Home Schooling

Abstract

When public education was established in the US in the mid-nineteenth century, some families turned to home education as an alternative to the learning environment provided in public schools. Their motivations ranged from religious reasons to overall dissatisfaction with government control over curriculum and teaching methodology. Many of these motivations have remained unchanged in the twenty-first century as families continued to choose homeschool education over public or private schools. Homeschoolers share the belief that the education of children should be the responsibility of parents or guardians and that it is their own prerogative to decide whether their children should be educated. Homeschooled children are from a diverse population, cutting across ethnic, religious, political, and economic backgrounds. Homeschoolers in rural as well as in urban and suburban areas work with what they have, utilizing the resources found in their homes and neighborhoods to help with educational activities and learning opportunities. Twenty-first-century homeschooled students win national spelling bees and geography contests, enroll in Ivy League colleges, and have overall positive academic performance. Proponents of homeschooling argue they experience many of the positives of education without the negative factors they attribute to public schools.

Overview

Homeschooling, also called home education, is the education of school-aged children at home rather than at a public or private school. Prior to the establishment of public education in the mid-nineteenth century (when education became compulsory until a certain age), many children studied at home. By the beginning of the twentieth century, public schools had become commonplace, and states had adopted compulsory education attendance laws. Families who believed that the education of children should be the responsibility of parents or guardians opted to homeschool their children. The percentage of children educated under the supervision of parents or guardians, instead of schoolteachers, grew steadily throughout the 1990s and 2000s before leveling off around 2012; an estimated 1.69 million American students, or roughly 3.3 percent of the student population, were being educated at home in 2016, down slightly from 1.77 million in 2012. Because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, the rate of homeschooling soared to 11.1 percent of households with minor children for the 2020–21 academic year, largely attributed to families' health and child-care concerns. As schools opened back up following the lifting of lockdown procedures related to the pandemic, the rate of homeschooling fell once again to 6.8 percent of households with minor children. Though most decided to return their children to public schooling following the reopening of schools, some enjoyed homeschooling and did not return to the public school system.

Ray Moore & John Holt. Throughout the history of the homeschool movement, motivations to homeschool children have ranged from religious reasons—because of the separation of church and state mandate—to overall dissatisfaction with public education because of government control over curriculum and teaching methodology. Two individuals in the 1970s prompted increased interest in homeschooling. Raymond Moore, a US Department of Education employee and former Christian missionary, and his wife, Dorothy, a reading specialist and elementary school teacher, provided a religious right thread for the homeschool movement. John Holt, an Ivy League graduate and a teacher in alternative schools, provided a countercultural left thread.

In the 1980s, the Moores published Home Grown Kids and Home-Spun Schools, which were authored from a Christian outlook but offered a worldwide message and realistic advice to parents regarding how best to make them successful home teachers. Their book advocated a conservative attitude toward home education that balanced studying, doing chores, and working outside the house, all organized to promote the development needs of the child.

Holt, following several years as a classroom instructor, discovered that well-meaning but worn-out teachers were charged with programming children to recite correct answers, which, he asserted, deterred self-directed education and often negatively impacted children's inherent desire to learn and understand. He espoused a philosophy—which became known as unschooling—that was a laissez-faire means to home-based education. Holt documented his issues with mainstream education in How Children Fail.

The Moores earned a sizable following of parents who decided that homeschooling could be used “primarily to pass on traditional Christian religious values to their children. Holt, a humanist, became a cult figure for New Age devotees, ex-hippies, and homesteaders—those on the countercultural left” (Lyman, 1998, para. 25). While Holt and the Moores attracted very different constituencies, both ends of the spectrum promoted the home as the best source for the beginning of a child's development and assimilation into the community and the world at large.

Reasons for Homeschooling. Homeschooling is viewed by many as a return to the roots of society, where family, community, religious institutions, and work were all integrated into daily lives. Holt's assertion that schools existed to sort children into economic winners and losers based on test scores has rung true for many who homeschool. The Moores' concern that forced education was contrary to a child's development influenced others. An ever-widening range of families have increasingly embraced homeschooling as a chosen style of learning for their children.

As a 2016 survey discovered, 21 percent of homeschooling households cited wanting to provide religious or moral instruction as their primary motivator; 34 percent felt school had a poor social and/or learning environment, 17 percent objected to institutional curriculum, about 6 percent preferred nontraditional educational approaches, and 12 percent sought to address their child’s health or other special needs. During the COVID-19 pandemic and in the years that followed, many parents cited health reasons and mask mandates as reasons they chose homeschooling.

