Homeschooling and Socialization of Children
Homeschooling is defined by Preiss (1989) as "the educational
alternative in which parents/guardians assume the primary responsibility for
the education of their children." This Digest will offer some background information
on homeschooling and discuss conflicting viewpoints culled from research on
the socialization of home-schooled children.
RAPIDLY ESCALATING NUMBERS
While a Department of Education study in 1990-91 concluded
that between 250,000 and 300,000 school-age children were being educated at
home, "USA Today" recently cited the Home School Legal Defense Association
figures for 1994 as between 750,000 and 1 million--up from only 15,000 in the
early '80s (Thomas, 1994). What is the reason for this explosion?
Mayberry (1991) pinpoints the gradual development of the modern
state and public education as arenas which attempt to legitimate themselves
by embodying the ideologies of many different public segments. She argues that
by considering other agencies of socialization (in this case, the church or
the family) as arenas which embody ideologies in contradiction to those transmitted
by state institutions, the "context surrounding parental choice to home educate
gains clearer focus." She stresses that "...the decision to home school (or
seek other forms of privatized education) represents a political response by
people who perceive a threat in the current organization and content of public
education." Thus, the homeschooling movement is directly linked to the State's
struggle to balance contradictory imperatives (Mayberry, 1991).
BACKGROUND AND PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES
For historical background on homeschooling in America, both
Bliss (1989) and Aiex (1994) provide enlightening information. Preiss (1989)
offers a concise treatment of the legal aspects of homeschooling.
With the tremendous growth in numbers of the home schooled, there
has been a corresponding growth in the market for homeschooling information--indeed,
there are now myriad newsletters and books aimed at parents who home school,
as well as at least one scholarly newsletter, "Home School Researcher." According
to Preiss (1989), "In 1987, in one home-schooling catalog alone, over 300 suppliers
of home-schooling materials are listed." With the explosion in homeschooling
during the past few years, one can only imagine how large the network of professional
suppliers of materials is by now.
The granddaddy of all the providers of courses for home study
is the venerable Calvert School of Baltimore, which, for many years, was almost
the only institution which offered correspondence courses below college level.
It was founded in 1906 and has enrolled, through the years, upwards of 360,000
students in its home instruction courses. It has, of course, been joined by
other entities in the past decade.
WHY PARENTS HOME SCHOOL
Parents home school for a wide variety of reasons--for example,
many parents still live in areas where schools are not readily available
(a number of rural areas and some parts of Alaska come to mind), and many
parents are anxious about the physical well being of their children in an
increasingly more violent school setting. Still others simply feel that they
can give their children a better education at home. According to Mayberry
(1991), however, two groups of parents home school primarily for ideological
reasons:
- deeply religious parents
- "New Age" parents.
Mayberry surveyed 1600 Oregon
families who home schooled, receiving a 35% response rate to her questions.
Their responses led her to conclude that the two groups cited perceived
homeschooling as an activity that provided them a way to reproduce their "way-of-life" by
controlling the content of their children's education. She reports: "...the
meanings and values embodied in public education were not the ones that these
parents wanted articulated to their children" (Mayberry, 1991).
SOCIALIZATION OF CHILDREN
Does the research show any clear-cut advantages or disadvantages
to homeschooling, in relation to the social and emotional development of children
schooled at home? Does the home-schooled youngster do as well in measures of
interpersonal skills and communication skills as the conventionally schooled
child?
The stereotypical home-schooled child is often portrayed as being
shy, passive, and lethargic because of his/her isolation from the normal socialization
found in formal schooling. Critics further allege that the self-concept of
the home-schooled child suffers from lack of exposure to a more conventional
environment (Stough, 1992).
Another socialization-related accusation faced by home educators
is that of overprotecting their children from the real world. If this is true,
however, at least one researcher (Bliss, 1989) does not consider this to be
a serious problem. She argues that "Protection during early, developmental
years for purposes of nurturing and growth is evident in many arenas: plant,
animal, and aquatic. Why should it be considered wrong or bad in the most vital
arena, human development?"
Stough (1992),looking particularly at socialization, compared
30 home-schooling families and 32 conventionally schooling families, families
with children 7-14 years of age. According to the findings, children who were
schooled at home "gained the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes needed
to function in society...at a rate similar to that of conventionally schooled
children." The researcher found no difference in the self concept of children
in the two groups. Stough maintains that "insofar as self concept is a reflector
of socialization, it would appear that few home-schooled children are socially
deprived, and that there may be sufficient evidence to indicate that some home-schooled
children have a higher self concept than conventionally schooled children."
This echoes the findings of Taylor (1987). Using one of the best
validated self-concept scales available, Taylor's random sampling of home-schooled
children (45,000) found that half of these children scored at or above the
91st percentile--47% higher than the average, conventionally schooled child.
He concludes: "Since self concept is considered to be a basic dynamic of positive
sociability, this answers the often heard skepticism suggesting that home schoolers
are inferior in socialization" (Taylor, 1987).
From the findings of these two studies, it would appear that
the concerns expressed by teachers, administrators, and legislators about socialization
and homeschooling might be unfounded. Indeed, Bliss (1989) contends that it
is in the formal educational system's setting that children first experience
negative socialization, conformity, and peer pressure. According to her, "This
is a setting of large groups, segmented by age, with a variation of authority
figures...the individual, with his/her developmental needs, becomes overpowered
by the expectations and demand of others--equal in age and equally developmentally
needy."
Webb (1989), one of the few researchers who has examined aspects
of the adult lives of wholly or partly home-educated people, found that all
who had attempted higher education were successful and that their socialization
was often better than that of their schooled peers.
MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED
At this point, more research on homeschooling is necessary--what
we have is inconclusive about many of its aspects. Although more and deeper
studies are certainly called for, the population to be studied is not readily
accessible to researchers. And the types of research that can be done are still
limited to case studies of families or to surveys of self- reports by participants.
Notably, the success or failure of the homeschooling experience
depends inevitably on the success or failure of the family's interpersonal
relationships. Homeschooling is a complex issue and represents a tremendous
commitment on the part of the parents--in most cases, the father must function
as the sole breadwinner, and the mother must spend most of her time instructing
her children.
For now, we will let Preiss (1989) have the last word. She says: "Because
homeschooling contains so many diverse and changing factors, each family situation
is unique. Yet there exists within the home-schooling community a sense of
unity which transcends ideological, political, and religious concerns. That
unity lies in the parents' commitment to the education of their children, whose
welfare is their primary concern."
References
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