The short answer: yes, it is, as long as you're a committed and involved parent with normal intelligence and no history of serious mental illness!

You don't need an impressive educational background or lots of money to succeed at homeschooling. Research has shown that parents with only a high school education or less can do about as good a job as those with advanced degrees, or education degrees.(1) It has also shown that those who spend less than $200 per child per year on homeschool curriculum can get as good results as those who spend $400-$599 per child per year.(2)

The Unsung Benefits of Homeschooling

Homeschooling yields positive academic, social, emotional, and spiritual benefits for any family that gives it an honest chance. By now it's no secret that all the research shows homeschooled children outstrip both their public- and private-school peers in every academic area. Less well known are these benefits:

Safety Benefits. Years ago, strangers used to ask me, "What about socialization?" Now, when I tell them I homeschool, they say, "I don't blame you. The schools have become so dangerous!"

As a homeschooler, you won't have to worry about who is taking guns and knives to your local school. Your child also won't have to fear school bullies. According to a press release we received early this year:

Six out of ten American teenagers witness bullying in school once a day or even more frequently, reported John A. Calhoun, President and CEO of the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC). The national group . . . released findings from a survey conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide that show that bullying is the terrorist threat that most frightens America's teenagers and interferes with their education. Young people are far less concerned about external terrorist attacks on their schools and communities than they are about the bully terrorizing them and their classmates in the hallways and classrooms of their schools.

Less Exposure to Alcohol and Drugs. Most kids don't get their drugs at home. They get them at or near school. According to a study conducted by the National Center for Substance Abuse, and reported in Family Research Council's Washington Update online newsletter, "5 million high schoolers -- 31% -- say they "binge drink" at least once a month. . . . A teenager who starts drinking at 15 is four times more likely to become alcohol dependent than one who waits until the legal age to drink." Add to this the huge numbers of kids abusing inhalants, street drugs, and even their classmates' Ritalin, and it's a problem many of us would just as soon avoid.

Emotional Benefits. Emotional bullying-name calling, mockery, and humiliation-can be just as devastating as physical bullying. Smart kids, special-needs kids, and anyone unlucky enough to appear "different" can expect a steady diet of this negative emotional input in a typical school. Since research has shown that kids need to feel safe in order to learn, simply removing a child from the emotional pressure cooker of peer pressure, gangs, and cliques may produce enormous learning gains all by itself.

Ritalin-Free Kids. Boys get a double dose of labeling, as schools increasingly label typical male behavior as "ADD" or "ADHD." In fact, any child with low body fat (making it uncomfortable to sit still for long periods in a hard chair) is at risk of being labeled "ADD" or "ADHD," which in turn leads to pressure put on parents to medicate perfectly normal children with psychoactive drugs such as Ritalin, Adderall, or even Prozac. At home, kids can sit on a nice soft couch, lie on the rug, or run around when they need to burn off energy. Homeschool parents also tend to learn child training methods that work, if only for self preservation! Instead of blaming the kids' behavior on invisible "disorders" that are undetectable by any medical test (3), homeschoolers learn to accept a wider range of normal behavior. Kid still misbehaving? Don't pay big bucks to a psychiatrist or open a self-help book. Ask any veteran homeschool mom with a big family. She'll tell you what works!

Removes Sexual Pressure. According to a recent survey from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 81 percent of kids aged 12-14 -- including those who have lost their chastity -- believe that kids today are pressured to have sex too early. Younger and younger kids are trying to dress and act sexy as well. Both school culture and sex-ed classes promote the idea that "everyone is doing it" and that this is OK. And don't assume this is not true in your local Christian or Catholic school, unless the administration is making a real effort to keep things simple and sweet. In homeschool, parents can wait until their children are of a reasonable age to learn the facts of life. At home, parents are also free to add morals and Scriptural teaching to the mix.

Builds Family Bonds. Homeschooling brings families closer together. Kids thrive under parental attention, and parents get to really know their kids. Homeschooled siblings tend to be more kind and helpful to each other, also.

