voiceofsandiego.org: This Just In... How Many Homeschool?: "When writing about charter schools that cater to homeschooled students, I got curious about just how many San Diegans homeschool without the help of such programs.
Tracking homeschooling is tough, because parents who homeschool can do so through a variety of venues -- independent study programs sponsored by school districts, the charter schools I wrote about, and starting up a program at home, from scratch."
Showing posts with label statistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label statistics. Show all posts
Bucking the norm, some families think big
The Associated Press
Could 4, 5, even 6 kids become suburbia's new status symbol?
NEW YORK - Laura Bennett isn’t bound by convention. Professionally, at age 42, she’s pursuing a mid-career switch into big-time fashion design. At home, she’s a mother of five — with No. 6 due next month.
“It was nothing that we planned ahead of time,” Bennett says. “It’s more that we were enjoying all the kids.
“We have a happy home. Why not have as many children as we can?”
It’s barely a blip on the nation’s demographic radar — 11 percent of U.S. births in 2004 were to women who already had three children, up from 10 percent in 1995. But there seems to be a growing openness to having more than two children, in some case more than four.
The reasons are diverse — from religious to, as Bennett reasons, “Why not?”
The families involved cut across economic lines, though a sizable part of the increase is attributed to a baby boom in affluent suburbs, with more upper-middle-class couples deciding that a three- or four-child household can be both affordable and fun.
The Bennetts still stand out. Among other well-off families in Manhattan, three children is generally the maximum — one or two is much more common as parents contemplate private-school tuition of $25,000 a year even for kindergarten, and a real estate market that is far from family-friendly.
Bennett’s husband, Peter Shelton, is a successful architect, and the family can afford child-care help while Bennett — also an architect by training — pursues her fashion-design aspirations as a finalist on the TV reality show “Project Runway.” But their motives sound similar to those of other, less wealthy parents nationwide who have opted for five or more children.
Dr. Jeff Brown, a pediatrician affiliated with Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut’s wealthy southwestern suburbs, has noticed a clear trend in recent years.
“I don’t hear people say, 'We’ll have two and then we’re done,’ where I used to hear that before,” he said. “People are much more open to three-children families than they were 10 years ago.”
Older moms limit family sizeHowever, really big families remain rare, Brown said, in part because many women are giving birth at older ages — they may not have their third child until in their 40s, when the prospect of a fourth might seem too daunting.
The Census Department says it has no national data specifying which demographic sectors are having more kids these days. But a leading expert on family size, Duke University sociologist Philip Morgan, says it makes sense that some well-off couples are opting for more children as concern about global overcrowding eases because of lowering birth rates overall.
“The population explosion — fears about that are over,” he said. “People used to think that having more than two kids was not only expensive but immoral. Now, people say if you can afford three kids, four kids, that’s great.”
Yet Morgan, who has three children of his own, doubts there will be a boom in extra-large families.
“No matter how much money the parents have, most think each of their kids should have their own place and time,” he said. “More than four — that’s when people start thinking you’re crazy, that you’re shortchanging the ones you already have.”
Bonny Clark, a mother of five from the Minneapolis suburb of Circle Pines, has encountered such skepticism. When pregnant with twins four year ago — with three other children already on hand — even some of her friends were dismayed.
“There were a lot of unwelcome comments, like, 'If I had three kids and was having twins, I’d kill myself,”’ Clark said.
Suburban status symbol?Clark, 38, is aware of the buzz that large families — in the suburbs, at least — are a new status symbol.
“I thought it was kind of funny,” she said “Most people who have a lot of kids don’t have the time or energy to care what about others think.”
On top of other family duties, Clark has an extra, self-imposed workload — homeschooling all five children ranging from the twins to an adolescent daughter.
“One of the biggest struggles for me,” she said, “is that 4-year-olds’ interests aren’t the same as a 13-year-old’s interests.”
Her husband, who runs the mail center at a local college and does landscaping, has limited spare time, and the family constantly improvises to make do financially.
