HOME SCHOOLING

The term home schooling refers to the practice of parents educating a child at home, rather than in a conventional public or private school setting. These children would otherwise be enrolled in elementary or secondary school. The parent responsible for home schooling generally does not work and is rarely a trained teaching professional. Primary concerns for most home schoolers are strengthening family bonds and developing religious values. Technological innovations in the late twentieth century made home schooling an increasingly manageable proposition, as the availability of personal computers and the Internet permitted families to access computer-driven instruction, multimedia resources, and far-flung support networks. Families provide home schooling in many different ways, with tremendous variation in curricula, teaching methods, and technology, and in the amount of peer interaction that children experience. Some home-schooling parents bring their children together for group outings and field trips to provide enhanced socialization, while others have formed cooperative schools or charter schools to support their efforts.

The estimated number of home-schooled children is unreliable, due largely to uneven record-keeping. However, in a 1999 report, the U.S. Department of Education estimated that more than 850,000 children were home schooled in the United States, and scholars purport that the population is increasing at an annual rate of between 7 to 15 percent. Researchers suggest that home educators are generally married couples with one nonworking spouse and more than two children and that their median income is generally comparable to that of all families with school-age children. In approximately one-quarter of home-schooling families, at least one parent is a licensed teacher; however, this is rarely the parent who is specifically responsible for the home schooling. The small amount of existent data suggests that very few minority students are educated through home schooling, and that three-quarters of home-schooling families are primarily motivated by religious concerns.

History

From the colonial period through the mid-1800s, education was generally delivered through loosely-structured community schools. In the nineteenth century, in efforts that began in the northeast, reformers increasingly came to view public schools as a vital means of "Americanizing" the nation's growing immigrant population and as an opportunity to foster a common American culture. This effort gained momentum after Massachusetts became the first state to adopt a compulsory education law in 1852. The law required parents to send their children to the state's increasingly systematic public schools. In the early twentieth century, public schooling became an increasingly central component of American culture. Growing numbers of students attended public school and Progressive reformers promoted education as a means of social betterment. As formal public schooling expanded during the first half of the twentieth century, home education became virtually obsolete.

However, by the 1960s, some education critics had begun to voice concerns that public schools were preaching alien values, failing to adequately educate children, or were adopting unhealthy approaches to child development. As a result, a "deschooling movement" took root in the 1960s and 1970s. Critics of public schooling primarily voiced two distinct ideologies, both emphasizing child-centered learning. Liberal critics of public schooling believed that schools did not adequately respect children as individuals, while conservative critics argued that public schools undermined traditional values.

Starting in the early 1980s, increasing numbers of parents chose to educate their children at home as a growing number of states relaxed their compulsory attendance laws to permit home schooling. Previously, parents who home schooled their children were in violation of compulsory attendance and truancy laws, and were therefore subject to legal action. While Nevada (1956) and Utah (1957) were the only states with home-schooling legislation prior to 1982, thirty-four states passed enabling legislation between 1982 and 1993. By 1998, under the pressure of an increasingly active home-schooling movement, all fifty states had passed home-school laws specifying attendance, subject, teacher, testing, and record-keeping requirements for home educators.

In 2002 state laws regulating home schooling vary widely regarding such matters as teacher licensure, testing, compulsory curriculum, and required paperwork. Some states impose exacting regulations on home schooling, while others legislate few requirements. Nine states place no restrictions on parents' rights to home school, providing the legal option for any parent who is interested. Ten other states simply require parents to notify the state when a child is being home schooled. On the other hand, twenty states demand that parents provide test scores or professional assessment to monitor the student's progress. Finally, eleven states impose stringent requirements that mandate that parents provide the state with test scores or professional assessment to measure the student's achievement, in addition to other requirements such as regular home visits or professional training.

