Research & Statistics: Habitat For Home School
As long as there are parents and children, there will be home school. The overwhelming success of the home school is evident, in part, by the large number of parents who have claimed total responsibility for their children's education. As of 2003, the last year for which figures are available, 1.1 million children were home schooled, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
There are different reasons parents assume the enormous task of educating their children themselves. 31 percent cited the school environment as their primary reason to home school: concerning issues such as safety, drugs and negative peer pressure. It's a valid argument. At home there are no bullies, no drugs and no guns.
A close second, at 30 percent, are the parents who cited religious reasons to home school their children. Whatever religious education they are taught at home doesn't have to be left at the door when they go to school. Holidays can be incorporated into their curriculum without fear of reprisal.
Sixteen percent of the parents interviewed say they home school their children because of the dissatisfaction of the academic quality of public schools.
Whatever the reason, home school is on the increase. Between 1999 and 2003, there was a 29 percent increase in the number of children who were home schooled.
All told, the resources with which to home school children are limitless. Seventy-eight percent of parents use the library as an educational source while 77 percent use a catalog, publisher or individual specialist for their home school education program. Sixty-nine percent use a retail bookstore or other store and 60 percent use an education publisher not associated with home school. Forty-one percent also use some kind of distance learning media.
That does not take into account the field trips home school children are able to take and the questions they are able to ask and have answered. Instead of a harried trip to the grocery store after work, most home schooled children have the opportunity to make grocery shopping a learning experience. There's time to read labels for nutritional information and there's time to put their math skills to work in search of the best bargain.
Even shopping for clothes can be a learning experience. Instead of fighting the crowds to make sure your child has the perfect outfit for the first day of school, there's time and energy for her to learn how much is saved by the “twenty percent off” sale.
Home school is here to stay. Of course, children have been taught at home from the beginning of time. Now, there are more than a million home schooled children.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.
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