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Homeschooling and Education: What's It About?

Homeschooling has been seen by many as an alternative to actually going into the classroom setting and instead be at home and learn from there based on modules designed by a school or university which has a homeschool or distance learning program.

With the advent also of the information age and the internet homeschooling is being revolutionized with the use of technologies such as e-mail and website interaction.

It can be deduced that modern homeschooling started with John Caldwell Holt in 1964 when published his first work, How Children Fail. A teacher, and an observer of children and education, Holt asserted that the academic failure of schoolchildren was not in spite of the efforts of the schools, but actually because of the schools. Not surprisingly, How Children Fail ignited a firestorm of controversy. In his follow-up work, How Children Learn, 1967, he tried to demonstrate the learning process of children and why he believed school short circuits this process. Such claims fail to account for the success of many schools, nor allow for the fact that diverse public and private schools in the US have a wide variety of teaching methods and philosophies.

Today, homeschooling is an open option for everyone and is almost present in majority of countries in the world.

According to a 2003 U.S. Census survey, 33% of homeschooling households cited religion as a factor in their choice. The same study found that 30% felt school had a poor learning environment, 14% objected to what the school teaches, 11% felt their children were not being challenged at school, and 9% cited morality.

According to the U.S. DOE's "Homeschooling in the United States: 2003", 85 percent of homeschooling parents cited "the social environments of other forms of schooling" (including safety, drugs, bullying and negative peer-pressure) as an important reason why they homeschool. 72 percent cited "to provide religious or moral instruction" as an important reason, and 68 percent cited "dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools." 7 percent cited "Child has physical or mental health problem", 7 percent cited "Child has other special needs", 9 percent cited "Other reasons" (including "child's choice," "allows parents more control of learning" and "flexibility").

If you need a site with links and other resources dedicated to homeschooling visit Homeschooling in the Ozarks.

Reference:

Homeschooling. (2008, February 22). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:20, February 22, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Homeschooling&oldid=193228738