Why home schooling may harm our democracy
While so many K-12 students in the United States struggle academically, and so many schools struggle to increase parent involvement, the idea that some parents are taking full responsibility for their children’s educations should be welcome news. After all, home schooling means that kids get more individual attention from their teacher (see my recent column in GOOD for more on the importance of these one-on-one interactions), and that parents always know how their child is progressing academically.
Home schooling has become increasingly popular not just because of academics, but for religious and social reasons as well. It is most strongly associated with Christian families, but an article in last week’s Washington Post examined the rising number of Muslim parents who have begun to choose this educational option for their children.
Although three-quarters of the nation’s estimated 2 million home-schoolers identify themselves as Christian, the number of Muslims is expanding ‘relatively quickly,’ compared with other groups, said Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute. They do so, he said, for the same reasons as non-Muslims: ‘Stronger academics, more family time, they want to guide social interaction, provide a safe place to learn and . . . teach them [their] values, beliefs and worldview.’
When I read that last statement, the educator and citizen in me begin to clash. On one hand, I completely respect a parent’s desire to provide the best possible education and home life for their child. On the other hand, I worry that our democracy is weakened when children grow up without extensive exposure to values, beliefs and worldviews different from their own. Following is an example that illustrates my concern.
A few years ago, I was an academic advisor for 250 first-year students at the University of Virginia. I lived in a dorm with the students, so they could drop by any time for advice or to get questions answered. One day during the winter term, a student who I knew had been home schooled–we’ll call her Sally–came by with a concern about one of her instructors. She had gotten a subpar grade on a paper–even on the revised second draft–and she was convinced that the grade, along with written feedback on the paper (specifically the large number of comments and questions) and remarks made to her during class discussion, proved that the instructor was discriminating against her because she was a Christian and was politically conservative. I asked if she had spoken to the instructor about this. Sally said she had not; she just wanted to drop the class.
I was in no position to comment on what debate may have occurred in class, but I thought I could give her some suggestions for how to deal with this situation if I had a chance to review her marked-up papers. She made copies, and I spent the evening reading them. The original version of the paper was poorly written, and her only evidence for many claims was that the Bible said X, Y, or Z. Her revised version was slightly better but did not address the feedback she received from her instructor; the foundation of the paper’s arguments was still very weak. Following is an excerpt from my subsequent e-mail to her:
“As a former high school English teacher and a former instructor here at UVa, I know that it takes a lot of time and effort to edit and respond fully to a student’s paper as he has done with yours. I can see how it could be a bit overwhelming because of how much he wrote, but in my opinion having an instructor who is willing to give so much substantive feedback is definitely a positive thing for your development as a writer. (I wish my undergraduate instructors had given me that much feedback!)…
Overall, I think the instructor is fair in challenging your views in his written comments–whether by providing historical events as counter-evidence to your claims or posing questions to encourage you to think further or from another perspective on a particular issue. If you presented this paper to someone outside of the classroom who was not familiar with or did not share your point of view, you would be expected to defend or clarify many of the same claims that he challenged. After reading both versions of the paper, I can understand why he kept your grade the same. His basic point seemed to be that your argument for Christianity (or a unifying religion) still was not strong enough in the revised version, and I think he provided evidence to support that point. All of the University’s introductory writing teachers, though they teach different topics, teach the same principles of argument. This is done so that professors can expect a certain level of proficiency among all upper-class students when it comes to persuasive writing. So when considering that your instructor’s main job is to ensure that you leave his class able to make a strong written argument, it seems appropriate that he is being quite critical in his assessment of the argument you attempted to make in your paper.”
I found it both sad and amusing that Sally did not see the utility in this critical feedback. Her first thought was that the instructor was discriminating against her because of her beliefs; she didn’t stop to consider that he actually had given her the tools to make a better argument for those beliefs in the future! Further, her solution to the “problem” was not to sit down and talk with her instructor in order to express her views and hear his side of things; it was to simply drop the class and consider the situation a negative experience that was the fault of someone else.
