeschooling is an unknown to them, with as-yet-to-be-determined outcomes (in their opinion) and so, they are suspicious of it. So I would advise educators to make an effort to get to know some homeschoolers; there are probably some in your neighborhood! Several of my neighbors are educators and I have purposefully gotten to know them, and allowed them to get to know my kids, in the hopes that I am an advocate for home education to those who are paid educators.
As for what to do with public education dying, I say the sooner the better. Then we can start from scratch and build an education system that excites, engages, and educates our kids.And for heaven’s sake, get rid of standardization.
The children should be the focus, not the school. Public schools may die because they are “unable to meet their needs”. Other, better options are already rising for all students. The entity of the school itself is not enough reason for me to leave my children in an environment that will not equip them sufficiently and may even be detrimental to their future.
Our reasons for Homeschooling are many, and individualized instruction by a parent-teacher who is totally invested in each and every child’s success, is one of them. There are many wonderful public and private school teachers out there. However, my children are different from each other, learn in different ways, and accomplish more at home. I could go on for way too long. Thank you for the thoughtful article.
Thank you for your response! I think that’s what it boils down to: each parent doing what’s best for an individual child. And now there are so many options for parents to meet each family’s needs. It’s sometimes difficult for an educator or a researcher to “think small” and think about what school is like for kids today from a child’s or parent’s perspective — on an emotional, visceral level — given the increasing demands and challenges of today’s world — everything from testing mandates to a new global economy to technological changes.
We homeschool first and foremost because of a severe food allergy, yet we remain supportive of our local school district in principle. I’d like to see administrators try some new things (flipped classrooms, for example) and I figure that our “absence” in an overcrowded classroom perhaps frees up resources and teacher time to help another student who lacks the advantages that we can offer our kid. So we see our choice as win-win and even participate in annual events such as their big fundraiser, a Halloween carnival. We see homeschooling as an option for some, but not for all–at least for now, though technology and other issues may change that. It just has proven to be incredibly suitable for us right now.
Maybe that is what is needed. The death spiral. In order to enact true change, maybe the old has to completely die.
I decided to educate my future children at home while sitting in sophomore lit bored out of my mind yet again as my school did not offer a gifted program. I would sneak “The Teenage Liberation Handbook” and the works of John Holt into class to read behind the assigned reading I had covered on my own years prior. From these books I concocted a plan to leave school, finish up my diploma in a correspondence class, and start living “real life” and managed to convince my parents to sign off on this plan so long as I maintained employment and paid for my correspondence program with my own earnings.
Fast forward a bit and I am now the mother of one delightful, intense, curious and gifted daughter who has never been to school or daycare. She would be in Kindergarten this year but is already capable of reading and comprehending the text in Roald Dahl books, the first Harry Potter book, Astronomy Magazine, and a plethora of other reading material far beyond what would be offered in the media center at the neighborhood school. She can type and spell, has an affinity for science activities, and posses above average math skills as well. My own mother, a longtime K teacher, has said she’d be appalled to have a student like my daughter in her class and would find her to be a horrible disruption as there would exist nothing to offer my daughter during the course of her day.
BUT home education provides more than adequate intellectual challenge for my daughter. It allows her to be bright and bold while not neglecting the fact that she’s six. She might be able to “perform tricks” we my husband and I have taken to calling her academic ability, but she is a young child who needs time to play, explore, enjoy sensory activities & art, and engage in active physical activities. She requires near constant snacking due to reactive hypoglycemia and tends to sleep poorly as her “brain doesn’t shut off.” She is extremely physically active and does not do well without lessons engaging her with something to touch and activities to do, nor is she at her best without several hours of physical activity time every day. Her needs as a healthy, active child who tends towards intensity and a need for considerable contact and guidance with adults would not be met in schools ill equipped to provide for all of her needs.
Additionally, as the spouse of an active duty soldier, our family moves frequently and he travels a fair deal for his job. Homeschooling allows him to enjoy a tremendous amount of time my husband would not otherwise have with our child, be it via Skype when he’s away or during times of leave and four day weekends when he is home. Homeschooling is a boon to a military family for other reasons too, including ease of moving/travel, but time with a parent ranks considerably higher than that in my mind.
It is not homeschoolers that are going to lead the decline of public education as we know it. It is the democratization of information in the form of the Internet, PDF releases of academic journals in protest, Wikileaks, MIT courseware available free online, Khan Academy, cheap electronics, and worldwide access to the Cloud that is going to do it. We unschoolers were just on the forefront of the revolution. I am so happy to have been there.
Home schooling parents do have to take the blame for part of the death spiral in our government school systems. In many instances home educators take the brightest and most driven students as well as a student whose parent is involved out of the government run school setting. This creates a drain of intelligent involved and engaged students which leave only those that do not have the advantage of a parent who cares what is happening with their child much less the child’s education. These apathetic students are hard to reach and much harder to teach. With fewer students the school doesn’t make smaller class sizes they only make fewer classes and therefore fewer teachers. With the increased tax payer dollars that go into education system but not to the individual schools the home office has more money to spend on staff and staff development exercises in places like Disney world and Vegas. Also the top administrators get two secretaries to do the work of one. I know a lot of teachers and school administrators I know what goes on and the waste is incredible. I take full responsibility for my act of defiance in taking my children first out of the government run school system and then out of the private school system. I have raised three independent and exceptional young women. They have the drive and determination to succeed at anything they want to do in life. Chances are they may have still been as prepared as they are now to succeed in life had we not chosen to exit the structured environment of the education system, it may just be something inherent in their nature. I know this though as a Home educator I had a hand in encouraging that drive and in directing that determination and teaching them to focus their energies to get what they want and from the evidence of friends who let their kids take the government school education offered and seeing the drinking, the carousing, the total lack of personal responsibility that their kids display next to my kids, I know we made the right decision. I do not care about what is best for our school at the sake of what is best for my kids. My only regret is that there are so many young people who are stuck in that situation and my kids will have to deal with the effects of our worsening schools and the products there of through out their lives. Hopefully their own drives and determination will take them high enough in the socioeconomic levels that they will have some insulation from the apathetic morally corrupt people that make up the majority of students in our public schools today. I know that sounds snobbish but I do not care, My girls work hard to get the grades they achieve and the majority of kids I have seen just don’t care about grades.
There is a much bigger picture to consider. While it is satisfying to feel self-righteous about your decisions, the 2% that homeschool do not make a statistical difference in the way schools operate. The home/unschooling movement was just on the leading edge of the sea change. Technology is adding the momentum.