Better Preparation for the Real World. Modern schools only seem normal to us because we have been brought up from birth to accept them. Actually, they are highly unnatural environments. Where else in your life will you have to spend all day with a group of 15 to 35 people of your same age, doing activities that never yield any usable result? In the real world, you are with people of different ages, working together on real projects. Families are more like this than schools are. And it's easier to give homeschooled kids real-world adventures, such as participating in community theatre, volunteering in a hospital, etc.

The Best Environment for Spiritual Training.
In the New Testament, the followers of Christ are called "disciples," not "students." There's a reason for that! Disciples observe and model their teacher's behavior. Students merely study; the word implies they receive information, not application. At home, your children can see you apply your beliefs, and hear what you think about life's various experiences, if they have the chance to be around you enough.

 

God gave you children as a steward and gave you the authority over them:

Psalms 127:3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Genesis 33:5 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.

Genesis 48:8-9 And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these? And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them.

Isaiah 8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

Hebrews 2:13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

On rendering to GOD'S what is GOD'S:

Matthew 22:21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

(People tend to ignore the latter portion of the verse. Our children are not Caesar's!) Children belong to God:

Ezekiel 16:20-21 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

God's commandments to us regarding our stewardship of the children He has given us include:

Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

How someone thinks in their heart is what makes them. How do children learn to think of the world, of God and His creation, in school?

Isaiah 54:13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.

Jeremiah 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Again, a child's mind is trained in school.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Does a child receive this kind of training in public school?

Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Does a child "walk with wise men" in public school?

1 Corinthians 15:33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

That's communications as in "community." Is it a good idea to put children in that situation?

James 3:13-18 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Psalms 119:97-104 MEM. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

Home school is a familiar place, a place for sharing, learning, and growing together. We learn patience and understanding in home school. We learn to develop our personality, to air our concerns, and to respect the feelings of those around us. Home school provides an environment of support and encouragement that will enable us to meet our goals and succeed in our ambitions.

Parents of home school children know their likes and dislikes better than anyone else. They can awaken the curiosity, channel the interests, and motivate the home school child in every aspect of life. Home school offers explanations and solutions to the challenges each child may face. The home school child is comfortable in his surroundings and accepts the responsibilities at home when reasons and guidelines are carefully explained. Parents of home school children are sensitive to their needs; they are tolerant of their good and bad days. Sometimes a gentle hug or a compassionate word is all that is needed to motivate and encourage your child.

Every parent takes part in the emotional, spiritual, and physical development of his or her child. They know at what age the child is ready to learn in home school by observing their ability and behavior. The inspiration to learn is at home, where self-expression is encouraged. The home school child is not intimidated by an unfamiliar authority figure and does not feel compelled to perform at a certain level. The issues of race, status, and gender do not affect the psychological and emotional development of the home school child.

Only parents in home school can fully appreciate that every child is different and special. Every child is a person who has the right to be an individual. The home school child has the freedom to play, to imagine, and to create. Learning is to be enjoyed in a pleasant environment, not enforced within mandatory, and sometimes conflicting, rules and regulations. There is no better place than home school for a child to learn about the things that really matter in life: to have faith in God, and to mature into a responsible adult and member of society. The home school child wants to please his parents and knows that they, in turn, will truly appreciate his efforts. There is a great deal of satisfaction and self-worth to be gained in home school, where Dad or Mom, sister or brother, reward the child with warmth and affection.

Home school is sweet; home school is home.

Though there are many reasons to homeschool, there is one that is making its way to the top of the charts and fast becoming one of the main reasons to homeschool your child instead of placing her in public school: manners.

Does that sound like a silly reason to decide to homeschool your child? See for yourself. Walk down the halls of your local high school in between classes, or even your local middle school. How do the students treat each other or the teachers? How do the teachers treat the students? In our society and in our schools, manners are quickly becoming a mythology, one that many parents are trying to resurrect in the homeschool setting.

One of the biggest arguments you will hear from those critical of homeschool will invariably include the word “socialization.” What is socialization: the ability to interact in a meaningful way with peers, to function in society. Somehow it has become the norm to be rude to others, to talk down and make fun of those who are different, to use bad language, and in general, disrespect those in authority. Even in public schools where there may be some credit given to respect elders, or at least of teachers, it seems that manners have gone the way of primetime television and have embraced a much more vulgar way of life.