In the days that followed, I thought about this event quite a bit. My mind kept coming back to one thing: Sally’s reaction made perfect sense. As a home-schooled student, she likely did not engage in discussion and debate with people who did not share her religious beliefs, who disagreed with her political views, or who pushed her to think about issues from new perspectives. I had no doubt she was nurtured and encouraged by her parent-teachers, but it appeared that having her beliefs and arguments questioned by others (even when being taught the art of persuasion in college) was a completely foreign concept.
I’ll contrast this with my own educational career. During my 13 years in Catholic school, I had 22 different teachers as an elementary student and 24 different teachers as a high school student. I also attended classes with (as in, sat in the classroom with) 60-70 different students throughout elementary school and about 200 different students in high school. Interacting with so many people at school–even though my schools were fairly homogenous when it came to race, ethnicity, and religion–exposed me to and taught me to value different perspectives, beliefs, and personal styles. At the most basic level, I understood that just because an adult or peer disagreed with me or went about things a different way than I did, there was no need for me to take it as a personal affront.
In his 2007 critique of the increasingly “me-centered” media, NBC’s Brian Williams lamented:
It is now possible — even common — to go about your day in America and consume only what you wish to see and hear. There are television networks that already agree with your views, iPods that play only music you already know you like, Internet programs ready to filter out all but the news you want to hear.”
Home schooling seems to be an extension of this, as parents can filter the information and perspectives to which children are exposed on a nearly 24/7 basis. In a democracy where civil debate and compromise are essential, I worry that many students who are home schooled may end up like Sally–without exposure to hundreds of teachers and classmates during school-age years, lacking the ability to process others’ criticism of one’s ideas, and quick to claim discrimination based on religious or political beliefs rather than sit down and talk with a critic. There are plenty of benefits to home schooling, but I think this negative consequence may outweigh the positives.
Two final notes:
1) Although I am not a proponent of home schooling, I certainly believe it should remain a viable choice for parents, unlike in Germany, where it is illegal. An article in today’s New York Times profiles a German family that was ”granted asylum in the United States because they feared persecution in their home country.” Yikes!
2) Let me be clear that I am by no means an expert on home schooling. Aside from a little bit of reading on the subject, I know a few family members and friends who do it with their children, I have had friends/colleagues who were home schooled for some or all of their K-12 experience, and I worked with a few college students who were home schooled. But that’s about it. I invite those with more experience on the subject or different points of view to post comments. I think most people are in the dark when it comes to the world of home schooling, so any illumination readers can provide would be appreciated.
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A graduate of a private Christian school or even a small government-run school in the Bible Belt may be equally unprepared to have his/her religious beliefs challenged as your homeschool graduate Sally. And there are many homeschooled kids whose parents go to a great deal of effort to ensure exposure to differing viewpoints. I don’t think it’s fair to make a sweeping assertion that “homeschooling harms our democracy” based on one anecdote.
I could easily make an argument about how the widespread failure of government-run schools to teach basic literacy, numeracy, and history to so many of our young people imperils our democracy. And I could back that up with actual data rather than just some anecdote…
A quick reference to the works of John Holt and John Taylor Gatto should be sufficient.
In response to another comment. See in context »crimsonwife – You make some good points, and I agree that the failure of some public schools is not good for our democracy. However, I doubt you have the data to back up the premise that that failure imperils our democracy, just as I don’t have data to prove that home schooling MAY harm our democracy. (Note that in my piece I qualified my statement with the word MAY because I wanted to express my uncertainty. In your comment, you accuse me of asserting that “homeschooling harms our democracy,” when in fact I never wrote that. And I did not use the anecdote to make a sweeping assertion; I used it to illustrate the point I was making, to give people a concrete idea of what I was talking about.
Finally, it’s worth noting that public schools funded and run by the public, not the government. School boards are either elected directly or appointed by the mayor or city council; in either case, we can vote/force someone out of office if we don’t like what’s happening. Everything from state standards to which textbooks should be purchased to where a new school should be built is debated by parents and community members (many, unfortunately, choose not to participate). Calling something government-run is a way to score cheap political points since so many people today are increasingly anti-government, but it does not accurately describe how our public school systems operate.
In response to another comment. See in context »Why do I use the term “government-run” rather than “public”? The public facilities in my town (library, pool, parks, recreation classes, etc.) are open to anyone who wishes to use them. Non-residents may have to pay a higher fee for certain ones, but they are still permitted access. Not so with government-run schools. My family’s taxes go to pay for all of them within my district, but my children are only permitted to enroll in the one the bureaucrats dictate.