I do not necessarily feel self righteous about my decision to home school. I did what I did because we could. I worked from home and although it was a sacrifice financially it was the right choice for us. I say I home-schooled my two youngest but by the definition of the words I home-schooled my middle child using a strict curriculum and unschooled my youngest because the curriculum did not fit her. she still passed the standardized tests because they where so easy. Unschooling worked for her because she had difficulties with the focus required of so many subjects taken at once. We did not focus on subjects that she enjoyed she handled those as she wanted to we focused on those subjects she had difficulties on and those became the challenge that we had to get through and the challenge was mostly on me because I had to find ways of teaching her math with out following a curriculum and still teach her math so she could succeed in college math. Which I am proud to say she is currently making A’s in with no outside tutoring. in the course of our home education experience we created home economics classes and woodworking class, art classes and play writing class all without a curriculum to go by. Machinima was the hardest subject to create because I did not know that much about it before getting involved with it. Learning how to create machinima was invaluable to our play wrighting because it allowed us to create actors with the costumes we desired without having to actually make the costumes. This unfortunately has not gotten me out of costuming as my youngest wants to go into costume and design for her career and while she is in college taking her liberal arts classes we are also learning together by creating costumes for Ren Faire and armor for her Halo costume for her Cos Play. This desire for life long learning is what is missing from most public school kids but my Girls have it in spades. Her plan is to attend the UNC School of the Arts and enter their design and production Department. Her Home school experience will be invaluable to her there as that school is so unstructured as to make your head spin. Trust me we have friends that attend the in the music department. I agree wholeheartedly with your point about technology.
I agree public education is in a death spiral. It should be. It fails any child who is not exactly average and, as I’m sure you realize, there is no such child. Gifted children do better when they’re homeschooled. Special education students do better when they’re homeschooled. Middle-class children with two parents do better when they’re homeschooled. Children in poverty, with a single parent, and foster children do better when they’re homeschooled. As my Reading Methods professor said back in 1987, “We need to meet children where they are and then help them get to the next level.” Homeschooling does exactly that.
Our public schools do (and always have done) the exact opposite. We tell gifted three-year-olds who meet all the criteria for kindergarten that they can’t come to school. We tell the parents of boys they should keep their chapter-book reading sons in preschool until they’re six or almost six so they are “better behaved.” We tell fourth-graders who are learning pre-algebra outside of school that we “know you already understand this, but the textbook says we have to do place value and I have to follow the textbook.” We tell fifth-graders who are working on homework for three hours a night that “we don’t recognize” their learning disability. We tell sixth-graders with ADHD that they are required to bring home their band practice chart on Monday for parent signature and to bring it back the following Monday or they will never get better than a C. We tell a rising ninth-grader with a 150 IQ that he will be assigned to a “supervised study hall” because he is also ADHD.
And then the ninth-grader walks out of the meeting with the principal and says to his mom, “If you make me go to that school, I will kill myself.” And he means it.
*That* is why I homeschool.
What a fantastic post. I had the same impression of homeschool as was described in the first paragraph. Thanks for pointing out the many reasons that there has been an increase in homeschooling and the possible ramifications of this growing trend. I love your site and cannot wait to read (and comment) more. Thanks again!
Thank you! The post and everyone’s comments to it have been more of a learning experience for me! I’m glad you like the whole site too.
I’d like to use and add on to Christine’s “#1) No academic challenge” with my son’s experience with public schooling.
Our son went into kindergarten already knowing his alphabet, numbers, upper and lower case letters, states, etc. And I giggled at Christine’s scissors comment, as we ran into the same thing. He didn’t know how to use them, but he learned in a day. He was bored and had “ants in his pants”, and he got into a lot of trouble due to it. After several time-outs in the classroom and principal’s office, he was sent to a 3rd grade classroom for his time-outs, where he sat quietly and listened to the teacher teach. Why? Because it was new and challenging. Obviously, this form of discipline wasn’t going to make things better, as he was smart enough (at age 6) to figure out that all he had to do was “act out” in kindergarten to be sent to a classroom he found interesting.
The 3rd grade teacher figured it out, but the principal, kindergarten teacher, Special Ed teacher, and a few others didn’t. So we were called into a meeting / “intervention”. They had chalked him up to having a learning/social disorder, and the principal went so far as to ask me if I had had a difficult childbirth. They wanted to call in the government-funded special help folks from downtown… because, as they put it, “They’re there and paid for, so we should use them.” If my husband and I hadn’t interceded (rather angrily, I might add), this meeting could have ended up on his permanent school record.
Trust me. We had our concerns and had been in contact with his personal physician, who explained to us that he was a smart, bright, charming young boy… who simply had ants in his pants. He said to give it a little time, and he’d settle down. And he has. But the school was hell-bent on labeling him with a big ADHD or ADD or Asperger’s, simply to increase their FUNDING. You do realize that the more “special” kids they have in a public school, the more $$ they get, right? And everyone wonders why there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of children with these problems. Perhaps we should look at who is doing the diagnosing… and why. I understand there’s quite a large spectrum for these problems, but when we immediately slap a label on every kid who may (or may not) be on the lowest end of the spectrum, just because they aren’t a “cookie-cutter kid”, I think we’re overdoing it. Save the funds and care for the kids who really need it.
We started out “homeschooling” when he was 2, and we will continue to homeschool. My son doesn’t need to learn how to sit at a desk, bored, for 6 hours a day right now. If he chooses to work a desk job when he’s older, I’m sure he’ll be able to figure that out. Sometimes we learn together at 8am; sometimes it’s 11pm. He loves some things and hates others. Everywhere we go is a learning experience: grocery stores, vacations, museums, amusement parks, you name it. And he’s also able to come to work with us, so he’s learning OUR business, which is filming, videotaping, editing, entertainment, broadcast, animation, music, singing, and dance. Plus accounting and computers.
This is scary and could backfire on us, but I don’t see that happening. There are may resources available for secular homeschoolers, and the amount of content is growing. I don’t see that putting him into a public school system that is mediocre (at best) is the wisest choice. We are lucky. We are both college graduates, and we have the ability and the time to homeschool. I feel for those parents who don’t have this choice.
Since their creation in 1870 American public schools have been always been institutions of learning and socialization. They are at their core social. While education is paramount. The social aspect of education cannot be ignored. Further, the experiences that are offered in our public schools outside of the classroom (theatre, sports, music etc.) are a treasurer to American pubic education. In most cases a comprable experience isn’t afforded to a homeschooled child.
You obviously are not a homeschooler nor do you know any. Homeschooled children are very well socialized and enjoy the very things you mention such as theater, sports and music, etc. Most homeschooled children have even MORE time to devote to these interests beyond academics. You are unfortunately naive and clueless. Just one example, look at the children of Hollywood. How many of them do you think could actually go to public schools??? I would argue that the majority of them are educated on the set by tutors. They get their education around their acting schedule. Hello! I would say they are also pretty well-socialized. Also homeschooling moms get together and educate their like-minded children together. Homeschooled children are more, not less, comfortable around adults than their public school counterparts. Get a grip.
Not only children of Hollywood, but child athletes who are on a path to the Olympics… 🙂
I would heartily disagree that the out-of-class experiences that public school kids have are not afforded to a homeschooled child. My own kids are all well versed in music, sports and theater. Most HS families I know are very active in extra-curricular activities because they have loads more time than their public school counterparts. And any amount of socialization that takes place in school can be certainly duplicated, if not bettered, by home education.
