The History Of Home Schooling

Home schooling is also known as home education,childhood education had on the mental, and,
and is a method of teaching children in the familyphysical development of children between the
home, rather than at an institution, such as aages of 8 to 12 years of age. Through these
public school. Originally, all schooling was done instudies, the Moores produced evidence that
the family home, or informally within smallformal schooling was damaging to children, and a
communities. Very few children ever went tocause for some behavioral problems commonly
school, or had private tutelage. Children who didfound in school aged children.
have this type of education were considered toAccording to these tests, illiterate tribal mothers in
be privileged, and were mainly from wealthyAfrica had children that were more socially, and
families.emotionally advanced than children in the western
Informal education, mainly conducted in the home,world. The Moores believed that this was largely
was the only way for children to gain andue to the bond between parents, and their
education. In the US, there were books dedicatedchildren being broken when children were
to home education, such as "Helps To Education ininstitutionalized in schooling systems.
the Homes of Our Country" authored by WarrenIn some English speaking countries, it is still an
Burton. Parents were the main teachers of theiroption for parents to home school their children
children, although, where possible, local teachersrather than to send them to an institutionalized
would assist parents, and take classes. It is saidschool. There are a wide variety of home
that before schooling was institutionalized, the USschooling methods available to families who
was at its height of literacy skills.choose to home school their children, rather than
The 19th century saw many significant changessend them to schools, including methods such as
to the way education, and schooling wasclassical education, Waldorf education, and the
conducted with the introduction of compulsoryMontessori method.
school attendance laws. It is now considered aHome schooling can also refer to schooling done in
human right that children are given an educationa home environment, with supervision by
provided by the government.teachers through correspondence schools. While
Over the years, there has been muchchildren are schooled at home, they must still
controversy over the effectiveness ofcomplete compulsory educational subjects, and
institutionalized schooling, and some people havetake tests.
even gone as far as saying that the compulsoryOne of the main reasons that parents choose to
schooling system is damaging to younger children,home school their children is that they feel the
especially boys who are slower to mature.schools are unable to offer their children the same
In the early 1970s, Ray and Dorothy Moore, whoquality of education, or social environment that
later become well known home schoolingcan be taught at home.
advocates, researched the bearing that early