by Steven David Horwich
Homeschooling today is looked upon as an “alternative educational” approach. Teachers, teachers unions, politicians and their buddies have worked very hard to try to convince us that homeschool is not “normal”, not “standard”. It is presented as “fringe” education. Who homeschools? We are told by “authorities” that it’s largely religious fanatics and “problem children” that were considered too dangerous or slow for schooling.
Let’s debunk these lies.
Let’s start by defining “alternative”. When people call homeschooling “alternative education”, they generally mean that it is “outside the normal”. I did not use that definition in this article. The one I’m using is “another option”. Homeschooling is NOT “ANOTHER” option – it is the ONLY option that can be considered rational.
Historically, schools are the “alternative”. They have only flourished in a few places until the 20th century. They usually had a very low success rate with their students. Individual teachers occasionally shined through the grim morass, but schools were not generally held in high regard. This is one reason that teachers and their unions insist at the top of their voices that they deserve respect and sensational paychecks, that teachers are underpaid and overworked, and all that utter rot. Because they know that they are simply not necessary. History does not lie.
Consider the astounding list of people who did NOT receive a “school” based education, but who made a massive impression on the world. Interested in music? Bach and Mozart were homeschooled, that seemed to work out well for them. Ohm you wanted songwriters? How about Irving Berlin, the first great songwriter of the 20th century? How about fine art? Da Vinci and Monet homeschooled. Most of the founding fathers of the United States were homeschool products, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. Not a bad group to belong to. A few other Presidents along the way also homeschooled, such as Abraham Lincoln and Teddy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Was Abe Lincoln’s education really “alternative”. That’s an alternative road I think most of us would happily walk. Is the military your thing? Such remarkable generals as George C. Patton and Robert E. Lee were homeschooled. How about writers? Hans Christian Anderson, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain homeschooled. Will they do? There were a few poets, too, including Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, perhaps America’s most important. How about scientists? Those with almost no formal education before university included the greatest of all 20th century scientists, Albert Einstein. Inventors? The Wright Brothers homeschooled, ran a bicycle repair shop – and invented the airplane. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Imagine life without that homeschooler! Thomas Edison homeschooled and then invented electric light, audio and film recording, and a list of inventions that made the 20th century possible. Of course, Edison’s invention of film helped create the first movie star, Charlie Chaplin, another homeschooler whose work guaranteed that movies would become the 20th century art form.
There is no area of life where homeschoolers do not stand at the front. The two greatest nurses in history, Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton, were homeschooled. Great businessmen such as Joseph Pulitzer and Andrew Carnegie homeschooled. The great tennis champions, the Williams sisters, both were homeschooled. Folks, even such popular entertainers as Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera homeschooled.
This is obviously NOT a list of “alternative” historical figures, but rather a list of many of the central figures in the last 300 years. And since public “mass” schooling has only been the vogue for the past unfortunate 150 years or so, prior to that time, the vast majority of important historical figures had little or no “schooling”.
And before the naysayers start screaming that times have changed, no, homeschooling is NOT what it was in Lincoln’s Day. Lincoln had NO resources, borrowed books from lawyers he worked and learned from, and famously read at night by candlelight. The potentials today for successful homeschooling are VASTLY greater than in Lincoln’s time. And as to what is “normal”, first, you vastly overrate the number of people worldwide in schools. In many parts of the world homeschooling is not only the norm, but the ONLY method available. Are those families “outside the norm”?
The numbers are overwhelmingly in favor of homeschooling. Those educated at home throughout history, needless to say, outnumber those schooled by at least a factor of many hundreds to one. Somehow, civilization survived! There are other interesting numbers today, such as “standardized tests” that show homeschoolers receive far better educations than schooled kids, on average.
The number of homeschoolers today is in the tens of millions, and some argue, in the hundreds of millions worldwide. The results from homeschooling when compared to schooling through standardized testing, demonstrate its clear superiority. Is it really “outside the norm” for a parent to do whatever is necessary to make certain that their children receive an actual and effective education while placing them in a (relatively) safe environment? This seems to most people that I talk with to be a rational and utterly normal thing for a parent to do! The abnormal and “alternative” thing for a parent to do would be to intentionally place their child in a dangerous and degrading environment. That is simply not wise or even “normal” parenting – yet you are right, far too many people, convinced by “experts” that it’s “what’s done”, do exactly that when placing their children in the care of ruinous schools. What happened yesterday in Rio de Janero is yet another horrific, terrifying example of the result of what you are calling “normal”. Over a dozen murders in an Elementary School! Though the head of their government claimed this was “a first”, he can be certain it won’t be a last. It is NEVER “normal” for a parent to place a child in harms way, or to do things week by week which make less of that child and their chances in life. And there, we have school for nearly every school child.