As homeschoolers, we teach spelling, punctuation, and proofreading. Also, comparable experiences ARE afforded to homeschooled children, so before you espouse to know better, you should actually research what’s available. Look at the websites of museums, theatres, gymnasiums, joint homeschooling classes, after-school sports, etc., and you’ll see what is offered to homeschooled children. They aren’t being raised in a vacuum.
Again I will say School is not and should not be used for socialization it is for education. If you want to argue that tell me about how social interaction with bullies, violent sociopaths and hood-rats whose only reason for going to school is to meet up with their homies, is a social exercise worth exposing your children to. I went to Government run public school and I still remember the horrible encounters with these types of people. School socialization offers sexualizing children way before they are ready for it, it offers indoctrination in a type of thinking that says we are all winners and there is no loser, when the truth is that if everyone wins no one does. It dumbs down the exceptional and leaves the special needs kids way behind. Public school creates a homogenized mediocre student who thinks that a C average is great. who worries that if she doesn’t have the latest Iphone her social life will be ruined. Home school is individualized learning at the pace the student is ready for. This takes mediocrity and turns it into exceptionalism. How is the Public school child made better for having been denied that opportunity?
I whole-heartedly agree. School is for academics and the socialization that occurs is a by-product these days. Never again in a person’s life with their social experience be dominated by a herd of folks their own age. In addition to that, the adults in the schools are seen as “them” and not to be trusted. Homeschooled children don’t view adults that way. There is no fear of them and the sense of authority they view in adults is quite different, I would argue. Never should a group of middle schoolers or high schoolers feel superior to adults bases solely on being the majority. I have often thought, in my journey into homeschooling, that the one-room school was the ideal way to teach children. The younger kids and older kids were there together hearing and seeing each other learn. And often the older kids would help teach/tutor the younger kids. Articulating what you have have been taught IS learning. It also boggles the mind that public schools puts children together in a classroom based, first and foremost, on AGE. That makes absolutely no sense. Children should be grouped based on skill and ability. Maturity and interests. Age has no bearing on performance as many of the homeschool moms have exampled in their comments. The child who is ahead in their grade is made to wait for however long it takes for the rest of the class to reach their level. Achievement is not rewarded in this scenario.
I would also to point out that the public high school where both my husband I went to school (and our four children would attend) only teaches one foreign language. They cut the art and music classes. The speech and debate team and drama department were scaled back. They have done away with the “shop” classes that many of the boys took.
Our children participate in a weekly co-operative learning group where they take karate classes, have a Red Cross club, science experiments class, serve on a student council, have a track and field day, a performing arts festival, a state history and culture fair (with presentations), spelling bee, weekly lunch together, lego robotics club (one of which one the state lego tournament), violin lessons, world cultures class, book clubs, art class, cooking class, yearbook, drama club (they put on a 20 minute version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream), etc… We go on a monthly field trips. Many of the children in the group take dance, instrument, voice, gymnastics, etc… Others are involved with 4H, scout groups, community theater or volunteer at at a local food/clothing bank.
I just wanted to point out that many of us find plenty to do to expose our children to the socialization and experiences mentioned in the post above.
I know some families that homeschool because their schools would not follow their child’s IEP for sensory disorder, ADHD, gifted, etc… (I have a public school teacher that had 11 IEP’s in a class of 27 kids locally) Some choose to leave public school for religious reasons. I teach my children at home for neither of these reasons. The elementary school my children would attend is an open classroom so it is very loud. It is over-crowded. There are some very good teachers and a couple very bad. This was the original reason.
I also love being with my children. I can see where each one of them excel and where they need encouraged and/or pushed. I’m not trying to shelter them or indoctrinate them. I don’t think public school teachers are bad. I just want to give them a good education and I felt that I could offer more than the public school. My husband works in higher education and will be working on my MA soon. Most of the parents from our co-op have college degrees although there are a few that have no higher education. Some have masters and PhD’s.
I have had a lot of negative and even rude things said to me because I teach my children at home. The worst (which is one of the most frequent I hear) is “I don’t know how you can stand to be with them all day. I couldn’t stand to be with my child all day. I’d kill them.” This was most recently said to me by a mother that is also a 6th grade teacher.
However, I’ve had many kind things said, especially when people get to know my kids and then find out they are taught at home. I appreciate this article because it isn’t often that an educator writes something objective about homeschooling.
Oh goodness. Perhaps the area in which the public system is most abysmal is socialization. Bullying, drugs, alcohol, sex, a moral vacuum, being lonely in a crowd … I could go on and on. The socialization of a public school is exactly what I DON’T want for my children. You should try to sell that system to parents on any other grounds! And the extracurricular activities? haha — you’re so funny. Public school activities are regularly being cut or down-sized. In order to take a simple trip somewhere for a few hours one afternoon, the logistics are large: buses, notarized permission forms, school lunches, chaperones, juggled classroom schedules, missed assignments or quizzes, and all the waiting. Homeschool parents can offer more activities, with more one-on-one, more efficiently. My daughter has 2 hours of art instruction and 2 hours of chess club each week. She has full afternoons to take her boat on the river. She’s involved in music too. And we’re new in this town. Homeschoolers have more time, and of course they’re motivated, to enrich a child’s life. The public system is set up in the most cumbersome way to do this.
The roots of the public education system are anti-Catholic in nature. The goal was to take New Catholic immigrants and move them into the WASP way of thinking by separating them from their families of origin, their “ghettos” and their schools. Frankly, being in a room with 30 kids the exact same age is not being socialized unless you think Lord of the Flies results are laudable.
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/photo_gallery/photo2.html
“Further, the experiences that are offered in our public schools outside of the classroom (theatre, sports, music etc.) are a treasurer to American pubic education. In most cases a comprable experience isn’t afforded to a homeschooled child.”
Exactly the opposite is true.
In many cases, public schools are open to — and WELCOME — homeschool children into their extracurricular activities.
My homeschooled children study music. They are able to practice an hour a day, during the day (when they are fresh) and noodle around with music, and still be fresh, alert, and happy after “school” for concerts, band, and other performances.
My homeschooled children play sports. They play club sports and they play many hours per day with other homeschooled kids. They are FREE.
My homeschooled children play games. They compete online in math challenges and chess clubs.
My homeschooled children speak languages. And they are able to interact with ADULTS who speak those languages. And we are able to travel and know that our children can function and speak languages. The world is wide open to them.
My homeschooled children love learning. They are not bored for any portion of their day. If their math lesson isn’t playing well, they can turn and play a game, or cook a meal or the family, or go out and mow the lawn, or go play basketball. If they are frustrated with a new piece of music, they can eat a handful of pick-a-favorite-treat and go try again. My 8-year-old son is trying to learn a complicated piece of music and spent 90 minutes on it — JUST ON ONE PIECE OF MUSIC — today. Then he wanted a meal, and then he read for four hours. He is in no way “gifted” — he is a normal, curious child who rises to a challenge and then needs a break.
