Still other parents pull their kids out of school to solve what they think is a short-term problem–and find long-term challenges. Eric and Joyce Burges, who live outside Baton Rouge, La., began home schooling nearly a decade ago after their oldest son, Eric Jr., had a disastrous year at a selective magnet high school. It was a struggle at first; neither is a professional teacher. But as Eric Jr.’s confidence rose at home, so did Joyce’s, and she now teaches her four other kids, ages 15 to 3, at home as well. School begins every morning at 7 and lasts until lunch. Joyce says home schooling has been a test of her strengths and weaknesses. Accepting the latter, she hired music and algebra tutors. ““I know what I want them to learn, and I know what they want to learn,’’ she says. ““I don’t have to do it all.''
Just a few years ago, home schooling was the province of religious fundamentalists who wanted to instill their values in their children and back-to-the-earth types who rejected the institutional nature of public schools. Now it’s edging ever closer to the mainstream. In 1993–after years of court battles–it became legal in all 50 states for parents to take charge of their kid’s education from kindergarten to college. While there are no national statistics, researchers who study home schooling estimate that as many as 1.5 million youngsters are currently being taught primarily by their mothers or fathers. That’s five times the estimated number of home schoolers just a decade ago and bigger than the nation’s largest public-school system, New York City’s. The increase is especially remarkable in an era of two-income families, since it pretty much requires one parent to stay home (generally the mother), at some financial sacrifice. In a recent NEWSWEEK Poll, 59 percent of those surveyed said home-schooled kids were at least as well educated as students in traditional schools. ““Home schoolers’ image is not wacko, fringe, lunatic-type people anymore,’’ says Brian Ray, president of the Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Ore., a nonprofit group. ““Today almost everyone knows a home schooler, so it’s more socially acceptable.''
Some of the new home-schooling parents are looking for a way to reclaim family closeness in an increasingly fast-paced society. Others have kids with special needs, perhaps because they’re highly gifted or have learning disabilities or emotional problems. Still other parents worry about unsavory influences in school–drugs, alcohol, sex, violence. Florida education officials report that in the last few years, the No. 1 reason parents gave for home schooling was ““safety.’’ Some intend to teach at home all the way through 12th grade. Others see home schooling as a way to get through a bad patch in a kid’s school life.
Their lesson plans are as diverse as their reasons for dropping out of the system, but what unites all these parents is a belief that they can do a better job at home than trained educators in a conventional school. That would have been an outrageous notion a generation ago, when far fewer parents had college degrees and most people regarded teachers and schools with more respect and even awe. Today parents are much better educated, hooked up to a world of information via the Internet and inundated with headlines about problems plaguing public schools. They see home schooling as one more step in the evolution of parent power that has given birth to school-choice programs, vouchers and charter schools. ““Americans are becoming fussy consumers rather than trusting captives of a state monopoly,’’ says Chester Finn, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. ““They’ve declared their independence and are taking matters into their own hands.''
But while home schooling is winning converts, it still has plenty of critics who worry that millions of youngsters will grow up without adequate academic or social skills. ““Kids need to be successful in three overlapping spheres–at home, at school and with peers,’’ says Phoenix pediatrician Daniel Kessler, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics developmental-behavior group. ““Home schooling compresses all that into a single setting that can be very difficult for kids.’’ The National Education Association, the nation’s biggest teachers union, backs much more rigorous regulation. Only 37 states now have statutes that set standards for home schooling, says Christopher Klicka, executive director of the National Center for Home Education, an advocacy group. About half of those demand some kind of annual testing or evaluation; the rest require only that certain subjects be covered within a specified time frame. Many educators say it’s the government’s responsibility to make sure kids get what they need to become productive citizens. ““After all, if home schooling fails,’’ says Ronald Areglado of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, ““we pay the freight’’ when a person ends up on public assistance or in jail. Areglado has good reason for his concern; as a principal, he saw a home-schooled kid who got no instruction at all from his parents.
