Homeschooling or homeschool (also called home education or home learning ) is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in a formal setting of public or private school. Although prior to the introduction of compulsory school attendance laws, most childhood education occurred within the family or community, homeschooling in the modern sense is an alternative in developed countries to formal education.
Homeschooling is a legal option in many places for parents to provide their children with a learning environment as an alternative to publicly-provided schools. Parents cite numerous reasons as motivations to homeschool, including better academic test results, poor public school environment, improved character/morality development, and objections to what is taught locally in public school. It may be a factor in the choice of parenting style. It is also an alternative for families living in isolated rural locations or living temporarily abroad.
Homeschooling may also refer to instruction in the home under the supervision of correspondence schools or umbrella schools. In some places, an approved curriculum is legally required if children are to be home-schooled. A curriculum-free philosophy of homeschooling may be called unschooling , a term coined in 1977 by American educator John Holt in his magazine Growing Without Schooling .
History
For much of history and in many cultures, enlisting professional teachers (whether as tutors or in a formal academic setting) was an option available only to a small elite. Thus, until relatively recently, the vast majority of people were educated by parents (especially during early childhood) and in the in the fields or learning a trade.
The earliest compulsory education in the West began in the late 17th century and early 18th century in the German states of Gotha, Calemberg and, particularly, Prussia. However, even in the 18th century, the vast majority of people in Europe lacked formal schooling, which means they were homeschooled or received no education at all. The same was also true for colonial America and for the United States until the 1850s. Formal schooling in a classroom setting has been the most common means of schooling throughout the world, especially in developed countries, since the early and mid 19th century. Native Americans, who traditionally used homeschooling and apprenticeship, strenuously resisted compulsory education in the United States.
In 1964, John Caldwell Holt, published a book entitled How Children Fail which criticized traditional schools of the time. The book was based on a theory he had developed as a teacher – that the academic failure of schoolchildren was caused by pressure placed on children by adults. Holt began making appearances on major TV talk shows and writing book reviews for Life magazine. In his follow-up work, How Children Learn , 1967, he tried to demonstrate the learning process of children and why he believed school short-circuits this process.
In these books, Holt had not suggested any alternative to institutional schooling; he had hoped to initiate a profound rethinking of education to make schools friendlier toward children. As the years passed he became convinced that the way schools were was what society wanted, and that a serious re-examination was not going to happen in his lifetime.
During this time, the American educational professionals Raymond and Dorothy Moore began to research the academic validity of the rapidly growing Early Childhood Education movement. This research included independent studies by other researchers and a review of over 8,000 studies bearing on Early Childhood Education and the physical and mental development of children.
They asserted that formal schooling before ages 8–12 not only lacked the anticipated effectiveness, but was actually harmful to children. The Moores began to publish their view that formal schooling was damaging young children academically, socially, mentally, and even physiologically. They presented evidence that childhood problems such as juvenile delinquency, nearsightedness, increased enrollment of students in special education classes, and behavioral problems were the result of increasingly earlier enrollment of students. The Moores cited studies demonstrating that orphans who were given surrogate mothers were measurably more intelligent, with superior long term effects – even though the mothers were mentally retarded teenagers – and that illiterate tribal mothers in Africa produced children who were socially and emotionally more advanced than typical western children, by western standards of measurement.
Their primary assertion was that the bonds and emotional development made at home with parents during these years produced critical long term results that were cut short by enrollment in schools, and could neither be replaced nor afterward corrected in an institutional setting. Recognizing a necessity for early out-of-home care for some children – particularly special needs and starkly impoverished children, and children from exceptionally inferior homes– they maintained that the vast majority of children are far better situated at home, even with mediocre parents, than with the most gifted and motivated teachers in a school setting (assuming that the child has a gifted and motivated teacher). They described the difference as follows: "This is like saying, if you can help a child by taking him off the cold street and housing him in a warm tent, then warm tents should be provided for all children – when obviously most children already have even more secure housing."
Similar to Holt, the Moores embraced homeschooling after the publication of their first work, Better Late Than Early , 1975, and went on to become important homeschool advocates and consultants with the publication of books like Home Grown Kids , 1981, Homeschool Burnout , and others.
At the time, other authors published books questioning the premises and efficacy of compulsory schooling, including Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich, 1970 and No More Public School by Harold Bennet, 1972.
