THE DAY HOMESCHOOLING DIES

My oldest son, Seth, was homeschooled the entire time he lived at home. This past summer, as he and I were discussing his upbringing, I had a realization about this movement we all call "homeschooling," and I said to Seth, "When you have kids, they will not be public schooled. They won't be private schooled. They won't be Christian schooled."

The realization I had while talking with Seth is that God had begun something twenty years ago that came to be called “homeschooling,” but which really wasn’t about schooling at all. Here's what I mean.

For thousands of years children have grown up in what today would be considered an unnatural place—the home. In this setting, parents never thought of themselves as "home schoolers." There was no alternative to children spending their days at home, having knowledge, experiences and character passed to them by their parents and extended family. What children needed to know, they learned as part of their daily lives: sowing and reaping, weather, how a business works, how to treat customers (and everyone else, for that matter). Life was their education.

Throughout history, small, homogeneous groups have attempted to provide a common education for their youth, yet it wasn’t until around the mid 1800's that entire nations decided to take children out of the home and “school” them. I will briefly mention the two main causes for this dramatic change in the way we began raising our children. Interestingly, both occurred at approximately the same time.

First, in the mid-1800’s the Industrial Revolution began. The new factories needed laborers and the siren call went out for men to leave their homes and be paid a salary (something new for most men). The possibility of being able to increase one’s family's standard of living was the draw that caused men to cease being patriarchs of a family enterprise and become employees.

Around this same time, another movement was taking shape: The Common (Public) School movement. The leaders of the Public School movement were, for the most part, humanists who were concerned about two things they believed endangered America’s future: The continuation of what they called religious superstitious beliefs and the influx of illiterate immigrants seeking jobs and a better life in this country. These leaders believed that realizing their two-fold goal of ridding our society of religion and providing an education for immigrant children mandated compulsory education for every child. Soon, the various states were passing compulsory attendance laws and children began to be public schooled en masse.

So, as dads were leaving home with a promise of employment, children were also leaving home with a promise of being made employable for the next generation. Within a very short period of time, the family unit that had been tightly held together for generations, became a set of individuals going their separate ways. To the factories went the dads. To the schools went the kids. Where Mom went is the subject of another article.

It wasn’t long before people forgot what it was like to be a family with Dad as the head of a "family enterprise" and the whole family working together as co-producers. In one generation, the cultural memory of children growing up at home was forgotten. Children belonged "in school" during the most productive hours of their day, learning whatever would make them employable, becoming independent, establishing strong friendships that replaced the bonds of family. And what had been a lifestyle of learning became "book learning" as learning became separated from real life. Of course, there was always a small group of families whose children never attended public school. Typically, these were American's wealthiest whose children received exclusive private educations in areas intended to prepare them for leadership in government, education, science and business. Most Americans don’t realize that public school was never intended to prepare leaders. It has always been intended to prepare employees. [For a fuller understanding of this subject, read John Gatto's books, The Underground History of American Education, A Different Kind of Teacher, and Dumbing us Down].

In the 1950's—one hundred years after the of the public school movement began—some middle class parents began to desire an educational experience for their children whose curricula was more individualized. It was at this time that the private school movement began. I attended one of these schools in what should have been my fourth grade. It was little more than an experimental school run by one man who was also the only teacher. He didn’t like having one fourth grader, so I was skipped to fifth grade where there was one other student. I don't remember learning much, but it was more fun than public school!

During the Civil Rights years, the Christian school movement began along with its own particular brand of curricula which was mainly "Christianized" public school material. The concept remained that children were to be brought out of their homes and taught by educators, (presumably Christian), who, because they were “professionals” would do a better job of training children than could the children’s parents. It seemed that parents would now get the best of both worlds: a public-style education that was also Christian.

Then, in the late 1970's and early 1980's, a new schooling movement began. All over the country, parents began keeping their children home instead of sending them to one of the other schooling options. Some parents made this decision out of concern for their children’s safety. Others didn’t like the education their children were receiving. However, the majority decided to keep their children home simply because they wanted a relationship with them and parents didn’t think this could happen very well if the kids were gone all day long. It was quite a novel (and controversial) idea that children should be kept home during the schooling hours of the day.

So, today, parents have several choices as to how their children might be educated:

Note that the above choices relate to where and how the child is educated. In the past 150 years we have changed the first word, but we have not changed the last word, “School.” Each choice still emphasizes the fact that children are to be "schooled."

