Homeschooling and Avoiding the Public School System
1. Homeschooling and Avoiding the Public School
System to Enhance Family Values: Does
Homeschooling Today Have Significant Advantages
Over Mainstream Curriculum?
By Graham J Parker
Submitted to the faculty of Brandman University in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of OLCU 380 – Research and Analytical Thinking
October 23, 2014
2. Homeschooling and Avoiding the Public School System to Enhance
Family Values: Does Homeschooling Today Have Significant
Advantages Over Mainstream Curriculum?
• An increasing number of parents in America today now
homeschooling.
• Many reasons abound: family values, social distractions,
individual learning styles
• Some homeschooling ventures become a “last resort”
• What are the advantages over mainstream curriculum?
3. Instilling Family Values
• Opportunities are available to teach family values that
last a lifetime.
• Religious values are no longer taught in the public school
system
• Lubienski, Puckett and Brewer (2013) discuss additional
reasons related to the “school environment and
dissatisfaction with the academic instruction” (Lubienski,
Puckett & Brewer, 2013, p. 380).
• A great example of this is the mandated “Common Core”
curriculum used today, which has become ineffective with many
kids.
4. Socialization
• Homeschooling can contribute to a lack of socialization among kids
• For many parents, this can be intentional
• Parents pull their kids due to the negative influence their children start to receive
• Friends with similar values can be better chosen at the family level
• “Hybrid” homeschooling co-ops exist as a support network for both
parents and students
• Many have a central location, or school, where parents and students can come
together a few times per week
• As found by Medlin (2013), the quality of relationships are much better
• “Compared to children attending conventional schools, they apparently have
higher quality relationships both with close friends and with parents and other
adults” (Medlin, 2013, p. 290).
5. It’s not for Everybody
• Homeschooling is very beneficial, but not for every parent
• Much better when a parent can be there full-time, and not
work outside the home
• Patience required: it can’t be used as a “weapon”
• McDowell (2000) discussed a mom named Cissy, who would
threaten her daughter with homeschool if she didn’t start exceling in
her public school
• Cissy was more irritated with her child vice the public school system
• This becomes a non-productive reason to homeschool
6. Outsourcing our Kids’ Education
• Why do we not place more value on how our kids become
educated, and teach them at home? Essentially we outsource
them because we don’t want to teach them
• We bus them off to schools that teach curriculum which we
have issues with
• “Homeschooling provides a protective cocoon because it
supports protracted and intensive parental engagement that,
in the worldview of many respondents, is the best arena for
socialization into a Christ-centered morality” (Vigilant,
Trefethren, & Anderson, 2013, p. 209).
7. Conclusion
• Homeschooling is worth it
• Effort is required
• Patience - Planning & Structure - Research
• Homeschooling networks and co-ops make the possibility much
easier and rewarding
• Socialization has its challenges, but having the opportunity to further
“choose your friends” can be much more rewarding
• Homeschooled kids have excelled, many times in more areas than
those of traditional school students.
• Many are additionally afforded the opportunity to graduate 12th grade with
an AA degree.
8. References
• Lubienski, C., Puckett, T., & Brewer, T.J. (2013). Does homeschooling work? A critique of the
empirical claims and agenda of advocacy organizations. Peabody Journal of Education,
88(3), 378-392. doi: 10.1080/0161956X.2013.798516
• McDowell, S.A. (2000). The homeschooling mother-teacher: toward a theory of social
integration. Peabody Journal of Education, 75(1/2), 187-206.
• Medlin, R.G. (2013). Homeschooling and the Question of Socialization Revisited. Peabody
Journal of Education, 88(3), 284-297. doi: 10.1080/0161956X.2013.796825
• Vigilant, L.G., Trefethren, L.W., & Anderson, T.C. (2013). You can’t rely on somebody else
to teach them something they don’t believe: Impressions of legitimation crisis and
socialization control in the narratives of Christian homeschooling fathers. Humanity &
Society, 37(3), 201-224.