Many, including professional educators, believe that it is unrealistic to expect public schools “to meet the needs of every child in the community and that it is the responsibility of parents, schools, and the community to work together to educate all children, no matter what form of education parents choose” (Romanowski, 2006, p. 129). Homeschooling is considered one of many alternative education approaches.

Across the board, Miles suggests families tend to decide on homeschooling due to an intense commitment to their children. Some parents evaluate their children’s performance in school and find it to be below their standards, opting to subsequently pull them out and teach them from home. Some are frustrated with the way public education fails to meet the needs of neurodivergent students or object to their child being labeled in a certain way by special educators. Others make the decision because they valued the benefits that could be gained to create and nurture a strong family relationship. Others are confident that they do better than public schools. While some homeschooling parents are educators, many have no special credentials.

Homeschooling Resources. While not as coordinated on a national level as other options for public education, several organizations serve as support groups and clearinghouses for curriculum materials as well as sources for research and evaluation information:

• The Home School Legal Defense Association follows the constitutional right of families to decide on their own what course of education and form of schooling is best for their children and to defend family freedoms.
• The Cato Institute seeks to gain more involvement from the general public in regard to policies and the influence of the government on education.
• The National Home Education Network facilitates grassroots work of state and local homeschooling institutions by offering knowledge and advice, creating networks of homeschooling families, and advancing public relations across the country.
• The Home Education Research Institute has a mission to publicize statistics, facts, and discoveries on homeschooling and to instruct the public on home education information and the research done that proves its effectiveness, benefits, and potential drawbacks.
• The Home School Association of California has information for educators and individuals who have a serious interest in homeschooling.
• The Home Education Magazine offers homeschooling advice and facts, as well as guidance, encouragement, effective tools, contacts, networking opportunities, and updated newsletters.
• Homeschool.com provides resources, information, and support for homeschooling families.
• National Home School Association provides activities, resources, and support for the general homeschool community in the United States.

Further Insights

Homeschoolers in the twenty-first century tend to be spread out in a broad range of communities, cutting across ethnic, religious, political, and economic backgrounds. They generally use resources that are at their disposal to aid in teaching, or else they opt to create their own tools that may offer help. Families in rural areas, where children can learn by interacting with nature, can be just as effective in homeschooling their children as those who live in cities where museums, cultural centers, and libraries become teaching and learning resources. Other families involve traveling as a tool used for teaching, finding their lessons in the landscapes and landmarks of many locations across the country.

In an article for the Homeschool Association of America, Charlie Miles, a homeschooling advocate, commented on the "how" and "why" of homeschooling. Related to finances, he observed that some families sacrifice an income so that one parent can stay in the house with the children. Others use other ways to inform their children when both parents desire to follow their own careers as well. For example, some will work from home while their children perform activities and study alongside them.

Miles also points out that not all homeschooling families have two parents; rather, families must adjust to only one parent’s being the provider, teacher, and all-around home manager. Still other students are homeschooled by their extended and blended families in the absence of their parents. Homeschoolers find many sources of support including "inclusive" support groups, often called homeschool cooperatives, available to anyone interested in homeschooling. Support group members within communities often create organized field trips and educational excursions. There are also support groups available for families of certain ethnic and religious groups. Special needs families and single-parent families are other common groupings that support groups are created around. Support groups also offer the opportunity for homeschooling in a more structured way for families who so choose to homeschool their children but prefer to interact with others as well and share insights and techniques.

Brian Ray is an educator who tracked the homeschool movement for decades. He and others had begun to provide a fuller picture of who is homeschooled, what they learn, and how they interact with others, based on survey and research data.