But home-schooling parents say they are better equipped than ever before to give kids what they need. ““What they’re doing is reinventing the idea of school,’’ says Patricia Lines, a senior research analyst for the U.S. Department of Education. The Internet and sophisticated new educational software help fill in academic gaps. If they need more inspiration, they can browse through bookstore shelves filled with how-to books and subscribe to dozens of newsletters and magazines with titles like Growing Without Schooling that are packed with ads for home-schooling textbooks, videos and software, and seminars (chart). ““There are much better, more sophisticated curriculum materials available,’’ says Kathi Kearney, an expert in the home schooling of gifted students at Iowa State University.
These tools have transformed the conventional image of a home-schooling family: a couple of kids with workbooks open on the kitchen table under the supervision of Mom or Dad. Not only have the new generation of home schoolers moved beyond workbooks, they’ve also moved well out of the kitchen and often join home-schooling cooperatives, where parents take turns teaching different subjects and get together for group field trips. Jean Forbes’s home-schooling theater group in Virginia is more than just a chance for kids to enjoy center stage. History and even science lessons are part of the program. When the girls put on hoop skirts for ““Little Women,’’ they talked about how children played a century ago. When they used dry ice onstage in a play, they talked about the science behind the special effects.
Home-schooling parents are also turning to a surprising source for help: public schools. In the wake of lawsuits in many states by home-schooling parents, more communities are opening the doors to school libraries or computer rooms. Some districts have ““part time’’ options that allow kids to sign up for a few courses or participate in extracurricular activities like the football team or the band. Oregon even allows students to register for courses at different schools, so that a teenager could take advanced biology at one high school and art at another. Almost every state now has a home-schooling coordinator, and some, such as Washington and Iowa, have established resource centers for parents–giving families a chance to get something in return for their taxes. In California–where the troubled public schools have pushed thousands of parents into home schooling–many families sign up for the independent-study program at their local public schools to get books and other materials. A teacher monitors the child’s progress, usually through monthly visits. Jon Shemitz, a computer-programming consultant, enrolled his son, Sam, 10, in independent study through his district near Santa Cruz. During the teacher’s monthly visits, Shemitz says, she ““fills out the paperwork, sits around and chats and allows us to participate in a few programs like field trips.''
Despite these new resources, no one really knows how this new generation of home schoolers will turn out. There are no reliable long-term studies, but advocates say home schoolers generally do as well as other kids on standardized tests (chart), and some are accepted into the most elite colleges. Harvard has even assigned an admissions officer, David Illingsworth, to review applications from home schoolers. ““Ten years ago, if you didn’t have a diploma we didn’t want you,’’ he says. ““Today we’re always willing to look at different kinds of credentials.’’ Other colleges have mixed views of home-schooled students. In one recent survey of admissions officers, only 20 percent thought that parents were better able to motivate their children than teachers. But 83 percent agreed that high-school students could be adequately taught at home.
At every age, a strong parent-child relationship is far more important than any particular curriculum, experts say. Those bonds can be stretched when the whole family is together 24-7. Kids have to respect parents as teachers and still love them as Mom and Dad–a difficult task. Parents don’t even have the luxury of time off while their children are in the classroom; they are always on duty. It’s so tough that some parents give up after only a year or two. ““I’ve seen it tear families apart,’’ says William Coleman, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina.
Kids with special needs–gifted or learning disabled–are more likely than most to benefit from home schooling, researchers say, but only if their parents have the right training and resources. Ryan Abradi, a 10-year-old who lives in central Maine, started multiplying when he was just 2 1/2, and even then understood the concept of negative numbers. ““From the beginning, he seemed hard-wired for math,’’ says his mother, Valerie, a mechanical engineer. When he reached school age, she checked out the local gifted program and could tell right away that Ryan was already well beyond it. ““He had no patience,’’ she says. ““He was intolerant of the questions other kids would ask.’’ Ryan is now happily at home, working his way through second-semester college calculus.
