The History Of Homeschool
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Lots of people wonder about the history of homeschool and its evolution. It really is an interesting story. Of course homeschooling has been going on for centuries, especially in rural areas. However, as the United States grew and became a nation children began attending schools and compulsory attendance laws were put in place. The reason children attended school was to teach them to be good citizens, the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and also to keep them out of the workforce. But, the 70s saw a change in Americas attitude towards compulsory school attendance.
Ivan Illich wrote and published Deschooling Society. This book was not about eliminating the public school system. Instead, it was about removing the laws that required children to attend school. This brought up many ideas about education and how students could be taught. The idea that public schools might not be the only option were considered, discussed, and the homeschooling phenomenon got off to a slow start.
Another man who played a role in homeschooling was James Holt. He also wrote a book called Instead of Education: Ways to Help People. Many read this book and one thing was missing and brought to Holts attention by many readers. He had forgotten to mention that children could effectively be educated through homeschool.
By the early 80s Holt was speaking all over the country and on TV trying to get the word out about homeschooling, offering advice, and simply perpetuating this method of education. He coined the term unschooling because he did not believe the term homeschooling was descriptive enough of what was taking place. This is because most children learned through many activities that were not your typical schoolwork.
During the 80s it was believed that somewhere between 20,000 American children were being homeschooled. The one thing parents had in common was that they wanted to control their childs education. Some people wanted to teach Christian values, others had different political beliefs, and still others believed their children werent learning anything in public schools. Despite there being many reasons for homeschooling many parents made the decision to do so and each year more and more parents chose to homeschool their children.
Throughout the 90s more families began homeschooling and now in the 21st century more than one million American children are being homeschooled. There are many reasons as to why, but most of these children are learning more effectively than they could have ever learned in the public school system. Homeschooling wont take over and push public schools out of business, but it is a nice option for families who prefer this option to educate their children.
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