Why Homeschooling Continues to Grow

For evidence that the homeschooling movement is growing up, look no further than the crowd - and excitement - generated by the National Christian Homeschool Basketball Championships held in Oklahoma City.

The 2004 athletic event - in its thirteenth year - drew 240 teams from 26 states, featured over 600 games, and attracted college coaches eager to scout players. In attendance was Texan Debbie Verwers, the mother of Stephen Verwers, a homeschool graduate, who currently plays for Colorado State University’s basketball team. Upshot? The extracurricular athletic activities that exist for active home scholars is only one cultural indicator that homeschooling has graduated from its fledgling, countercultural beginnings in the 1970s into a more popular choice.

The early days of homeschooling were not without their own buzz. Grant Colfax's admission into Harvard in 1983 (he was also accepted to Yale) attracted wide attention because he had been homeschooled by his bookish, hard-working mother and father - David and Micki - on a ranch in northern California. The teenager’s acceptance to the venerable New England institution was proof that a schooled-at-home (and homesteading) student could acquire the type of education necessary to gain entrance into one of the most selective schools in the world.

While home education wasn't a new phenomenon, young Colfax, as well as his adventuresome parents, served as the catalysts to awaken a sleeping giant. A generation of baby boomers, who were in the thick of parenting and who were dismayed at the bureaucratic mindset that had overtaken American public education, now had inspiration to take the educational road less traveled. The 'Colfax method' gained even more credibility when Grant's younger (and homeschooled) brothers - Drew and Reed - were subsequently admitted into Harvard.

Twenty years later the electrifying accomplishments of the Colfaxes have been slightly eclipsed by a new generation of homeschoolers, who are also crafting impressive vitae. For instance, when Calvin McCarter, age 10, a homeschooler from Michigan, won the 2002 National Geographic Bee, he became the youngest competitor to ever win the contest. Home scholar Kyle Williams has been a political columnist for WorldNetDaily.com, since he was twelve years old. After his book Seen and Heard was published, the then 14-year-old Williams weathered a media blitz that included television interviews with Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Bill Press, and Judy Woodruff.

Besides winning academic contests and enrolling in Ivy League schools, homeschoolers have been elected to public office, managed successful businesses, played on national sports teams, made a mark in Hollywood, authored popular books, graduated from law schools, and served in the armed forces. They show no signs of resting on their laurels. For its 1999 competition, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation selected 137 homeschoolers as semifinalists, and their numbers have steadily risen each year. In 2004, there were 250 homeschooled students selected as semifinalists.

Even their small numbers, estimated by the U.S. Department of Education at approximately 1.1 million last year, only a cynic would find the achievements of homeschooled students unremarkable.

"Educating children under the supervision of parents instead of school teachers " (p. 1) is how Patricia Lines (1993), a home education researcher, has defined homeschooling. Brian Ray (2003), another veteran researcher, has written: "Some families organize homeschools like a conventional school, with structured daily activities. Others view all of life as an opportunity for learning and use a very flexible schedule. Most families provide educational experiences outside as well as inside the home.”

Homeschooling, like other grass-roots movements of the twentieth century, is largely a middle-American endeavor. Ponder this description of the 'typical' family: "…they are more likely than other students to live with two or more siblings in a two-parent family, with one parent working outside the home. Parents of homeschoolers are, on average, better educated than other parents - a greater percentage have college degrees - though their incomes are about the same. Like most parents, the vast majority of those who homeschool their children earn less than $50,000, and many earn less than $25,000" (“Homeschooling Here to Stay,” 2003).

Many families are are "kitchen-table" homeschoolers, which means that a parent, typically the mother, sits at a table or a desk helping the children with their studies. Some home educators think of their endeavor as 'family-schooling' or 'parent-funded' and want the practice to remain wholly independent of government money and control, an issue that is often debated by home education bloggers and activists.

But in an age of unprecedented technological innovation and mobility, one fact is clear: It’s relatively easy and cost-effective for a youngster to bypass institutionalized schooling and receive a well-rounded education. Online classes, homeschool cooperatives, tutors, internships, volunteer work, travel, home businesses, hobbies, sabbaticals, even the great outdoors - these serve as gateways to the examined, enriched life.

One young Floridian - Jonathan Lord - has successfully combined several of these opportunities. The St. Petersburg Times reports, "Besides learning at home, Jonathan now takes math through a private tutor, creative writing classes at the co-op, chemistry through homeschooling classes offered at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, and dual-enrollment classes in English and Spanish at Pasco-Hernando Community College" (Miller, 2003).