Legal Background

American courts have asserted that parents possess significant authority to direct the education of their children. Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) was the first case to protect parental educational authority against the incursion of state legislation, establishing a legal precedent when the U.S. Supreme Court found that states may not prohibit foreign language education if schools offer it and parents desire it. Parents' fundamental right "to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control" was etched more firmly in Pierce v. Society of Seven Sisters (1925). The Pierce decision stated that parents should be allowed to choose the type of school their children attend, public or private, as Oregon law could not require that parents send their children to public schools. In a 1972 ruling crucial to the home-schooling cause, the Supreme Court held in Wisconsin v. Yoder that parents had the right to supersede compulsory education laws if the laws unduly impeded religious freedom. The Court ruled that it was permissible for Amish parents to remove their children from school at age twelve to maintain their way of life and exercise their religious freedom.

Although the courts have protected the rights of parents, they have also defended the right of states to require and extensively regulate educational instruction. Courts have ruled that if a state exempts home schoolers from compulsory attendance laws it is entitled to regulate their activities. States have the right to impose "reasonable" standards on home schoolers. These may include regulations as invasive as administering achievement tests to monitor students' progress (Murphy v. State of Arkansas, 1988). While most state laws include such requirements, enforcement is often sporadic due to the decentralized nature of home schooling and the lack of established overseeing bodies.

Over the course of time, several states have refused to allow home instruction on the grounds that it would stunt the social development of children and would prevent them from living normal, productive lives. The courts have determined that states are within their rights to make such determinations (Knox v. O'Brien, 1950). States may mandate that children must attend school because of the interaction it provides with their peers and the exposure it provides to different types of people (State v. Edging-ton, 1983).

Legal Trends

In the late 1990s, the parents of home-schooled children began suing schools districts that denied requests for supplemental services, classes, extracurricular activities, and additional services such as lab science instruction that cannot be feasibly provided at home. However, the courts have not mandated that districts provide such additional services. In Swanson v. Guthrie Independent School District (1998), a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a school board may deny home-schooled children the right to attend public school part-time. Previously, the courts had held in Bradstreet v. Sobol (1996) that school districts could require students to be enrolled in public schools in order to be eligible to participate in interscholastic sports.

Effects

Although no randomized field trials have been conducted, some preliminary research suggests that children who are home schooled may outperform their counterparts in public or private schools. However, given the variety of home-school settings and the uneven nature of preliminary research, it is not yet possible to reach any meaningful conclusions regarding the effectiveness of home schooling. Families who practice home schooling are often different in significant ways than families who do not. These differences, including higher levels of education, larger family size, and divergent child-rearing practices, make comparisons problematic. Moreover, it is advocates of home schooling who conduct of the research on the subject; this raises questions as to the validity and reliability of findings. The largest and most comprehensive as of 2001, conducted by the National Home Education Research Institute, examined over five thousand home-schooled students' scores on national standardized achievement tests for the 1994 through 1995 school year, and found that children who were home schooled outperformed their peers on standardized assessments.

Future Implications

In the fall of 2000, Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, became the first postsecondary institution intended primarily to serve students who had been schooled at home. Of the college's first class of ninety students, eighty had been home schooled. Patrick Henry College's curriculum has a moral focus comparable to many home schoolers' early education and values, and emphasizes traditional Christian values. The college is designed to address the typical challenges that many home schoolers face, as these students do not possess conventional educational records such as transcripts and may not be comfortable with their altered learning environment.

Home schooling poses a radical challenge to the centuries-long project of American public education. It raises important questions about how to balance the rights of family and community, of individual and state. There are no simple answers to these complex legal and ethical questions, and it is unclear the extent to which home schooling will transform educational practice in years to come.

See also: Alternative Schooling; Elementary Education, subentry on Current Trends; School Reform; Secondary Education, subentry on CuRrent Trends.

bibliography

Alexander, Kern, and Alexander, David M. 2001. American Public School Law. Stamford, CT: Wadsworth Group.

Briggs, Donald, and Porter, Gerald. 1994. "Parental Choice in the USA." In Parental Choice and Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, ed. J. Mark Halstead. Philadelphia: Kogan Page.

