Home Schooling | Introduction
Educational success is generally measured in terms of academic achievement. If this standard alone were applied to home schooling, most people would agree that home schooling can be a successful alternative to public school.
Testing evidence indicates that home schooling is highly effective in terms of academics. The average home-schooled student scored 81 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) than did the general population in 2000. At the National Spelling Bee in 2000, the top three winners were home-schooled. Studies show that home-schooled children also tend to score higher on basic skills testing than do public school children. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Evidence is mounting that homeschooling, once confined to the political and religious fringe, has achieved results not only on par with public education, but in some ways surpassing it.”
However, one subject continues to surface whenever the issue of home schooling arises. Public school administrators, teachers, and parents are all concerned about whether home-schooled children are properly socialized.
Some of those concerned about the socialization of home-schooled children include those who had been educated at home but who later chose to attend public school. One such student, Trent Gist, was homeschooled until ninth grade and then attended a public high school. Gist believes that while “home schooling was great . . . it just wasn’t for me . . . I know a lot of home schoolers who are very unsociable.”
Gist’s comments supply ammunition to other detractors of home schooling, like the National Education Association (NEA), who believe that public schools offer experiences and opportunities not available at home. They point out that home-schooled students miss out on the use of resources that encourage cooperation, such as laboratories, and activities that help develop teamwork and friendships, such as athletic programs and school dances.
Supporters of public schools maintain that public school students learn to work well with others, including those of differing backgrounds, and that they can achieve greater independence by attending public school. Negotiating the communal spaces of schoolyard, classroom, athletic field, and laboratory prepares them for “real world” experiences, they contend. Critics of home schooling believe that home-schooled children miss out on these important opportunities.
Without the chance to interact with those of diverse backgrounds, critics are concerned that home-schooled students will fail to appreciate and understand one of the core values of American life: to tolerate and appreciate the differences between cultures or groups and among individuals. They fear that isolation breeds intolerance, prejudice, and even fanaticism.
Not just educators have noticed social difficulties with home schoolers. One family doctor, Brian J. Penney, discovered in his practice that many home-schooled children “are ill equipped to deal with the real world. They often do not have the ability to cope with the distractions and peer pressures and thus may develop behaviour and attention problems.” He also states that “home-schooled children do not appear to have developed the social maturity appropriate to their age” and are unable to perform well outside their home.
In response to such criticism, proponents of home schooling answer that home-schooled children have plenty of social opportunities. A study by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute found that an average home-schooled child participates in 5.2 activities per week outside the home. These children are involved in music, dance, drama, and art classes, visit museums and zoos, and join home-schooling groups or local churches. They form athletic teams and compete in home-school tournaments. They participate in book and foreign language clubs, scout groups, and have pen pals. Tracey and Thomas Sherry, home-schooling parents, believe these groups teach “positive social skills: kindness, patience, generosity, trust, empathy and cooperation.”
In fact, home schoolers believe that, because the average time spent “in class” can often be compressed to about half a day, home-school students have more time available to them than do students in public school to pursue special interests. These activities may include practicing the piano, learning lines for a play, or studying ballet. One 60 Minutes segment in 2001 spotlighted a family with five children, all of whom played piano and all of whom were accepted at the elite music academy Julliard— something that was unprecedented. As home-schooling students, they were able to practice many hours a day, something they would not have been able to do if they had attended public school.
Not only may home-schooled students have more time to focus on and nurture a talent, proponents of home schooling contend, they may also be able to choose more diverse experiences. The director of admissions for Marlboro College, Katherine Hallas, found that home-schooled applicants “have unique extracurricular backgrounds: One recent homeschooled applicant was the national quilting champion and another had traveled independently to Tibet to study shamanism.”
Advocates of home schooling maintain that in the process of participating in outside activities, home-schooled children benefit by socializing with people of all ages, not just those of their peer group. They note that the world does not consist of people who are all the same age and that students are at a disadvantage if their day is spent only with peers. One home-schooling parent, William R. Mattox Jr., claims that home schooling “reduces that degree to which children find themselves constantly and obsessively being compared to, and comparing themselves with, other children their age.” A home-schooled child’s days, he believes, are more like the “real world” than that of students in public school.
Research conducted on the socialization of home-schooled children lends support to the arguments of home-schooling advocates. One study, according to Patricia Lines, found that home schoolers were as welladjusted as public school students when measuring “aggression, reliance on others, perception of support from others, perceptions of limits to be followed, and interpersonal relations among family members.” Another study indicated that home-schooled children had less behavioral problems than children attending public school.
Supporters of home schooling will often turn the tables on their critics, pointing to the negative influences present in public schools. In particular, a sizable percentage of home-schooling parents worry about the “wrong kind” of socialization found in public schools and keep their kids at home primarily for that reason. They believe the prevalence of illicit drugs, alcohol, smoking, and premarital sex undermines the moral principles taught at home. They fear the negative influences of peer pressure and want to protect their children from American pop culture.
Lastly, proponents of home schooling believe that the environment in a home-schooling household may be more conducive to participation in the community during adulthood. One 1996 study determined that parents who home school participate in civic activities more than parents with kids in public school. These civic activities included voting, attending public meeting or rallies, contributing to a political cause, or volunteering. Mattox comments that “homeschooled children tend to draw their primary social identity from their membership in a particular family rather than from their membership in a particular group,” making them more likely to feel a part of the community.
Despite the fact that the debate about socialization persists, home schooling continues to thrive as an alternative educational choice. As of 1999, approximately 850,000 children were being home-schooled in the United States, growing at a rate of about 11 percent per year. The authors in At Issue: Home Schooling discuss the important issues surrounding the growth of home schooling and the role it will continue to play in American education.
