Why I'm not Offended by a rise in homeschooling numbers
I recently came across the article, Number of Homeschoolers Growing Nationwide, by Julia Lawrence from Education News. Although this article is a few years old, it remains a relevant topic in education today. Homeschooling has always been an interesting topic to me, even though I was raised through the public schooling ranks and even chose teaching, public school teaching, as my career. Needless to say, I have no personal experience within the area of Homeschooling, yet my feelings toward homeschooling have changed and developed over the years.
In short, the numbers of students engaged in homeschooling is going up and some of the stigmas that have historically plagued the choice are are being dropped. Home schooled students are scoring well on standardized tests and finding success at the next level, and even earning four-year degrees at a higher rate than students produced by the public school system.
Rather than take offense to homeschooling or try to argue against it, I have chosen to embrace the movement. Here are a few of the reasons that even as a public school teacher, who is also married to someone working within the public school system, I feel strongly about this.
Another point of view can often challenge or make one think about current practice. There are so many different and strong opinions about public education in our country. I believe that the tension that exists between those opinions ultimately benefits the public education system for good. Questions and challenges to current practice, whether it is about teacher evaluation, curriculum, or standards spur discussion and conversation that may not occur without difference of opinion.
Choice and individualized instruction is not a bad thing. Public education is not about a one-size-fits all approach. As many educators know, differentiating instruction is the only way to survive. Educators are constantly tweaking and adjusting lessons and plans to service the variety of students sitting in front of them. I may not be a 30-year veteran teacher, but I know enough to know that my classroom may not work for every given student in the country. There are so many factors that go into a student's success at any given time. Although I believe all students can learn and I strive to create an environment in my classroom in which that occurs, there may be something offered at home that I cannot provide.
Frankly, I respect a parent's parenting domain. We are lucky to live in a country where differing worldviews and lifestyles are prevalent and allowed. It may not be the same decision I would make, but I fully support a parent's choice in how their child is educated. Whether it is religion, content delivery, schedule, pace, etc. that spurs the decision to home school their child/children, I believe it should be an option a parent can choose to make.
Katy, Thank you for your post. You make a lot of good points. I have taught in both the public school system and now at a private school for the past 25 years. However, I have a lot of friends who have chosen to homeschool their children for a variety of reasons. It may be their religious beliefs, it might be economic reasons, but ultimately they make the decision to homeschool because it is what works best for their family. In some cases it may even be that it works best for just one or two of the children in their family. This is the case with my family. I have 3 children. My oldest son graduated from the private Christian high school where I teach now. My youngest daughter will be a junior this year at the same school. My middle child was a different story. It was very apparent when he was in high school that this school was not the right fit for him. We made the decision to pull him out in 10th grade and he went to a cyber charter school where he just graduated with honors this past June. I believe the education he received at the cyber school was rigorous and prepared him well for the next stage of his life.
ReplyDeleteI find some people criticize homeschooling or cyber schools because they feel the students do not receive a quality education. This may be true in some cases but not all.
Thank you again for your thoughtful post. It is an important topic to discuss in today's educational system.
Thank you for your comment. It continues to amaze me just how different schooling can look for students, even students from the same family. I am so glad your middle child was able to find success, even though it may not have been the way his older brother found it. And I would say I admire the strength that took on your part to be willing to look into other options for him and support him on that journey!
DeleteI am still not sure how I feel about homeschooling. I know very little about it except for the few students that I have come across.
ReplyDeleteI had a student in my public school classroom that got pulled out of school to be homeschooled about half-way through the year. Her father worked in construction, so he could not travel during the summer; he waited until after his busy season to take a vacation. Unfortunately, that family took 3 vacations (each 1-2 weeks in length) in a 4 month period. Homeschooling sounds like the right decision there since they could still study on the road. She was just missing too much time from the classroom to stay on top of the material.
I have 3 students that come to mind as being homeschool students who later turned to public school. Each of them arrived in my public school Algebra 1 classroom fresh out as the first year out of homeschool. Each of them told me their parent/guardian had to stop homeschooling at that point because they could not handle the mathematics anymore. It was quite obvious that these students were lacking in their math backgrounds even without them telling me. None of those homeschool children had any pre-algebra exposure. That is not to say that students who come through public school remember all of the pre-algebra, but I at least know they were exposed to it.
The last homeschooling student that I think of was a boy who came to public school in 10th grade. He was child number 3 out of 10. His family did homeschooling for all all of the children partially for religious beliefs and partially for the built in babysitting that the older siblings offered for the babies and toddlers. This boy was the only one of the children sent to public school because he was terrible at social cues and interactions with others. His parents made the change in order to expose him to more people and have more real word experiences.
I have never considered homeschooling since my daughter still has another year before entering Kindergarten. I may be able to handle the content areas for her if that time arrives. However, she has a mild hearing loss, and I know that I am not qualified to offer her speech therapy and hearing training the way that the school system currently does for her.
It can be such a tough topic. I admittedly had some negative conceptions about homeschooling growing up and still struggle to understand it fully. I also, have not considered homeschooling my own children, though quite young (2 and still awaiting the arrival of baby boy in October). Additionally, I have had several students in my public school classroom that were either starting back up from a homeschooling experience or were leaving for one. Many of these students I often wondered if the homeschooling option was really the best option for the child.
DeleteThe thing that really started to break down and challenge my thinking is talking to my friends who were legitimately considering homeschooling their children. These were people I knew and respected long before children. To have a personal conversation with them somehow felt very different, and I began to look at the option in a very different light.
I don't know that I will ever get to the point that I think every child that is homeschooled is absolutely in the right place, but I am much more open to it than I used to be.
I have to agree! This is also coming from a fellow teacher who's 8 year old son is in a huge school district. My wife and I are currently talking about moving just to get out of a such a large school system, as my greatest fear is that he isn't going to excel the way he should be and get lost in the system! Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, things like education can feel so different when it is your own child. Big districts are tough. Coming from a pretty good sized district in Washington State, there were benefits, like tons of PD for teachers and more program offerings in the high schools. Unfortunately, teachers and students alike can end up with the perception that they are just one in the huge system. Good luck with decisions about son's education, I am sure that you and your wife will help him succeed wherever he ends up.
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