To homeschool your child is not to deprive him of his right to be rude. Certainly, that is always an option. But what is wrong with offering him some balance? Through homeschool, children can learn manners: respect for each other, themselves, and elders. They learn honesty and a more creative use of language than common curse words that manage to work as noun, verb, and adjective simultaneously. By no means will your children miss out on the opportunity of learning about this way of life. It is everywhere. By homeschooling, you give them the chance to think for themselves and make their own decisions about how they would like to live rather than letting them be socialized by the masses.

Homeschool is by no means a retreat deep in the woods meant to keep your children from being affected by the world. It is offering children the chance to experience the diversity that is so richly cherished in academic settings and in the world at large. Choosing a life that is outside the so-called “mainstream” gives your children the chance to learn first hand that everything in life is a choice, whether it's the manners we use on a day-to-day basis, the faith and values we live by, or the dreams we shoot for. There is no need to be like everyone else. When did individuality stop being valuable?

Parents of home school children are sometimes faced with a choice: the dilemma of preschool. On one hand, they are barraged with an outpouring of public opinion in strong support of preschool. Firm in their beliefs, the home school parent is reluctant to remove their child from his home school environment. We watch in dismay when children cry and cling to their parents when they are forced to enter preschool. The security and comfort of home school is left behind and the child is facing the unknown. Home school is not an institution; it is a familiar place that is filled with warmth and affection. Parents of home school children know the importance of the earlier years of childhood: the formative years. This is a time when the child learns and grows with understanding and careful guidance. Home school provides the individual attention that preschool cannot. Children in preschool are just a number, a part of a group that needs to be constantly controlled. The home school child has no outlet for self-expression within the confinement of preschool. Home school parents are consistent and fair in their discipline, reinforcing each other's decisions, and setting the standards and rules to follow. The home school child receives twenty-four hours of loving care and devotion. They learn that it is all right to ask questions before they raise their hand. Parents of home school children have the time and patience to listen, to encourage, and to praise. Bonding with parents and family member is essential in the early years of childhood. The closeness that is formed in home school at an early age is a bond that will remain constant throughout their lives. The home school child does not know his classmates; they are strangers. Trapped between the desire for acceptance and the knowledge of what is right, the home school child is confused and unhappy. Children can be unnecessarily cruel and early exposure to criticism and mistreatment can result in disastrous consequences. There is no reason for the home school child to be forced into this arena. Preschool presents far too many conflicts for the home school child. As a result, at the end of an unpleasant day, the home school child has learned little or nothing. Preschool can never be home school; it's just not the same. There is no real necessity for preschool. It is far better to keep your child in home school and hopefully, you have that choice.

Proponents of home schooling and those who choose to home school their children are often thought of as being radical and anti-social. They are seen as bucking traditional school in favor of their own ideas about what school is and how it should be. While home school can be radical, it can also be a return to a more classical and traditional education than what is offered in the so-called traditional public schools. Indeed, by returning to the curriculums and methodologies used for many years, home schooling parents can play to their children’s strengths. They can take advantage of the natural bio rhythm of their children and take their cues from the education of great thinkers, scientists, and mathematicians in history. Home schooling was actually very common until very recently in history, especially for younger children. Basic math, reading, and writing skills were learned at home before formal schooling ever began. In this way, knowledge was passed directly from tutor to child in the comfortable and familiar settings of the home. Today, home schooling is the modern incarnation of this model of learning. Home schooling, unlike traditional schooling, allows parents to take advantage of their child’s biorhythms to help them get the most out of their school time. Instead of waking at 6:30 am, a child can sleep until 8 or 9 am and still get in a full day of school. For example, research shows that, as a rule, teenagers require more sleep and should be allowed to sleep a little later in the day. A home schooled teenager doesn’t fall asleep in class because they woke up too early. Perhaps concentration is better in the morning and imaginative thinking is better in the afternoon. As a home schooling parent, you can take advantage of your child’s natural ebbs and flows to maximize their learning. Instead of learning history, science, or sociology in a fragmented fashion, through home schooling your child can learn history as it really happened: from ancient man to the present day. It is not fragmented or cut short, but presented as what it is: a continuous process. Home schooling mimics the way that civilization exists; building upon old ideas and hopefully learning from its past mistakes. In many ways, it is home schooling that is more traditional and classic. Actually, public schooling is more radical: based upon new fangled, controversial, and often times wrong ideas about what is the best to teach and how children learn. Home schooling offers parents the opportunity to return to methods of learning that have existed for centuries. It also allows parents to take immediate advantage of the latest knowledge of how people function and learn. Home schooling your children is the best way to take advantage of the best of the old and new.

