Home-Schooling Is Expanding

Barbara Pytel, Paulline Larson Photography

Posted by
Barbara Pytel
Jan 25, 2008

Thirty years ago, parents that home-schooled their children were rare and did so for one of two reasons:

Children were discipline problems at school
Religious beliefs

Home-schooled families were thought of as different. Today, the numbers are increasing with so many opportunities opening for home-schooled students. The National Center for Education Statistics estimated home-schooled children to be 850,000 in 1999 and 1.1 million in 2003. [Lisa Kocian, boston.com, December 6, 2007]

Common issues stated by parents choosing to home-school are

school violence,
inappropriate curriculums,
bullying,
boredom,
time wasted waiting for other students to catch up,
inferior academic standards, and
not enough 1-on-1 attention.

In the past, home-schooled children were isolated from other groups of children and had few opportunities to socialize with children their own age. Today, the options are endless for students to participate in activities with other students. Families form co-ops, pool resources, take field trips to amazing locations, and no longer live under the stigma of "Something is wrong so we home-school."

Thomas Frey is a futurist that envisions education changing dramatically within the next 5 years. His vision resembles home-schooling, in a way. In the future, Frey sees

less time being spent in a school building,
more specialization and
more independent selection of subject areas using technology.

Frey’s information may be of great interest to parents who home-school children.

Read previous articles on Educational Issues.