Greene, Jay P. 1998. "Civic Values in Public and Private Schools." In Learning from School Choice, ed. Paul E. Peterson and Bryan C. Hassel. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Kilborn, Peter T. 2000. "Learning at Home, Students Take the Lead." New York Times May 24.

Klicka, Christopher J. 1998. The Right to Home School. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.

Ray, Brian. 1997. Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America: Academic Achievement, Family Characteristics, and Longitudinal Traits. Salem, OR: National Home Education Research Institute.

Shepherd, Michael S. 1990. "Home Schooling: A Legal View." In Schooling at Home, ed. Anne Pederson and Peggy O'Mara. Santa Fe, NM: John Muir.

Stevens, Mitchell L. 2001. Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Home-schooling Movement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Sugarman, Stephen D., and Kemerer, Frank R. 1999. School Choice and Social Controversy: Politics, Policy, and Law. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Zirkel, Perry A. 1997. "Home/School Cooperation?" Phi Delta Kappan 78 (9):727–729.

internet resources

Home School Legal Defense Association. 2001. "The Home School Court Report." <www.hslda.org/courtreport/v17n1/v17N11.asp>.

National Home Education Research Institute. 2000. "Facts on Home Schooling by the NHERI." <www.nheri.org/add.html>.

Rudner, Lawrence M. 1999. "Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998." <http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/>.

Frederick M. Hess

Joleen R. Okun

Home schooling

Definition

Home schooling is the process of educating school-aged children at home rather than at a school. As of the early 2000s, it is perhaps one of the fastest growing trends in education in the United States. Since 1993, the practice has been legal in all 50 states. About 1.1 million students were being home-schooled in the spring of 2003, according to the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES), which was conducted by the United States Department of Education. In addition, the percentage of the school-age population that was being home-schooled increased from 1.7 percent in 1999 to 2.2 percent in 2003. Parents choose to home-school their children for a variety of reasons, though certain factors appear to be more prevalent than others. Nearly two-thirds of the parents of home-schooled students reported that their primary reason for home schooling was either concern regarding the environment of schools or a wish to provide moral or religious instruction.

Description

Societies have practiced home schooling for centuries. In North America, home schooling was widespread until the 1870s, when compulsory school attendance laws and the development of professional educators came together to institutionalize education in the form recognized in the early 2000s as the school. Some preeminent historical figures who were home-schooled include several presidents, such as George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Other home-schooling successes in American history include Thomas Edison, General Robert E. Lee, Booker T. Washington, and Mark Twain.

Although home schooling was practiced in a limited way after the 1870s, it was not until the 1960s that this practice claimed attention from a large number of parents and educators. The writings of Raymond Moore, a former U.S. Department of Education official, and John Holt, author of several books on education, gave credence and national presence to a growing home school movement. Moore began researching the institutionalization of children's education and concluded that a child's first foray into formal education should not begin until sometime between eight and 12 years of age. Holt advocated the decentralization of schools and a greater degree of parental involvement. He believed that the most civilized way to educate a child was through home schooling.

Prior to 1993, when home schooling became legal in all states, many parents who taught their children at home often faced arrest and jail time, amidst accusations of neglect and abuse. Most of that changed over the following decade. Even so, attitudes about home schooling vary widely from state to state, and there is a patchwork of regulation across the country. Some states may require a state-approved curriculum, conduct home visits periodically, and require that home-schooling parents be certified teachers. Others may not require a parent to have any contact with the state and have no minimum educational standards for the home-schooling parent.

Despite greater acceptance, home schooling has its critics, such as the National Education Association (NEA). This organization sees the safety of children and the economics of public schools as potential home school problems. They cite a few well-publicized incidences of abuse and state a fear that in states where there is no accountability of the home-schooling parents to the government, some children may be placed at higher risk for abuse, neglect, and other problems. The NEA is also concerned that home schooling will eventually lead to a diversion of funding from the public schools.

