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Learning at Home

When Patrick was growing up, his classroom environment was extremely diverse. As a young boy, it might have been his mother's living room, or the kitchen. As he got older, the outdoors and the local corner store became his classroom. Patrick, like many children in the United States, was home-schooled, educated at home by a parent. Defining home schooling is a difficult task because it means different things to different people, but what all home-schoolers have in common is that they don't attend "traditional" schools. Instead, their learning takes place in and around the home, supported by a family network. In fact, home schooling is very much a family affair, tied to a family's sense of values, as well as its structure. It's hard to say exactly how many children are home-schooled today. Statistics change according their source. Statistics from schools are generally low, while those from home-schooling organizations are quite high. It is generally agreed, however, that the number of students is in the hundreds of thousands.

There are a variety of approaches to home schooling, from very free to extremely controlled and everything in between. Some parents opt for prepackaged curriculum in order to provide a structured environment for home learners. Many organizations, schools, and Web sites offer such curriculum. Other parents may choose the exact opposite of this structured curriculum, such as "unschooling," a home teaching philosophy championed by John Holt. Unschooling is a child-centered approach to learning in which the learning is built around a child's interests. Not only is a child in control of his or her own education, parents are encouraged not to intervene in the learning process for fear of damaging a child's natural desire to learn.

Home schooling has always been controversial. Children who are home-schooled suffer from various stereotypes, often characterized as unsocialized, "missing out" on traditional schooling, unfit for employment, not allowed to "be children," closed-minded, hippies, religious zealots…and the list goes on. But the profile of a home-schooler is almost impossible to typify as the movement grows and takes shape. It is true that the home-school movement has a strong base in religious communities who oppose the separation of church and state in the U.S. and don't trust the public school system to provide the moral training they consider paramount. But home schooling encompasses much more. Patrick's mother, for instance, decided to school her children at home because they advanced so quickly at such a young age that no appropriate school existed for them. They fell into home learning without intending to do so. Many home-schooled children grow up to live normal lives and excel academically in college.

Because of technology, home schooling is very different today than it was twenty years ago. The advent of the Internet has changed home schooling in many ways. Before, home learners were more or less isolated from one another. Now they can set up community groups online, buy curricula, or teach classes using online resources. Studies suggest that because of increased communication, home learners today associate more or less exclusively with home learners through networks, support groups, and conventions.

Patrick has talked a little about his experienced being home-schooled. Here is his story:

"The longer I am distanced from my younger years, the more irrelevant the approach [home schooling] was. Much of my experience did not prepare me for a job market that for the most part I feel is increasingly dehumanizing. When I was very young, I learned to read by the time I was three. We couldn't afford a private school and there were no gifted programs, so these early advances had no venue other than our own exploration of the world. In those early days we studied for hours under the guidance of our mother, reading to her while she worked (she worked at home as a designer and artist), doing math with outdated books we got for a dime at church sales, or doing personal writing projects.

"When I was older, my mother did not regulate my day. Often, I'd wake up early, pack a lunch and go off to wander the woods, fields, and backyards of other people's houses, exploring, making maps, observing and tracking animals, looking for arrowheads or junk washed up on the banks of the Hudson river. When I returned home, I'd read books on how old barns were built, or studies of nature and the environment. My interests changed over time and my scope widened from New York State history to prehistoric Briton, Celtic migration, and the development of Neolithic Europe. On weekends, I'd hang out at a local store down the street run by a Native American (one of those road-side trading posts with plastic beads and sling shots) and shoot the breeze with whomever came looking for rings, magic crystals, or claims of one-eighth Cherokee Indian blood on their mother's side and wondering how to get a house on a reservation much to the amusement of the grumpy proprietor.

"Today I regret not having learned html at an early age, gotten internships with large energy companies, or studied Urdu while developing an interest in national security. I continue to set my own schedule, for better or worse."

While Patrick was home-schooled through high school, he did attend a competitive small liberal arts college and is currently pursuing his master's degree in museum education. He is studying other forms of nontraditional education and how they can help kids in urban after-school programs.

Selecting the Main Idea


1	Choose the statement that you think best expresses the main idea of the passage.
		A)	Many parents who do not trust the public school system choose to school their children at home for religious or moral reasons.
		B)	Children who are schooled at home are at a big disadvantage because of the "loose" academic standards, and rarely succeed in college or in the workplace.
		C)	Home schooling takes place in a family environment, and is practiced by different kinds of families who use a variety of approaches, curricula, and technologies.

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