Famous Homeschoolers and What We Can Learn From Them

As a home schooling mother of three I find it fascinating how many famous people have been home schooled, what we can learn from them and what others have to say about their own schooling. When my husband and I first looked into home schooling we searched to see what the caliber of people schooled at home were like. We were humbled by their achievements. I have found that home schooling our three children has taught me a lot, and I am grateful beyond words for the accomplishments our forefathers and others have made. Home schooling is a "win win" for us.

According to the US Population Division Working Paper 53, in 2001 there were nearly two million children schooled at home. An article on Homeschool.com re: the Scripps National Spelling Bee states:

In the early 1990s only a few homeschoolers entered the contest; by the 1996 competition there were fourteen, and in 2006 the number increased more than 2½ times to a total of thirty-six. While that may not seem like a lot, consider that homeschoolers account for a little over 2 percent of the student population and this year they account for more than 13% of the number of students participating in the spelling bee!

In the year 2000, a 12-year-old homeschooled student from Missouri won the national title and the second and third place winners were also home schooled!

An article dated 2003, on Home School Legal Defense Association's (HSLDA) web site states, "In the United States, less than 3 percent of all students are home schooled, yet they made up 12 percent of the 251 spelling bee finalists and 5 percent of the 55 geography bee finalists"

Is it because home schooling is so new?

Not at all, in fact, you might be surprised how many famous people have been home schooled. For instance, Abraham Lincoln didn't even have a full year of formal education and George Washington had only 7 years yet both of these men became the President of the United States and were pillars in their communities, but there isn't much mention of this, if any, in the public schools today. Many of these famous people were often successful, not in spite of the lack of formal education but BECAUSE of it!

These famous people come from all walks of life and in all fields of expertise.

Charlie Chaplin, a well known silent film actor, wrote," Education bewildered me with knowledge and facts with which I was only mildly interested. If only someone had used salesmanship, had read a stimulating preface to each study that would have titillated my mind, infused me with fancy instead of facts, amused and intrigued me with the legerdemain of numbers, romanticized maps and given me a point of view about history, and taught me the music of poetry, I might have become a scholar." (My Autobiography 1964).

Thomas Edison, inventor or the light bulb and the phonograph didn't stay in school either, and yet his accomplishments are very impressive indeed.

Edison's mother played an integrate role in home schooling him. She removed Thomas from "formal" education when she found out that the schoolmaster disciplined his students using a leather strap and had referred to her son as "addled", meaning mentally uncertain or confused, and she immediately marched into the schoolhouse and confronted his teacher. She was so furious with him that she told him (the schoolmaster) that her son had more sense in his little finger than he (the schoolmaster) had in his entire body! After only three months of formal education, Mrs. Edison removed Thomas from school. He ended up having so many awards piled upon him that in his later years he joked that he would have to measure them by the quart! (Edison-the Man Who Made the Future 1977).

President Benjamin Franklin only had 6 months of formal training when he was 8. His father sparked a hunger in Benjamin to read good books and Ben published his first essay at the age of 16. (Benjamin Franklin 1966).

French Painter:

Claude Monet, who was a French painter, in fact, according to Wikipedia, he was the founder of French Impressionist Painting, said in his early life that, "It was at home that I learned the little I knew. School always appeared to me like a prison". (Monet 1955).

Nobel Prize Winner:

George Bernard Shaw, author and Nobel Prize winner, said of his formal education: "My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself!" (George Bernard Shaw-Man of the Century 1956).

Often regarded as the second richest man in history (according to Wikipedia), Andrew Carnegie, famous Steel Manufacturer, already knew at age 5 that he didn't want to go to "school" so his parents decided to let him stay at home. Eventually he did attend but removed himself at the age of 13. His uncle George Lauder was a strong influence in his life, he had a love of history and Andrew spent hours with him, he even introduced him to Scottish heroes William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. (Andrew Carnegie 1970).

President Woodrow Wilson didn't even learn to read until he was 11 yet his father wasn't the least bit concerned about his ability. His parents made sure he surrounded by books and time around those with polished and refined minds! (Woodrow Wilson Life and Letters-Youth 1855-1890).

Leader of the Mormons, Brigham Young, only had 11 days of formal education.

Inventors:

Even the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilber, who invented and built the first airplane, never even finished high school. (Kill Devil Hill: Discovering The Secret Of The Wright Brothers 1979).

Nearly half (17) of the 42 presidents this country has had could have been labeled "home schooled!"

There are many, many famous people who have been home schooled who aren't even mentioned here, who clearly have made an incredible impact on our country. But those we have mentioned deserve to be recognized!

The recent California Court of appeals ruling prohibiting home school unless the parent is a certified teacher, would cause these pillars in our past to turn in their grave at the possibility that this God given right of every parent in American is in danger of being taken away.

We owe it to our future, to those children who will take our place in this great country, to guide them and direct them and teach them that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, one of the most famous phrases of the Declaration of Independence is still our "inalienable right".