Characteristics of home schoolers

In the 1960s and 1970s, most home-schooling parents were members of the counter-cultural left. By the 1980s, however, most home-schooling parents were part of what is often called the Christian Right. In the early 2000s, approximately 75 percent of American home schoolers are practicing Christians. However, not all home-schooling parents are Christians. The rise in home schooling is reaching a much broader range of families. For example, the fastest growing number of practicing home schoolers is among Muslim Americans. Some surveys show that the average home-schooling family has an above average income. Others indicate that the household income of home schoolers is very similar to that of non-home-schooling families. Most home-schooling families have above-average levels of education. One important factor is that home-schooling families are 97-percent two-parent families, and most home-schooling mothers do not work outside the home. The average size of a home-schooling family is three children or more.

Reasons parents choose homeschooling

The decision to home-school is not based solely on conservative religious or political views. Although parents homeschool for a variety of reasons, the primary reason is dissatisfaction with public education. Other reasons stated by home-schooling parents include the following:

• the opportunity to impart a certain set of beliefs and morals
• higher academic performance through one-on-one instruction
• the ability to develop stronger parent-child relationships
• the lack of discipline in public schools
• the opportunity to escape negative peer pressure through more controlled interactions with a student's peers
• an inability to pay private school tuition
• a physically safer environment in which to learn

Home schooling involves a tremendous commitment from the parents. At least one parent must be willing to work closely with the child, develop lesson plans, keep current with government requirements, and sometimes negotiate issues with the local school district. The most common home-schooling arrangement is for the mother to teach while the father works outside the home. There are numerous educational materials available that are geared for home-schooled children. These include correspondence courses, full curricula, and single topic books in areas such as math or phonics. There are both religious and non-religious publishers of these materials. Some parents do not use these materials and develop individualized lessons based on their children's unique learning needs.

Performance of home-schooled students

One of the questions many people have is how home-schooled children perform academically. According to the U.S. Department of Education, virtually all of the data available illustrate that home-schooled students perform at an above average level on a variety of tests, including the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Interestingly, one study found that students whose parents are certified teachers performed no better than other students and that neither parental income nor parents' educational background had a significant impact on student performance. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, home-schooled students have gained admission and scholarships to such prestigious universities as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and MIT. In 2000, Patrick Henry College opened, a university established especially for home-schooled children.

Common problems

One disadvantage to home schooling is the loss of an income in a family, since many families make the decision to live on a single income so that one parent can devote time to educating the children. Some home-schooling families find the practice of home-schooling confining. It takes a great deal of dedication and preparation for instruction and schoolwork. One of the most often voiced concerns is that children who are home schooled are not properly socialized. However, there are numerous opportunities for home-schooled students to interact with others, including libraries, scouting, 4-H, sports teams, and a variety of church activities. In addition, many local communities have formed home-schooling associations in which children have many outlets for interacting with their peers.

Parental concerns

Parents interested in teaching their children at home should thoroughly research what is involved before making the decision to do so. They need to be informed regarding the laws in their state and local school district, which may affect their decision.

Resources

BOOKS

Holt, John, Patrick Farenga, and Pat Farenga. Teach Your Own. Boulder, CO: Perseus Publishing, 2003.

Pride, Mary. Mary Pride's Complete Guide to Getting Started in Homeschooling. Princeton, NJ: Harvest House Publishers, 2004.

PERIODICALS

Butler, Shery. "The 'H' Word: Home Schooling." Gifted Child Today Magazine. (September 2000.)

Klicka, Christopher J. "The Facts Are In: Homeschoolers Excel." Practical Homeschooling (January/February 2004): 12–14.

Postlewaite, Charlotte C. "The Home School Debate: States are Responding to the Increasing Number of Parents Who are Home Schooling Their Children." State Government News (February 2004): 18–20.

ORGANIZATIONS

Home School Legal Defense Association. PO Box 3000, Purcellville, VA 20134–9000. Web site: <www.hslda.org>.

National Home Education Research Institute. PO Box 13939, Salem, OR 97309. Web site: <www.nheri.org>.