Carmen and Frank Staicer of Virginia Beach, Va., have an even bigger brood — six children aged 2 through 14. The two youngest — including 2-year-old Riley, who is autistic — are at home with Carmen during the day; the others go to local Roman Catholic schools.
Carmen embraces the challenges of raising so large a family but doesn’t minimize them.
“There are many nights I go to bed mentally exhausted, after trying to deal with high school bullies and first-grade spelling words,” she said. “But I can’t think of anything that I’d rather do than be dealing with these incredibly funny, wonderful individuals.”
Even with her husband’s income as a car dealership finance manager, Staicer says budget-balancing can require buying secondhand sports gear and controlling food bills with coupons and leftovers. Each weekday afternoon, she switches into chauffeur mode, driving her children to afterschool activities.
“I don’t want them to grow up thinking that because we had all these kids, they couldn’t do anything,” she said.
Her oldest children — Nikolas, 14, and Allegra, 11 — sometimes weary of the decibel level around the house, but they also see upsides. If she’s briefly feuding with one of her siblings, said Allegra, there’s always someone else to play with.
To do list: 20 loads of laundryOne gauge of the Staicers’ home life is laundry — 20 loads in an average week. In South Orange, N.J., where Diana and Ronald Baseman have raised 10 children, trash output is a challenge — at one point, garbagemen needed to be tipped before they would haul away the family’s refuse.
The Basemans had six biological children, then — after Diana had three miscarriages — adopted four more from Guatemala, the oldest 8 and the youngest barely a year old.
One factor was Diana Baseman’s refusal, as a Roman Catholic, to use artificial birth control, but even as a child she aspired to have a big family.
“I have learned so much from children that I never would have learned otherwise,” Baseman said.
Even with the two oldest children in their 20s and living elsewhere, Baseman has her hands full homeschooling the others.
“My biggest frustration is that I make the schedule and then there’s an emergency — practically every day,” she said. “But a lot people get exhausted by taking care of their children. I don’t.”
From far-flung communities, many parents of large families enjoy comparing notes. Several Web sites have surfaced to accommodate such exchanges, including LargerFamilies.com, founded this year by Meagan Francis of Williamston, Mich.
Francis, 29, has four children — fewer than many of her site’s regular bloggers, but enough to raise eyebrows in her suburb outside Lansing. “People thought I was insane,” she said.
Bucking stereotypesFrom overseeing the Web site, Francis has concluded that large families don’t fit the stereotypes sometimes applied to them.
“Some are really religious, others aren’t. A lot are homeschoolers but many are not,” she said.
“There are stay-at-home moms, working moms, some with lots of money, some with not much ... We don’t all fit a mold.”
Francis is bemused by the recent buzz that large families are a status symbol.
“The majority of the large families I know have made adjustments — the kids share bedrooms, they don’t always get new toys,” she said. “It’s more a question of valuing things a little differently.”
Laura Bennett believes mothers with lots of children should make a point of doing something just for themselves on a regular basis. In her case, it’s dressing well every day, “not getting sucked into sweatsuits and sneakers.”
Bennett’s oldest child, a daughter from a previous marriage, goes to college in Houston. The four children she has had with Shelton, sons ranging from 10 to 3, share a bunkroom. A fifth brother is expected at the end of November.
The main reaction Bennett gets from mothers with fewer children is, “How do you do it?”
“My answer is I don’t think about it too much,” she said. “You do what you need to do, and you have to just let go of a few things. Don’t expect things to be perfect every day.”
Reading, writing and rebellion? Homeschooling takes on tradition, but some wonder if students are seeing benefitsBy
By Inness Asher
Rather than the title of an often-controversial federal program, the phrase 'No Child Left Behind' might very well be the rallying cry for the contemporary homeschooling movement. On the rise nationally -- and with a prominent presence in Acadiana -- it's evident that among those with the will and determination, home teaching is a rich and satisfying experience.
Unfortunately, because the nature of homeschooling is still somewhat a tacit act of rebellion -- one which sometimes doesn't lend itself to voluntary information disclosure -- statistics are somewhat dated and limited.