Other enterprising teens have used the flexibility of schedule to pursue extracurricular pursuits that range from the flashy to the altruistic. Emoly West, a homeschool graduate and college freshman, will be competing in this year‘s Miss Oklahoma competition. She has used past pageant prize winnings to pay for college tuition. At 17, Iowa homeschooler Kelby Fujan, passed the written test to obtain his airplane pilot's license while accruing almost 50 college credits. Sam Goodman, a young teen-aged homeschooler from Indiana, regularly volunteers at a community food bank and has earned an award for his service.

In contrast to public school students, who are grouped by age and not ability, who are expected to arrive and depart at particular times, and who are labeled “learning disabled” regardless of potential, homeschoolers can receive their instruction in a highly-individualized fashion, often beginning at an early age. Their parents have a clear idea where their interests lie and the style of learning most suited to them, without being hampered with worries about bullies, politicized curriculum, teachers’ union squabbles, or the air quality of the buildings.

Parents and students with a bent toward high achievement at the tertiary level have even come to view homeschooling as a ticket to success in college. Writing in Signatures, a publication of Anderson University, Maryann Koopman (2003) reports that the Indiana school admits a "fair number of homeschoolers each year." Jim King , director of admissions at Anderson, offers this: " ... homeschooled students are better prepared for the 'independent learning' atmosphere of college than the typical school student ...." (Koopman, 2003).

While these heartwarming stories have, no doubt, nudged families toward the school-free lifestyle, my own analysis of 300 newspaper and magazine articles revealed that the top four reasons to homeschool were dissatisfaction with the public schools, the desire to freely impart religious values, academic excellence, and the opportunity to build stronger family bonds. Those findings coincide with the reasons advanced by the National Home Education Research Institute, which includes “controlled and positive peer social interactions, quality academics, alternative approaches to teaching and learning, and the safety (e.g., physical, drug-related, psychological, emotional, and sexual) of children and youth” (Ray, 2000).

When it’s all said - and by now a countless number of articles, commentaries, and research papers have been written about homeschooling - perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned is how important the concept of liberty is to the delivery of education. Parents must have opportunity to do what is right by their children and not be limited by geographic location, punitive state laws, or societal prejudices. When freedom and choice peacefully exist, students thrive, and, ultimately, society benefits. As Dr. Lines (2000) has stated, "The hard evidence suggests that the vast majority of homeschooling families are more active in civic affairs than public school families."

It will be interesting to observe, in the coming years, what a generation of such civic-minded homeschooled individuals bring to the education reform debate.

Homescholing is here to stay. (2001, August 20). CBSnews.com. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/

Koopman, M. (2003). Homeschoolers pass the test and the torch. Signatures. Retrieved from http://www.anderson.edu/.

Lines, P.M. (2000). Homeschooling comes of age. Discovery Institute. Retrieved from http://www.discovery.org/.

Miller, M. (2003). Homeschooling: drop the stereotypes. St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved from http://www.sptimes.com.

Ray, B.D. (2000). Fact sheet IIb. National Home Education Research Institute. Retrieved from http://www.nheri.org/.

Ray, B.D. (2003). Home schooling. World Book Online Americas Edition. Retrieved from http://aolsvc.worldbook.com/ar?/co/ar260563.htm.

It is apparent that you're like most homeschool worshipers. Any opinion that doesn't purport homeschooling to be the Second Coming of Christ is automatically dismissed. The instances I have been discussing are instances about which I personally know. You might call it anecdotal. It's fine if you dismiss that. You are trying to pin me down to your view that homeschooling is always the right choice, every parent is qualified to do it, and every child is able to handle it. I'm sorry, but I just don't believe that.

Whoa..!! Now that was quite the flame rant.!! LOL!! Kinda touchy ain't ya?

You have no idea what I am "like"...Nor do you have any speck of a clue as to what I think of Home Schooling or Public Schools...for I have not discussed them on this thread.

I originally posted to you after you made a pretty subjective blanket statement. I asked that you site a source. You never did.

IMO, you dodged the question altogether. So be it. I then attempted to point out to you that...maybe it was you who were actually a bit defensive..as I figured you to be a P.S. teacher. My gosh, how dare I pose a question to you...the highly educated, and kingly crowned educator...with all this profound personal experience...LOL!! Give me a break......