WEB SITES

"1.1 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2003." National Center for Education Statistics, July 2004. <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004115.pdf> (accessed December 11, 2004).

Deanna M. Swartout-Corbeil, RN

HOME SCHOOLING

In the simplest terms, home schooling can be defined as the education of school-aged children in the home setting. Home schooling has become an increasingly popular way of educating children for a number of reasons. These reasons include, but are not limited to, religious beliefs, living in a dangerous neighborhood, a poor public education system, and the belief that parents themselves can provide their son or daughter with a good education.

Origins and Development

Origins of home schooling in the United States can be traced back to the seventeenth century—prior to public education and compulsory attendance laws. Although some town schools existed, home schooling was often the only option available to colonial children and the early pioneers. Because of nationwide compulsory attendance laws and the beginning of public education in the early twentieth century, however, the need for home schooling significantly decreased. This decrease did not last long, though, as expression of religious beliefs and dissatisfaction with public education increased throughout the twentieth century. By 1980 it was estimated that 15,000 students were being home schooled, a much smaller number in comparison to the early twenty-first century, but also much larger when compared to the previous eighty years.

It is estimated that between 700,000 and 1.3 million children in the United States are home schooled. In 2001 this represented approximately 3 to 5 percent of all students from kindergarten through grade twelve. Numerous studies have shown that the majority of home-schooled students come from a two-parent, middle-class household. Though more single mothers without college education are beginning to home school their children, most parents have some college education and a higher income than the national norm. Other typical characteristics of home school families include the following: (1) Equal numbers of boys and girls are home schooled with children ranging in age from three to seventeen; (2) though the mother is usually the primary teacher, both parents play an active role in the process; (3) there are generally three or more children in the family; (4) more than 70 percent regularly attend religious services, representing a variety of backgrounds; (5) children are usually home schooled a minimum of three years; and (6) though students usually study all traditional school subjects, home school parents generally place an emphasis on reading, mathematics, and science.

Reasons for Home Schooling

As mentioned before, parents choose to home school their children for many different reasons. The two most popular are called ideological and pedagogical, with those home schooling for ideological reasons called ideologues and those doing so for pedagogical reasons called pedagogues. Ideologues are generally motivated by religious beliefs and choose instructional methods focused on religious teachings, moral values, and patriotism, mixed with basic skills. The majority of ideologues, though not all, are fundamentalist Christians who have a strong desire to connect their religious beliefs to their instructional curricula.

Parents who choose to home school their children for pedagogical reasons can be separated into two groups. The first group, originating in the late 1960s, includes parents who want their children to develop individual awareness and fulfill their potential. Because of this motivation, they typically use loosely defined curricula where their children are placed in unstructured, exploration-seeking environments. The second group of pedagogues has chosen to home school their children because of dissatisfaction with the climate or quality of the education provided in the public school setting. Contrary to the first group, these parents usually teach their children in structured environments, focusing on the learning of basic skills, discipline, and patriotism.

How, When, and How Much

Because parents choose to home school their children for different reasons, every home school looks a little different. Studies have shown, however, that ideologues usually teach a more traditional curriculum, and many include biblical training and the teaching of religious history. Out of their desire for their children to become self-aware and develop their potential, the first group of pedagogues discussed above believes that education should consider all aspects of the human experience—rational, emotional, spiritual, aesthetic, and creative. Unfortunately, very few studies have examined how the second group of pedagogues educates their children. This is a reflection of the wide variety of reasons why this particular group of parents decides to home school their children.

Each home school also looks different in terms of when parents begin to home school their children, how many hours are spent "in school," and how much parents spend to home school their children. Similar to how parents choose to educate their children, these decisions are also a reflection of why parents have chosen to home school. For example, while most parents begin educating their children around the age of six, there are some who begin as young as age three or four and others who wait until the child is between ten and twelve. One reason for such variability is that parents are the ones who determine when their child is ready for school. Though there is still much variety, most studies have shown that the average home-schooled child spends three to four hours per day being educated. Additional time is also spent on special projects such as field trips, reading for pleasure, cooking, playing, gardening, and so forth. Finally, most studies have found that the national average spent on home schooling is $500 a year per child.