Any homeschool parent could tell you similar stories.
You could not be more wrong about homeschooled children.
I first considered home schooling during my first year of teaching. I taught 140 12th graders that year and found that very few of them were intellectually curious. Many worked hard for a good grade, but I could see that the love of learning had been burnt out of them long ago. It was sad, and I knew I hoped for something better for my children.
Fast forward a few years, and we decided to have our 5 year old give public school a try. We were disappointed in so many ways. Our child could already read, and school provided little academic challenge for her. The school did not handle her food allergies well, either, and there was a bit of bullying. The final straw for us, however, was that the teachers showed the kindergartners movies on a regular basis during class time. These were not educational movies, mind you; they were Disney cartoons and PG movies and anything else they could find. Multiple teachers did this, and it turns out that this misuse of instructional time is quite common in our area. I documented what was taking place, and we met with administrators about it, but the movies continued. By then, though, we had decided to home school for 1st grade because we could no longer trust the adults in the school to make ethical decisions.
We also made the decision because we could see that our child was exhausted and irritable at the end of each school day. She did not have the energy to read and play after a long day of constant stimulation. And yet the school was not challenging her academically, either. Some of her skills actually regressed during her year in school.
Our family loves home schooling. We enjoy spending time together, and our children spend their days learning about meaningful subjects. They love learning new things and love intellectual challenges. They are learning character lessons from us, not from the bully in the seat next to them. The work of home schooling is very fulfilling for me, and it is much less stressful than dealing with school bureaucracy.
I should add, too, that we are making a huge financial sacrifice in order to home school. We have a difficult time making ends meet, but home schooling has been worth every penny. I think that many home schooling families make similar sacrifices.
None of my seven children went to school (last two adopted). My initial reason was how self-motivated my oldest was for learning; everything he was interested in (history, cultures, animals, mythology, etc.) were not being studied in kindergarten. I figured we should keep going. Since then, I have several children with autism, developmentally delayed children, average children, and active children. Homeschooling allows each child to receive an individualized education based on their strengths.
That said, I also believe a public education will always need to exist. As someone mentioned, we do pay school taxes without receiving any of it. That’s one way we help. But the most important way I hope we’re helping IS by withdrawing our children and declaring, “Not good enough!” Those left behind tend not to do that. We’re talking with our feet. If enough of us do it, hopefully it means they have to start taking a hard, long look on why and make it better. We see some of that as relationships were created between public schools and those who wanted to leave so they stay somewhat connected (mainly getting to collect money for them). I hope it means those in charge of schools will look at what homeschooling provides and try to duplicate that. (I wrote a book recently exactly for this reason…to show what I learned from homeschooling my children and how others can demand that from school. If schools won’t change, opt out!)
I’m really becoming encouraged that with SO many voices coming from so many angles (educators, parents, students, administrators, homeschoolers, etc.), maybe, just maybe, we can create the grassroots movement we need to actually change this big, unwieldy institution we created into a monster and tame it to actually benefit the children.
I decided to educate my future children at home while sitting in sophomore lit bored out of my mind yet again as my school did not offer a gifted program. I would sneak “The Teenage Liberation Handbook” and the works of John Holt into class to read behind the assigned reading I had covered on my own years prior. From these books I concocted a plan to leave school, finish up my diploma in a correspondence class, and start living “real life” and managed to convince my parents to sign off on this plan so long as I maintained employment and paid for my correspondence program with my own earnings.
Fast forward a bit and I am now the mother of one delightful, intense, curious and gifted daughter who has never been to school or daycare. She would be in Kindergarten this year but is already capable of reading and comprehending the text in Roald Dahl books, the first Harry Potter book, Astronomy Magazine, and a plethora of other reading material far beyond what would be offered in the media center at the neighborhood school. She can type and spell, has an affinity for science activities, and posses above average math skills as well. My own mother, a longtime K teacher, has said she’d be appalled to have a student like my daughter in her class and would find her to be a horrible disruption as there would exist nothing to offer my daughter during the course of her day.
BUT home education provides more than adequate intellectual challenge for my daughter. It allows her to be bright and bold while not neglecting the fact that she’s six. She might be able to “perform tricks” we my husband and I have taken to calling her academic ability, but she is a young child who needs time to play, explore, enjoy sensory activities & art, and engage in active physical activities. She requires near constant snacking due to reactive hypoglycemia and tends to sleep poorly as her “brain doesn’t shut off.” She is extremely physically active and does not do well without lessons engaging her with something to touch and activities to do, nor is she at her best without several hours of physical activity time every day. Her needs as a healthy, active child who tends towards intensity and a need for considerable contact and guidance with adults would not be met in schools ill equipped to provide for all of her needs.
Additionally, as the spouse of an active duty soldier, our family moves frequently and my husband travels a fair bit for his job. Homeschooling allows him to enjoy a tremendous amount of time with our child, be it via Skype when he’s away or during times of leave and four day weekends when he is home. Homeschooling is a boon to a military family for other reasons too, including ease of moving/travel, but time with a parent ranks considerably higher than that in my mind.
I was homeschooled myself in the late eighties. My parents chose that mostly for religious reasons, I think they heard about it from James Dobson. Back then, it really was me and my mother at the kitchen table with a stack of books. We didn’t have all the class options or opportunities for socialization. No one knew what homeschooling was and my parents feared the truant police. But overall, I liked it. I was able to complete my work without wasting time, and I had a bit of a say in what I studied.
I am now homeschooling my three children. I am not homeschooling for religious reasons. We live in a very nice neighborhood with what other people call “excellent” schools. My oldest started out in public schools. She went into kindergarten able to read. After months of her bringing home multiple coloring sheets, I asked the teacher what was going on. Turns out they were just having her ‘wait’ until the rest of the class caught up with her. It was November, the teacher didn’t anticipate the class catching up until May. The school was inflexible about other options, that might accommodate her. I suppose my own experience with homeschooling made the choice easier. Now my daughter is a year ahead in school, because she was allowed to move at her own pace.
If the public schools don’t want to be “left behind”, they may have to consider doing things differently. Offering more flexibility or a “university style” classroom could cut some of their costs and offer the student what they want. Grouping children by ability, rather than age would allow for the academic challenge that so many parents are taking their children out of school for. Unfortunately, the schools haven’t changed at all in over fifty years and they don’t really seem willing to consider change.
I like the idea of offering university-style (or even high-school style) flexibility for younger children. I was certainly bored out of my mind in class as a young child and lost motivation in high school, only to recover it in college. Logistically it may be difficult to do this as I believe there are fewer specialized teachers in the lower grades, but I think it could work. So many of the problems people have had with public schools, detailed here, are fixable that it’s a shame schools aren’t soliciting more ideas from those for whose children the standard model doesn’t work so well.