As reported by the National Center for Education Statistics, the most recent national survey estimated the number of homeschooled students increasing from 850,000 students in 1999 (about 1.7 percent of the total student population), to 1,096,000 students in 2003 (approximately 2.2 percent of the total student population). While such a rate of increase doesn't yet endanger the current U. S. educational systems, it should create some reflective moments in wiser school administrators.
As an alternative to traditional school programs, the reasons for moving away from institutionalized education are as varied as those who homeschool. Some find a home environment a preferable alternative for religious reasons; others, however, say they are seeking a quality of individualized education lacking in schools run by an increasing oligarchy of professional administrators whom they often find more interested in the current lover's knot of test scores and government funding than in providing education to individual students.
Two Lafayette parents, Kate Corkern and Marie Diaz, members of the Magnolia Home Educators community, have had ample experience with children and their education. According to Corkern, the traditional school system was definitely more concerned with adapting her child to fit their mold rather than finding an individualized approach to his needs. To her, homeschooling is a way to provide a rich education to her children, while bypassing the increasingly programmatic instruction in today's schools.
"But it quickly becomes more than that," she says. "The family dynamics are natural and there's no interference."
In addition to how she views homeschooling as a natural extension of the family, she also cites a variety of reasons other homeschoolers she knows have undertaken the education of their own children.
"The reasons are as varied as people are," she says. "Some are religious, some kids are brilliant or slow or weird or persecuted in school."
Corkern's assessment aligns accurately with the NCES survey findings. According to the survey, 31 percent of parents responding cited school environments "as the most important reason for homeschooling." Another 30 percent noted a need for religious or moral instruction they found lacking, with 16 percent citing "dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools."
Or as Corkern simply states, "Most people would say they're homeschooling because they want to offer their children something different."
Diaz has had experience in both local public and private schools. A Tulane graduate, she nevertheless found that when the time came to introduce her daughter Ruth to the traditional school systems, neither were sufficient.
"We looked at public and private schools where my daughter was accepted," says Diaz, "but it just wasn't right. It just didn't feel right."
Beginning with Holy Family Home Educators, the local Roman Catholic homeschooling organization, Diaz eventually joined what was then only a mailing list begun by Corkern and a few other interested parents. As the list grew and others found an open network of like-minded parents, Magnolia Home Educators was born. Three additional children later (Joseph, Martha and Annette), Diaz is pleased with the choice she made back when her family was just beginning.
"We began as a group of interested parents," she says. "We were lucky enough to network with a couple who had homeschooled and they were reassuring."
Speak to any dedicated homeschooler and you will eventually hear of the need for such a connection. Without the support of others within a community, the very idea of homeschooling can be so intimidating as to welcome either poor practices or outright failure. With mutual support, however, Lafayette homeschooling parents can begin undauntedly teaching their children, and continue as the experience achieves academic results.
"Based on skills ranking my children, (they) haven't done too badly," Diaz modestly admits.
By anyone's account, the scholarly success of each of her children is remarkable, even by the standards of traditional education. Indeed, those are the standards by which most serious home educators gauge the progress of their pupils. With a 4.0 grade point average, Diaz' eldest daughter qualified for acceptance at a variety of both public and private universities; at the senior high level, her son Joseph is a college scholarship recipient and a National Merit semi-finalist.
Was this the kind of success she envisioned when she began homeschooling her children?
"We home schooled kind of one year at a time," says Diaz.
With support and dedication came the positive affirmation of academic success. One year led to another, she says, until at one point she eventually realized "the chances of not doing it are kind of slim right now."
Despite the enthusiasm engendered by almost every successful home-schooling parent, most traditional school participants have some serious and legitimate concerns when considering homeschooling.
How does one acquire the qualifications for imparting knowledge to one's own child on a wide variety of subjects even parents sometimes find daunting?
"Teacher's guides," says Corkern, "are essential."
Also, thanks to a free-market economy and the rapid expansion of an initial cottage industry, homeschooling parents now have an expansive array of educational material to choose from -- unlike those parents who often had to make do with used texts and subject guides less than a decade ago.