For many parents, homeschooling is a great advantage for a number of reasons. Parents who choose to homeschool do so according to a variety of factors, and unlike one of the most commonly held beliefs about homeschool holds, not all of them are religious ones. Today’s public school system is in jeopardy, and parents are recognizing the potentially enormous benefits of keeping their children away from a public school environment and turning to homeschooling.

One reason a parent might choose homeschooling is the difficulty often encountered in dealing with the administration at public schools. Recently, a strong example of this occurred in the state of Washington. A student whose parents expressed concern over the school’s hiring a homosexual teacher to lead a sex education class was denied reenrollment. This occurred on the basis of a conversation the student’s father held with the principal. The student’s parents had enrolled him in a district outside his own because the further district offered a better quality of education. This is one of the frustrations that often prompt parents to consider homeschooling. With public education resources strained, often to the breaking point, many realize that homeschooling offers the potential for superior educational quality.

Many parents choose homeschooling to provide a safer learning environment for their children. The potential for violence in public schools is greater today than it ever was, and peer pressure in dangerous areas such as sex and drugs is increasing as well. Homeschoolers are not forced to choose between what their friends say is “cool” and what their parents tell them is right. In fact, homeschooled children tend to develop greater personal responsibility and the ability to make wise decisions long before those in the public education system. Self-discipline and the ability to think for oneself are learned intrinsically in a flexible homeschool environment, where the child is able to exercise greater control over his or her own learning process.

Of course, the greatest benefit for homeschooling parents is the ability to spend time with their children, and to fully witness their development into capable, intelligent adults. Opponents of homeschooling believe that homeschoolers are socially isolated and unequipped to deal with the pressures of the real world. The reality is the opposite. Homeschooling allows children to become active community members, and interact with both children and adults on a personal level, on a regular basis. For the two million parents in the United States who have turned to homeschooling as a superior road to education for their children, the homeschool lifestyle yields unending benefits for both parent and child.

1. Studies show that home-schooled children average between the 80th and 90th percentile, regardless of the socio-economic background, or educational level of the parents.
2.  Great student teacher ratio.
3.  Very good communication between the student, teacher and parents.
4.  The student can’t lie about their homework.
5.  With a class size of one, they can’t copy anybody else's work.
6.  The curriculum is in perfect agreement with the values of the parents.
7.  The children will not bring bad habits home from school.
8.  The pace of learning will be geared to the ability of each child, not the lowest common denominator.
9.  You don’t have to fix lunch in the morning.
10.  Children will be better adjusted socially if they don’t learn social skills from the street gangs.
11.  Without peer pressure, they learn to think for themselves, not just parrot what the “group wants to hear”.
12.  Every educator agrees that parental involvement is the key to success in a child’s education. How could one be more involved?
13. Your child will never be “just a number” in the classroom. 

 

There is an irony about our society's attitude toward the education of children. We encourage parents to help young children learn two of the most difficult and important things they will ever learn: to walk and to talk. In addition, vital aspects of the preservation of our way of life such as values, attitudes, traditions and customs are also learned first and best within the family. Then all of a sudden, when their children have reached a certain magical age, parents are thought to be no longer capable of directing the educational process.

Why do we assume that five-year-olds are no longer able to learn in the way they did when they were four and instead need a structured curriculum taught by specially trained and certified adults? The vast majority of people become proficient enough in walking and talking to get around and communicate with each other. In fact, most of us excel in these two areas. On the other hand, an alarmingly high percentage of our population is classified as functionally illiterate - they haven't learned school-type subjects well enough to function.