Academic and Social Outcomes

Despite concerns that home-schooled children will have poorly developed social skills and will not learn at a similar rate as their same-age peers, most studies have revealed the opposite. In fact, most studies have shown that home schools produce superior social and academic results. For example, one study found that 50 percent of 224 home-schooled children in Michigan scored as well as or better than 90 percent of their same-age peers and only 10.3 percent scored below the national average on a measure of self-concept and self-esteem. Another study revealed that home-schooled students generally participate in at least five extracurricular activities outside the home, with 98 percent participating in at least two or more activities.

Academic and achievement results are similar. For example, almost 25 percent of home-schooled students are enrolled one or more grades above their same-age peers in public and private schools. Achievement test scores for home-schooled students are also exceptionally high, with students in grades one to four performing one grade level above their same-age public and private school peers. Finally, students who have been home schooled their entire academic life have higher scholastic achievement test scores than students enrolled in public or private schools. Because of these results, colleges and universities have begun to accept larger numbers of home-schooled students. For example, Harvard, Dartmouth, Oxford, UCLA, and Yale, among others, have accepted and enrolled home-schooled students.

Legal Requirements

Though home-schooled students have succeeded and continue to succeed, their parents' fight to be able to home school has not proceeded without court involvement. For example, in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, compulsory attendance laws of various states were challenged in court. By 1986, however, all states had adopted some form of legislation recognizing home schooling as an education option. Now, only ten states require parents to have specific qualifications to home school their children, and these include a high school diploma, GED, or some college. Fifteen states require simply that home schooling parents be "competent" and instruction be "thorough." Thirty states require testing or other evaluation of home-schooled students. Finally, nearly all states require parents to file basic information with either the state or local education agency, and many states have additional requirements, such as the submission of a curricular plan or the testing of parents.

Cooperation between Public and Home Schools

Although the National Parent Teacher Association and the National Education Association oppose home schooling, there are numerous examples of cooperation between public and home schools today. In 1991, for example, Iowa passed legislation giving home-schooled students dual enrollment and granting them the opportunity to take part in academic and instructional programs in the school district, participate in extracurricular activities, and use the services and assistance of the local educational agencies. Another example is Michigan, where school districts are required to open "nonessential elective courses" to home-schooled students.

Because of this increasing nationwide cooperation, greater freedom to home school in all states, and strong academic results, home schooling is becoming an increasingly popular option for parents who are either dissatisfied with public education or desire to teach their children what they consider important. Further, home school families have created their own home schooling organizations and co-ops, and curricular companies have been formed that exclusively cater to their needs. In connection with this support and greater public acceptance of home schooling as a viable educational alternative, it is expected that the popularity of home schooling will continue to increase well into the twenty-first century.

Bibliography

Mayberry, Maralee, J. Gary Knowles, Brian Ray, and Stacey Marlow. Home Schooling: Parents as Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 1995.

Rudner, Lawrence. "Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998." Education Policy Analysis Archives [web site]. Available from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/; INTERNET.

Russo, Charles, and William Gordon. "Home Schooling: The In-House Alternative."School Business Affairs (December 1996):16-20.

Jason D.Rehfeldt

Home Schooling

Home schooling is the education of school-age children by their parents, rather than full-time attendance at a campus school. While only an estimated 15,000 children were home-schooled in the mid-1970s, the movement has grown at spectacular rates since then, especially among religious conservatives. This growth is at least in part due to the religious concerns of parents about their responsibility for training and educating their children, and their reservations about public schools. At a minimum, 750,000 to 1 million children are home-schooled. During the 1990s the number of children in home schooling more than doubled.

