There are nearly as many reasons as there are homeschoolers, but the underlying issue seems to be one of control: Who will control the content, question and answer.Homeschooling started with parents at the political fringes of the right and left who either wanted their children taught good Christian values or did not want them controlled by a state system that might indoctrinate them into a certain way of thinking.
More recently, the homeschooling movement has broadened to include a wider cross section of people. Many of them are dissatisfied with their child's education for a variety of reasons. Some parents feel it isn't personal enough to meet the unique needs of their child, that it isn't flexible enough to challenge their child, or that it isn't structured enough to provide a strong basic education. With access to curriculums via the Internet and with the proliferation of curricular options—such as commercially produced books, audio tapes, CD-ROMs, and Web sites—homeschooling has become a realistic option for many parents who are willing to invest their own time in educating their child. It is a movement that has not yet peaked.
[question posted by antony2best]
responses and comments:
Most people that I know that are homeschooling are doing it because they disagree with the learning system we have in place. While I agree that our school systems are not perfect, and sometimes very frustrating, I haven't decided how I feel about homeschooling. I know some people that take homeschooling very serious. They have a scehdule and a system of learning that they stick to, realizing that structure is just as important for children as the actual educational information they learn. I also know some people that have decieded to adopt "unschooling" for their children. This disturbs me a bit because there doesn't seem to be any real structure or teaching going on. It is supposed to be supported by the idea that children learn every day in their regular life so as long as you are providing them with new information they will learn it. While I think that is great for the first few years a child is of school age, what about all the things they need to learn that is not in every day experiences. How will they be able to go to college if they cannot do the classwork because they never learned it? [HouseKat]
Avonrep...thanks for your positive notes on unschooling. It is the new hot button. Now people are recognizing that homeschooling isn't as bad as they thought, so this is the new target. It really gets to me at times, when people think I should be forcing my kids to learn things they are either not ready for, have gotten past, or could care less about. People don't live in our homes hearing us talk about anything and everything with our kids. They don't see the kids excelling in areas other kids wouldn't even think to explore. That charter school sounds pretty cool. It would be interesting to see where my kids fit in. My 9 year old is very advanced in most of her studies. She reads at a 7th to 8th grade level, she works on math that I sometimes have a hard time with, her understanding of science is amazing, and her tech skills are impecable. So what if she still can't get up in front of 20 people and read a report, so what if she still hasn't mastered cursive writing. Some things just really don't matter, until the need arises for them. Also, people don't get the fact that if something is presented to a child, and it means nothing to them, it will have to be drilled over and over again before the child gets it. BUT if you wait and present the concept or information when the child is interested in it, or they have found a purpose for it, the stuff sticks. Generally, unschoolers only need a few minutes of instruction and the stuff just sticks...no drills...no pop quizzes, no reinforcement...the stuff is there, filed neatly in their brains for future use. Choosing to unschool was the best choice we ever made as well. [edgyk8inmomma]
When I started homeschooling about 4 years ago, I didn't know much about it. To tell the truth I was some what against it. Why? Well, some I felt where sheltering their kids because of Christian values. I felt that our kids should be able to witness to others and if you sheltered them, then they couldn't reach other kids. I have found that to be not completely true. My 2nd reason was I had a child in my cub scouts and he could barley write at the age of 11. I did pull mine out after fighting the system trying to get help for my kids. I knew they had a learning problem, but the school was ready to write them off as bad kids. A teacher told me if I didn't intervene with my kids they would fall through the cracks and I didn't want them to feel like failures. Soon after I pulled them out I found that they have dyslexia and our school system don't want kids like that in their school because it pulls down their test scores. What they don't know, if you teach them their way, they are some of the smartest kids out there. Since I started homeschooling I found that there are more out there that home school than I ever imagined and it's not bad. I love it. [kittenmc]
There are indeed many and varied reasons to make the home school leap. A vast majority of them, by virtue of their subjective nature, are perfectly legitimate reasons. We have home schooled our 7 children for 15 years. None of them has ever attended a public or private school. Our oldest is now a junior in college, received a 1270 on his SAT, makes dean's list every semester, and is currently trying to grow his own web development business. This is only to say that, not only does homeschooling prevent the limitations inherent in traditional school settings, but it actually allows the child to soar! We are members of that oft-disdained group of parents who home school simply because it is what we see in Scripture as the most effective model for educating children. For us, it is not a reaction to anything negative, but a decision for something positive. Some equate this with "sheltering them in our Christian values". I don't have a problem with that characterization. Can a parent really be "overprotective"? At what point is it okay to stop protecting your children? Children can learn to avoid wolves without having to be eaten by one! Anyway... Many fringe benefits present themselves as a result of this decision. Our children are never bullied at school. The peer pressure either to misbehave or to place priority on unimportant areas of life is all but eradicated. We do not have to worry about the Marxist-bent ideology of the government indoctrination centers. We can guarantee that no teacher of theirs will ever have an inappropriate relationship with our child. Our children are free to pursue areas of personal interest. The list goes on. But perhaps more importantly, our children are learning what they need to know for college and for life IN THE CONTEXT OF LIFE. One of the biggest disadvantages of traditional education is that it teaches children that what they learn in school is irrelevant to life. There is a line of distinction, indeed a chasm, fixed between the part of the child's life that is "school" and the part of the child's life that is "other than school". You say homeschooling started with politically fringed parents. In reality, homeschooling was the norm, the standard in America until about 1840. The modern home school movement, which started in the early '80's or slightly earlier, wasn't so much a movement of the political fringe as much as it was a movement of people who decided it was time to think for themselves and take a critical look at what they were doing and what the results were, especially on their children. Granted, initially it was mainly focused in the "evangelical" community. And you are correct that it now represents an ever-widening cross section of society. The only disadvantage to homeschooling, that we have noticed, is that we have to spend a lot of time with our kids! Heaven forbid! [masternote]
For us, it is a mountain of reasons. And yes, I agree, this movement is in full effect, but hasn't peaked. More and more choose to homeschool every year. I think of the public education system as a production line. Every child enters the line and is periodically filled with the same information by the same technique. Problem is, some of the containers have tiny holes in them, where the information seeps out. Others are shaped differently so the technique doesn't apply to them and the contents never make it in. I think of my nephew, who actually was repremanded by his teacher for writing in cursove. It wasn't that he was doing it wrong, or that his work was sloppy. The reason she gave my sister was that the class hadn't learned it yet. WTF?? Why does that matter? The other kids didn't need to see his work, that was between him and the teacher. Another issue I have is with the form of socialization. Most people think that homeschoolers are the ones lacking in this area, but I disagree. In the sytem, emphasis is put on presentation, class, and social status. I want my children to develop effect communication skills. I want them to be able to become a part of society, without loosing their individuality. This idea that all must think, act, learn, and behave a certain way just gets my goat!! Where is creativity allowed in? Where is personality allowed? The kids subject to this environment are forced to become what the teachers, parents of other students, and other faculty think they should be. I want my children to first fall in love with themselves, to get to know who they are, and then become comfortable with that person. Then they can go out and be who they are, without any fear or hindrence. [edgyk8inmomma]
antony2best I would think its because they can tailor the circulum to their own childrens intelligence so that gifted kids do not get bored by doing lessons way below their intelligence, and those who are not so gifted are allowed to proceed at a more reasonable pace.Also a parent has more leeway than teachers who are tied in to approved plans. [Hatley]