home schooling

Home schooling is one of the more controversial aspects of contemporary education, and encourages diametrically opposed opinions on either side of the debate. Not only is it an often discussed concept, but it is also one that has grown in popularity significantly within the last decade. There are numerous social and cultural issues that acts as triggers for parents to decide to school their children at home, and while some are long standing others are more of a reaction to current social climates.

The facts are relatively surprising. An estimated 1.5 million US children are schooled at home by their parents, and this figure has increased by nearly 75 percent within the last 10 years. This significant and persistent growth in home education is particularly interesting, and hints at several parental concerns relating to society and education. Many of these relate specifically to either a child’s individual safety or core education principle, and display a worrying lack of faith in government legislation and resource.

The Reason Behind Home Schooling

Of the 1.5 million home schooled infants throughout the nation, 36 percent of them are subjected to this process through religious and cultural reasoning. While this has been an understandable and persistent feature of the increasing levels of multiculturalism within the US, other statistics or more indicative of burgeoning social concerns. For example, a further 17 percent of home schooled children are taught domestically by their parents because of inherent and pressing issues with the content or quality of contemporary education.