• Mothers usually perform the main duties of teacher, while fathers engage the children in other activities and familial obligations.
• The learning program is flexible and highly individualized, involving both homemade and purchased curriculum materials.
• Some families purchase complete curriculum packages for their children, while others approach homeschooling with only a small degree of preplanned structure, often referred to as “unschooling.” Libraries, bookstores, homeschool catalogs, websites, educational publishers, and homeschooling organizations are among the most common sources of homeschool curricula and resources.
• As a rule, home-educated students have relatively little interaction with state schools or their services, although some participate in public school interscholastic activities, such as sports and music ensembles. Cui and Hanson found that 2.2 percent of homeschoolers also attended a public school for some portion of the school week and that among the nearly one-quarter of homeschooled students who took an online academic course, 17 percent accessed virtual instruction through state online-education programs, 16 percent through a local public school, 22 percent through a charter school, and 9 percent through some other public school.
• Homeschooled children study a wide range of conventional subjects, with an emphasis on reading and writing, social studies and history, health, physical education, arithmetic, algebra, earth science, and biology.
• Many students take advantage of the flexibility provided by home education to participate in special studies and events, such as volunteer community work, political internships, travel, missionary excursions, animal husbandry, gardening, and national competitions.
• Female students are somewhat more represented than male students: 52 percent to 48 percent in 2016. By the 2019–2020 school year, those percentages had remained the same, with 51 percent female and 49 percent male.
• Most homeschoolers are raised and educated in two-parent households, with at least one parent in the labor force, and tend to be larger than average, commonly having three or more children.
• The typical homeschooling parent has attended or graduated from college, with 25 percent having completed postsecondary training or some college, 30 percent holding a bachelor's degree, and 15 percent having a graduate or professional degree; about 30 percent, however, had a high school education or less.
• Cui and Hanson reported 79 percent of homeschooled students belonged to households with incomes at or above the federal poverty line, while 21 percent were living below the poverty line.
• In terms of faith, a wide variety of parents and families homeschool, representing Christian denominations, agnostics, atheists, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, and New Age believers.
• In terms of racial or ethnic background, 59 percent of students surveyed in 2016 were non-Hispanic White, while the portion of people of color and of Hispanic descent engaging in home-based education has increased over time. Between the spring and fall of 2020, the rates of homeschooling among Black households quintupled, while the rates roughly doubled among other racial and ethnic groups. Providing greater exposure to racial or ethnic heritage and cultural values and avoiding institutional racism were among the reasons families of color cited for choosing to homeschool their children.
• More than two-thirds of homeschooled students live in cities or suburbs, while about one-third live in towns or rural areas.

Yet another homeschooling advocate, Sally Thomas, commented on her experience throughout several years of providing home education. Her perspective is that homeschooling is an effective manner of teaching and learning. She asserts that it is not costly—either financially or time-wise—because a homeschooled child, working alone or with another, can complete more tasks, and learn more concepts at a faster pace than a child who is one of twenty-five learners in a classroom. She knows that it is effort-effective since a child does not exert superfluous time over a task that he or she has already completed and thoroughly understood just because the other students require additional time to master the concept. In her experience, homeschooling's best benefit is perhaps the opportunity for a "rightly ordered life," one that does not encourage a "school life" that weakens or is separate from parental values.

Viewpoints

According to Michael H. Romanowski, “the American public sees and reads about homeschooled students who win or do well in national spelling and geography competitions. Homeschooled students enter prestigious universities. The results of various studies about homeschoolers' academic achievements, compared to their public school counterparts, are positive” (2006, p. 125). Rebecca Sealfon, age thirteen, was the winner of the 1997 National Spelling Bee, and because she was homeschooled, the victory brought much attention to the concept of teaching one’s children from home. Of the 245 students in the contest, 17 were homeschooled. In 2019, 23 homeschooled students participated in the spelling bee.

Despite the intense increase in homeschooling and the positive results that ensue, many still hold myths about homeschooling. Romanowski, a homeschooling advocate, addresses four common myths that influence perspectives on the role that homeschooling assumes in a child’s education:

Homeschooling Produces Social Misfits. “Probably the most widely held misconception of homeschooling is the myth of socialization and the belief that unless children are exposed to the social life found in public schools on a daily basis, they will lack the skills needed to successfully adapt to real-life situations when they are older” (Romanowski, 2006, p. 125).

For parents of homeschooled children, the home has proven to allow for the type of social bonding they want to see in their children. Most parents realize that proper socialization with peers may not be involved constantly, but they involve their children in activities such as sleepovers with neighborhood friends, sports leagues, volunteer work, and other group extracurricular activities.

In a traditional classroom, children are exposed to dozens of students of like age and socioeconomic circumstances. Homeschooled students are not limited to socialization with their peers and instructors; rather, they have ample opportunity for conversation and interaction with an array of personalities found outside of the home, allowing them to gain social maturity and the ability to adjust to unfamiliar situations. “The majority of studies done on homeschoolers indicate that their self-concepts are comparable to, and usually stronger than, those of children in conventional schools” (Romanowski, 2006, p. 126). Romanowski provides references to these and other studies related to socialization and self-concept.

Studies have found that those homeschoolers who transitioned to college reported greater difficulty adjusting to more traditional modes of teaching and learning, more homesickness, decreased individuation, and greater challenges in encountering others’ divergent values than did their traditionally educated counterparts. However, findings also showed that homeschoolers did quickly befriend others and adapt to increased and more demanding coursework in college.

Homeschooling Fails to Prepare Good Citizens. This argument has been based on the belief that homeschooled students are isolated from the world, including from political and social involvement. In addition, opponents point out that homeschooling focuses on what is best for the individual student instead of what is best for society as a whole, which is the focus of public education.

