Home School News Blog

Posts Tagged ‘history’

Home schooling is also known as home education, and is a method of teaching children in the family home, rather than at an institution, such as a public school. Originally, all schooling was done in the family home, or informally within small communities. Very few children ever went to school, or had private tutelage. Children who did have this type of education were considered to be privileged, and were mainly from wealthy families.

Informal education, mainly conducted in the home, was the only way for children to gain an education. In the US, there were books dedicated to home education, such as “Helps To Education in the Homes of Our Country” authored by Warren Burton. Parents were the main teachers of their children, although, where possible, local teachers would assist parents, and take classes. It is said that before schooling was institutionalized, the US was at its height of literacy skills.

The 19th century saw many significant changes to the way education, and schooling was conducted with the introduction of compulsory school attendance laws. It is now considered a human right that children are given an education provided by the government.

Over the years, there has been much controversy over the effectiveness of institutionalized schooling, and some people have even gone as far as saying that the compulsory schooling system is damaging to younger children, especially boys who are slower to mature.

In the early 1970s, Ray and Dorothy Moore, who later become well known home schooling advocates, researched the bearing that early childhood education had on the mental, and, physical development of children between the ages of 8 to 12 years of age. Through these studies, the Moores produced evidence that formal schooling was damaging to children, and a cause for some behavioral problems commonly found in school aged children.

According to these tests, illiterate tribal mothers in Africa had children that were more socially, and emotionally advanced than children in the western world. The Moores believed that this was largely due to the bond between parents, and their children being broken when children were institutionalized in schooling systems.

In some English speaking countries, it is still an option for parents to home school their children rather than to send them to an institutionalized school. There are a wide variety of home schooling methods available to families who choose to home school their children, rather than send them to schools, including methods such as classical education, Waldorf education, and the Montessori method.

Home schooling can also refer to schooling done in a home environment, with supervision by teachers through correspondence schools. While children are schooled at home, they must still complete compulsory educational subjects, and take tests.

One of the main reasons that parents choose to home school their children is that they feel the schools are unable to offer their children the same quality of education, or social environment that can be taught at home.

Not until a little before mid 1800s did institutionalized schooling became the norm. Many of America’s founders were educated by mentors, family and apprenticeships without any state-run education system. This is some of the background information and basis for homeschooling catalyst John Caldwell Holt’s book How Children Fail, which came out in 1964.

The idea of the book, was not on how children were being taught in schools, but how public schooling as a method in itself fails children. This was very controversial at the time and Holt was brought into the public eye very quickly. Holt later produced a follow up book called How Children Learn, which demonstrated his philosophy on the learning processes of children and how institutionalized learning retards this.

However, neither of his books addressed or proposed any alternative to education. Holt basically planted the seed for change and many other education dissenters started producing books and articles supporting the premise soon afterward. Author Harold Bennet had actually written a book that gave suggestions on how parents can keep their children out of school illegally.

Only after parents had written him regarding his teaching, stating they started teaching their kids at home, did Holt start producing literature on homeschooling. His last book Teach Your Own, published in 1980, contains his take on homeschooling.

Beginning Research on U.S. Academics and the Advocacy of Homeschooling

Educational professionals, Raymond and Dorothy Moore were also working on education research. They worked during the same time period as Holt was writing his books, finding similar congruencies.

The Moores concluded that public or formal regimented schooling, before the ages eight to twelve years of age, was actually a detriment to their learning process. They sought and found, according to their studies, a direct relationship to institutional education to such ailments as delinquency, near-sightedness, and a higher enrollment of special education courses.

The Moores also concluded that the time away from family stunted the growth of bonds made at home with parents and stated that it was necessary for a vast majority of children to be educated at home.

Home Schools and Religion

Statistically speaking, the majority of those parents who decide to start homeschooling base their reasons on religious grounds. That is why there is a large portion of available curriculum that is for the Christian homeschool. A great deal of curriculum of a Christian homeschool is not much different than that of a regular homeschool, but there is often supplemental literature on evangelical teachings or belief systems that are shared within the family.

Studies have found that homeschooling parents are of the Christian faith in the U.S. — nearly 90 percent having been polled said as much. However, other faiths have also embraced homeschooling; Muslim believers are a large growing demographic recently.

Since a large percentage of parents are Christian believers and are motivated to homeschool for such reasons, a good deal of Christian homeschool material has been made available throughout the web in the last decade.

Home schooling is becoming an increasingly popular method of educating children. Anybody who is considering home schooling, or already home schools, will enjoy reading home schooling blogs. There is a wide variety of information to be found that can help a parent choose what method and what curriculum to use when deciding to home school their child. Check out the following blogs to learn more. 1) Who Needs School? There are many methods of homeschooling to choose from

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A Few Great Home Schooling Blogs

or, yet another reason to home school . From the what-are-these-people-thinking department (emphasis down below mine, all mine): To mark the start of the school year, parents here [in Sedgewick, Alberta, 180 km southeast of Edmonton] say a group of new Grade 10 students were invited to a bush party, tied by their wrists to a bridge with their pants and shorts pulled down, and flogged by older schoolmates. Some Central High Sedgewick Public School students allegedly used belt buckles, vehi

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Happy back-to-school season

Each year, the homeschool movement graduates at least 100,000 students. Due to the fact that both the United States government and homeschool advocates agree that homeschooling has been growing at around 7% per annum for the past decade, it is not surprising that homeschooling is gaining increased attention. Consequently, many people have been asking questions about homeschooling, usually with a focus on either the academic or social abilities of homeschool graduates….Drawing from 15 independent

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New Nationwide Study Confirms Homeschool Academic Achievement

This week I got involved in a long back and forth comment conversation with a Christian homeschooling parent on a blog post about homeschool regulation . To make a long story short, near the end of the conversation I wrote the following: A child who is brought up to believe in creation is mostly likely (depending on the specifics of it) being taught bad science and missing out on what good science really is. And that is a shame. To which she replied, in part: Good science according to

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I can’t think of a title so just read it

Several generations ago, there was an American historian who famously wrote on the subject of what he called the paranoid style in American politics. This kind of characterization can be true; or, at least, it sadly exists in this nation, though not, admittedly, in quite the specific way that this particular historian had once meant. Homeschoolers and paranoid politics at large can, when hotly combined, make some (fictional) people seem as potential or known public enemies of the people. Th

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Alternative Education and Adverse Attitudes Regarding It

I’ve been watching live streaming video this morning on the History Channel web site of the awards ceremony for the National History Day competition. Fifty-two students from Tennessee (including many from East Tennessee) have been competing this week against 2,000 other students from across the United States. Some East Tennessee students (one home school group from Powell and a student from Gatlinburg Pittman High School) have advanced to the finals in their respective categories. I pl

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Historic Competition

Lynx at One-Sixteenth , who lives in the Eastern U.S., is selling off a wide variety of books , including top-notch classical home school books and resources, perfect for those using WTM, Sonlight, Charlotte Mason, etc. There are books for children and for adults (John Holt, Gatto, Laura Berquist, Liping Ma, Catherine Levison). Also a complete set of the Great Books. And William Gurstelle’s Backyard Ballistics. Her husband has been out of a job for a few months, so hop over and see if

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Spreading the word

If you read this blog with any regularity, you probably know that I love to read about “pioneer days.” Life on the prairie, homesteading, life in the Old West — I think these things capture my fancy because they have to do with living an independent, original life. I am by no means completely independent: for one thing, I depend upon my husband’s salary for the money I need to live. And I am not entirely original: after all, this isn’t the only blog written by a homeschooling mom. But in many

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Homesteading and Homeschooling