When we consider why people can learn to walk and talk, but often have difficulty learning how to write, do mathematics and read, we must consider the different situations in which they try to learn these skills. When most children are learning to walk, they are surrounded with encouragement and positive expectations. They are allowed to progress at their own speed; learning is directed by their own inner curriculum and observation of other people of various ages within the family. And they want to learn, knowing how useful and important the skill will be to them. Alas, in most cases, schools do not teach writing, mathematics, and reading in this manner. We easily recognize that young children don't need encouragement to learn; what we have forgotten is that they don't necessarily have to lose that enthusiasm and become bored as they grow older. If there is joy in their learning and stimulation in their environment, they will continue to be seekers of knowledge.

When we passed compulsory education laws, did we mandate that children spend their days between nine and four in certain officially designated buildings, or did we intend that children have educational opportunity? It may well be that this phenomenon of assuming that children must attend school at age five or six in order to learn is not just educationally-motivated. It may also be socially or psychologically-oriented, making it not only undesirable, but socially unacceptable for them to remain at home with their parents during a good portion of the day. As a society, we tend to worry about the so-called "unwholesomeness" of a close relationship between mother and child, conjuring up images of "smother-love" and a variety of psychological complexes.

So it is that a sort of legend has built up around The First Day of School to the point where it has become a rite of passage, a crucial cutting of the apron strings, a desirable first step away from the family and toward autonomy. The fact that the separation may occur before the child is emotionally, psychologically or educationally ready seems to have little bearing on the age chosen by the education system for this ritual. In fact, in this era of the hurried child, earlier is assumed to be better.

Another factor that encourages us to put our children into formal learning situations at increasingly earlier ages is the lack of understanding and acceptance (by both the education system and the general public) of the phenomenon of spontaneous learning. When children are small, much learning goes on that we don't notice. The early learning of a large number of complicated concepts occurs somewhat spontaneously as a result of desires and curiosity. And home-based educators have shown that children continue to learn in the same way as they grow older - if they are allowed to continue to follow their curiosity within an environment that is as supportive and stimulating, relative to their age, as that which most parents provide for their infants.

And so, for some parents who are searching for better and more natural ways in which to help their children grow, the alternative of home-based learning emerges. Specific reasons and details may vary, but these families all share a desire to go beyond the conventional school experience and provide whatever constitutes their definition of a better education for their children.

It is difficult to generalize about home educating families, because they reflect such a wide variety of philosophical, religious, educational, economic, and lifestyle positions. But two basic forces drive the movement: a positive desire to improve their children's education and a more negative desire to escape from the formal educational system.

Differences In Definition

In trying to understand the motivation behind home-based education, it is useful to consider the differences inherent in the words "learning", "education', and "schooling". These three terms are often used interchangeably, but actually have quite different meanings.

According to the renowned American educational philosopher John Dewey, learning is a personal process of development which arises from experience. He described it as a "reconstruction or reorganization of experience which adds to the meaning of experience and increases ability to direct the course of subsequent experience".¹

If learning is an internal process of understanding the world and of acquiring the confidence to explore its workings, then education is the deliberate influencing of the process, according to Dewey's way of thinking. The Latin root of the word education is educate which suggests a process of helping the student develop his or her own natural ability to discover and understand the world. Schooling is merely the organized program which society has devised to dispense education. And curriculum is the means by which the school program is organized.

This arbitrary arrangement of knowledge into an organized program with specific subject areas is at the heart of many people's dissatisfaction with structured education systems. They feel the true definition of learning dictates that an individual must set his or her own personal curriculum, rather than giving some people the right to prescribe what and when others should learn. They reject the assumptions that real learning is only the result of being taught by a teacher in a formal setting designed for that activity and that what we learn for ourselves is not important. Our society is unused to trusting children to learn about the world and feels they must be made to learn, that they are raw material to be molded by experts, empty vessels to be filled on an assembly line.