As a member of the public, I also have no say in the adoption of the state standards or the approval of textbooks as both are done by a committee of bureaucrats in Sacramento. NCLB took government micromanagement of schools to a whole new level.
The school board may be elected, but the members are beholden to special interests such as the teachers’ union rather than accountable to parents.
The parents in the town in which we lived up until January have been trying to get a high school built there for 30 years, but their efforts have been stymied by the administrators of the huge district of which it is a part.
I don’t see what’s so “public” about the “public schools”. The bureaucrats have all the power, so it’s much more accurate IMHO to call them “government-run schools”.
In response to another comment. See in context »Hmmm. I should really tackle this in the morning when I’m fresh, but……what the heck. To begin with, I think it might be worthwhile to review the axiom that goes something like “coincidence does not imply causality”. Sally’s seeming inability to value critique and graciously welcome a challenge to her perspective is simply Sally’s present weakness. I feel quite certain I’ve met people who attended schools of various sorts who exhibited that same irritating quality. You state: “As a home-schooled student, she likely did not engage in discussion and debate with people who did not share her religious [and] political views, or who pushed her to think about issues from new perspectives.” Forgive me, while I drop my head in my hands and sigh dramatically. Okay, I’m back. Speaking as one of the parent-educators in a household that has homeschooled for 8 years, I can assure you that we can’t get through a day without bumping into the differing perspectives of the immediate members of our family, let alone those of the numerous people in the many overlapping circles that constitute our community. And we actually enjoy our trips to the Agora! We are not alone. Many homeschooling families are as freethinking or more so than many non-homeschooling families. Though religious or political fundamentalists may choose to homeschool, not all homeschoolers are fundamentalists. If Sally in her pre-college days did indeed “not engage in discussion and debate with people who did not share her religious [and] political views, or who pushed her to think about issues from new perspectives”, it wasn’t because she was homeschooled, it was because she had a particularly narrow upbringing. To generalize to your larger concern, homeschooling isn’t bad for democracy, intolerance and parochialism are. Compulsory education is no silver bullet when it comes to those particular villains.
jendowney – I agree that not all home schoolers are fundamentalists, and I did not mean to imply that home schoolers never encounter anyone who thinks differently than they do. I should have made my point clearer when it came to different perspectives. I think it’s one thing for a child to bump into someone who is different once in a while, and another thing to be stuck sitting next to that person for 2-3 hours per day in class for the entire school year. It’s one thing for a child to interact with an uncle or family friend who has a different perspective during a weekly family dinner, and quite another for her to move from classroom to classroom in high school and have to navigate different personalities, varying philosophies on grading and discipline, and different styles of interpersonal communication and feedback, all while being on the short end of those relationships’ power dynamics.
In response to another comment. See in context »I believe you may have misunderstood me. My point is that our kids’ learning community does NOT just consist of our immediate family plus Uncle John and Aunt Millie. Our kids speak with and develop long-standing relationships with many different people as they take classes, do volunteer work, participate in learning co-ops, hang out with kids from the neighborhood who happen to attend schools, or don’t, play sports, etc. These experiences are quite transferable in terms of developing the capacity to interact with professors, however much their personalities may differ from one another.
Hours logged sitting in classroom seat does not guarantee the development of the ability to interact well with a variety of people. Conversely, avoiding long stultifying hours surrounded only by peers of the same age with whom you are usually not allowed to speak freely, certainly does not put the development of that ability out of your reach.
In response to another comment. See in context »jendowney – Your comments are one reason I wrote this post (sometimes I have to be somewhat controversial to get people to read and start a discussion, but my real goal is always to help myself and everyone reading to achieve a greater understanding of a particular issue).
My conception of what home schooling entails is very different than what you described. If you wouldn’t mind posting another comment that outlines what a typical day/week of home schooling looks like for your kids, that would be great. I have no idea where kids would take classes (I thought this was done at home) and I don’t know what a learning co-op is. Thanks for contributing your insider knowledge!
In response to another comment. See in context »You know, perhaps its the use the term “homeschooler” for people who seek alternatives to a school-based educational/life experience, that sets up so much misunderstanding from the git-go.