"You start out with 'school-in-a-box', everything prepared for you, but you quickly move on," says Corkern. "You start shopping around. The marketplace has really expanded to fit so many different people. Most people who do it for any length of time get the hang of it."
Not unlike teachers themselves, she adds.
Modern homeschoolers also dismiss that oft-cited bugaboo some bring up time and again: The lack of socialization homeschooling provides in contrast to the traditional classroom and playground.
"We haven't found a problem with socialization skills," says Diaz. "We see other children a fair number of times, above and beyond having friends."
She cites numerous community organizations and activities in which her children and others participate, again illustrating that a community of caring parents plays a key role in educating one's own children. The list grows rapidly as Diaz recounts the extensive extracurricular activities of the Magnolia Home Educators.
"We do field trips together, have group meetings, we sometimes meet at the park," she says. "The only thing they [the students] do alone is study. Generally most of their academic work is done at home with their brothers and sisters, if they have them. But for most other activities, there are ways to meet people, and we take those opportunities."
One example of socialization is the monthly meeting of the Magnolia Home Educators held at the Main Branch of the Lafayette Public Library.
"The library has been very welcoming to us," says Diaz. "A lot of the teenagers are involved in the Lafayette Teen Committee at the library. This year they had Book Buddies, and several of the homeschooling kids were involved in that."
Book Buddies is a confidence-building program in which independent readers aged 7-10 are paired with more experienced readers. Initially part of the Summer Reading Series, the success of the program has it resuming in October. Among home schoolers, as well as the public, it is the literate and educational activities that make local libraries community focal points.
"The Children's Department has been wonderful," says Diaz. "I think in most communities homeschoolers will gravitate to the libraries."
Rather than the title of an often-controversial federal program, the phrase 'No Child Left Behind' might very well be the rallying cry for the contemporary homeschooling movement. On the rise nationally -- and with a prominent presence in Acadiana -- it's evident that among those with the will and determination, home teaching is a rich and satisfying experience.
Unfortunately, because the nature of homeschooling is still somewhat a tacit act of rebellion -- one which sometimes doesn't lend itself to voluntary information disclosure -- statistics are somewhat dated and limited.
As reported by the National Center for Education Statistics, the most recent national survey estimated the number of homeschooled students increasing from 850,000 students in 1999 (about 1.7 percent of the total student population), to 1,096,000 students in 2003 (approximately 2.2 percent of the total student population). While such a rate of increase doesn't yet endanger the current U. S. educational systems, it should create some reflective moments in wiser school administrators.
As an alternative to traditional school programs, the reasons for moving away from institutionalized education are as varied as those who homeschool. Some find a home environment a preferable alternative for religious reasons; others, however, say they are seeking a quality of individualized education lacking in schools run by an increasing oligarchy of professional administrators whom they often find more interested in the current lover's knot of test scores and government funding than in providing education to individual students.
Two Lafayette parents, Kate Corkern and Marie Diaz, members of the Magnolia Home Educators community, have had ample experience with children and their education. According to Corkern, the traditional school system was definitely more concerned with adapting her child to fit their mold rather than finding an individualized approach to his needs. To her, homeschooling is a way to provide a rich education to her children, while bypassing the increasingly programmatic instruction in today's schools.
"But it quickly becomes more than that," she says. "The family dynamics are natural and there's no interference."
In addition to how she views homeschooling as a natural extension of the family, she also cites a variety of reasons other homeschoolers she knows have undertaken the education of their own children.
"The reasons are as varied as people are," she says. "Some are religious, some kids are brilliant or slow or weird or persecuted in school."
Corkern's assessment aligns accurately with the NCES survey findings. According to the survey, 31 percent of parents responding cited school environments "as the most important reason for homeschooling." Another 30 percent noted a need for religious or moral instruction they found lacking, with 16 percent citing "dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools."
Or as Corkern simply states, "Most people would say they're homeschooling because they want to offer their children something different."
Diaz has had experience in both local public and private schools. A Tulane graduate, she nevertheless found that when the time came to introduce her daughter Ruth to the traditional school systems, neither were sufficient.
