Politicians Hate That…

Government officials should use the success of the competition as an educational moment.

There’s no better sign of success than an escalation in attacks by your enemies. Based on such evidence, homeschooling is enjoying a boom, as growing numbers of families with diverse backgrounds, philosophies, and approaches abandon government-controlled schools in favor of taking responsibility for their own children’s education. As they do so, they’re coming under assault from officials panicking over the number of people slipping from their grasp.

There’s little doubt that homeschooling is an increasingly popular option. “From 1999 to 2012, the percentage of students who were homeschooled doubled, from an estimated 1.7 percent to 3.4 percent,” reports the National Center for Education Statistics. While the government agency suggests that growth has leveled off since then, other researchers say data is hard to come by, since many states simply don’t count people who homeschool. Continue reading →

My eight-year-old daughter and I recently read about the Salem witch trials. She had heard about Salem from a friend who visited the nearby town during its popular Halloween festivities, and she was curious about the witches. We went to the library to get some books on the topic of how 20 innocent people were put to death for “witchcraft” in 1692, with scores more accused and jailed.

What struck me most about revisiting the Salem Witch Trials with my children was the fact that these English Puritans who had recently settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony had no presumption of innocence. Those accused of a crime at the time, both in the New World and elsewhere, were guilty until proven innocent. The presumption of innocence in trials, with court defenders and impartial juries, would take centuries to catch on. The phrase “innocent until proven guilty” was coined by an English lawyer in 1791, but even then it took a long while to become the legal precedent we all now take for granted. Continue reading →

Many people still consider “homeschooling” to be a religious farmstead cult instead of a legitimate form of education. Yet on average, homeschoolers are far out-performing their publicly-educated peers in almost every subject.

According to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA),

In 1990, the National Home Education Research Institute issued a report entitled “A Nationwide Study of Home Education: Family Characteristics, Legal Matters, and Student Achievement.” This was a study of over 2,163 homeschooling families. Continue reading →

It is National School Choice Week and a new poll indicates growing support for school choice options.

The American Federation for Children released the poll last week, which shows continuing strong, across-the-board support for educational options. Continue reading →

…and Four Challenges

When deciding whether or not to homeschool your child, it’s important to keep in mind both the positives and negatives of homeschooling.

All parents want what’s best for their children. But when it comes to schooling, the field of choices can be murky and the decisions difficult. Parents don’t always get a close look at what goes on in their kids’ schools, nor can they fully understand the demands of homeschooling until they’ve made the leap. Continue reading →

In a decision last week, the European Court of Human Rights has undermined its claim to being the “conscience of Europe” and pitted parents against children.

The Wunderlich family wanted to do what thousands of families in America do with no questions asked: educate their children at home.

But homeschooling is not allowed in Germany, and the state has relentlessly pursued the Wunderlichs and even seized their children. Continue reading →

A school system in Massachusetts is proving to be malicious, incompetent, or maybe both.

Of course, we suspected that already. But the latest example comes from a lawsuit from a woman who pulled her 8-year-old son from Worcester Public Schools to homeschool him last January.

Josilyn Goodall is suing the Worcester School Committee, Superintendent Maureen Binienda, and the state Department of Children and Families after police entered her home, handcuffed her, and arrested her over what amounted to a paperwork dispute. Continue reading →

There’s a lot to dislike about many public schools — and right now, student safety is at the top of the list. “After a gunman opened fire on students in Parkland, Florida,” a new Washington Times feature explains, “the phones started ringing at the Texas Home School Coalition, and they haven’t stopped yet.”

Like so many state organizations, the Texas organization was used to a certain number of inquiries about homeschooling. President Tim Lambert says they usually averaged about 600 calls a month — a number he watched double over the past several weeks. “When the Parkland shooting happened, our phone calls and emails exploded. And they’re not alone. Continue reading →

I thought I might chronicle the steps taken to end up where we are now, with respect to education. This may help those considering homeschooling, a bit.

