Why are growing numbers of Minnesota youngsters being home schooled?
Joe Nathan Column – Why are some families doing home schooling, how many are doing it, and is it a good idea? Several readers responded to a recent column on district and charter enrollment by asking these questions.
First, why? Professor Milton Gaither of Messiah College in Pennsylvania responded, “The most recent (2007) National Center for Education Statistics data http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf has the top three reasons for homeschooling being first, a concern about school environment (bullying, lack of morals, etc), second, a parental desire to provide religious or moral instruction, and third, dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at the public school.”
Beth Balmanno, president of Minnesota Homeschoolers’ Alliance believes, “Although each situation is unique, most parents turn to homeschooling because, ultimately, they want what is best for their kids. Perhaps their special needs students aren’t getting their needs met; maybe their gifted child isn’t being challenged; or maybe they want to provide their child with the ability to follow their passions and interests, free of an institutionalized schedule.”
Minnesota Department of Education officials Cindy Jackson and Carol Hokenson supplied state statistics. Here’s a brief, partial summary of their records, including school years and numbers of Minnesota students being “homeschooled.”
1987-88 2,322
1997-98 13,081
2006-2007 17,621
2011-12 16,081
These figures showed an increase of more than 15,000 from, 1987-88 to 2006-2007, and then a modest decline. Ms. Balmanno wrote, “The increase in homeschooling from the 1980s to the 2000s is a reflection of two things: legislation made it easier for families to homeschool and homeschooling became more “mainstream.” The reduction in recent years is directly related to the increase of online schools. Although an alternative to brick and mortar education, students enrolled in online schools do not count as homeschooled students. “
Professor Gaither agrees with her. He wrote, “Some states have seen declines since the mid 2000s and yes indeed those declines frequently correlate with the expansion of online public schools (cybercharters being the most conspicuous example).”
Though students being educated via a “public “cyber-school” or via “on-line learning” are not counted in the homeschooling figures, they clearly ARE doing some of their learning at home.
The southeastern Minnesota school district of Houston has adapted to the opportunity that homeschooling provides. They’ve created “online” learning opportunities for students throughout Minnesota. Justin Treptow, Head of Houston’s on-line program, told me that the district enrolled more than 1600 full-time online students last year, and 185 part time.
This is not an argument that home schooling or “online learning” is the best option for everyone. Not every family does a great job with this, and some on-line learning programs have promised more than they delivered.
Ms. Balmanno wrote, “ It would be hard to quantify achievements of homeschoolers because families perceptions of “achievement” are wide and varied. Do homeschool graduates go on to attend college? Absolutely. Do homeschoolers achieve perfect SAT scores and win academic contests and excel at sports? Certainly. However, there is no clearinghouse for this type of information. Professor Gaither has concluded, that it is “impossible to summarize or generalize the impact of homeschooling on students.”
Over the last few years, I’ve read deeply moving essays by suburban and rural students who are learning “online” Some describe bullying that they experienced in large secondary schools, and the far more comfortable environment they experience by learning at home, via on-line learning. Others describe a medical issue, either for themselves for a close family member, which made it difficult or impossible to leave the home for many months. They praise the home school/on line option, as one youngster wrote, “just right for me.”
Joe Nathan, formerly a Minnesota PTA president, public school teacher and administrator, directs the Center for School Change. Reactions welcome, joe@centerforschoolchange.org
That link works just fine if you simply take out the paren at the end. The URL is supposed to be in paretheses, but when this was published online that last paren was somehow included in the hyperlink. This link (without the paren) works just fine: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf
Homeschooling took off in the U.S. after a national magazine published an article about a CA couple son’s was admitted to Harvard (as were 2 bothers) after being homeschooled. The parents David and Micki Colfax wrote a short thoughtful book, Homeschooling for Excellence (1987) about their experience and offering advice to parents..
I have taught children at home twice, both times for extended periods. The first time I chose to homeschool was from 1989-1995, definitely before it became a popular option. At that time I had 4 young children at home, and the schools had already dismally failed the oldest two, by the time the second had completed TWO WEEKS of kindergarten. I am currently teaching my youngest, now 14 years old and with special needs, at home, and have been since withdrawing him from a charter school five years ago. I have since spoken with staff from several public and charter programs and it appears that any of them would pretty much babysit him, and have far lower expectations of him than I know he can meet.
The reason I went to homeschooling, both times, was very simple: With my particular kids, at those particular times, the schools available to us proved lacking. (I will also admit that the sheer lack of knowledge of basic spelling and grammar that runs rampant in many schools did not improve my opinion of them. Sending back blue-panciled teacher notes was getting OLD – both times.)
Also the use of poor curricula (such as the math that St Paul used from about 1999 through 2003 or 2004, which turned one of my kids – who had achieved high marks in that curriculum- from an excellent math student into one who could not even pass the basic math testing at the community college level in this state, a problem which was apparently widespread, according to the admissions counselors at the U of Minnesota) leaves the schools a poor alternative for many families.
Having finally seen my youngest son succeeding in the enriched environment we can provide at home, when the schools would probably write him off as Cog. Impaired, which is easier for them, I will never send him back to school.