I would also explore the role of unschooling which falls under the umbrella of homeschooling. I have friends who have chosen unschooling due to their philosophies on education and childhood. From what I gather from reading unschooling literature, many unschoolers’ parents feel that children should be allowed to learn at their own pace and the children should have control over what and when they learn. I have also heard concerns from parents and educators that so much time goes into teaching the content of standardized tests in traditional educational settings that much of the joy and creativity is gone from traditional education. I’ve also gathered from some parents that their personal experiences in school as children also may play a part in their educational choices for children. If they enjoyed traditional education and felt benefits from it then they seem more likely to choose that route for their children. This is highly anecdotal, but I would love to see a study done addressing this point.
Yes, so would I! I had honestly never even HEARD of unschooling after nearly 12 years of teaching, then several years of grad school, and thousands of hours of ed policy research until I started looking into parent resources online for this blog. It would be a great area of research!
I think there is not mention of unschooling in the literature because the education establishment considers it abuse or neglect or something. No curricula? No bedtime? Children choose their own activities? That must mean the child runs wild while Mom lays on the couch watching soaps and eating bon-bons.
Starting points for research include series of articles here -http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200807/children-educate-themselves-i-outline-some-the-evidence . Also research on informal learning by Alan Thomas http://www.ioe.ac.uk/staff/phdt/24653.html, http://www.infed.org/biblio/home-education.htm. Although most commonly a home education approach there are schools who use same approach – Sudbury Valley model for example.
Jessica, as you may know now, there’s tons of diversity within the homeschool movement, and the most fringe group may be the unschoolers. I didn’t choose that option; it kind of scared me. But I do find it fascinating. And after 8 years of homeschooling, I admit that I might be more willing to try it now. Homeschooling is based on knowing your child, and choosing the education best for him/her. Sending a child off to school for 8 or 9 hours a day, is a great way never to know the child.
Yes, I’m learning there is diversity in the motivations for why it’s done and there’s also diversity in HOW it’s done!
FWIW, there are researchers at Radford University who have been working on a qualitative research project about unschooling.
Oh, thank you! I will read that!
Dr. Carlo Ricci at Nipissing University publishes a journal related to unschooling http://jual.nipissingu.ca/contact_list.asp?contact9=cRicci
Dcates, respectfully, I would like to point out that most homeschooled children have very rich social lives and that most parents of homeschooled children are constantly taking a mental inventory and covering the art and cultural experiences thoroughly. My son plays sports, has recess at our co-op (although we call it club time), has been in a play, has ridden a bus, plays the drums, was in scouts, takes hands-on art history, took zoology at a zoo, marine biology at an aquarium, is in a choir, rides horses, builds robots, goes to museums and symphonies, etc.
He was home until second grade. He tried a semester of public school and lamented his lack of time to play with friends and participate in things he enjoyed. As a parent, I lamented the narrowing of his academic horizons and the fact that they were sending home simple phonics readers with a child who could read Harry Potter and Treasure Island. They also said that he could only bring grade appropriate literature into the classroom as his ability was making the other kids upset. We brought him home. But not before he was bullied on the bus. When it came to the attention of the guidance office they called him in. Two hours later I got a call singing the praises of my well-socialized, bright, articulate kid. When I confessed that he was coming back home she said “Great, whatever you are doing has certainly worked well. Keep it up!”.
Not all homeschoolers have the same opportunities or experiences but many many homeschooling families go out of their way to cover all the bases and make sure their child is socially and academically prepared for life.
In all honesty, I think the inevitable “death spiral” of public schools will actually be a good thing (for both public schools as well as the good of all children in every type of education).
Initially the public schools will hurt a little (or a lot). Many will have to close their doors, many will not be able to provide as much for their students due to the lack of funds. But then there will be a turnaround. After all, homeschoolers (and private schoolers) actually save the state a great deal of money. I still have to pay property taxes whether or not my child goes to public school, so eventually there will simply be a bigger pot of money for a smaller group of kids, and the state will change its funding structure, giving more money per student to the schools.
They will not only give more money per student to save the schools from dying off, but also because they will now be competing for students instead of being the default monopoly. Which is exactly what NEEDS to happen.
Public schools, in my opinion, don’t need “more support” of us sending our children there to keep them from dying off. They need LESS support so they can feel the pain, feel the dissatisfaction of parents (and the nation), face the reality that they are GOING to cease from existence if they don’t immediately get their acts together, and then DO something MEANINGFUL about it.
My humble opinion, for the public schools to contain only a small percentage of the student population (less than 50%) and remain that way, will be the best (and possibly only) way for them to get around to reliably and consistently providing world-class educations to all who enter their doors. Our schools are in such a dire state, something drastic and urgent will likely be the only way for them to ever accomplish meaningful change.
Yes! this.
We pulled our son out of school in the second semester of 2nd grade directly after a meeting in which the headmaster told us that what we were asking for the boy would endanger the educations of the other 600 children. Because we’d be throwing off their curriculum schedule to educate him at a pace he could handle. This kid has an IQ above 180. With their support, he could be through school and ready for college in about 5 years. During the meeting, they talked about a kid at a nearby university who was 12 and a sophomore. I said, that could be Larry; wouldn’t that be a feather in your cap? The headmaster blinked at me and then acted like I hadn’t spoken.
This is a public charter school, known for its high standards and excellent test results. But they do it by pushing out kids who don’t fit the mold. They want good kids, but not truly excellent kids. Take that word apart, you’ll find it’s built on ‘excel’. It used to be that exceptionally capable kids were promoted through the grades as fast as they could handle. If you listen to stories from generations past, you’ll hear about your grandparents and their parents finishing high school in their early to mid-teens. Were kids so much smarter? Was school so much easier? Or were the kids taught at their level and advanced when they were ready, rather than when boxes were checked off? The testing standards required by the government enforce that from which the standards grew: an orderly grid of desks and silent students.
Why is a child’s age important? A friend of mine recently said that kids needed to learn to cooperate with same-age peers. Why? When in your life do you spend most of your time with same-age peers? How does this prepare us for life (unless we’re enlisting in the military)? For a profoundly gifted child, this is even less relevant. As a profoundly gifted individual myself, I can tell you that the vast majority of my true friends my whole life have been 10-40 years my senior. My husband is 17 years older than I. I didn’t have anything in common with my ‘peers’ except chronology and geography. The ‘socialization’ was a nightmare. I saw my son starting down the same road, but he was less complacent than I and was becoming clinically depressed (discovered during the IQ testing). Seven year olds should not be depressed, but the school seemed to think the problem was Larry’s character, not the environment.
I called every school in our district, and even down to Denver’s collection of private gifted schools and public charter gifted schools. Every single one of them told us they couldn’t accommodate a profoundly gifted child. When I asked the local STEM summer camp at a public school for special consideration for Larry, they said ‘only 5th & 6th graders’, completely ignoring that he was reading at a 10th grade level, math at 4th grade, science at 8th. Schools don’t get it. Normal people or even modestly gifted people don’t get it. And people get mad and offended when you try to get it through to them. This kid asked me (age 8) what the speed of gravity is. By that he meant the speed of instantiation of a gravity field after it comes into existence. He had conducted a thought-experiment in his head and concluded it must be faster than the speed of light. But according to the public school, he wasn’t ready for the middle-school STEM camp *because of his age*. I don’t know why educators can’t see this. Is it their own vanity? They can’t accept that a kid could be vastly more intelligent than them? That perhaps they are incapable of understanding the kid’s intelligence? Why are you threatened by that? Why is the system threatened by that? Why doesn’t the system SEEK these children? Why doesn’t the government SEEK these children and provide them with specialized educations as the future of our civilization?