I understand your point .. but I think those people are very VERY few and far between. In fact I've never met a homeschooling family like that at all.

Just the very nature of the desire to homeschool (whatever that desire is..) would eliminate most people like that. If they TRULY do not care how their kids turn out - they probably wouldn't pull their kids out of school in the first place - because it would mean being home with them all day... (which believe me can get very trying.. ;) )

Now - it may be that they are not "educating" in a "traditional" manner - so you percieve that their children are not being educated... well what it really boils down to is a difference in "educational styles" .. not eliminating education at all.

We pulled our son out of our local Christian school not because we were unhappy with the education he was getting - in fact we LOVED the education he was getting. Our son has a medical condition that made it difficult for him to keep up during the hours that class was held. We found the poor kid was going to school all day.. then if he had a seizure during the school day we were repeating everything that night .. AND keeping up with homework. His stress level came down dramatically when we started homeschooling... and his seizure have become almost non-existant.. The allowing for better sleep, being able to adjust his schedule around his health needs, as well as by my being with him 24/7 I could better assess how his meds affected him.

Now I realize I'm just one case - but you probably would wonder about our "education" as we do not neccesarily just sit in a classroom setting all day on a set schedule. He and I work on language arts, literature and science during the day. Husband does math and history in the evening.. it works for us - I know another family that their girls are very involved in the day to day working of their farm, as well as doing their schoolwork in the evening... it works for them. Once again it is not a traditional setting.

The remark you made was to a statement I made - I apologize if you felt is was "snide"

I said: Sorry .. I don't buy it .. just because someone has the "qualifications" doesn't mean they are a good teacher. Also - unfortunately for teachers they just aren't allowed to teach.

Someone said earlier that there is so much wasted time in school - and there is.. honestly sit down and TALK to some kids about what it going on... it's really very sad. There's so much time spent on the whole concept of "social skills" that there is very little time left for the kids to learn. Many people go onto further learning to take them to a profession and they are not suited for the job... I was in the travel industry for many years, and frankly the people who went to "travel school" because the job seemed "glamorous" or they had the mistaken notion that they would make money did not make the best employees. It was the person that had a passion for travel that excelled.

I've met many teachers that had that passion for learning - unfortunately I've met many that did not ..

The difference is the vast majority of homeschooling parents are doing it because they have a passion to do .. for whatever reason.. whether it be to uphold their religious values that you allude to, or that they are not happy with their particular school system, or they want to protect their children from very dangerous popular culture.

I'm curious .. do you have children? Are you happy with the education they have recieved in the public school system?

i'm not missing your point... i'm just making a point... and here is another:

if a homeschool parent is not what you call a "good teacher," does that mean he ought to hang it up, lock the doors on his homeschooling endeavors and send his children to government or private school? perhaps everyone should just be patient to see if he can work it out, try something new... we ought to give it time... aren't these the very things we hear from government educators? if you do think the homeschooler ought to hang it up, then to be fair, you must be willing to shut down every government school and fire every government educator who misses whatever standard it is you are using for homeschoolers...

"Ay, there's the rub..." many government educators are so overly concerned about what "might" be going on or what "might not" be going on in the homes of homeschoolers, and want so badly to get their hands in there, even though they have so many known failures in the schools they do have charge over...

personally, i would rather keep my children home doing what may be considered "nada" in the eyes of government educators than send them to even a top-notch government school... i do take issue when someone, yet again, brings up the, "some people say they are homeschooling, but they're really not," argument... i suppose this has taken over the "what about socialization?" argrument.

"by whose standards?" is my question...

i believe that government educators really ought to make sure their own house is in order... work to make all the schools they do have charge over, "top-notch" schools, before they point fingers at homeschoolers who are not their charge...

Dear Serenissima Venezia,

"Now what you did was a rant. What you called a rant was a calm, well-articulated opinion."

You may need to go back and examine each post in question, or review your standards for a rant.

From SALChamps03's post:

"Any opinion that doesn't purport homeschooling to be the Second Coming of Christ is automatically dismissed."

The hyperbole employed in this post is clearly rant material. Usually, calm posting does not invoke the Second Coming of Christ, especially considering that some readers may take offense to this as a mild blasphemy.

"You are trying to pin me down to your view that homeschooling is always the right choice, every parent is qualified to do it, and every child is able to handle it."