Nathan Isaacs, a British author and educator who has popularized the work of the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, has described the typical classroom as a "looking-glass world". When children attend school, they are taken from their situation of living/learning into a totally new, unreal way of life. This new way of life, which is falsely described as "learning", requires a different set of rather passive behaviors, orchestrated by an unknown adult and directed by a master plan that is also unknown to the children.²

Any real learning that takes place under such inefficient and unequal circumstances is, at the very least, incidental. Putting highly curious and motivated children into a numbing and dehumanizing atmosphere, the maintenance of which requires them to be passive, then artificially motivating them to learn about the world in a restrictive, compartmentalized fashion to an arbitrary bureaucratic timetable seems like a very inefficient process. For this reason, formalized schooling can often get in the way of learning, rather than facilitate it. As one mother put it "[Home-based learning] started when play school interfered with watching a shopping center being built. We opted for watching."³

The notion that children are inner-oriented, thinking, feeling beings is not unique to home-based educators, of course. Such ideas were also held by educators like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Susan Isaacs, and Froebel. The work of Froebel, who favored self-directed activity for children, has influenced early childhood education in North America for about a hundred years, with many public school kindergartens reflecting his philosophy.⁴

Piaget also felt that children are inner-oriented. He wrote of the importance of children being able to interact with their environment on their own terms, determining their own process and rate of development. Indifference to this important concept in our school systems has led to the testing, measuring and grading of children and has sometimes subjected them to inappropriate programs.⁵

As already noted, the process of learning is often more important than the content. The protection of the love of learning and creativity - as well as the development of problem solving and research skills - sometimes transcends the specific facts that are to be learned.

Home-based educators recognize the fragility of these qualities and that they can be easily destroyed by the coercive teaching of topics in which children are not interested or that they are not yet ready to study. They also recognize that facts and skills are more easily retained when they are learned in a context relevant to a child's daily life and experience.

Unfortunately, the structured education system has a monopoly on certifiable knowledge. By means of compulsory attendance which demands that as much energy and time are spent on the custodial role as on educating, and by means of exams, grades and certificates, these institutions effectively control the learning process, standardizing what children learn. According to some critics, this standardization prevents students from knowing enough about the workings of the world to enable them to understand or change it, thus resulting in a preservation of the status quo. Most home-based educators, on the other hand, aim to present as broad a picture of the world as possible to their children.

Autonomy

Strong objections to the compulsory aspect of schooling provide another major motivation for choosing informal, home-based education.

For some people, the mere fact that education is compulsory reflects an attitude of mistrust of children and their desire to make sense of the world. And in fact, if governments were really serious about their professed goal of developing, nurturing and enhancing the intellectual and moral autonomy of the young, would they not have to abolish compulsory, externally-imposed education?

Home-based educators value autonomy as the full development of a child's capacity for independent reflection, judgment, decision-making and action. If autonomy is seen as the link between intellect and responsible action, how can it be fostered in an atmosphere of coercion? How can independence be fostered in an atmosphere of dependence?

Many deschoolers feel that the right to self-reliance and autonomous action may well be overruled by compulsory education laws. But in our society, the rights of children are not generally of major concern to most people. When children's rights are discussed at all, it is usually within the context of protection rather than true autonomy: the right to an education, the right to be protected from abuse, and so on. While home-based educators who are also concerned with children's rights do not quarrel with the necessity for protection or advocacy on behalf of children, they also give to young people what seems to be missing from the protection definition: respect.

In fact, children suffer greatly, although often subtly, from lack of respect and autonomy in schools. The conventional view of children seems to be they are objects to be manipulated. This is apparent in many forms, from the use of behavioral psychology in order to create classroom behavior acceptable to a teacher, to the top-down style of curriculum design.

No adult would accept such limitations on personal freedom once he or she had escaped school. Why then is there a double standard for children? Is education furthered by a system which often focuses more on attendance than on learning? Must a student give up control of part of his or her life in order to receive a credential which will supposedly be the key to a well paying job? Of course, lack of control over educational content or learning method is not restricted to those under sixteen. Most universities are almost as rigid. But adults can switch to other courses or institutions, or walk totally away in disgust, while children, unless their families have discovered home-based learning, do not have that choice.

Thus it is that some parents who accept responsibility for their children's education do so in order to gain control for their children. From the compulsory attendance laws that are at the very root of formalized education to the events of their day-to-day lives, these parents want to help their children learn to make their own decisions and control their own destinies.

Academic Excellence

Children whose families have chosen home-based education generally learn and retain a variety of facts and skills, achieving positive academic results. The advantages of one-to-one instruction, the time and space to make meaning of the world, and the lack of pressure to perform, all contribute to academic progress often beyond that of peers in the school system. The number of formerly home educated students who are attending high school, achieving excellent marks in advanced level programs, and participating widely in extra-curricular and social activities speaks well for this method of education.