I apologize for my rambling, I don’t know how to answer with concision your important question: “What do educators and scholars not understand about why families choose homeschooling and about their experiences?” I would say, you choose not to understand these children. You choose to believe that you know best, that as parents we are ignorant and incompetent. News flash: I’m smarter than you. It’s not arrogance or conceit, it’s a simple fact. When I say what’s going on with this child and give you advice on how to handle him, I’m not being ‘that mom’, I’m trying to help you and the kid. When I do enough research and reading in peer-reviewed and clinically-tested literature to converse on a professional level with educators holding MAs in Gifted Education and I tell you what’s going on, which journal articles to read, with whom to consult to educate yourself and then you don’t listen and you damage my kid, I’m going to pull him and hand him off to someone who can meet him where he’s at; that probably means someone a lot smarter than the average school teacher.
The culture of education in this country is stagnant. Teachers here get their degrees and suddenly they’re the experts. Go to Japan. Teachers there behave like other professionals do in clinical situations: they test, re-test, teach each other, learn from true peer research, watch the results with their own students and methods, and take pride in their continued growth. They don’t lean on their degrees and “I’ve been doing this for 15 years.”
Schools in this country are crap because the educators and the administrators want one kind of kid, one kind of education, one kind of classroom and they demonize any child bright enough to be a misfit. The kids are wrong, they say, it’s not us.
The same way you don’t want to have your child or your homeschooling judged or thrown into one group, as an educator I feel similarly. I give hours and hours of my time getting to know every one of my students. I create new lessons every year based on the interests and levels of my students. I take into account their needs and test and re-test, teach my peers and read the new peer reviewed research. I don’t rest on my laurels, and don’t expect a “type” of kid to come into my room. Please don’t let your one experience in your one area of the world to defile your opinion of an entire profession.
While I admit that my family has direct experience with only two schools in one district, we belong to a network of families with profoundly gifted children and these stories are nearly ubiquitous.
If for one year we could find a teacher who could handle such a kid, would we find one the next? Remember that it’s not just teachers with whom we have to contend – and I do mean contend. The system does not know how to educate profoundly gifted children and our society does not care about those among us with the highest potential. Currently, the most satisfactory option for families of limited means with children of high intellect is to homeschool.
I will throw you a bone and say that I recently came into contact with a major school district project that renewed my hope in our educational system. If we can change the culture of professionalism and toolsets for educators, perhaps we can see an overall improvement in outcomes. Emphasizing and funding the appropriate education of profoundly gifted children will be a separate cultural shift.
I applaud you for being willing to ask these questions! As a former public high school teacher, I, too, used to cringe at the thought of home schooling! Now I’ve been home schooling my 3 for 5 years. I can’t imagine sending any of them to school!
What I think educators feel to understand is that many of us home school because we have seen the man behind the curtain:
-We know that test scores are not a reflection of a school’s effectiveness in engaging learning. Rather, they are simply a reflection of how much money a district has.
-We know that our children develop different skills at different times, so putting them all on page 3 on the same day addresses very few real academic needs or interests.
-We know that children can and do learn much more from being allowed to jump, play, get muddy, go to a museum, etc. than they learn from 100 worksheets or any standardized test.
-We know that the real world requires us to interact with people of different ages, religions, ethnicities, and interests, not exist in highly homogenized peer groups.
-We know that the teachers and administrators are just people. They do not contain any magic. Some are great, some are mediocre, some are awful. It’s a crap shoot from district to district, teacher to teacher, year to year.
-We know that we love our children like no one else ever will. We know that we want them to develop as whole people–compassionate, engaged, thoughtful, knowledgeable, creative, soulful individuals, not just as great test takers.
As you continue your investigative journey, I recommend you read anything by John Holt, John Taylor Gatto, and Alfie Kohn. As an educator, these writers/educators helped me “get it.” Thank you for your willingess to engage in such a discussion!
Yes, yes, yes!! Especially to your 4th and 5th points. My daughter hated being in room with 25 other kids her same age, all day every day. And I worked with so many different teachers and administrators. Only a few were really gifted to be there. Some were awful. Why submit your child to that, for a whole year?
For research purposes, I’d like to share what Stanford has begun doing recently. Not only online courses, but their free lectures had an enormous number of users world-wide. The article about how instructors are taking their own time to generate content is in one of their recent alumni magazine issues. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/september/online-courses-fall-090712.html
I began homeschooling because I wanted to. So much fuss over first words and first steps, so few people talk about the joys of the first book read, the first body drawn, the first list of spelling words done right. I wanted those firsts, not someone else, I wanted to be the one to see the circuits link and the lights switch on. That’s what I get homeschooling my kids, I get to be the witness to them learning and growing and I get to be the one who helped with that!
This! I want to be a fundamental force in my children developing into responsible, compassionate, capable humans. They drive me to become better and I hope I can do the same for them.
Beautiful. I agree completely.
I would like to add that many public schools today are forced to “teach to the test,” it is often the only measure of what is taught and what is learned, as well as what is funded. As homeschoolers we are free to cover the core, necessary items of a well rounded education AND be creative, dig deeper, explore, experiment, take field trips etc. There is SO much more to learning than selecting the correct multiple choice answer to prove they learned something. How quckly the information is lost that way.
I am in my 7th yr of homeschooling, and the most frequently asked question I hear is “how can you stand to be with your kids all day?” I find this very sad, and a reflection of much bigger problems in our society. I love being with my children. I love having quality time together. We have fun learning together! Our days are not all easy or pretty, we get frustrated etc. In fact, when I get really annoyed, my kids beg me not to send them back to school! As a family, we have overcome some major helath issues because we had the time a flexibility to focus on health and healing. My favorite part of HS is the strong connections we have developed because of the time spent together. I really enjoy my 2 teenage daughters and they really like each other – even at ages 12 and 16 – that is not something you see too often and I attribute it to the investment and sacrifices we have made.
When I was in the college of education at a large university, a new concept being used in educational philosophy for “disabled” students was to provide their education “in the least restrictive environment”. That concept was aimed at mainstreaming children who had previously been segregated academically because of physical or cognitive disabilities or differences.
As have have moved through several roles in the education field, public school high school teacher, community college instructor, private and institutional tutor and homeschooler (for 19 years), I’ve developed a much broader concept of “least restrictive environment”. In order to reach their potential and maintain a delight in learning, every student should be allowed to learn in the least restrictive environment.
