Homeschooling Essay ⋆ Education Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Homeschooling is in some ways the newest and most radical form of private education in the United States—and is, from another perspective, the oldest and most basic approach, as children have always learned from their families. Homeschooling is in some ways the ultimate type of privatization, as it is typically privately funded, privately provided, and (almost fully) privately regulated by parents in the home. About 1.35 million children in the country are being formally and officially educated by their parents or guardians at home—after a titanic struggle between 1975 and 1999 to legalize the effort, as homeschooling was once deemed a violation of “compulsory education” policies in all fifty states. This entry traces the history of that struggle, the pros and cons of the practice, and how it is typically implemented.

The Right To Homeschool

Groups like the National Home School Legal Defense Association have fought in court and in legislatures to assure parents the right to homeschool; now all fifty states recognize the prerogatives of the family as the primary educator. However, universal public education stands as the central principle of most modern societies, with laws requiring that children attend schools from ages about six to eighteen. Homeschooling only became a sticky judicial and policy issue because of these state compulsory education requirements. While some states require parents to report to local school superintendents on their children’s homeschooling progress, all now allow parents to ignore compulsory education and teach their children themselves at home.

Although parents initially wanted to extricate their children from the hands of the state, some families are now turning back to the public schools to help their children. Families are requesting access to afterschool activities at their local public schools (e.g., sports, games, club activities), admission to classes/courses that parents feel unqualified to teach (such as physics, calculus, or the German language), or special services such as speech pathology, counseling, and testing-diagnostic services. While homeschooling parents once fought legally and politically to escape the control of the public schools, some are now pushing the system to admit their children to activities and services that the children may need.

Parents and their advocates such as the National Legal Defense Association have (a) created a strong political base in the United States; (b) built a fast reacting lobbying mechanism that unites a range of families and interest groups around issues of concern to these parents; and (c) increasingly placed homeschooling in the public eye, such as when homeschooled children have won the National Spelling Bee. Leaders of the homeschooling movement understand the importance of the war of words and ideas, and have done well in entering the spotlight and the hearts of Americans.

Pros And Cons

Interest in homeschooling differs by family, but some patterns do emerge. The majority of homeschoolers, about 60 percent, are Christian families who may find the values and behaviors in public schools intolerable. Sex education, absence of prayer and Bible study, and the lack of lessons grounded in Scripture, for example, may make these parents uncomfortable.

Other examples of homeschoolers include parents whose children are in need of special attention (as with gifted, special needs, psychologically troubled children) and who want to handle these problems or concerns themselves at home. Thus, while some parents come to homeschooling for religious or philosophical reasons, other families mainly consider the homeschooling option after the traditional schools have failed to meet the needs of their children.

Many parents worry that public schools are physically dangerous environments; that is, they are seen as filled with drugs, violence, and other physical dangers to the very lives of their children. With the development of Internet technology and printed curricular materials, parents can now buy or download lessons and activities that help them keep current with the latest teaching methods and materials. And homeschooling networks may make up for the isolation, as students and their parents can use the Internet to get assistance with questions and problems, and to connect to one another in a worldwide education network and social community.

Four arguments are often heard when people defend public schools and attack homeschooling. First, critics argue that homeschooling removes children from the wider community—isolating them from important social experiences of schooling. Second, parents who homeschool are not usually trained, licensed educators; thus some critics believe that these families cannot teach their children to high enough standards. Third, homeschooling also diverts interest and in some cases funds from public schools, since many state and local funding formulas are based on Average Daily Attendance (ADA). And fourth, homeschooling is seen as a selfish effort to remove children from the mainstream—and thus their parents from supporting public schools—for example, when bond issues, budgets, and programs are up for public scrutiny and votes.

In important ways, homeschooling is a peek into the future, as Americans take control of their lives and work to overcome the influences of large institutions. While public education in the United States is a major institution based on key familial values, so too is homeschooling an active national return to rugged individualism. Research seems to show that homeschooled children do as well as public school students on tests and are just as likely to go on to college. So the end result of homeschooling is in keeping with the overall purposes and products of K–12 education in the United States.

Bibliography:

Apple, M. W. (2005). Away with all teachers: The cultural politics of homeschooling. In B. S. Cooper (Ed.), Homeschooling in full view: A reader (pp. 75–95). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
Belfield, C. R., & Levin, H. M. (2005). Privatizing educational choice: Consequences for parents, schools, and public policy. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Princiotta, D., & Bielick, S. (2006). Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 (NCES 2006–042). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.
Ray, B. D. (2000). Homeschooling for individuals’ gain and society’s common good. Peabody Journal of Education, 75(1 & 2), 272–293.
Somerville, S. W. (2005). Legal rights for homeschool families. In B. S. Cooper (Ed.), Homeschooling in full view: A reader (pp. 135–149). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
Sutton, J., & Galloway, R. (2000). College success of students from three high school settings. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 33(3), 137–146.

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