Trends and Growth in a Push for Homeschooling Acceptance Globally
Contents
In years passed homeschooling was the accepted form of education. When did that sway in favor of public schools? And moreover, when did homeschooling begin its comeback?
According to reference.com, prior to the 19th-century homeschooling was the normal process of education for children in both Canada and the United States. The parents ultimately bore the vast responsibility of making sure their children were equipped to survive in the world. Back in the day, there was no lack of support and textbooks for affluent parents and the option to send a child to private school did exist if of course, a family could afford it.
This system of education lent itself to a great level of illiteracy among the children whose education was limited by their parent’s education and their parents before them. The state of Massachusetts was the first state to introduce mandatory public education in 1789 however it would be many years until a standardized curriculum would be offered to the students of these schools.
Public Education Beneficial or Detrimental?
There were many assertions to indicate the early failure of public education and yet as time went on more states began to implement mandatory public education. A. A Berle an early proponent of the return to homeschooling admitted being asked by hundreds of families how to educate their children at home. A childlike form of the Underground Railroad was even formed.
It would not be until John Caldwell Holt’s 1964 book, How Children Fail (Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence; Rev. ed edition 1982) hit the shelves that the real controversy began. This was Holt’s overall desire. Holt realized school children were not failing academically because they weren’t attending public school but rather because of the schools themselves.
How Children Learn, 1967
In Holt’s follow-up work, How Children Learn, (Delta July 15, 1972) he sought to show a model of the learning process a child goes through and how he believed public schools were stifling that process with their modern and mass education. Holt’s one error however was his inability to relate this model to the many schools, which seemed to be successful or the fact that educational methods at the time were vastly varied.
The second and perhaps greatest mistake Holt made rested in not offering any concrete alternatives to public education in either book. Instead, Holt resigned himself to the fact that the school system as it was truly was what the public wanted and that he would not be alive to witness the revolution, which would someday come.
Other Supporters of Non-Public Education
It would seem there was no limit to the number of authors questioning the validity of public education. Some of the most popular and widely accepted of the time were Ivan Illich whose 1970 release titled Deschooling Society (Marion Boyars Publishers; New Ed edition March 1999) tackled the topic head-on and Harold Bennet author of the 1972 work No More Public School, (Random House Trade Paperbacks May 1972) which advised parents to illegally keep their children home.
It was Holt who finally published Instead of Education; Ways to Help People Do Things Better, (Dell Pub. Co 1977) which advocated a “Children’s Underground Railroad” to help parents educate their children as they saw fit. This book would be the catalyst to the modern homeschooling movement along with Holt’s newly formed magazine Growing Without Schooling which was dedicated to homeschooling.
Any of these history-changing books can be purchased through Amazon.com.
