Definition of Home Schooling

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Definition of Home Schooling

What is home schooling? Home schooling is defined as a “provision of compulsory education in the home as an alternative to traditional public/private schooling – often motivated by parental desire to exclude their children from the traditional school environment” (Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), 1999).

Parents homeschool their children in many different ways. The techniques vary from traditional ways of teaching using textbooks, to community activism, to the study of classic literature and Latin, and many versions in between (Ransom, 2001; Izhizuka et. al., 2000).

Homeschooling is permitted in all 50 states, however, each state has its own rules and regulations for legally taking a child out of the traditional school setting (Ishizuka, et. al., 2000). To provide some examples, the Washington D.C. metropolitan area consists of three jurisdictions, each with differing degrees of regulation.

In the state of Maryland, a child between the ages of five and sixteen must be enrolled in a school district somewhere in their state if they are of legal residence. If his/her parent chooses to homeschool him/her, the parents must sign an assurance of consent form 15 days before the start of their planned homeschooling session and send it to their local school superintendent. In addition, throughout the year, the parent must maintain a portfolio demonstrating their child’s academic accomplishments (Ishizuka et. al., 2000).

Similarly, the law in Virginia states that any child between five and eighteen years of age must comply with the schooling rules. A letter must be sent to the superintendent as soon as possible, preferably before August 31st of that year. The District of Columb...

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...n by some as a negative thing (Cloud et. al., 2001).

Other studies refute these conclusions. Richard Medlin, a professor of psychology and chair of the Department of Psychology at Stetson University in Deland, Florida found that some homeschooled children are “better socialized” than those attending traditional schools (2000). Similarly, a study conducted by Edward Shyers found that eight to ten year old homeschooled children had significantly fewer behavior problems as compared to children who were conventionally schooled of the same age group (Ishizuka et. al., 2000).

Conclusion

As homeschooling continues to grow, researchers will continue to find out exactly how homeschooling affects children academically, and socially. Of all the information provided to the public right now, the best guess is that homeschooling is no worse than conventional schooling.

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