In 1976, Holt published Instead of Education; Ways to Help People Do Things Better . In its conclusion he called for a "Children's Underground Railroad" to help children escape compulsory schooling. In response, Holt was contacted by families from around the U.S. to tell him that they were educating their children at home. In 1977, after corresponding with a number of these families, Holt began producing a magazine dedicated to home education: Growing Without Schooling.
In 1980, Holt said, "I want to make it clear that I don’t see homeschooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools. I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were."
Holt later wrote a book about homeschooling, Teach Your Own , in 1981.
One common theme in the homeschool philosophies of both Holt and the Moores is that home education should not be an attempt to bring the school construct into the home, or a view of education as an academic preliminary to life. They viewed it as a natural, experiential aspect of life that occurs as the members of the family are involved with one another in daily living.
Methodology
Homeschools use a wide variety of methods and materials. There are different paradigms, or educational philosophies, that families adopt including unit studies, Classical education (including Trivium, Quadrivium), Charlotte Mason education, Montessori method, Theory of multiple intelligences, Unschooling, Radical Unschooling, Waldorf education, School-at-home, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and many others. Some of these approaches, particularly unit studies, Montessori, and Waldorf, are also available in private or public school settings.
It is not uncommon for the student to experience more than one approach as the family discovers what works best for them. Many families do choose an eclectic (mixed) approach. For sources of curricula and books, "Homeschooling in the United States: 2003" found that 78 percent utilized "a public library"; 77 percent used "a homeschooling catalog, publisher, or individual specialist"; 68 percent used "retail bookstore or other store"; 60 percent used "an education publisher that was not affiliated with homeschooling." "Approximately half" used curriculum or books from "a homeschooling organization", 37 percent from a "church, synagogue or other religious institution" and 23 percent from "their local public school or district." 41 percent in 2003 utilized some sort of distance learning, approximately 20 percent by "television, video or radio"; 19 percent via "Internet, e-mail, or the World Wide Web"; and 15 percent taking a "correspondence course by mail designed specifically for homeschoolers."
Individual governmental units, e,g, states and local districts, vary in official curriculum and attendance requirements.
Unit studies
The unit study approach incorporates several subjects, such as art, history, math, science, geography and theology, around the context of one topical theme, like water, animals, American slavery, or ancient Rome. For example, a unit study of Native Americans could combine age-appropriate lessons in:
Unit Studies - Homeschooling Resources - Homeschool.com - The #1 ...
Unit Studies ... special home school pricing. A Helping Hand Complete state history courses from a Christian ...
Homeschool Curriculum - Christianbook.com
Unit Studies; Refine Within Homeschool. Occasion; Grade Level ... Christian Fiction; Bibles; Christian Living; Kids; Christian Music ... Christianbook.com Home; Conditions of Use; Privacy Notice
KONOS - Home
Christian curriculum for homeschoolers.
Welcome to Christian Cottage
Welcome to Christian Cottage Home School Services! Are you new to homeschooling, or do you have a ... as well as creative, hands-on learning opportunities through our Unit Studies ...
Christian Unit Studies Materials - A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling ...
Suppliers of Christian Fundamentalist unit study curriculum for sale to homeschooling families. Links from your Homeschooling Guide.
Free Printable Unit Studies - Funschooler Units - Free Unit Studies ...
Christian homeschooling free unit studies, home education, free homeschooling resources, free unit studies This site is a part of the FamilyClassroom.net network of resource ...
Homeschooling Books - Unit Studies for Christian Homeschooling
Our unit studies homeschooling supplies include designing and teaching unit studies for preschool, middle school, and high school.
Christian Heritage College..School of Christian Studies
Home; About CHC; The Degrees; The People; The ... the exception of courses offered by the School of Ministries). The School of Christian Studies provides the core Christian Studies units ...
Central Christian College - Home School Student Information
Some indications that Central Christian College is a Home-School Friendly Campus: ... student has: 4 units of English; 3 units of Social Studies, which should include 1 unit ...
Christian Heritage College..School of Christian Studies - Unit ...
Home; About CHC; The Degrees; The People; The ... Unit Descriptions. CS100 CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP * This unit is designed ... School of Christian Studies. Unit Descriptions; Staff