When my wife first became pregnant, I started researching education alternatives for children. I thought that was simply one of the duties of being a parent– however, rarely it happens! I generally don’t imagine “everybody else does it”–that is, almost everybody defaults to using the government schools–is much of an excuse for skipping this duty. Continue reading →

“This is a great victory for homeschoolers everywhere.“

They came by the hundreds, one newspaper said — “perhaps thousands.” Some traveled hours, others waited hours, all for the opportunity to protest one of the most outrageous homeschooling bills ever introduced: California’s AB 2756. Spilling out into crammed hallways and overflow rooms, families poured into the Statehouse just for the opportunity to spend a few minutes speaking out on a measure that would give the government more power over parents who educate at home. Continue reading →

Will Parents Defend Them?

Homeschoolers today have it easy. Many of us were in diapers when, in 1977, educator John Holt created Growing Without Schooling, the first newsletter to connect and encourage homeschooling families. Holt and other social reformers provided the support and facilitated the networks that would ultimately lead to homeschooling becoming legally recognized in all U.S. states by 1993.

I sometimes wonder about the courage it took those earlier homeschooling parents to remove their children from school before it was fully legal, to chart an alternative education path for their children when they were often the only ones on that road. Continue reading →

Homeschooling sounds great in theory: Personalized education for your kids, tons of one-on-one time with your little ones, and days full of of field trips, playdates, music lessons, and reading together. But will it work for your family? We’ve pulled together ten of the most common concerns new homeschoolers face — from teaching subjects you know nothing about to living on one income — for you to consider before taking the homeschool plunge. Continue reading →

As the dissatisfaction among parents with the U.S. education system grows, so too does the number of homeschoolers in America. Since 1999, the number of children who are being homeschooled has increased by 75%. Although currently the percentage of homeschooled children is only 4% of all school children nationwide, the number of primary school kids whose parents choose to forgo traditional education is growing seven times faster than the number of kids enrolling in K-12 every year. Continue reading →

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Though there’s some debate about the exact figure, one thing is certain: Homeschooling families nationwide are saving taxpayers a ton of money.

The Pioneer Institute, a free-market think tank in Boston, estimates the savings are roughly $22 billion annually.

“The homeschool families are paying their taxes, their property taxes, their local taxes, of course, their state and local taxes, and a small percentage of those go to the state and federal departments of education, and an even smaller percentage back to the local schools,” explains Will Estrada, director of Federal Relations at the Home School Legal Defense Association. “But then the homeschooling families are not using services from the public schools.” Continue reading →

Part 1: When I Think Back on All the Cr*p I Learned in High School

In free education, you get what you pay for.

At one point, in the six long years of infertility before the birth of number one son, we were going to homeschool. In fact, I collected books and all, planning on using them to teach the child.

And then the child arrived. At some point when Robert Anson (Yes, when you name your child that, you get exactly what you deserve) was three, a friend gave me a book called “Raising the self-willed child.” Don’t bother finding it, or at least not that particular one (I imagine there’s more than one book of that name). It was based on the idea that if your child had sufficient self-esteem he would be miraculously docile. Continue reading →

New data compiled by a Boston-based a public policy group reveals that homeschooling has gained in popularity and reach in recent decades.

A report issued this week by The Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based a public policy think tank, sheds light on the rapid growth and diversity of the U.S. homeschooling population.

Co-authored by William Heuer and William Donovan, the comprehensive white paper explains that despite a paucity of support from government officials–and outright opposition by the nation’s largest teachers’ union–homeschooling has gained in both popularity and reach over the past several decades. Continue reading →

It is said that when you write a commentary or column, you should write in such a manner that ALL can understand the point(s) you are endeavoring to make. Well…I am not a journalist, nor have I slept at a Holiday Inn recently so as to play one. I am certain that what follows will not be understood by any reader under the age of 58. For readers from 60 years and above, not only will you immediately grasp the following language, but you will also have come flooding back to memories the place and situation most likely you heard the following prose. Smiles will ensue, maybe some tears of sweet memory, maybe even some contemplation after all these years when such profound statements of life were first uttered, and probably not in a moment of intellectual insight, but rather a moment of life as you knew it at that moment being at a crossroads! Continue reading →