Читать книгу The Homeschool Choice - Kate Henley Averett - Страница 15

Many homeschoolers are quick to remark that homeschooling is a centuries-old practice: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison were some of the most popular “famous homeschoolers” I heard mentioned over the course of my fieldwork.1 However, this narrative is only partially true, as home-based education was, for many early Americans, the only option available. The modern homeschooling movement, however, in which homeschooling serves as a self-conscious alternative to public schools, began in the United States in the 1960s.2 From the early part of the twentieth century, when compulsory education laws became widespread, the idea that children would attend public (or, for some, private) schools was largely unquestioned by Americans, and homeschooling was practically unheard of.3 How did the practice come to be taken up by hundreds, thousands, and eventually hundreds of thousands of American families? In this chapter, I briefly discuss the origins and growth of the modern homeschooling movement, followed by a discussion of what homeschooling in the United States looks like today, including current homeschooling regulations, recent changes and trends in the kinds of people who homeschool, and some of the common forms of homeschooling instruction.