It seems many strangers to homeschooling conjure out of that term an image of a family whose goal it is to stay at home as much as possible, and replicate the school-based rhythms all by themselves in a creepy yawning chasm of familiar insularity.
I believe that the “home” in “homeschool” probably stands most for the desire a majority of homeschoolers share, to be free from one size fits all educational edicts/programs, and be free to direct the educational experience FROM the home, that is, from within the family. The “home” in homeschool does not imply some a belief in any of the hundred or so families that I’m personally in contact with, that all education must be offered only by parents, and only in a home environment. I’m surprised that I feel compelled to mention that, but there you are.
In her post, nhmom shared some of the activities in which her kids participate. If you put all the activities that the sum total of all homeschooling kids pursue on a list, you’d be rolling that out for a serious number of miles.
That said, home is a very enjoyable place to spend time with family and friends as we read and talk about history, work on tedious math problems, cook kick-ass desserts in the middle of the day, listen to a particularly compelling NPR story, draw a LOT for as long as we’d like, etc. We leave the house for many reasons at many times.
From “semester” to “semester”, the kids have different things going on, but let’s take my son right now: On Mondays we spend most of the day at home, then he has a babysitting gig at 3pm, and practice with his rock band at 6. Tuesdays, he’s gone for most of the day at his philosophy co-op with 9 other kids, and various parents, On Wednesday, we’re home in the morning, but he goes to a friends house all afternoon where they roam the woods, hang out etc. On Thursdays, we’re home in the morning, but he’s got a juggling class downtown at noon, then goes out for pizza for an hour with friends from the class, and other friends who are linking up with us, since next its back home for science and engineering. They’ve worked for the last 4 weeks on building a air-powered potato launcher. What every 13 year old boy needs in his life. On Fridays, the Charlottesville Homeschool Enrichment Center is open all day. This session, my son will take an animation film class, and one called Games and Strategy. My daughter will take a history/drama and a drawing class . And my kids aren’t even big joiners compared to a lot of other homeschooled kids we know! They like a lot of unstructured time to play and build and write and read. In the past, my son has taken part in the band program at our local middle school.
Oh, and a learning co-op can take many forms. Sometimes a group of parents get together and take turns preparing and offering a learning Unit to all the kids involved. Sometimes parents get together and hire someone to teach a class in a particular area. Sometimes parents organize something like CHEC where many classes are offered in a sort of Community College model, and kids can stay for the day signing up for as few or many classes as they’d like.
Is there ever a day when the kids are bored or cranky, or we parents are, or nothing particularly productive seems to happen? Of course. But I’m sure you can remember plenty of days when you didn’t particularly want to get up and go to school, and nothing of particular educational note happened there.
If you’re interested in learning more about the wide world of homeschooling, you may want to read Milton Gaither’s 2008 book, “Homeschool, An American History. You can also visit the blog he writes at “http://gaither.wordpress.com/ . In it, he even-handedly summarizes, contextualizes and critiques past and current articles and research that touches on or concerns itself wholly with homeschooling,.
In response to another comment. See in context »Wow! There’s the occasional weirdo who is *homeschooled*? Shocking.
I guess they’re aren’t any maladjusted kids coming out of the loving arms of the “educational” system, are there?
As a homeschooling parent, I have to take exception to this. While I readily admit that there are homeschooling families who shelter their children from the world and teach them only a narrow view, there are also many families (such as my own) who work very hard to expose their children to as wide an experience as possible. For example, I took my 16 year old son with me to Washington DC for an equal rights protest march, and we walked with the group from our Unitarian church. Homeschooling is a tool. Like a hammer, it is neither good nor evil by itself. What matters is what you do with it, whether you build something useful or attack someone else.
You dismiss the immensely complex topic of homeschooling in Germany with one word and that is an airy “Yikes”. Wasn’t it even worth a thought that your American traditions, historical development, understanding of personal freedom and scepticism towards governmental paternalism — in a word: your mentality — can not be applied all that offhandedly to other, specifically European, countries? If that were the case, we’d all be over there, at your end. Did you ever give a thought to what it means if five percent of the population of a country are Muslim, a vocal, demanding and aggressive minority, only waiting for an opportunity to “homeschool”?
