Home Schooling: An Educational Reform

Pat Lane

MSA Student UNC-Chapel Hill

plane.email.unc.edu.

Home schooling has become an acceptable alternative in education. State legislators, school boards, and the public at large are responding to the concept of home schooling. Parents are forming partnerships with the public schools and sharing resources, in order to educated their children at home. These new partnerships suggest there is a greater acceptance of home schooling. The question is no longer, can you do that? Instead, people are asking, how can it be done? States are offering their assistance to home schoolers through the use of state educational agencies, that provide information about state requirements. Most states have some mandatory requirements for curriculum plan, testing of students; or testing for parents. There is no particular type of family that choose home schooling over the conventional methods of educating children. Home schoolers are well connected and have access to unlimited resources in their communities. Also, the use electronics provides them with educational materials and networking. Although, public acceptance is growing, some professional educators are questioning the validity of home schooling and standard operating procedures.

Implications

Home schooling may offer some relief for professional educators who cannot address the needs of students individually. They could also provide an opportunity to study the effects of one-on-one tutoring, child led learning, and distance learning.

Lines, M. P. (1996, October). Home schooling comes of age. Educational Leadership, pp. 63-67.