by Sandra Devera

Created on: May 21, 2008   Last Updated: November 29, 2009

True story: A mother called our local homeschool association and said, "I've been reading about homeschooling and I think that would be wonderful for my children. Do you have anybody that could do that for me?"

Somehow in reading the hype about homeschooled children scoring off the charts in the SAT's, and starting businesses by the time they are 18, and going to college at twelve and winning every spelling, math or geography bee in the nation this gal had missed the essence of homeschooling: parents in charge of their children's education.

I blame the name. In the same way that "homemaker" seems a very frumpy name for a full-time occupation that utilizes about forty different job skills, home education has this "Little House on the Prairie" mystique that the children sit around the table in aprons and bonnets churning butter while they recite scripture. I have nothing against butter or scripture but homeschooling has become a phenomenon in the past 30+ years because it is an appropriate educational option for our modern times.

During the thirteen years my children and I have been "educating" one another they have come up with alternative titles to homeschooling:
MOBILE SCHOOLING - An educational alternative in which children are taken everywhere and work on school assignments in the van, the shopping cart, in the lobbies of doctor's offices, etc., utilizing a broad range of adult resources for guidance and correction.
LIFE SCHOOLING - a Socratic approach in which a child spends all day asking questions while adults show them how to find the answers to their questions with the goal of helping that child become an adult who can figure things out for themselves.
GLOBALIZED SCHOOLING - A pedagogy that utilizes home, community, national and global information resources in all types of media to equip a student to "live in the world" rather than in a classroom.

Parents in the 21st century have an option to dedicate their time, purchase curriculum, arrange for special instructors, and select the best extra-curricular activities (not just those the schools have limited funding to offer) with the special needs, talents, or life goals of the individual child in mind. That's the truth about homeschooling.

Not everyone can homeschool. Not everyone should homeschool. But every family should have the right to choose to homeschool, just as they have a right to choose between private and public education, local schools or boarding school. No matter what educational option

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