An estimated 1 million to 2 million students are homeschooled in America, and this number continues to rise each year. From 1999 to 2007, the homeschooled population in the United States increased from 1.7 percent to 2.9 percent. Here’s a look at homeschooling today and why it’s on the upswing.
What is Homeschooling?
It seems pretty obvious—going to school at home—but there’s a little more to homeschooling than this succinct definition. Home-based education is an alternative to instruction in public or private schools.
Reasons for Homeschooling
Parents or guardians are concerned about the area school’s atmosphere and wish for an alternative.
Parents or guardians wish to add religious or moral instruction to the curriculum that’s not offered locally.
Parents or guardians are dissatisfied with instruction at area public and private schools.
Students are living abroad or in an isolated location.
Students are athletes or actors that wish to be taught at home so they have more time to work on their sport or craft.
Homeschooling History
Homeschooling is not a new concept. For a long time, homeschooling was the main option when it came to education. Alexander the Great and Abraham Lincoln were homeschooled, so clearly this form of learning has been around for a while. Before compulsory education laws, or laws that required people to receive an education, students typically received their education from within their families.
In 1852, Massachusetts was the first state to pass a compulsory attendance law, and by 1918, Mississippi was the last state to enact such a statute. Under these laws, every town in the state was to create and operate a grammar school, with the removal of children and fines imposed on parents and guardians that didn’t send their kids to school. This spread of compulsory attendance in schools is mostly credited to Richard Henry Pratt, who used techniques used on Native Americans in prisoner of war camps. So with compulsory laws, the idea of home education started to die off until Homeschooling Movement in the 1960s.
Homeschooling Movement
Rousas John Rushdoony is viewed as the father of the Christian homeschooling movement. In the 1960s, he attacked American public schools for their lack of religious pedagogy. Around the same time, husband-and-wife team of educators Raymond and Dorothy Moore performed research that found students ages 8 to 12 received ineffective formal schooling and that the bond formed at home produced stronger long-term effects on students. Their studies resulted in the 1975 book Better Late Than Early: A New Approach to Your Child’s Education. In 1977, another American educator named John Holt coined “unschooling” in his newsletter Growing Without Schooling, to describe students freeing themselves from compulsory education.
Before this movement, only Nevada (1956) and Utah (1957) were states that permitted homeschooling. In the 1980s, more states followed suit, including Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, Maryland, Montana, Vermont, and West Virginia. By 1993, a total of 34 states allowed home instruction.
Homeschooling Curriculum
A perk of homeschooling is that there’s not just one method of teaching. Here are a few different ways to instruct students:
All-in-One Curricula – This curriculum is very similar to what you would see in regular school.
Autonomous Learning – Students decide what they want to study by what interests them.
Community – Parents and guardians work with others within the community to create educational co-ops.
Online Education – Students utilize the Internet, with access to instructors and resources there.
Student-Paced Learning – Students work at their own speeds.
Unit Studies – The use of multiple subjects to teach one topic. For example, the topic could be Abraham Lincoln, and you’d study him across all units, from science to history to English.
Unschooling or Natural Learning – Learning comes naturally, through a child’s daily activities. Also referred to as “learning on demand,” since lessons will appear naturally through a child’s interests.
Homeschooling Pros and Cons
Homeschooling Pros
Homeschooling Cons
More active role of parent or family
Fewer resources
Students can be more independent learners.
Less structure sometimes results in poorer instruction and curriculum.
More time to do other activities
Some homeschooling students can have socialization problems.
Modern Homeschooling Programs
What used to be a form of schooling viewed only as conservative with its religious origins now has a liberal slant to it. According to this 2012 Slate article, secular liberal homeschooling is on the rise. In fact, homeschooling has spiked in big cities like New York. Growing reasons why homeschooling is becoming popular in big cities include the homogenization of public education and the growing expense of private-school tuition.
The Bottom Line
At one time, homeschooling was the only option when it came to education. Then, compulsory laws came along and changed that way of thinking. But with more and more alternatives sprouting up, homeschooling is on the rise again.
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