Generations of homeschooled children have joined America's labor force and some of the best colleges and universities. Ray examined sixteen studies of college students who had been homeschooled and found no statistical differences in terms of retention rates and on-time completion rates between them and conventionally educated students. Homeschooled students who attended college tended to have higher grade-point averages than those with conventional educations.

Ray's findings have also shown that homeschool graduates were more actively involved in their communities than the general US population by reporting these results:

• 71 percent of homeschool graduates participated in an ongoing community service activity, compared to 37 percent of US adults of similar ages;
• 88 percent of the homeschool graduates surveyed were members of an organization (such as a community group, church, or professional organization) as compared to 50 percent of US adults;
• 76 percent of homeschool graduates surveyed between the ages of 18 and 24 had voted in a national or state election within the last five years, compared to only 29 percent of the relevant US population;
• Homeschool graduates were more likely to contribute money to a political party and are more likely to work for a political party or cause; and
• Homeschool graduates were more likely to have participated in a protest or boycott, attended a public meeting, wrote or telephoned a public official, or signed a petition more often than the general population.

This study suggests that homeschoolers learn about the real world, possibly more than their public school counterparts, and can become citizens who take an active role in improving the social, economic, and political conditions in society, just as public education aims to do. It is important to make clarifications on Ray’s research as it was conducted at the turn of the twenty-first century, but homeschool statistics from the 2020s confirmed homeschool students remained active and engaged members of organizations within their community.

Homeschooled Students Who Are Homeschooled Have Difficulty Entering College. This argument has been based on the belief that high school diplomas, adequate or exceptional grade records, and SAT or ACT test scores would facilitate enrollment into college for homeschooled students.

However, according to Cogan, homeschoolers attending a Midwestern college were found to not only have higher ACT composite test scores but also earned higher cumulative grade-point averages (GPA) in both their first and fourth years of college, graduated from college at higher rates, and had a retention rate comparable to that of their traditionally educated peers throughout college. Moreover, Ray found that eleven out of sixteen studies reported more favorable outcomes for homeschooled students in college and adulthood than for those who attended conventional public or private schools.

Each year, homeschooled children are enrolled in hundreds of colleges and secondary schools. Brown, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, West Point, University of California Berkeley, University of Michigan, Notre Dame, and Yale are all among the prestigious schools that often accept homeschooled students, and they all offer prospective students information on proper enrollment, class and educational requirements, and knowledge they will need for a comfortable transition into public education and college.

Contrary to myth, the reality is that homeschooled children are fully capable of succeeding in college without having the average experience of public schooling like many of their collegiate peers.

Most People Homeschool Only for Religious Reasons. There are several reasons that parents would prefer homeschooling over public education for their children. Some parents would rather teach their children firsthand about the beliefs, values, and skills that are important for them to pass on and that may not be addressed in traditional schooling. In response, these families opt to homeschool their children.

Other families are not bothered by the content of public education but by an opinion that the content is poorly and inadequately taught to the students. “They ‘share a respect for their children's intellect and creativity and a belief that children learn best when pedagogy draws on the child's innate desire to learn’ . . . They challenge the power of public schools to sort, select, and label their children based on what they see as a limited measure of their child's ability” (Romanowski, 2006, pp. 128–129). This, in turn, causes families to homeschool their children.

Regardless of their motivations, all homeschoolers share the belief that the education of young students in America should first and foremost be the responsibility of the parents and guardians because they alone have the full right to decide how their children will receive their education.

Terms & Concepts

Alternative Education: This term, also referred to as nontraditional education, describes approaches to teaching and learning that differ from those supported by mainstream public education.

Compulsory Education: This term refers to education that children are required by law to receive and that governments are required to provide. It is an aspect of public education in the US

Countercultural Left: This term often describes those who choose approaches alternative to traditional education that are focused on developing a child's innate learning abilities through unstructured, self-directed learning experiences.

Forced Education: This term is used to describe public education that is compulsory and defined and funded by local, state, and federal governments.

Hybrid schooling: This refers to the practice of homeschooling for part of the week and sending children to a traditional school for the remainder of the week.

Homeschooling: This term, also called home education, is the education of school-aged children at home rather than at a public or private school.

Public Education: This term refers to education that is mandated by the government for all children of the general public; in the US, K–12 public education is paid for, in whole or part, by local, state, and federal taxes and is commonly overseen by an elected school board of the local community.

Religious Right: This term often describes those who choose approaches alternative to traditional education that are focused on developing mores and values of a particular religion; although not inclusive, the term is often associated with Christian Right.

Unschooling: This term, coined by educator John Holt, is a type of education where the content and manner of instructing follows the needs, interests, goals, and skill levels of the student.

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