And of course, children educated at home get sick less often, don’t get beat up by classmates, and as we saw in Colorado this week, they do not get pepper sprayed in school when they “act out”. (You can find out more about this tragic farce at Homeschool Under Siege, our other blog.)
Homeschool is not an alternative. Schooling was made “universal” in the U.S. in the 1860s, and was not welcomed then. It’s just too bad that the farmers (with guns in hand) who met teachers at the door, teachers who had arrived to trot children to mandatory school, didn’t stand their ground on their children’s behalf. But even then, the majority of Americans, not to mention the rest of the world, homeschooled their children. Considering the awful results of schooling as seen in our increasingly illiterate and deteriorating civilization, I think we should all consider “school” a failed alternative, and junk it.
In education, homeschool has always been the main road. Can anyone claim that the wonderful and brilliant people listed above were not educated? Oh, I’m sure there are teachers and teacher unions who’d love it if you never knew the truth, but here it is ... HOMESCHOOLING CAN EASILY PROVIDE A FAR BETTER EDUCATION FOR A CHILD THAN CAN ANY SCHOOL.
The reasons for this are very, very many. Bottom line, the best thing you can do for your child? Homeschool.
Steven Horwich is an Emmy and Dramalogue award-winning writer/director, who has split his life between the arts and education. A teacher with over 35 years and over 20,000 hours of experience from elementary school through university-level teaching, he started homeschooling his own children in 2002. This led him to author over 300 courses since 2002, a complete curricula (excluding math) for ages 5-adult, called Connect The Thoughts. Over 20,000 people have used CTT since making it available via the Internet in 2007. His curricula is presented at www.connectthethoughts.com. There is over 5 hours of film explaining his courses and approach. He has authored a book about education today, Poor Cheated Little Johnny, and a teacher training program to go with it. He currently presents a free webinar about education and homeschooling every third Tuesday.
Homeschooling today is looked upon as an “alternative educational” approach. Teachers, teachers unions, politicians and their buddies have worked very hard to try to convince us that homeschool is not “normal”, not “standard”. It is presented as “fringe” education. Who homeschools? We are told by “authorities” that it’s largely religious fanatics and “problem children” that were considered too dangerous or slow for schooling.
Let’s debunk these lies.
Let’s start by defining “alternative”. When people call homeschooling “alternative education”, they generally mean that it is “outside the normal”. I did not use that definition in this article. The one I’m using is “another option”. Homeschooling is NOT “ANOTHER” option – it is the ONLY option that can be considered rational.
Historically, schools are the “alternative”. They have only flourished in a few places until the 20th century. They usually had a very low success rate with their students. Individual teachers occasionally shined through the grim morass, but schools were not generally held in high regard. This is one reason that teachers and their unions insist at the top of their voices that they deserve respect and sensational paychecks, that teachers are underpaid and overworked, and all that utter rot. Because they know that they are simply not necessary. History does not lie.
Consider the astounding list of people who did NOT receive a “school” based education, but who made a massive impression on the world. Interested in music? Bach and Mozart were homeschooled, that seemed to work out well for them. Ohm you wanted songwriters? How about Irving Berlin, the first great songwriter of the 20th century? How about fine art? Da Vinci and Monet homeschooled. Most of the founding fathers of the United States were homeschool products, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson. Not a bad group to belong to. A few other Presidents along the way also homeschooled, such as Abraham Lincoln and Teddy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Was Abe Lincoln’s education really “alternative”. That’s an alternative road I think most of us would happily walk. Is the military your thing? Such remarkable generals as George C. Patton and Robert E. Lee were homeschooled. How about writers? Hans Christian Anderson, C.S. Lewis, Charles Dickens, George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain homeschooled. Will they do? There were a few poets, too, including Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, perhaps America’s most important. How about scientists? Those with almost no formal education before university included the greatest of all 20th century scientists, Albert Einstein. Inventors? The Wright Brothers homeschooled, ran a bicycle repair shop – and invented the airplane. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Imagine life without that homeschooler! Thomas Edison homeschooled and then invented electric light, audio and film recording, and a list of inventions that made the 20th century possible. Of course, Edison’s invention of film helped create the first movie star, Charlie Chaplin, another homeschooler whose work guaranteed that movies would become the 20th century art form.
