Article - Homeschooling; Another Option

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Homeschooling; Another Option

By Ben Sullivan

Disabled Parenting Today, Volume 2 Issue 1, September 1999

Recently, I was online in a discussion with other disabled parents when the

topic of home schooling came up, the results of which surprised me. It

seemed that almost half of the parents were either home schooling or

planning to, including one couple whose child was still in utero. The fact

that a much higher ratio of disabled parents seemed to be homeschooling than

the general public interested me.

Ten to fifteen years ago home schooling was associated with either wacky

left-wing hippies or right-wing bible thumpers. But more recently it is

going, for lack of a better word, mainstream. There are less negative

reports in the media, and far more support for the concept than ever before.

But as always home schooling remains a decidedly political action. Those who

favor home schooling usually are dogmatic about it while those who oppose it

tend to do so vehemently.

The reasons that were given by the disabled parents as to why they were home

schooling were varied: A major one was negative experiences the parents had

at school in their youth. (This is probably more common in the disabled

community because many of us have a visible handicap and have been ridiculed

in school.) School shootings, both in the US and Canada, were also stated as

a reason. This is not surprising nor easily criticized. In fact, there are

some estimates that the homeschooling rate could jump by 15% in Colorado

this year. Another suggestion was that so many disabled parents had problems

becoming a parent they are reluctant to abdicate that part of their lives.

These factors could play a part in the numbers of disabled parents home

schooling but obviously there is something to home schooling that has

captured the attention of the world.

Today in America the rate of homeschooling is estimated at 10%, or 1.2

million children. The home schooling phenomenon is clearly being lead by the

US, but it is a worldwide movement. In Canada, the rate has been estimated

at 4%, New Zealand's rate is closer to 1%, the 'London Evening Standard' in

an article in Jan 1996, estimated that in the UK, 100 children a month were

leaving standard schools to be home schooled. Small groups have been set up

to aid in homeschooling in Australia as well as in education obsessed Japan.

The largest areas of resistance to homeschooling is found in Scandinavia.

Presently, Norway is in the act of outlawing homeschooling.

One of the key problems in a discussion of homeschooling, is the term its

self. " By saying they home school, it only tells what a family is not

doing, " says na Sheffer, a well known homeschooling advocate. In fact,

there is no uniformity to the act of educating your children at home. It is

that unstructured aspect of homeschooling that is most appealing to many who

homeschool, including na Sheffer, and her mentor the late Holt.

Today homeschooling involves approaches that can vary from children working

for six hours a day at home out of correspondence texts, to children who

receive no structured instruction at all.

One of the most perplexing facts to those who are opposed to home schooling

and those who are a part of the educational system, is that homeschoolers

almost always score higher then conventionally schooled children in

standardized tests. A study done by Dr. Ray of the National Home

Education Research Institute, in the US, found that homeschoolers on average

score 30-37% higher. The fact that the only thing these kids have in common

educationally, is that they don't go to school, is used by homeschooling

devotees to point out to what they see as massive problems in the whole

makeup of public schools.

Historically, there has always been opposition to school, " It is a very

grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be

promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. " wrote Albert Einstein,

later in life. na Sheffer suggests that school is not about pursuing

your dreams, or thinking creatively. The criticisms of schools are however

increasingly coming from teachers and former teachers. Gatto

author of " Dumbing Us Down " , and former New York City Teacher of the Year

points out, " there are some studies that suggest literacy at the time of the

American Revolution (1775), at least for non-slaves, was almost total. "

Compared this to illiteracy rates sometimes quoted at 20%, after 225 years

of government run mandatory education. Seattle public school teacher

Guterson, author of " Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense, " writes,

" Peer obsessiveness and the clique mentality are the natural responses of

children to mass schooling, which in essence removes adults from their lives

or rather puts them there at a ratio of one to thirty. "

Some supporters of standard schools suggest that homeschooling is elitist

because not everyone is in a position to home school. They point out that

parents of homeschoolers are on average higher educated, have higher incomes

and are almost exclusively functioning in a two parent family.

Homeschooled children are often caricaturized as being socially maladjusted

because of a lack of regular interaction with other children. Guterson in

his book suggests that a preoccupation with peer acceptance leads often to

children drawing on the heavily commercialized pre-adult culture which

promotes a sense of alienation from people of other ages, while homeschooled

children tend to interact more with people of all ages drawing their social

identity from their family group as opposed to a peer group. Clearly the

homeschooling movement has a broad base of appeal to parents across the

world, and is an alternative growing in its appeal to disabled parents.