I don't know how keeping our children home during the day came to be known as "Home Schooling," but I do have a theory: If I asked most adults, "What is the appropriate activity for every child, age six to age eighteen, during the days Monday through Friday?" Most adults would say, "These are the years when a child is being schooled, of course." That is why we have such phrases in our vocabulary as the "school age child." So, if a child is to be "schooled" during these formative years, the only real question is, "Where will he be schooled?" Today, the answer is, "He will either be public schooled, private schooled, Christian schooled, or home schooled."

Assuming, then, that every child is to "be schooled" during the day, if he is home during the day, he will be home schooled during the day. Hence the origin of the label "homeschooling."

Is “schooling” really supposed to be a child’s primary daily activity? It wasn’t until the advent of the modern public school movement. Schooling a child was never meant to be the "constant" with the variable being where the child spends his or her day. It has always been just the other way around.

What is so problematic with the term "Home Schooling" is what it has done to parents whose children are spending their days at home. Giving an activity a label means something to those involved in the activity. If we are comfortable with certain words in the label and not so comfortable with other words, those words with which we feel least secure will take on greater significance. Insecurity is a nice word for fear. Whatever we fear becomes a driver in our lives as we attempt to overcome our fear and feel secure again.

When we sent our children to school, we felt a sense of security that trained professionals were educating them. We didn't pretend that we could do a job which others had spent years being trained to do. We might feel that we could raise our children in some areas, but not to provide for their education.

Then, one day, we became homeschoolers. Insecure homeschooler; but homeschoolers nevertheless. However, since what we were doing was labeled "homeschooling," we, in our insecurity, actually became home-SCHOOLERS rather than HOME-schoolers. The importance of our children becoming educated (isn't that what children do during the day?) took on greater prominence than the importance of them being home. This is understandable when we realize that there is no cultural memory of what having our children home really means to the family or to society.

What did I mean when I told my son, "And, your kids won't be homeschooled"? During Seth's years at home, his academic education was never the main priority. In our home, we did have a rigid priority structure, but those priorities were first relationships; second, practical skills; and, finally, academics. Seth grew up with a strong academic upbringing, but academics were never our priority. Seth is a skilled, very competent individual of the highest character. He is also one of the happiest young men I have ever known. As I look back at Seth's time at home, I have come to realize that he was never "homeschooled." He simply grew up in a most remarkable place—his home

When our children were young we would take them with us to the store. Other kids were in school. The check-out lady would inevitably ask, "You boys aren’t in school today?" Since the boys knew we were homeschoolers, they would respond, "No, ma’am, we’re homeschooled."

If I could do it all over again, I would not call ourselves "homeschoolers." I have actually come to dislike the term because I think it creates significant problems. If I were starting over again, when the lady at the store says, "You boys aren't in school today?" I would teach the boys to say, simply, "No ma'am," and let it go at that.

In just the past year I have noticed a growing distinction between families who are homeschooling and those whose children are home, but not being homeSCHOOLED. Are the "not-being-homeschooled" children receiving a quality upbringing, including a quality education? Today enough research exists that I can honestly say an unequivocal “yes”. I would even go so far as to say that the not-being-homeschooled child is receiving an education which is superior to the child being homeschooled. [For a fuller discussion on this, see our article, "Identity-Directed Homeschooling"].

The availability of what has come to be known as “prepackaged curricula” is helping manifest a separation of the two types of families who were once grouped together under the one term: “homeschoolers.” Many parents purchase prepackaged curricula because they don't understand what God originally intended when He began this movement over twenty years ago.

What do you think your children should be doing all day now that they are home? Probably the most obvious way to determine what you really believe is to ask yourself, “Is my child the constant or is my child’s education the constant?” Look at the materials you use to bring learning into your child’s life. Do you use graded, prepackaged, curricula? Is your child in a grade as he would be if he were in an institutional setting? Do you follow the institutionalized Scope & Sequence educational model? Or, have you stepped completely out of the lock-step, institutional way of raising your child?

