Grasping for the Wind: Home-schooler

February 08, 2007

Home-schooler

I began home-schooling in the seventh grade, meaning I was probably twelve so it was likely 1992 or so when I started. Apparently, my family was on the cutting edge of education, as the word home-schooler hadn't even come into existence until 1981. The word home-school actually came later according to the OED. Seems the movement was only eleven years old at the time I began my home-schooling career. It's now in its twenties, and still a little unruly if you ask me.

home-schooler, n.
Educ. (orig. and chiefly U.S.).

1. A child who is educated at home.

1981 N.Y. Times 26 Feb. C1/1 Figures for New York City show 822 officially registered home schoolers. 1991 BackHome Fall 70/2 We saw a difference between the way homeschoolers and public school kids behaved. 2002 J. STOUT in T. Dowty & K. Cowlishaw Home Educating Autistic Spectrum Children (2003) v. 80 Being a homeschooler gave him the time and resources to explore intensively and widely whatever he was interested in.

2. A parent (or occas. another person) who teaches children at home.

1984 Frederick (Maryland) Post 26 Jan. A12/1 He'd prosecute any home-schooler because he doesn't think anyone is qualified. 1988 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 22 The parents who are homeschoolers can be found anywhere along a continuum of educational philosophies. 1994 Daily Tel. 5 Sept. 17/1 Nine out of 10 home-schoolers describe themselves as conservative Christians. 2002 Weekly Standard 25 Mar. 15/2 Her being a born-again Christian and a home-schooler made her even more appealing as a symbol.

Of course, the reality is that home-schooling is considerably older than 1981, it was just called tutoring, at least according to home-schoolers themselves.

I am not a fan of people who point to the tutoring of the past as the forerunner of the home-schooling of today. Tutoring was necessary only because there were not enough teachers to go around, education was reserved only for the elite anyway, and the motivations were completely different.

Nonetheless, the two are related, if only distantly, and we can certainly use the curriculum of those who were tutored in the classics for our own children today. Such a classical curriculum (logic, Latin, apologetics, etc.) will certainly be more useful than the factual learning so prevalent in our schools today.

Posted by John on February 8, 2007 10:21 AM | Posted to Literature and Language | Personal Journal
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Comments

Interesting etymological thought. Considering that my family started in 1987, we, too, were cutting edge. By classical, do you mean a trivium and quadrivium based curriculum?

Posted by: Larissa on February 8, 2007 05:13 PM

If home-schooling started in 1981, then the movement is only as old as I am. And yet I was under the impression there were already second generation homeschoolers out there, but...maybe I am just way behind the get-married out of high school model that many homeschoolers follow/ed.

Posted by: funke on February 8, 2007 05:19 PM

PS I also have fond memories of going to the grocery store in the middle of the day and answering inquisitive folks' questions with the innocent "Oh we don't go to school," much to my mother's chagrin. Or there was always the puzzled "Mom, what grade am I in?" that was always sure to raise eyebrows. Ha. Fun times.

Posted by: funke on February 8, 2007 05:22 PM

Larissa,

Wouldn't either one techinically be considered classical. I believe the school my dad founded uses a quadrivium approach, but honestly, I don't really know the difference! I wasn't a recipient of this style of education, I got the copycat version that tried to emulate being in school.

Posted by: Otter on February 9, 2007 10:18 AM