The Time Factor

Home educated students also retain (or regain, whatever the case may be) their joy of learning, curiosity and eagerness to expand present knowledge. What were seen as behavior or learning problems in a school setting often become irrelevant in a home environment. This is because home educated children can pursue their natural inclination to learn at their own speed, unhampered by the pace set by faster or slower learners in the same classroom.

The learning process, as it is recognized by educators, can be separated into three separate parts: systematic planned instruction, participation in problem- and task-oriented activities and reflection. One of the strengths of the home-based education style is ample opportunity for the doing and thinking aspects of the educational process, as well as the planned instruction part on which schools tend to concentrate.

Because of their very broadly-based nature, schools are largely products of compromise. The lack of time for reflective and experiential activities is one unfortunate result of this compromise. There are so many children of varying backgrounds, interests and scholastic abilities, and so many caretaking and bureaucratic tasks, that teacher-directed instruction is usually the norm.

Family Life

Part of the lure of home-based education is its tendency to improve and preserve family life by providing more time for group activities which draw family members closer to each other. Life for families with children in school tends to revolve around school, leaving little time for much else. Home from school at four, dinner, homework and off to bed doesn't leave much time for families to develop and share mutual interests, or even maintain their relationships. The more relaxed pace of home-based education allows for the close relationships and round-the-clock learning that results from a wide variety of family-centered activities.

In fact, in a growing number of families, home education is a continuation of the family-centered lifestyle that began with home birth and its resultant early bonding, breastfeeding and so on.

Readiness

The discomfort felt by many mothers at sending children off to kindergarten the moment they turn five is well founded and should be recognized, according to research done by Raymond and Dorothy Moore.

Raymond Moore is a developmental psychologist who has conducted extensive research on the family and the school. His wife Dorothy Moore is a reading specialist. Their early childhood research grew out of experiences in the classroom where they noted children who were misbehaving or not learning because they were not ready for the demands of formal schooling. After analyzing thousands of early childhood studies, the Moores came to the conclusion that children should not be exposed to formal learning situations until at least age nine.

The Moores found that most children who enter school at ages four, five or six are tired of school before they have finished the third or fourth grades, the stage at which they feel children should be just beginning their formal studies. From their research, they have become convinced that these late starters would then quickly pass their earlier-starting counterparts in learning, behavior and sociability.

The basis for Dr. Moore's suggestion that formal studies should be postponed is his discovery that children's vision, hearing and other senses are not ready for continuing formal programs of learning until at least ages eight or nine. In addition, according to Dr. Moore, neither the maturity of their delicate central nervous systems nor the "balancing" of the hemispheres of their brains provide a basis for thoughtful learning before these ages.⁶

The work of a number of other educational researchers and philosophers confirms these findings. For instance, Jean Piaget wrote that children cannot handle cause-and-effect reasoning in any consistent way before approximately age ten or eleven.

Some modem mainstream educators agree with Piaget as well. Wayne Adair, an educational psychologist with the Saskatchewan Education Department, was quoted by the Canadian Press as saying "In all research studies the younger entrants subsequently displayed lower academic performance, more school and social adjustment problems, which sometimes persisted into adulthood, and a disproportionate number of school failures." Adair also said that parents should not put their child into a structured school setting until the child is ready. "It's maturity, not intellect. We can't stop children from learning, but we can't force it either. We talk about individual differences, then we put children in structured environments and expect them all to come out a narrow tube at the same time."⁷

From these educators' generalizations about the development of children comes the concept of educational individuality-that people are unique in their style of learning. Individuals differ from one another in terms of what they want to learn, and how, when, where and why they learn. Even though most children will learn best pursuing their own interests at their own speed, others at certain periods in their lives will benefit from a regular classroom and a prescribed course of study. The bottom line of all this is that children should not be thought of as products of any educational system or philosophy. Rather they are clients. Deschoolers and organized education people alike must work together to ensure the gradual, continuous growth of all children so that they can cope with their lives today and tomorrow. We cannot whatever our philosophy, educate the child of today with the methods of yesterday.