Home schooling - Famous Home Schoolers
by Mimi Rothschild
Many famous people were educated through home schooling. It can be somewhat surprising how these individuals managed to soar high into their chosen professions by studying not at the prestigious universities and colleges, but right in the comfort of their own homes. For example, just recently, Justice Erika Tatum of the Texas Supreme Court and Appellate Court and Attorneys Chris Warne and Heather Barber, all confirmed “home schoolers”, met as delegates in the 49th Annual YMCA Youth and Government Conference to compete in the annual ‘mock trials’ at the state level.
John Adams (1735-1826), the second president of the United States, was taught to read at home and later on at the kitchen of a neighbor woman, along with his playmates. When he reached 15 years old, he was accepted at Harvard. His namesake, John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), the sixth president of the United States, was thought of as a delinquent when he attended a university. His father would not have any of it and decided to have tutors teach young John at home, occasionally letting him attend lectures at the university. Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, had tutors and maintained a self-study program for himself.
In the arts, photographers Ansel Adams (1902-1984) and Edward Curtis (1868-1952), unquestionably the greatest photographers of the 20th century, shared an affiliation for home schooling. Adams, bored and unable to stand the sense of captivity of the classroom, deliberately disrupted his lessons with wild laughter and overt scorn for the incompetent lectures of his teachers. His father employed several personal tutors to teach young Ansel at home. Curtis, on the other hand, was not wealthy like Ansel. Despite this, he managed to self-study the realms of photography and became the most celebrated photographer of his time.
In the field of literature, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), author of Little Women and Little Men, was for the most part educated by her father Bronson Alcott at their home. Among other writers with a home schooling background are modern mystery author Agatha Christie (1890-1976), author of Murder on the Orient Express, who was privately educated at home, Gloria Steinem (1934- ), feminist, writer and co-founder of Ms. Magazine, Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), and C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), author of Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis’ mother, and a tutor who helped him prepare for Oxford, taught him at home.
Many mathematical and scientific geniuses were educated through home school. Modern scientist Erik Demaine, an assistant professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the top scholar in the emerging field of origami mathematics, was home schooled by his father. He started taking college courses at the age of 12, and graduated with a post-graduate degree at the age of 20. Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos was kept out of school by his mother because she feared that attending conventional schools would contaminate her young son’s mind. Benoit Mandelbrot, a Harvard mathematician who pioneered the study of fractal geometry, didn’t do very well in school so his uncle decided to start home schooling him at the age of 12. Aside from these modern examples, great scientists like Thomas Edison (1847-1931), who was taught at home by his mother, a former teacher, is included in the long list. Other inspired examples include: Benjamin Franklin; printer, inventor and statesman, who attended grammar school from age 8 to age 10 before dropping out and being home schooled, Countess Augusta Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), educated at home by governesses and tutors hired by her mother, and Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), who got ill with tuberculosis, was forced to drop out of school, and taught himself French, Italian, German, Chaldean, Syrian, Arabic, and algebraic math while recuperating.
Home schooling certainly did not stop athlete Todd Lodwick, Nordic skier, from winning the World Cup and a medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics. Chess maters Susan Sofia and Judit Polgar were home schooled as well.
Renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999), remembered very little of his first and only day at school. From the day that he stepped into the classroom, he knew that it would not work for him. He started formal home schooling at the age of six, but was being taught at home even before he went to school that fateful day.
All of these “famous home schoolers” seem to have one thing in common: a thirst for knowledge and a determination to improve themselves. The question will always remain, would they have succeeded in the more traditional educational environment? If one analyzes this on an individual basis, the answer seems to be probably not – given the extraordinary individuality cultivated by the home schooling approach in each case. But of course, we can never be 100% sure….
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