Who Home Schools Their Children? an Introduction

Roughly 2 million families in the United States have elected to home school their children themselves. ("Study: Home" 1999). We are one of those homeschooling families. I remember one morning when a policeman parked in our drive. "Doesn't anyone go to school around here?" the policeman demanded as he eyed my children.

"Everyone does," I responded cheerfully. "He's taking art," pointing to one son sitting on a ladder with a sketchpad open on his lap, intently drawing a tree. "He's in Science," indicating the one wading in the edge of the pond, "working on his aquarium. And this one," I stated, as a I dodged my son running around and around the house, "is practicing for the Presidential Physical Fitness Challenge."

"Oh," was all the officer came up with as he retreated. Like a lot of people, he was probably thinking, " Who are these people and why do they do homeschool their own children?" More and more parents, with nothing in common but "teaching specific philosophical or religious values, controlling social interactions, developing close families and high level academics," which are listed as the four most common reasons to home school (National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), 2002), have decided to continue raising their own children even when they reach school age.

Home schooling families are a fair representation of society as a whole, with every race, income, education level, living and working combinations, and philosophies included. The National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) National Household Education Survey, Parent Interview ("Quick Tables," 1999) shows that while these families often have more children and tend to have both parents in the home, the average income was comparable to the general public, with 30.9% having under $25,000.00 per year compared to 33.4% of public school families. 32.7% made between $25,000 and $50,000, compared to 30.3% in the public school families. Slightly more than half (53.5%) of the home schooling families live in cities, and 25.1% of the parents have a Bachelor's degree, compared to 16.5% of the parents that send their children to public school. Over 75% attend religious services ("Quick Tables," 1999).

We are one of these families that home schooled our children ourselves. We have been married over 30 years, we have three sons and we home schooled our children from Kindergarten through High School graduation. If you are interested, you could become one of those families who homeschool their children, too.

References

Personal experience

Facts on homeschooling. (2002). Retrieved February 6, 2003 from the National Home Education Research Institute's Web site: http://www.nheri.org/

Quick tables and figures. (1999). Retrieved February 12, 2003, from the National Center for Education Statistics Web site: http://nces.ed.gov/quicktables/Detail.asp?key=579

Study: Home schooled students excel. (1999, March 25). Maranatha Christian Journal. Retrieved February 15, 2003, from http://www.mcjonline.com/news/news3059.html