The absolutizing and polarizing of opinions is a sign of a rant. The lack of factual basis (I don't think the poster has asserted that homeschooling is always the right choice, or that every parent is qualified to do it, or that every child is able to handle it [although I will point out that homeschooling is actually a more natural way of educating children, and thus, there are likely to be fewer children who can't "handle" it than who can't handle "traditional" schools]) for the statement makes it all the more clear that it is a rant.

From Osage Orange's post:

"I asked that you site a source. You never did."

That's a statement of fact, and a bringing the conversation back to questions of fact. It's a legitimate point, it happens to be true. Not rant material.

"IMO, you dodged the question altogether."

The "IMO" ("in my opinion") qualifies the statement, leaving room for other conclusions, even while asserting that the poster believes this ("you dodged the question altogether") is the proper conclusion.

In fact, in reading over the exchange of posts between the two posters, Osage Orange appeals to SALChamps03 to offer his opinions backed up by some factual material, some citations, some sources, to make his claims, which seem outlandish, more credible. SALChamps03, in reality, never does provide any source, any citation. Osage Orange merely tries to move the conversation from the level of invective to the level of honest debate based on honest differences. It is SALChamps03 who reacts defensively, making bald assertions without factual evidence, who refuses to elevate the level of the discussion. As he has done with others, here.

I think you have it backwards. Your bias appears to be showing.

sitetest

No, I believe you are misinformed. The subject competency test involves only teachers at the 7th grade and up levels. And the source I cite very specifically notes the place in the NCLB law where teachers can pass an "alternative" assessment - assessment by one (or more) of their peers, rather than a standardized test. As I pointed out, that is not even a pretense at an objective assessment of knowledge.

You misread my post and objected to what I did not say. Read it again, and go read the law. You'll see the alternative I mentioned.

Sorry, it's not me "making things up", in your words. And no, I didn't see any attacks here that were of a personal nature. I saw a lot of calls for sources for statistics that seemed to be out of whack with most peoples' experience. Rather, if you look at the posts, you'll see one teacher who got very defensive when asked to explain himself. That's what a lot of us object to in teachers - they act like mini-gods, and attack when asked to explain themselves.

"Not everyone can afford for one parent to stay home to do this."

Also:

"Wished I could have homeschooled my child. Unfortunately, single parents don't have a choice. "

I have come up with an inexpensive alternative:
We have been discussing ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda and other idiocies:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84

Unfortunately my thread title was not well thought out, because some parents might instinctively skip over it due to attached stigma, whether real or imagined.

Perhaps podkane is a troll. He/she/it signed up on July 7, 2005, made the ridiculous troll-like attack two days ago to which you (and several others) replied, and hasn't been back since.

Thought police here? is this DU?? Sorry I was away, but was just reading through replies to this and other threads..

WHO DID I ATTACK?? My post was complimentary to homeschoolers, just pointing out that it was a very nontrivial undertaking that not all of us are up to..

As for some earlier reply, it ISN'T a surprise that home-schooled kids excel. Involved parents = performing kids, and you can see that even in the public schools.. those parents who meet the teachers, oversee homework, calling the principal when there's a problem, etc.

Dear podkane,

"WHO DID I ATTACK??"

ROTFLMAO! You clearly have a future in comedy. Whom did you attack?? Here is your attack:

"On the order of 90% + people who start home-schooling, abandon it within a year, not appreciating the tremendous amount of work it takes."

This is an attack against all homeschoolers. You have posited that 90% of homeschoolers have given so little forethought to the education of their children, and their own educational choices for their children that they are unable to last even a year homeschooling.

If you are unable to see the attack in that, then that speaks volumes about you, all of it bad.

Then, when you were challenged to back up your lie with facts, well, you weren't there anymore to respond. That's troll behavior. Coming from someone that's only been here a couple of weeks, that's even more indicative of troll status.

But now you're here. Back up your lie with some objective sources. If you can't (and you can't, because it's so laughably not true that if you'd have posted AFTER you got your brain in gear, rather than BEFORE, you'd realize your lie is statistically quite improbable, perhaps even impossible), then be prepared to wear the label "troll."

"...that not all of us are up to..."

Yes, well, I would recommend that you continue to refrain from homeschooling, if you have children. Although I'm confident that the overwhelming majority of parents have the intrinsic abilities to homeschool, you appear to be an exception.

sitetest

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