This article is not intended to discourage, but to give hope. In most parents’ hearts is the desire to reprioritize their lives around what is truly important to them: having a relationship with their children. To bring your children home can be an immense lifestyle change. For some, making this change has to be done in stages. If you have brought your children home it may have been necessary (for a season) to place before them the ever popular “curriculum-in-a-box.” Hopefully, that season will be short. Our children never went to school, were never in a grade, and we never used a prepackaged curriculum. Nevertheless, it took us a while to learn all that I am sharing with you here. Be encouraged. You are allowed to do what your heart tells you is right.

Right now, nearly two million children are spending their days at home rather than “at school,” thus putting an end to a 150 year "detour" which began in the 1850’s and which seriously harmed family life and Kingdom community as God initially intended them to be lived. As families leave this detour and turn onto the road whose name is “Life As It Was Intended To Be,” we will see vistas we have only read about in books. Let me offer some suggestions.

1 | Don’t send your children to school. Any school. Bring them home. Raise them to be the individuals God has created them to become.

2 | Don’t bring the school, any school (along with its "efficient", but arbitrary, grade levels, scope & sequence, and boxed curriculum) into your home. Allow your children to learn through life and the relationships around them.

3 | Learn how to awaken curiosity in your children. (This is the subject of a future EJournal.)

4 | The only thing that should be prepackaged is your child. By this I mean your child was born with all the talents, giftings, and callings put into him or her since the foundation of the world. Find out what these are and let your child become truly good at what you find. [For a fuller discussion of this, order the Davis' tape, "Identity Directed Homeschooling"]

5 | Dad's heart must turn toward his children and the hearts of the children must turn toward Dad. Ultimately, this may bring Dad out of the corporate workforce to come home. This final step may take another generation to be fulfilled. But, for it to be fulfilled, Dads must at least begin moving in that direction (ie. Giving his children the option of becoming entrepreneurs).

6 | In your own home, let "homeschooling" die. In other words, don't homeschool your children.

God has asked us to raise a generation prepared for the future by becoming exactly what He intended each person to become. This will be different for each and every child. Your home is the place where the acorn can become the oak tree. Or, the seed can become the maple tree. Or, the other seed can become the pine tree. Plant your children squarely in their own home and allow the individual God created to grow.

oops...I forgot to see how old this thread is. I'm not sure this information will still be desired, but here it is anyway.

We unschool our 4 children, ages: 8, 7, 6 and 4. We have some workbooks of varying grade levels about the house that the kids can work on if they want (but don't really have to unless I think they need to practice sitting still for a while LOL). Mostly we find that life provides plenty of opportunity to learn every day.

Our state is pretty lax on the legal requirments of educating at home, we have to teach the "seven subjects" in the english language and that's all...no mandatory registration, no standardized testing and the state has to prove (without prior access to our children) that we are NOT educating properly before they can begin an investigation. We don't have to keep any kinds of records of our/their work or progress at all.

As far as the WAY we unschool and still get them to learn some basic skills that they are not currently interested in, we encourage an interest.

For example: My oldest daughter just turned 7 less than a month ago. I have a friend who is a public school teacher and I can generally get an idea of where she would be in different skills, in the local public school. Her reading is easily in the 4th or 5th grade level and math in the 3rd. We're not really sweatng any of it right now. I'm happy with her progress and encourage her to read by gifting her books on subjects I'd like her to take an interest in. If she doesn't show an interest but one of her younger sibs does, I encourage them to ask her to read it to them. They're getting exposure to reading with a patient, loving teacher and she gets a thrill out of feeling so grown up as to be able to read to the youngers adn gets exposure to the material I wanted her to study at the same time. Usually she shows further interest after that.

My oldest son, though, at 8 doesn't like to read at all. He CAN and I've CAUGHT him reading websites about the Airforce and aircraft and UNDERSTANDING all of it better than I do! He doesn't like to display his skills on demand and doesn't always choose to display them on his own. It's a tricky thing to get him interested in anything that wasn't first his idea but we're getting along ok. I encourage him to read by NOT helping him as much in the way he wants.

When he brings me something I am sure he can read and asks me to read it to him, I put my finger on the first word and ask him to read it. If he still balks, I lead him through sounding the word out (what's that first letter...what does it sound like? Great! Now let's put it with the second letter...) until he reads it on his own in self defense. It's a challenging technique that requires an inordinate amount of patience and intimate knowledge of the personality of my boy. I very much doubt a PS teacher who only sees him in a class room with 18-28 other children could accomplish it.