Home-schooling parents reject critics’ claims that their kids aren’t well socialized. Many of them say they’ve overcome the isolation by getting kids involved in Scouts, 4-H or sports teams. ““Ninety percent of these kids play with people outside their families,’’ says Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute. But home-schooled kids themselves say they are different–in both good and bad ways. They’re probably more likely to be independent and self-motivated, but group activities can be a struggle. Eighteen-year-old Jon Williams of Missoula, Mont., is clearly outgoing and confident: he’s a Republican candidate for his state’s legislature. But Williams, who has been home schooled since ninth grade, credits the eight years he spent in Christian school with helping him hone his basic social skills. He doesn’t buy group activities like sports as the great socializers. ““You get a whole bunch of regressive kids together, and they all tend to be really shy,’’ he says.
Social isolation can be especially damaging in the middle-school years, says Coleman of the University of North Carolina. ““Parents have this Pollyanna view that they’re going to keep their kids away from bad influences,’’ he says, ““when kids biologically and psychosocially are going to want to push away’’ from their families.
At some point, of course, home-schooled kids will move out on their own. What lessons will serve them best? The ultimate goal of any educational path is to inspire love of learning, a passion that lasts a lifetime. One vision of what the future might hold for a few members of this new generation of home schoolers is embodied in the Not Back to School Camp, an annual late-summer gathering held in the woods near the Oregon coast. The camp is run by Grace Llewellyn, author of ““The Teenage Liberation Handbook.’’ Not a parent herself, Llewellyn was inspired to promote home schooling by the writing of education reformer John Holt. So while the rest of America was preparing for another season in the blackboard jungle, 162 home-schooled teenagers spent their days going to theater workshops and lectures on subjects like Radical Honesty, and generally taking comfort in the company of kindred spirits. ““There’s no reason for kids to be isolated,’’ she says.
And indeed, isolation was the last thing on Caitlin Stern’s mind. The 15-year-old longtime home schooler spent much of the last year studying bald eagles with a biologist in her hometown of Haines, Alaska. At the camp, she was busy running from workshop to workshop–taking charge of her own education. ““I don’t have time for school,’’ she says. ““I have way too much stuff to do.''
Long-term studies on home schoolers don’t exist, but here are the best estimates:
About 1.5 million students in the United States are home schooled, according to the Home Education Research Institute. There were about 300,000 students in 1990.
In the 12 states with the best accounting, the home-schooled population is estimated at 1.5 percent of the total number of elementary- and secondary-school students.
23 (of 36) was the average ACT score for a home schooler in 1998. Traditionally schooled kids averaged a 21. A 23 could qualify students for a “selective” college.
41 states have no minimum academic requirements for parents who want to home-school their children.
Home schooling isn’t for everyone. A short list of what it takes for a parent to succeed:
You’re well organized, patient, resourceful and enjoy being with your kids.
You can afford to lose income and won’t mind sacrificing professional goals.
You put family togetherness at the top of your personal priority list.
He’s generally outgoing and makes friends even in informal settings.
She’ll be able to respect you as a teacher and still love you as a parent.
He sees home schooling as a positive thing, not a punishment for academic or behavior problems.
From the first prez to Hanson, some famous folk who skipped class:
His formal education in Virginia was sparse; most of his schooling came in the fields of his father’s farm.
Even if she was tutored in Buckingham Palace, it was still home schooling. Her grandsons go to Eton.
Ol’ Roughrider attended school for ““a few months,’’ but for most of his childhood he had tutors.
The teachers bored him and he had trouble hearing, so he quit school and joined the railroad at the age of 12.
Her parents wanted her to follow her heart. At 7, she died when the plane she was piloting crashed.
Won the national spelling bee. ““Home schooling gave me more time and flexibility to study spelling,’’ she said.
When the brothers from Tulsa, Okla., made the ““Weird’’ video, their parents assigned a paper on the experience.
The Web is a good resource for the basics on home schooling. Some starting points:
Home School Legal Defense Assn. (www.hslda.org) summarizes state laws
Center for Talented Youth (www.jhu.edu/gifted), for distance learning programs
Home Education (www.home-ed-magazine.com), a home-schooling magazine
School Is Dead; Learn in Freedom! (www.learninfreedom.org) lists colleges
State/county home-school coordinator can recommend support groups, materials