The Romeikes did not have to “fear persecution”, all they had to “fear” was law enforcement in accordance with the *rule of law*. The right to homeschool is not part of natural justice and human rights and it isn’t done in Germany. Full stop. That America is granting them “political asylum” is a travesty of an important constitutional institute and a shame in the light of America’s treatment of Jewish refugeees from Nazi Germany who — God knows! — had a REAL reason to get away.
If the topic is of sufficient interest to you, maybe this (including the discussion in the comment section) will be able to shed some light on it: http://editrixblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/some-embarrasment-is-good.html
The rampant institutionalization of *everything* — now even including educating children — is absurd. Suggesting group indoctrination of children to their life of corporate servitude is “natural justice” is pretty insulting to say the least.
In response to another comment. See in context »Many schools insist on lock-step behavior, teaching to tests, adherence to arbitrary authority. Helpful? Not so much.
This is too complex a topic for one post; kids learn in such different ways. The child who is borrrrred to tears and acts out in class because they are so under-challenged (or bullied) may do great with homeschooling — if their parents even have the time or skills to offer it. Many children really need structure and routine, which school seems to offer.
A great school gives kids what they need. How many of them are there? That’s the toughest question.
I was lucky enough to attend private school ages 8-13, then a decent public high school. But only the scholastic butt-kicking of my early years gave me the necessary grounding and self-discipline to succeed, not my adequate public education. That school was filled with rich white kids, as many such schools are, so no “democracy” there. But getting the tools to compete with them mattered more and still does; you will learn about, and cope with, the world as you enter it.
I think there’s another issue that is dangerous re: home schooling and that is the slow creep of “women should only be in the home with their children” back to pre-feminist movement levels. Heck, I think it’s worse than that–at least 50’s suburban housewives played tennis at the club!
I don’t know the stats, but I would bet you dollars to donuts the vast majority of home school “teachers” are Moms. They are not getting paid for their work (which is in additional to all the other unpaid duties they take on at home), they are creating a sheltered bubble for themselves and their kids which does their children no favors, and they are setting up an environment in which they have completely subjugated their personal time–time we all need to recharge the batteries–to be everything for their children. Call me crazy, but I think this is a recipe for more women “going postal” in the future, if it isn’t happening already.
[...] one-on-one interactions), and that parents always know how their child is progressing academically. Read more… This entry was posted in homeschool. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the [...]
I’ve had the same concerns as you about home-schooling,however I feel compelled to mention that not all who are home schooled are conservatives or religious.
I know a couple who are very well educated and have several kids. The father’s job has required them to move to a rural area, so now the mom is home-schooling their children, because they don’t want their kids being too influenced by the conservative, fundamentalist views that most of the kids of that area have. I just wanted to point out that the reasons for home-schooling cut both ways…
groucho – Great point. I hadn’t considered that.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] Michael Salmonowicz via The Report Card – True/Slant stirs a hornet’s nest. I don’t feel a need to respond here. You can read it yourself. There are already many retorts and (responses from the author) in the comments section. homeschoolWhile so many K-12 students in the United States struggle academically, and so many schools struggle to increase parent involvement, the idea that some parents are taking full responsibility for their children’s educations should be welcome news. After all, home schooling means that kids get more individual attention from their teacher (see my recent column in GOOD for more on the importance of these one-on-one interactions), and that parents always know how their child is progressing academically. Read more… [...]
Michael, First I appreciate you starting a discussion like this one – hearing from the people “who are actual members of the community” and (maybe, you visiting some assorted homeschool groups) will actually give a glimpse into the reality of “the life of a homeschooler.”
Now, I’d like to share with you my background – former secondary teacher/educational consultant/Fortune 500 training course developer. My husband was a teacher/administrator in junior and high schools. We both have taught and I have traveled in my work in rural, urban, and suburban settings in public and private/religious schools and now homeschool. We have lived and educated our children in public, private, and homeschool in different geographical regions, including the Bible belt and now reside in a rural area in the Northeast.
Just as there are different backgrounds of people across the United States in public and private school settings there are just as many people in homeschool with different backgrounds and belief systems and “personalities”, and geography and demographics does play a big role.