There is no area of life where homeschoolers do not stand at the front. The two greatest nurses in history, Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton, were homeschooled. Great businessmen such as Joseph Pulitzer and Andrew Carnegie homeschooled. The great tennis champions, the Williams sisters, both were homeschooled. Folks, even such popular entertainers as Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera homeschooled.
This is obviously NOT a list of “alternative” historical figures, but rather a list of many of the central figures in the last 300 years. And since public “mass” schooling has only been the vogue for the past unfortunate 150 years or so, prior to that time, the vast majority of important historical figures had little or no “schooling”.
And before the naysayers start screaming that times have changed, no, homeschooling is NOT what it was in Lincoln’s Day. Lincoln had NO resources, borrowed books from lawyers he worked and learned from, and famously read at night by candlelight. The potentials today for successful homeschooling are VASTLY greater than in Lincoln’s time. And as to what is “normal”, first, you vastly overrate the number of people worldwide in schools. In many parts of the world homeschooling is not only the norm, but the ONLY method available. Are those families “outside the norm”?
The numbers are overwhelmingly in favor of homeschooling. Those educated at home throughout history, needless to say, outnumber those schooled by at least a factor of many hundreds to one. Somehow, civilization survived! There are other interesting numbers today, such as “standardized tests” that show homeschoolers receive far better educations than schooled kids, on average.
The number of homeschoolers today is in the tens of millions, and some argue, in the hundreds of millions worldwide. The results from homeschooling when compared to schooling through standardized testing, demonstrate its clear superiority. Is it really “outside the norm” for a parent to do whatever is necessary to make certain that their children receive an actual and effective education while placing them in a (relatively) safe environment? This seems to most people that I talk with to be a rational and utterly normal thing for a parent to do! The abnormal and “alternative” thing for a parent to do would be to intentionally place their child in a dangerous and degrading environment. That is simply not wise or even “normal” parenting – yet you are right, far too many people, convinced by “experts” that it’s “what’s done”, do exactly that when placing their children in the care of ruinous schools. What happened yesterday in Rio de Janero is yet another horrific, terrifying example of the result of what you are calling “normal”. Over a dozen murders in an Elementary School! Though the head of their government claimed this was “a first”, he can be certain it won’t be a last. It is NEVER “normal” for a parent to place a child in harms way, or to do things week by week which make less of that child and their chances in life. And there, we have school for nearly every school child.
And of course, children educated at home get sick less often, don’t get beat up by classmates, and as we saw in Colorado this week, they do not get pepper sprayed in school when they “act out”. (You can find out more about this tragic farce at Homeschool Under Siege, our other blog.)
Homeschool is not an alternative. Schooling was made “universal” in the U.S. in the 1860s, and was not welcomed then. It’s just too bad that the farmers (with guns in hand) who met teachers at the door, teachers who had arrived to trot children to mandatory school, didn’t stand their ground on their children’s behalf. But even then, the majority of Americans, not to mention the rest of the world, homeschooled their children. Considering the awful results of schooling as seen in our increasingly illiterate and deteriorating civilization, I think we should all consider “school” a failed alternative, and junk it.
In education, homeschool has always been the main road. Can anyone claim that the wonderful and brilliant people listed above were not educated? Oh, I’m sure there are teachers and teacher unions who’d love it if you never knew the truth, but here it is ... HOMESCHOOLING CAN EASILY PROVIDE A FAR BETTER EDUCATION FOR A CHILD THAN CAN ANY SCHOOL.
The reasons for this are very, very many. Bottom line, the best thing you can do for your child? Homeschool.
Steven Horwich is an Emmy and Dramalogue award-winning writer/director, who has split his life between the arts and education. A teacher with over 35 years and over 20,000 hours of experience from elementary school through university-level teaching, he started homeschooling his own children in 2002. This led him to author over 300 courses since 2002, a complete curricula (excluding math) for ages 5-adult, called Connect The Thoughts. Over 20,000 people have used CTT since making it available via the Internet in 2007. His curricula is presented at www.connectthethoughts.com. There is over 5 hours of film explaining his courses and approach. He has authored a book about education today, Poor Cheated Little Johnny, and a teacher training program to go with it. He currently presents a free webinar about education and homeschooling every third Tuesday.
