Speculation on the Causes of a Trend

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Recommended: Homeschooling on the rise in america

Former United States Secretary of Education John W. Gardner evaluates the current state of American schooling in this way: “Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.” Whether or not Gardner is right about schools failing to provide analytical instruction needed, something is awry in today’s public schools. The legitimacy of this assessment can be seen in the advancement of the homeschooling movement. Parents’ requirements are in some way not being fulfilled, but what area needs improvement? Schools produce sub-par academic products, Isabel Lyman indicates in her article “What’s Behind the Growth in Homeschooling?”, and they are hatcheries of crime. Kurt Bauman states in his article, “Home Schooling in the United States: Trends and Characteristics”, that while academic concerns could be a major cause, religion and values are a more prevalent theme. In short, academic and religious faults are favored by authorities as the cause of the trend, but the gradual understanding and social acceptance of homeschooling should also be considered a possible instigation. While parts of the expanding trend of home education can be accredited to factors like academic superiority and moral freedom, the main cause of the increase in the number of homeschoolers is not in the excellence of home education, but rather in the spread of the knowledge of its excellence.

Joleen Okun admits in his article “Home Schooling - History, Legal Background, Legal Trends, Effects, and Future Implications” that the estimated number of homeschoolers is somewhat unreliable, but also states that there are consistent implications of growth rea...

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Works Cited
Basham, Patrick. "Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream." A Fraser Institute Occasional Paper 51.1 (2001) 1-16. Print.

Bauman, Kurt. "Homeschooling in the United States." Working Paper Series 53.1 (2001) 1-9. Print.

Gadomski, Tara. "Faith Fuels Home Education Boom." BBC News. BBC MMIX, 23 Mar. 2007. Web. 11 Dec. 2009.

Lyman, Isabel "What's behind the growth in homeschooling?." USA Today Magazine 127.2640 (1998): 64. Academic Search Elite. EBSCO. Web. 10 Dec. 2009.

Okun, Joleen. "Home Schooling: History, Legal Background, Legal Trends, Effects, Future Implications." StateUniversity.com. Net Industries, 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2009.

Ray, Brian and the Home School Legal Defense Association. Homeschool Progress Report 2009: Academic Achievement and Demographics. Purcellville: National Home Education Research Institute, 2009. Print.

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