Despite many starts at “reform”, over the last two decades the public system in our state has become more restrictive for ALL students. I see students without the financial resources to own computers with internet access try to learn and function without books in their hands at night in the name of using technology effectively (and not to mention saving money on books). Students who are organizationally challenged are stressed by having to keep up with dozens of photocopied papers each day that substitute for text books. In math, students are pushed forward into new concepts before earlier concepts have taken hold because on day 47 they must be covering object x in the scope and sequence. Students who need to move around and make noise are required to sit quietly and pay attention. Students who are not developmentally ready to read and write are made to feel stupid when they struggle in those areas. The age segregated classroom in today’s typical school (not just public school — ANY standard school classroom) is the most restrictive environment I can imagine.
We first thought about homeschooling because I sensed that the schools perceived they “owned” my children and I’m just independent enough to find that distasteful. The logic that our children should forgo an enriching family trip because they would miss several days of school work was simply illogical. Not one thing would have been taught that could not have been learned quickly upon our return. We began seriously considering homeschool as a viable option when a teacher told me the group of boys who already knew how to do the second grade math were just going to have to wait patiently (and quietly) for the next four weeks while the rest of the class caught up.
Then my son developed a complex tic disorder from the stress he was feeling in his 2nd grade classroom. I spent two days observing in his class, at the suggestion of the teacher, to try to determine how to help him solve his organizational problem and perform better in class. Immediately I noticed that I, with my mature focus and advanced degree, simply could not concentrate in a classroom where I had to sit 25 feet from the teacher (where my son had to sit because of his tic) as she delivered a lesson on writing a formal letter. Interspersed in that span of separation were mobiles hanging form the ceiling, waving back and forth in the field of vision, and 20 other students who were waving and weaving also. There was also a reading group working with the aide behind the area where he sat. When my son missed some of the directions, he was corrected for “not paying attention”. I wondered how it was reasonable to expect a highly distracted 8 year old to keep up with directions issued orally in that environment when a 35 year old who had shown marked success in classrooms was also having a hard time keeping up. I was assured that this was the “best” 2nd grade in the entire school because the teacher was so innovative with her use of projects (oh – that’s what those mobiles were) and individualized instruction (that is what that little reading group was doing back there). She was everyone’s favorite (everyone, I later discovered, were mainly little girls).
The day my second grader came home and shared that he was visiting the office every week to “talk about his problem” with some nice lady from the central office I filed the paperwork to withdraw him from the public school. While he was being teased by others for his tic and developing the self-concept that he was just “stupid” because he “never got the directions right” and always lost his papers, the school had decided, without our knowledge and consent, that he needed the services of a school counselor who mainly questioned him about our family’s home life.
While we were not perfect in our practice of homeschooling and I almost always felt some sense of inadequacy, when my oldest moved on to higher education, the first thing they noticed was that their peers were disinterested in learning. The students sitting in the classroom with them were emotionally and intellectually disengaged from the process of learning. As my oldest commented to a relative, because he was not worn out with “school” he had more energy to invest in college learning.
My children appreciated the flexibility they enjoyed in scheduling both academic work and extra-curricula activities. They were better rested than their peers mainly because they were allowed to follow a more natural schedule — no teen should have to do algebra at 7:45 and eat lunch at 10 am.
I think they benefited most from having a teacher who was fully invested in their outcomes and who cared to find the most effective methods and materials for their particular styles.
Homeschooling, by its very nature, provides the least restrictive environment for children. I believe it would be the best environment for ALL children if the parents had the emotional and character resources to pull it off.For those students whose parents do not feel willing or capable to provide education at home, schools will be necessary. Hopefully, when the death spiral begins, the institutional bureaucracy will give way and schools will become smaller and more flexible to allow talented teachers to work with students in small enough groups they can truly individualize for the particular needs represented.
Many people assume that our outcome was good because I was trained as a teacher. The truth is my formal education was not a factor in the success we enjoyed. I know a mother who had only a GED; if it matters, she is also a minority race. She came to me for help when her son was told in first grade that ‘he’d learned about all he was going to be able to learn’. She was advised that he would not learn to read because he was intellectually challenged and should be put in the “special” class. She knew her son ‘was slow’, but in a deep felt belief that “slow don’t [sic] equal stupid”, she began homeschooling. Because of severe financial limitations as well as her own lack of formal education, she relied on an almost self-teaching program of workbooks. This is not what I would call an “enriched” curriculum.
Over the years we met for her son’s mandated annual achievement testing. Each year her son made progress in reading and math and she required him to read more and more in an effort to enrich his life. When he turned 17, he requested to return to the large public high school. Two years ago I attended his graduation and he now attends a small college. The boy who was told he would not learn to read by trained educators, who was taught by a mother lacking a full education herself, somehow learned enough in 11 years to pass the state competency exam in his first month in school and then go on to pass senior English and Algebra in order to be awarded a standard diploma. Having a teacher who believed in him and adjusted to his particular learning needs made all the difference to this student.
I apologize for the length of this reply. I do appreciate your honest post.
I believe what is missing from public school is the idea that we are raising human beings, not human resources. We institutionalize them as if they are adults working regular hours sitting at desk jobs. Who wants a life like that for your child? We need to try to make an environment where we aren’t just filling them up with facts and figures but aquatinting them with the world and exposing them to the community. School doesn’t do that well. It’s difficult. In Sweden they have these daycare facilities where the parents go and bring the children and the children play and learn while the parents socialize and are there for them as needed. The individualism of the culture is so striking in separating children from the parents as if they can only learn with children from their own age bracket. All the research points to the fact that children do much better with a variety of ages in a natural community with adults, elderly, babies, and children of their same ages. What we are lacking and trying to recreate in homeschooling environments – is real life. (Not real paid-work/job life.) Healthy society where work and more stuff/facts/skills isn’t the end all and be all. Cooperative environments where children can thrive and be joyful and confident.
I did not plan to homeschool. I had many of the same views you describe of of homeschooling parents just wanting to religiously indoctrinate their kids and prevent them from learning about evolution or birth control. Then my older child started junior high the same year my younger child started kindergarten. It was nightmarish for all of us.
My older child had been a good student. She tested as gifted and we were lucky enough to have some really great teachers, for the most part, who challenged her in elementary school. But junior high was one size fits all except for math. Academically she was bored. The structure and the peer issues were incredibly anxiety producing. At the same time my younger child was crying every morning and begging not to go to school. She was developing behavior problems both at school and home. We found out later that she has NLD but the school personnel’s go to explanation was that it was a parenting issue. They tried behavior modification which just made everything worse. So we decided to homeschool. And they are both thriving at home.
The biggest surprise has been the freedom. I did not expect that having my kids home with me instead of at school for six or seven hours a day would increase the freedom we have but it has. Just being free to travel when we want has been amazing. If something we are doing isn’t working for one of them we can just try something else. If my younger daughter needs a break to go run around and burn off some energy we can stop what we are doing and come back to it later. If one of them gets really interested in a project they can just focus on that until they are ready to move on. On cold days we don’t have to get up in the dark and rush through the morning routine and out the door. We are not tied to the school day or calendar. We don’t have to spend our evenings doing homework that seems to me to be just busy work they have no interest in at all. I think the freedom is something that often people don’t expect until they try homeschooling. I know I didn’t.
