Mimi Rothschild - Home School Support & Home Education News

By Mimi Rothschild

Hello all, this is a short post, but I thought I’d share this great article I read. Duane Sheppard, a retired educator with almost three decades of experience in the public school system, wrote a compelling article on home schooling and home schooling’s increasing popularity. I find Mr. Sheppard’s article to be extremely fascinating because he gives home schooling such high marks even though he worked for almost thirty years in public schools.

Mr. Sheppard recently watched his home schooling grandson graduate. He notes that home schooling is not a new trend. “Though it may seem like a recent trend, home schooling is nothing new. George Washington, Queen Elizabeth, Theodore Roosevelt and Sandra Day O’Connor were home schooled. However, a couple of decades ago, this option still seemed like a fringe choice.” He meticulously documents home school’s progress, home school’s tremendous success, reasons to home school, and home schooling benefits.

I urge everyone to read this article and also write a comment about your home schooling experience. Tell me why your family chose to home school and what it has been like so far. I’d also love to hear from people who are considering home schooling their children.

Read Duane Sheppard’s article here.

By Mimi Rothschild

Thirteen years ago, Jon Yarrington was on his way to way to work on the first day of school when his wife told him that she wouldn’t send her children to the local public school anymore. Yarrington was a skeptic of home schooling at the time, but 13 years later he is now the president of the Utah Home Education Association.

The Yarrington family is not alone in making the dramatic life-changing decision to home school. Parents all across the United States are choosing to home school their children. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that there are 1.1 million home schooling students in America while other studies, like that of Dr. Brian Ray, estimate there are between 1.7 and 2.1 home schooling students in America. The National Home Education Research Institute also says that home schooling is “growing at a rate of seven to fifteen percent each year.”

James Stoddard and Barbara Miller, both former public school teachers, chose to home school their children after being frustrated as teachers and seeing the negative affects public schools have on students. “The former junior high teacher [James Stoddard] noticed how things had changed from his own school days — students frequently talked back to teachers, and he was only managing to get 10 minutes of good instruction in for every hour of class.” Home schooling offers students the chance to learn in a distraction free environment that is focused on teaching students more than just concepts and facts, but giving students the tools to know how to learn for the rest of their lives.

Read more about Jon Yarrington, James Stoddard, and the Utah home schooling movement here.

Read more about Barbara Miller’s decision to homeschool here.