Though research on home schooling is limited, some tentative conclusions are possible. Regional studies find that home schoolers are primarily white, middle-class, well educated, and in occupations with considerable flexibility and autonomy. At least one-third are from conservative religious traditions, such as evangelical, pentecostal, or nondenominational religious organizations, and another 25 percent are from mainline religious organizations. Other studies also find that religious conservatives dominate the home-schooling movement.

The 1996 National Household Education Survey confirms that home schooling is much more likely among whites than nonwhites. And home schooling, not surprisingly, is associated with two-parent families in which parents work fewer than the average total hours outside the home. This makes sense, given that at least one parent—usually the mother—is home educating the children. Home-schooling parents have about the same level of education and income as non–home schoolers. Home schooling is least common in the Northeast and most common in the West. Home schooling is also more common in less residentially stable areas, perhaps because of the increased problems in public schools and reduced availability of church-related schools in these areas.

On average, home-schooling parents tend to be more religious—as measured by attendance at worship services—than non–home schoolers. At the same time, significant minorities of home schoolers do not attend religious services. These findings reflect two important sources of home schooling: (1) conservative Christians, who often opt out of public schools for ideological reasons; and (2) parents with a secular countercultural or "New Age" orientation who are likely to be primarily concerned with pedogogical issues.

Among churchgoing Protestants, pentecostals and charismatics are much more likely to favor nonpublic schooling over public schooling as the best strategy for Christians. And based on a 1996 nationally representative survey of churchgoing Protestants, fundamentalists and charismatics are more likely to send their children to nonpublic schools. Even after accounting for race, income, and education, the survey found that home schooling seems, unsurprisingly, more popular among evangelicals and fundamentalists than among theologically liberal respondents.

What are the academic results of home schooling? Most studies show that home-schooled children do as well as or better than their public school peers (Ray 1997), most likely because of the higher levels of parental involvement in the learning process.

Home schooling is not detrimental to the development of children's socialization skills. And home schoolers are not socially isolated, as many opponents fear. Home schoolers have developed an impressive social and organizational network, mitigating concerns that home schoolers are withdrawn from peers, community, and nation. In fact, alternative schoolers are actually more involved in civic life than public schoolers. Home-schooling organizations, which may involve coordinating field trips to local museums or to a jointly sponsored science class for home-school children, often cross the divide between conservative Christian parents and secular counterculturalist home-schooling parents.

Still, there are divisions within the home-schooling movement. Home-schooling organizations of conservative Christians tend to be hierarchical and formalized, as opposed to the organization of secular countercultural groups, which tend to be decentralized and more informal. Also, attempts to organize home schoolers into a national constituency have often given way to separate home-schooling organizations, structured along conservative Protestant vs. secularecumenical lines.

Why do parents choose to home-school their children? Religion is a primary motive for many. But based on interviews with home-schooling parents, religious reasons are not the whole story. Home-schooling parents are not primarily driven by "secular humanism" in the public schools and generally do not demand that public schools become "Christian." In fact, some home-schooling parents are equally concerned about the teaching methods of other private schools. Nor are they attempting to unite home, school, and church into a tight web that keeps out the secular world.

Why choose home schooling? In addition to specifically religious reasons, a majority of home-schooling parents believe home schooling is a better method of education, that public schools are a poor learning environment, or that public schools are not academically challenging. About one-fourth of home-schooling parents also argue that the choice of home schooling depends on the needs of the child. Many conservative Protestants seem to move their children in and out of home schooling and other forms of schooling. Only a small minority take the position that the current organization of public schooling is radically wrong, or that home schooling is a responsibility of every Christian parent.

Many researchers interpret the home-schooling movement as a reaction to modernity and secularization. Home schooling is more likely in areas that have lost tightly knit communities and thus may be partly a response to the loss of moral order in the community. The growth of the state and of cultural diversity may lead to conflict between the organization and content of public education and the ideologies embodied in family and church. A result is a movement into alternative education, such as home schooling. Additionally, parents increasingly have the resources to take up home schooling successfully. Rising levels of education lead to a reduced sense that the "school knows best," and perhaps greater confidence in one's own ability to carry out the task of educating one's children.