I would be particularly interested to see some sort of national database for homeschoolers to track trends.
Our family has homeschooled 3 children from day 1. My older two started community college classes in 7/8th grade. By 9th grade, they took all their classes at CC and graduated with AA degrees. Now at 18/19 both are graduating in May with BA’s from a university in Boston.
Both kids are now appliying for 2nd. degree programs. However, my daughter is applying for a 2nd. BA, as she wants to now go to a conservatory for music. FUNNY – but NOT funny fact! You can not apply for federal financial for a 2nd. BA……..I guess that prevents people from being perminant students…..but certainly is a problem when a child skips high school and attends college during those years. Children under 16 are also not allowed to apply for federal financial aid as well. So, this route of education has been quite costly to our family. I still have a 10 year old home, so I am starting to think more on education, classes, and accelerating degrees. As home-schoolers, we are traveling down unpaved roads. It would be nice to have some guides to higher education and how to negiotiate some of these things.
Also – of interest….speaking to the posts that mentioned today’s teaching to tests……on the YALE Law School application – there is now a question about taking the LSAT test. Yale wants to know how long you studied for the test and if you took classes to improve your scores. I find that a step in the right direction for those families (including ours) who NEVER taught to the test!
Yes, I would be too! Wow, your children have had some impressive accomplishments! You must be doing something right 🙂
And I agree. Schools should have more information about how much preparation students have had specifically for a test.
This is a book written by a friend who was a long time teacher. Learning in Crisis,
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-in-Crisis-ebook/dp/B00B2CZZ8W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358876930&sr=8-1&keywords=learning+in+crisis
We began homeschooling because my very bright daughter missed the birth date cutoff by two days. The fact that she was already reading and same age cohorts a week older were not, had no bearing. How hard could kindergarten be anyway? And there was no kindergarten attendance or age requirement for 1st grade, so we’d just send her the next year. Well we discovered her voracious appetite for learning and the great flexibility our family had to travel with my husband when work required him to be away from home. That first year was so much fun, we continued for the next 8 years!
We pushed her to attend public high school for one year because she hesitated to try new things. She decided to complete high school there, but was constantly frustrated by kids and teachers that did not want to learn or even be there. She graduated with a 4.0 and received a National Merit Scholarship (4 yrs tuition and room/board).
Our younger child has always been at the other end of the spectrum developmentally and academically and since we had already been successful with homeschooling, we continued with him. He is now a junior in homeschool high school. I do not think public school would have benefitted him in any way. He probably would have been either pushed along regardless of progress or held back because he was ‘slow’. Neither option good for self esteem or successful learning. He is easily distracted by others and is socially awkward. We know this from classes he has taken at school and elsewhere. We don’t let him avoid difficult situations, but try to limit them to a manageable size (one extra class a semester, membership at a local gym, cooperative learning with other homeschoolers for example).
I personally think middle school is where a lot of problems occur. Many adults throw up their hands in a’ that’s just how they are’ attitude and do little to model good behavior and stop bullying.
We home school for a variety of reasons.
As a former High-School teacher I too often saw in my students the sad outcome of 12 years of public education. I recall once asking my class of 10th-12th graders for their opinion (on a rather “hot” topic” and definitely not in the approved curriculum)…their faces went blank….they looked at one another….and one of the brighter students sheepishly asked “what page is it on”. This is “education” today, working for the grade, memorizing facts for the test, never learning for the pure joy it. That’s why we homeschool.
It wasn’t until grad school that I was ever asked my opinion. And it wasn’t until then that I ever dared to question the book, or the words of the teacher. I value my children’s opinions. I want them to question me, to question the book, to question everything. That’s why we homeschool.
My average-bright son was diagnosed with “special needs”. His learning needs could not be met in a classroom of 20+ kids. The school offered to put him in a classroom where the other students banged their heads on the wall and flung their own excrement about the room. That’s why we homeschool.
My precious daughter is very susceptible to peer pressure. At the end of 4-year-old preschool (kindergarten was next) she came home ascribing to materialistic and racist ideals she certainly didn’t learn at home. Our homeschool play-groups and co-ops are diverse in socio-economic status, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. Her public school was not. That’s why we homeschool.
I am an artist. I want my children to take more art and music classes. Creativity shouldn’t happen every other Thursday at 1:15. I want my children to remain creative, I want them to think anything is possible for as long as possible. That’s why we homeschool.
Recess is too short. There are no windows in the public elementary school’s classroom. They dont allow you watch song birds during class and stop doing math to identify them. We want to have class at the park. That’s why we homeschool.
The bus for elementary school comes at 6:55 am. That’s why we homeschool.
Thank you so much for putting it there effectively! I just came back from a meeting with my son’s counsellor and teachers. He is in Pre K and they have already given up on him. He has above average intelligence and is very curious about things which they obviously cannot fulfill. We are finally making the decision to pull him out of school next week 🙂
The War on Kids: The Definitive Documentary on the Failure of the Public Education System
http://youtu.be/i-tAQ56-gaA
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who had been doing a little research on this. And he actually ordered me dinner simply because I found it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to discuss this topic here on your web site.
I’m so glad you had a good meal! And I’m especially happy that you and your colleague found it useful 🙂
I appreciate this post. I’m a former college professor who left my career to homeschool my kids. We did so for five years. For various reasons, we placed our two oldest kids in public school a year ago and our youngest will begin kindergarten in the fall. You’re completely right about the growing diversity of and motivations for homeschooling. Ours was not a reactionary response against public school {though I was quite dismayed at the skills and knowledge my college students didn’t possess after 13 years in public education.} We simply didn’t want our kids to be away from home so many hours a day at such a young age. We wanted family to be priority, to live and learn together. We wanted time for our kids to explore outside, go on lots of field trips, and learn at their own pace in a way that suited their individuality. We wanted our values to undergird them, not the values and rubrics of bureaucrats of “experts.” We wanted flexibility and freedom, a lifestyle of learning that went beyond traditional classroom protocol. Homeschooling is not easy but those five years were so very sweet for us. I think one of the challenges for those who want to homeschool long-term is sustainability. It’s hard. Parents need a break from kids and kids need a break from parents. Though it sounds lovely, the ideal often clashes with the “real.” I know a lot of parents, myself included, who burned out and needed an alternative. For us it was public school. It’s not an issue of good vs. bad; you simply trade one set of challenges for another. My kids are thriving in school but they did well at home too. I appreciate the uniqueness of both and I believe it’s so very important that parents simply have options and freedom to do what’s best for each kid and for family as a whole. Like you, I worry about what will happen to those “left behind” if there’s an increasing exodus from public schools. But if any society can adapt to changing values, markets, and challenges, surely it’s ours. Growing pains are certainly inevitable but increasing educational options will hopefully force our public education system to take a critical look at how it can serve its populace more efficiently and effectively.
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