Homeschooling Works

Over the weekend, I worked at the Parentalrights.org booth at the Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) conference in Richmond. While there, between times when our booth was swamped with people looking for more information or wanting to know how to help, I had the chance to observe some of the other displays. After doing so, I began to think about the benefits of homeschooling and the many options available.

There were well over a dozen comprehensive curriculum choices available. There were special curriculum choices for foreign languages (Rosetta Stone, etc.), geography, science, art, etc. They were all at this conference, all vying with each other to see who could provide the best and most effective services. There were organizations like the Heritage Foundation and several colleges, including Patrick Henry College of course, all recruiting homeschoolers. There were historical sites like Colonial Williamsburg and the New Market battlefield with offers of “homeschool days” and special discounts for homeschoolers. There were several homeschooling families with media or publishing industries selling their materials.

Two observations I made from this conference: Homeschooling is thriving both as an education choice and as an industry; Homeschooling gives parents the option to narrowly tailor materials to their children’s specific needs at an amazing and (probably) unparalleled level. Probably one of the most annoying comments that homeschool parents get, besides the ubiquitous question “What about socialization?” is “I could never do that, how do you manage to teach everything?” Despite the oddity of the assumption that one needs a teaching degree to teach elementary or even high school classes, the answer is simple – the multiple and diverse curriculum options make it easy to find a system that works for you and your children. Additionally, such a question ignores the ability of the child (especially in high school) to "self-teach."

One of the best results of homeschooling is that each child gets to move forward at his own pace rather than being held back by the lowest denominator in the class of twenty students. The student is often able to take the initiative and “self-teach” to a great degree. Speaking from my own experience, homeschooling gave me the freedom to pursue my own interests (law, languages, literature, and philosophy) along with the generic core which included the necessary, but oh-so-dull classes like physics and earth science. Homeschoolers are free in other ways as well. My father often travelled on business trips for his job; my family would just pack up our school materials and travel around with him visiting valuable historical and educational sites along the way.

Homeschooling is great because it gives the child the chance for hands-on, active, and involved learning. It gives one the freedom to tailor the curriculum to the interests and needs of the child and (often) gives the child a greater participation in his own education. It certainly is not for everybody, but with the many options and opportunities out there, it should never be looked as second class. Remember, Thomas Edison was homeschooled after his public school teacher said he was “addled” and “unteachable” – we should be glad his mother disagreed!