The bottom line, I guess, for me is that no two children are the same size and shape, intelectually. No educational program that is, by design, meant to fit everyone can possibly work to their best advantage. It can ONLY fit a bell curve and the kids that get lost by not being in the middle area acceptable losses.

That's not acceptable to me.

I saw someone post something about money being a problem too...I have to say, we don't have any. My husband is an RN working in the lowest paying nursing home in our region and there are some bills that get rotated each month as to which one is going to be paid. That means some of them don't get paid every month as they should and it also means there isn't any extra money at all left over.

I won't say I don't work, but mine is the type that doesn't bring home a paycheck. I work at home, making our house a home and raising our children. We have not found that our form of "schooling" requires much, if any, extra money. We buy workbooks on occasion if they don't cost too much and we have a little extra cash but the kids treat them like puzzle books or coloring books...play, not to be taken too seriously.

We've run into the problem of grading as our church uses the local school grading system to place age groups together for youth group activities...K, 1st and 2nd graders are in one group, 3rd and 4th graders in another...We've asked what age each grade is in to determine where to place the kids and if the work they do in that group isn't challenging enough we get them bumped up a class if they want to go.

We haven't had any problems with socialization. If anything our children are more friendly and outgoing, less reserved and shy than their age mates in PS. They interact well and converse with adults adeptly and tend to choose friends who are slightly older than they are themselves. They have absolutely no use for bullies and can't understand why people like that behave that way. I've seen them simply shrug their shoulders and walk away to find something more interesting to do rather than deal with the confrontation with an aggressive child.

When talking about socialization, understand also that we don't really get out much. We go to church twice a week, so they interact with the kids there and we go do the shopping and bills twice a month when we get paid. The rest of the time we stick close to home because we can't really afford the gas to drive the 1hour round trip to town as often as we would like. We go to church in a close town so the time spent driving is only half as much but we have still wound up stuck at home those last few days before we get paid again because we only had enough gas left to get TO town, not home again.

They play with the kids here in our little farming community (population 200) after the neighborhood gets home from school and there's a good sampling of personalities available but in the end there are only about a dozen or so kids available to play with over all. We live across from the town park, though, so that provides plenty of opportunity.

I think I long winded myself out. If you have any questions about how we go about unschooling I'd be happy to share our methods in more depth. My home email is vmb@crackedpotpublications.com Just put "About Un-Schooling" or something like that in the subject line so I'll remember this conversation LOL

VMB

Wow, this thread has more incorrect info on home education than any I've ever seen in one place.
Chris Davis is not an unschooler, although he is a wonderful and wise mentor.
Also, he doesn't say this despite recommending curriculum because The Elijah Co doesn't sell curriculum anymore, and one of our most valuable home ed resources for new hsing parents is no more. (the company catalog)

Dr. Raymond Moore, the "grandfather of homeschooling" made up the phrase "home school" (and he regrets it, because of it's link to "school" It's really much different, or can be)

CA does not require that you must keep records and we must follow a curriculum set forth by the state in order to homeschool. In CA home education is not addressed in the law at all. If you follow the whims of the state, you'll jump through unneccessary hoops the rest of your life.

If you don't want to read The Underground History of American Education, or know too much to do so, then try Dumbing Us Down, same author: John Taylor Gatto.
His Six Lesson Schoolteacher article online is great too, now it's the Seven Lesson Schoolteacher though, he's updated it.

I'm not even going to address if it's too late after 2nd grade, to learn reading or anything else. It's too rigid and silly of an idea to explore. Read "Better Late Than Early" by Dr. Raymond Moore.

"provided they have some mastery of the subject" and "we have education but still uncomfortable with homeschooling the kids"
haha, I'll put virtually any home educated kid up against most any public school educated kid, any day. No, it would be a rout. Not even equal, or fair. Can't do that. :D

Often times teachers find it most difficult to homeschool, since what they learn is "crowd control" not education.

This one is the most precious: "a typical parent is no longer qualified to teach"
ho ho! This is such an ignorant and self indulgent statement. I just wonder how we parents are doing it, since we can't do it! I guess we're just like bumblebees flying, it can't be done, and yet we are doing it.

Look up the Hebrew method vs the Egyptian method of educating. Or write me, I have to go now.
ahhh, too many more to address.

S. home educating for 14 years and still learning.

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