Helping you make sense of schooling todayDec. 2000 • Vol. 2 • Issue 8I s home-schooling for you? For some parents, the thought of having to teach their kids (when homework wars are already enough!) evokes terror. Among others, though, the idea of home- schooling as a viable, educa- tional alternative to the traditional classroom is catching on. Last year, nearly two million students — roughly three percent of the school-age population in the United States — were educated by parents at home. In the early 1980s only 15,000 families participated. The population of children now taught at home is expanding by seven to 18 percent a year, according to the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI). The prolific growth of home-schooling as an alterna- tive to conventional classroom education reflects an expanding diversity among parents choosing this method. “Today’s home-schoolers run the gamut of education, economic, religious, ethnic and geographic variations,” said Linda Dobson of the Long Beach, California-based National Home Education Network, a support group for families that are interested in home-schooling. In the Washington, DC area, that diversity is showing in the middle-class African American suburb of Prince George’s County, Maryland, where hundreds of theseparents are opting to educate their children at home. The reasons parents choose to home-school their children vary widely. Some school-at- home parents have joined this alternative educational venue because their local schools fail to challenge their children. Other parents decide for moral or religious reasons. Parents have turned to home-schooling due to safety concerns.Joby Dupree told TheWashington Post that she joinedthe home-school movement because of the unchallenging curriculum at her local school and a lack of emphasis on black achievements and contributions. “I’ve introduced them to the empires of Mali, Ghana and Songhai,” she said. “AndI’ve taught them aboutAfrican American scientists and inventors like Lewis Latimer, who worked with Thomas Edison and invented the first light bulb…” Such focus on deeper acad- emic and cultural pursuits is what tends to unite home- schoolers of different view- points. Homeschoolers tend to teach their children at higher levels, expect more and delve more deeply into issues concerning our country’s history and its people. There are also compa- nies with academic programs that meet the rigorous demands of homeschooling parents. One such program is the Calvert Curriculum, 20,000 of whose high-achievingcourses are being used by homeschooling families here and abroad. Homeschoolers dominate educational websites, too, where they can share lesson plans, approaches to teaching and learning and a plethora of educational infor- mation with one another. Children schooled at-home averaged 1100 on the SAT this year, 81 points higher than the national mean. For two years running, the National Spelling Bee has seen home-schoolers win the challenging contest. High schools and colleges accept home-schooled children like any other student, as long as there are records and tran- scripts in order.IS THIS FOR YOU?It takes an enormous timecommitment to be a successful homeschooler. If you’re considering this route, it’s best to have at least one parent at home as the hands-on instructor for your children. Working parents without help may find it difficult to devote the time needed to give proper instruction to their children. And some parents who have tried home-schooling have found that conventional educa- tion is better suited for their sons and daughters. Whatever your preference, home- schooling is emerging as one of many choices that is avail- able to families as it becomes increasingly clear that the one- size-fits-all traditional approach to schooling is not adequate for many childre n.The New Face of Home-Schooling
