Homeschooling is a form of education that began to climb in popularity in the 1970s and continues to gain momentum in America, especially among EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS and others dissatisfied with the curriculum and conditions of public schools. The term defines students being schooled at home instead of in a public or private school, those whose enrollment in private or public schools does not exceed 25 hours a week, and those who are not at home because of a temporary illness.
Research suggests that although homeschooling initially expanded in the 1970s within a homogeneous subgroup of middle-class, white, Christian families, it seems to be an emerging trend among a wider range of American families. In 1994 the number of children ages 6 to 17 who were homeschooled was 345,000. By 1996 the number had nearly doubled to 636,000. According to the 1999 Parent Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program, an estimated 850,000 students nationwide were being homeschooled, nearly 2 percent of all school-aged
American students. By 2003 that number had risen to 1.1 million homeschooled students, just more than 2 percent of school-aged children.
Of the total homeschool population, 82 percent are homeschooled only; the other 18 percent attend private or public schools part time.
Many factors influence the decision to teach children at home. These reasons include the expectation of being able to give a better education at home; moral or religious motivation; a desire for high educational achievement; dissatisfaction with public schools’ curriculum; and anxiety about school environment, including peer pressure, safety, and drugs.
Often school districts or public schools offer support for homeschoolers by providing parents with materials and books, places to come together, and the opportunity for homeschooled children to attend classes and engage in extracurricular activities at the school. Only a small percentage of homeschoolers enroll in classes, however, or use either textbooks or libraries when they are made accessible by public schools. Many homeschoolers express antipathy or even hostility toward utilizing public school resources.
Homeschoolers typically share several common characteristics: High percentages are two-parent families, typically with only one parent participating in the labor force; large family size; and high parental scholastic accomplishment. The percentage of students who are homeschooled is similar for both boys and girls and across elementary, middle, and high school grades.
See also EDUCATION, HIGHER; EDUCATION, PRIMARY AND SECONDARY; EAMILY LIEE; MORALITY; RELIGION.
Further reading: U. S. Department of Education. Available online. URL: Http://www. ed. gov/index. jhtml. Accessed December 30, 2008.
—Michele Rutledge
World History
