Historical and Contemporary Developments in Home School Education

The Social and Educational Outcomes of Homeschooling

“…Three avenues stand out: withdrawal impacts, lighthouse effects, and competitive effects. Critics of homeschooling maintain that involved parents one often sees in the homeschooling movement, pull away from public schools social capital is diminished (Wilhelm and Firman 2009). Relatedly, a reduced commitment to public education (Dahlquist et al 2006;Riegel 2001) and a reduced willingness to support taxes for schools (Apple 2005;Hill 2000) suggests that homeschooling leads to less financial support for public education (Apple 2000a;Houston and Toma 2003).…”

Evaluating Learning Styles and Personality Type: Guidance for Home School Families Selecting High School Curriculum

“…African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, Hawaiian natives, Jews, Roman Catholics, Muslims, and sports and the arts families continue to add to the numbers of families that have embraced home education. Various sources estimate anywhere between one million to over two million children are home schooled in the United States (Gather, 2009; Home School Legal Defense Association or HSLDA, hslda.org; Isenberg, 2007;Wilhelm & Firmin, 2009). Today's home school families do not have to hide inside their homes fearing legal action that might take away their "deprived, uneducated, sheltered children," a characterization of home schooled children by some people.…”

“…More recent reports indicate a continual growth to an estimated two million students in grades K to 12 by 2009 (Ray, 2010). Homeschool students garner the attention of colleges and universities through test scores, civic involvement, and academic abilities exhibited during college years (Wilhelm & Firmin, 2009). In fact, colleges and universities actively recruit homeschoolers (Romanowski, 2006).…”

An Evaluative Study of the Academic Achievement of Homeschooled Students Versus Traditionally Schooled Students Attending a Catholic University

“…The concept of homeschooling is certainly not a new idea to American education, with the first colonists homeschooling their children out of necessity (Wilhelm & Firmin, 2009). However, the history of modern homeschooling can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s as a reactionary response by religious fundamentalists (ideologues from the countercultural right) and experimental unschoolers (pedagogues from the countercultural left) to the perceived inadequacies of the public school educational system (Aurini & Davies, 2005;Gaither, 2008).…”