Home Schooling Takes A Quantum Leap,
Jumping 29% Over The Past Year

While accurate statistics on the total number of home schoolers in the U.S. is hard to compile, the trend in quite clear. Recent surveys report the current percentage of home schooled children at nearly 5% of all students.

To be sure, the home school population is growing rapidly. With a few simple searches at Google you will find dozens of Internet support groups for parents of home schoolers. Some of these groups are serving as many as 75,000 unique visitors each month.

The reasons are quite clear. There is a growing dissatisfaction with some public schools, and the negative influences are a growing concern. The cost and time involved in supplying and transporting students is also a major factor. And many students who need special attention will often fall between the cracks. On the positive side, the internet and pre-recorded video instruction provide a strong foundation for serious and committed parents.

PICTURE THIS

A group of five children, ages 9-12, all living within 20 minutes of each other in America's heartland. Their parents take turns hosting classes and transporting the kids. They coordinate the lesson plans through one of many subscription-based internet sites. The websites even provide coaching for the parents. The five families have also invested a combined total of $2,500 on a wide range of audio-visual aids, used books, craft supplies and musical instruments. They also each pay about $20 per month for access to online coursework, and the internet fills in with all the research they'll ever need. Twice per month the kids plan an outing with another small group in the next town. The local church sponsors character education classes, along with Sunday Bible study. All parents (and some grandparents) contribute by taking turns sharing knowledge in their own areas of expertise, which include such diverse disciplines as farming, retail, real estate, nursing, software, music, construction and elder care. A local music teacher comes to visit once a week. They also visit the county library twice a month. The children get plenty of exercise and outdoor activities, along with healthy home-cooked meals.

This is hardly the classroom familiar to most American students. There's no chalkboard, no bathroom pass, no ringing bell to signal the beginning and end of the lesson. Lots of time for playing and reviewing yesterday's lessons. No peer pressure. This is home school at its best.

NOT ENOUGH TIME

With 30 students in one room, the average school teacher doesn't have time for each kid. You can begin to see the powerful dynamics when 10 adults pool their resources to help a group of kids who can all easily fit into one mini-van. As a further benefit, more and more retired grandparents are lending a hand, offering a lifetime of experience as they seek meaningful activities in their later years.

Time is one of the key differences between traditional school and home school, says Laura Derrick, president of the National Home Education Network, a web of support groups for home schooling parents and students.

Derrick points out that without the administrative necessities of traditional school — dealing with things like attendance rolls, discipline, doctor's notes and permission slips — educating takes less time.

"These families spend often just a few hours [a day], sometimes as little as one hour with very small children. And the rest of their time is left for them to enrich their lives," Derrick says.

THE "TIPPING POINT"

The school-age population in the United States (grades K-12) totals about 50 million. The estimate at the end of 2004 is nearly 2.3 million American kids are actively home-schooled. That's a big jump from the 850,000 home-schooled children in a 1999 Census report.

A major factor in this rapid growth is a factor called the "tipping point". With more parents opting for home school, even more parents are motivated to give it a try.

Many home schooling families belong to support groups that offer to help sort through legal and legislative issues (home schooling is legal in all 50 states, but laws about teacher certification and administrative responsibilities differ from state to state) and provide social opportunities for members. Services like the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) provide parents with a range of resources. Other groups provide support for those who face resistance from families and friends who disapprove of home schooling.

Meanwhile, the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, has long lobbied against home schooling, passing a yearly resolution that says "home schooling programs cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience." Critics often charge that home-schooled kids miss out on important social aspects of schooling, such as learning to deal with other people, making friends and communicating.

However, the Internet shows great promise by covering the social aspect in very innovative ways. Online communities are bringing parents and kids together for social events, school trips, concerts and broadband video communications. With an even larger circle of concerned parents to contribute to the skills pools, the possibilities grow exponentially.

FAMILY LEARNING BOOSTS ACHIEVEMENT

While the vast majority of home schoolers are white, middle class Christian families, recent research has suggested that the growth of home schooling may be attracting a more diverse group.

When it comes to the standard measures of school achievement, some studies show that home-schooled students outdo their counterparts in traditional schools. In 2000, the average SAT score for a home-schooler was 1100, compared with 1019 for the traditional student.

And 35 of the 265 finalists in the 2004 Scripps National Spelling Bee were home-schoolers. That translates to about 13 percent of finalists, though even the most generous estimates put those taught at home at 5 percent of the school-age population.

The key here is committed parents who are willing to learn along with their kids. When parents take the initiative to turn "TV time" into "family learning time" you can begin to see the awesome potential.

"SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT" ON HOME-SCHOOLING

According to the CATO Institute, there are two historical strains of home-schooling — a religious-right thread inspired by author Raymond Moore and a countercultural-left thread inspired by John Holt. Their differences illustrate the various concerns that cause people to choose homeschooling: some want religious values in education, some worry about the crime and lack of discipline in the government schools, some object to the conformity and bureaucracy in the schools, others are concerned with the declining quality of education, and still others just feel that children are best educated by their parents.

To be certain, the rising criticism of the typical "student factory" approach to education has prompted so many schools to take a fresh new approach to their task of producing wise, mature and well-balanced kids. While we can all agree that traditional schools play a vital role in the growth and development of tens of millions of children, we also cannot ignore the deep insights provided by award-winning teachers like John Taylor Gatto. His ground-breaking book, Dumbing Us Down, which exposes the myths surrounding traditional schooling, has been a best-seller for over ten years. Another sleeping giant is the worldwide growth of Waldorf Education. Founded by the brilliant Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner, in the early part of the 20th Century, Waldorf Education celebrates and safeguards the soul and spirit of every child, shunning television and today's media driven popular culture.

EMG'S CONTRIBUTION TO HOME-SCHOOLING

MiracleMind plans to address the growing home-school marketplace over the next year with a comprehensive package for both adults and children. The low-cost membership will aggregate, license and create new content to include a broad spectrum of holistic categories. Discounted educational products and an online community resource network will round out the membership. Distribution will be driven by an organized word-of-mouth referral system that pays members to bring on new members and to organize learning groups within local communities.