Because of the demands of home schooling on parents, the rapid growth of the movement in the 1980s and 1990s may level off. But current signs point to continued growth in home schooling, especially among religious parents.

See alsoAttendance; Churchand State; Fundamentalist Christianity; Humanism; New Age Spirituality; Prayerin School; Religious Studies; Secularization.

Bibliography

Burns, Patrick. "A Profile of Selected Characteristics of Arizona's Home Schooling Families." Unpublished diss., Northern Arizona University. 1993.

Lines, Patricia. "Homeschoolering: An Overview for Education Policy Makers." U.S. Department of Education. Working Paper. 1997.

Lines, Patricia. "Homeschoolers: Estimating Numbers and Growth." U.S. Department of Education. Technical Paper. 1998.

Mayberry, Maralee, and J. Gary Knowles. "Family Unity Objectives of Parents Who Teach Their Children: Ideological and Pedagogical Orientations to Home Schooling." Urban Review 21 (1989): 209–225.

Ray, Brian. Home Education Across the United States. 1997.

Sikkink, David. "Public Schooling and Its Discontents: Religious Identities, Schooling Choices for Children, and Civic Participation." Unpublished diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1998.

Sikkink, David. "The Social Sources of Alienation from Public Schools." Social Forces 77 (1999).

David Sikkink

Michael O. Emerson

HOME SCHOOLING

HOME SCHOOLING, the practice of educating one's own children, saw dramatic growth over the last two decades of the twentieth century. Home schoolers numbered about 15,000 in the 1970s; by 1999 850,000 children were learning at home. Long the normative practice on the American frontier, parent-directed education was almost entirely eclipsed with the accomplishment of universal compulsory schooling in the early twentieth century. But in the wake of the "anti-Establishment" cultural ferment of the 1960s and 1970s, home schooling reemerged, championed by advocates across a wide ideological spectrum.

The contemporary home school movement has a dual history. One branch began in the left-liberal alternative school movement of the 1960s, a cause that sought to democratize teacher-student relationships and give students greater discretion in directing their own educations. John Holt, long an advocate of alternative schooling, began to promote home education (which he called "unschooling") in the 1970s. Before his death in 1985, Holt nurtured a national grassroots network of home school converts. Another branch grew out of the conservative Protestant day school movement, specifically through the work of Raymond and Dorothy Moore, whose several books and national speaking tours advocating home education reached a ready audience of religious families already skeptical of public schools.

One of the first tasks of the fledgling movement was to secure the legality of the practice. Spurred by a small but well-organized home school lobby, judicial and legislative activity throughout the 1980s rendered home education legal throughout the United States by the end of the decade. The process of legalization was facilitated by the distinctive jurisdictional structure of American education. Because authority over schooling is largely in the hands of state and local governments in the United States, activists were able to wage localized battles and win victories in piecemeal fashion.

By the beginning of the twenty-first century, home education was not only legal but also broadly accepted in the United States. Home schooling was made easier by favorable laws, an elaborate network of support and advocacy groups at the local and national levels, and a vital sector of small businesses that supplied curriculum materials of all kinds to a growing home school market.

While the home school movement is a nominally international one, with at least a few adherents in most nations of the industrialized world, it is a distinctively American invention. The basic ideas that animate home education—that each learner is unique, that government schools are not doing their job well, and that educational professionals are unnecessary for sound instruction—are in keeping with the individualism and skepticism of formal authority that have characterized the national culture throughout its history.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bielick, Stacey, Kathryn Chandler, and Stephen Broughman. Homeschooling in the United States: 1999 (NCES 2001-033). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, 2001. The first nationally representative survey of the U.S. home school population.

Moore, Raymond, and Dorothy Moore. Home Grown Kids. Waco, Tex: Word Books, 1981. A popular defense of home education.

Stevens, Mitchell L. Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001. A sociological account of the rise of home education in the United States.

MitchellStevens