Please do not judge “homeschooling” on the encounter or “anecdote” you used as an example. I have met just as many public and private schooled students, just like the one you have described that have come from the kind of background that this young woman seems to have, as a result of her parental upbringing, the people who attend the school in that area, with whom they attend church and associate. Geography can play a big part.
A typical day for my children changes depending upon the activities they are involved in at the moment. The majority of the time in the morning is spent at home on core subject areas. The afternoons are spent on a variety of activities to round out their education and social needs – Civil Air Patrol (like JROTC), scouts, 4-h (a variety of types of activities – not animals- this includes monthly visits where the kids socialize and work with senior citizens in a nursing home), public speaking competitions, I presently teach a Public Speaking class (one of my sons attends a Forensic Science class), my 8th grader is presently taking an AP US History from a homeschool dad who teaches AP US History at the highschool after school hours, my kids have just completed performing several plays with the local community theatre (tickets are sold and the general public comes to see them) – my teen performed in one with a mostly adult cast (he had to take constant constructive criticism from the director and the choreographer – he happened to be the lead in this one, so he got most of the criticism) and he dealt with multiple personality types (some very temperamental) with age spans crossing decades. They also participate in shooting competitions and sometimes baseball when we have time. When other classes and groups come up we may join in.
Through this – they have come in contact with more different kinds of people than with the same people they would have seen everyday in school. They have learned to enter new situations and meet new people and communicate with them effectively better than most public school children I have ever met. Do we come from a conservative background? Yes. Are we fundamentalists? No, not really. Do we attend church? Yes.Do we associate and can we respectfully discuss beliefs with people who believe differently than we do? Yes – I have taught my children “This is what we believe to be true. Here is why. We can don’t have to agree with others’ beliefs, but we will show them respect.”
I think you would be very surprised that half the homeschoolers I have met are former teachers. They have decided to give their children something better than what they have observed while teaching in the classroom. I commend you on your work will trying to “turn schools around”. I have actually conducted teacher trainings in the areas of Chicago you have in your Bio. Someone has to go “inside the public schools and turn them around.” Maybe I’ll attempt that after I am done educating my children – I did not want their years to be spent in schools that needed turning around.
I hope that I have given you some “inside light” on the homeschool community. They differ depending on the geography, demographics, homeschool group, and the individual. I encourage you to try to visit a variety of class/co-op settings where homeschoolers come together to learn and socialize and support one another and form a community to work toward providing a good education for their children. Homeschoolers are not as sequestered as the general population appears to believe. Most homeschoolers are more active in outside community activities than most public/private school children because they have more time when their studies are completed for the day.
Thank you for this opportunity to share with our homeschooling experience.
nhmom – Thanks a lot for the insightful comments. I actually keep my eyes open for articles about home schooling–one of my first readers back in September was being home schooled and asked if I could write about it–but there isn’t much out there in the popular press. Likewise, there isn’t much research on home schooling that I know of. That’s a shame, because home schooling has increased dramatically over the past 10-15 years and become a significant part of our education landscape.
In response to another comment. See in context »As a homeschooler, the title of this article put me on the defensive straight away. Fear not, Michael. There are plenty of us whose primary purpose for homeschooling is to instill an understanding of democracy, a respect for country, and a love of freedom. The current school system in the United States follows a rather un-American format. Why in a democracy are we forced to go to a school based on where we live? There is no competition for my money. A homogenized, dumbed down curriculum with no history free of corporate influence is provided to student in masses. I’ll call it McSchool. This “socialized” education is not what we envision for our children. So I argue that homeschooling is essential for the survival of democracy. The “globalization” agenda in schools is the largest threat to our democracy. And thank you for you support of my right to home school!
ljomccullough – I understand your desire for choice, but I think it’s a little unfair to say we use an un-American format. In fact, much of our current format was built by the “Greatest Generation” after World War II. Parents at that time weren’t concerned about annual test scores, the content of history textbooks, or school choice. They were happy to have new neighborhood schools built close to their homes; this arrangement meant that kids could walk to and from school, and come home for lunch. It also meant a short trip if a parent needed to go to the school to drop off a class project, meet with a teacher, or pick up a sick child.