"We looked at public and private schools where my daughter was accepted," says Diaz, "but it just wasn't right. It just didn't feel right."
Beginning with Holy Family Home Educators, the local Roman Catholic homeschooling organization, Diaz eventually joined what was then only a mailing list begun by Corkern and a few other interested parents. As the list grew and others found an open network of like-minded parents, Magnolia Home Educators was born. Three additional children later (Joseph, Martha and Annette), Diaz is pleased with the choice she made back when her family was just beginning.
"We began as a group of interested parents," she says. "We were lucky enough to network with a couple who had homeschooled and they were reassuring."
Speak to any dedicated homeschooler and you will eventually hear of the need for such a connection. Without the support of others within a community, the very idea of homeschooling can be so intimidating as to welcome either poor practices or outright failure. With mutual support, however, Lafayette homeschooling parents can begin undauntedly teaching their children, and continue as the experience achieves academic results.
"Based on skills ranking my children, (they) haven't done too badly," Diaz modestly admits.
By anyone's account, the scholarly success of each of her children is remarkable, even by the standards of traditional education. Indeed, those are the standards by which most serious home educators gauge the progress of their pupils. With a 4.0 grade point average, Diaz' eldest daughter qualified for acceptance at a variety of both public and private universities; at the senior high level, her son Joseph is a college scholarship recipient and a National Merit semi-finalist.
Was this the kind of success she envisioned when she began homeschooling her children?
"We home schooled kind of one year at a time," says Diaz.
With support and dedication came the positive affirmation of academic success. One year led to another, she says, until at one point she eventually realized "the chances of not doing it are kind of slim right now."
Despite the enthusiasm engendered by almost every successful home-schooling parent, most traditional school participants have some serious and legitimate concerns when considering homeschooling.
How does one acquire the qualifications for imparting knowledge to one's own child on a wide variety of subjects even parents sometimes find daunting?
"Teacher's guides," says Corkern, "are essential."
Also, thanks to a free-market economy and the rapid expansion of an initial cottage industry, homeschooling parents now have an expansive array of educational material to choose from -- unlike those parents who often had to make do with used texts and subject guides less than a decade ago.
"You start out with 'school-in-a-box', everything prepared for you, but you quickly move on," says Corkern. "You start shopping around. The marketplace has really expanded to fit so many different people. Most people who do it for any length of time get the hang of it."
Not unlike teachers themselves, she adds.
Modern homeschoolers also dismiss that oft-cited bugaboo some bring up time and again: The lack of socialization homeschooling provides in contrast to the traditional classroom and playground.
"We haven't found a problem with socialization skills," says Diaz. "We see other children a fair number of times, above and beyond having friends."
She cites numerous community organizations and activities in which her children and others participate, again illustrating that a community of caring parents plays a key role in educating one's own children. The list grows rapidly as Diaz recounts the extensive extracurricular activities of the Magnolia Home Educators.
"We do field trips together, have group meetings, we sometimes meet at the park," she says. "The only thing they [the students] do alone is study. Generally most of their academic work is done at home with their brothers and sisters, if they have them. But for most other activities, there are ways to meet people, and we take those opportunities."
One example of socialization is the monthly meeting of the Magnolia Home Educators held at the Main Branch of the Lafayette Public Library.
"The library has been very welcoming to us," says Diaz. "A lot of the teenagers are involved in the Lafayette Teen Committee at the library. This year they had Book Buddies, and several of the homeschooling kids were involved in that."
Book Buddies is a confidence-building program in which independent readers aged 7-10 are paired with more experienced readers. Initially part of the Summer Reading Series, the success of the program has it resuming in October. Among home schoolers, as well as the public, it is the literate and educational activities that make local libraries community focal points.
"The Children's Department has been wonderful," says Diaz. "I think in most communities homeschoolers will gravitate to the libraries."
How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education -- Paul T. Hill
How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education -- Paul T. Hill -- Paul T. Hill reports on the pros and cons of learning at home—and the effects home schooling will have on public schools.