The “problem” is that societal arrangements changed (e.g., more people have cars and can drive kids to school, parents care about test scores, etc.) but the arrangment of schooling did not (until recently, with charter schools, vouchers, school choice, etc.). Many of the same schools that existed 60 years ago still are in use today (both of the high schools where I worked in Chicago, for example, were over 100 years old), and it makes fiscal sense and helps planning (school districts have to make estimates for number of students–and thus number of teaching positions–for a given school’s next yeat before the end of the current year) to have attendance boundaries that restrict choice to some extent. It certainly would cost more money and be less efficient for every school to be open to everyone, and taxpayers probably wouldn’t like that.
Also, it’s worth noting that when many school districts attempt to close down a school for underuse or low performance, parents in the community fight to keep the school open because it’s convenient to have a school close to their home, or they are comfortable with that particular school.
This isn’t to say there shouldn’t be more choice, but there are valid reasons for why the system is set up as it is now. In order for it to change, a critical mass of citizens would need to demand change and be willing to shoulder the temporary costs of that change.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] Home school Buzz had a link to an article on True/Slant by Michael Salmonowicz entitled "Why home schooling may harm our democracy." Mr. Salmonowicz is has been a teacher and is now an author writing on educational [...]
After reading the various comments by homeschoolers, I am wondering: How much do these activities cost to participate in? There seems to be such a variety of activity and I wonder, can most people afford their children that many opportunities because of the cost involved? I lived next door to a homeschooling mom with 5 kids. They were involved in horseback riding, dance, hunting, debate club (where they left home and travelled to several cities to compete) interstate soccer, piano lessons. I also know this family made over $200,000 per year to provide for these activities. Just wondering if homeschooling is an option for some, because they can afford it?
Hi lindajezuit. I like your question. Differences in the incomes of homeschoolers, certainly affect the choices available to us in terms of seeking positive learning opportunities for our children. Just as they do for families whose kids attend schools both private and public. For school-going families, one’s income often affects where one can live, which determines the public school you’ll be assigned to. Schools vary enormously in what they offer based on the average incomes of those living in the districts. Numbers and kinds of extracurricular activities are limited or not by income as well.
Homeschooling families are in the same boat in some ways. We have an income of $40,000 a year and three kids. We certainly could not afford to travel with a sports team, or do regular riding lessons. But what we’ve found is we can afford enough to make homeschool entirely worthwhile. Learning through volunteering is free, parent-led learning co-ops are free, library programs are free, city and county recreation and sports offerings are affordable as is participation in our local once-a-week paid teacher co-op, which offers some scholarship places. Our kids can also take advantage of selective enrollment options within our school system to take band, etc. that way. We don’t have cable. Our car is old. We don’t fly away for vacations.
Of great interest to me is the fact that there are many other families who might like to homeschool, but feel that they can’t afford for both parents to only work part-time for cash, or one parent to drop out of the workforce all together, in order to be available to homeschool. If you’re a single working parent, the challenges are more profound. In our locality, the school system pays about $15,000 a year per child. I would love to see parents who want to homeschool get just a portion of the money that they save taxpayers by taking on the responsibility for organizing the education of their own kids. Families take a big financial hit when they opt to engage in homeschooling. Lost potential wages are significant. Well worth them, in my estimation, but significant.
I’m not anti-public school. I support the idea of public schools being available as a resource. I have ideas for reforms that revolve around more local control, and more freedom for teachers, but I see a public school system as a potentially good thing. I don’t like when innovative ideas — such as helping to subsidize a parent who wants to take responsibility for directing her children’s education –are shot down preemptively, assumed to be destructive to the health of public education, rather than a complementary piece of what we call public education.
In response to another comment. See in context »lindajezuit, If you look at the type of activities I have listed that my kids are in, you will see that they are extremely economical but yet very worth while. 4h is almost free (unless I want to send my kids to a summer camp), Civil Air Patrol has a small registration fee up front – but after that costs are minimal, our community theatre is free, and the classes we take are very minimal unless I or other mothers share in teaching them in which case they are also free. I also have my own little business on the side to make a little extra money – so I’m not quite “a lady of leisure”. A lot of homeschool moms have little businesses or work part time in the area I live and still homeschool. So creative options are out there if you wish to try to homeschool.