Home Schooling and Socialization of Children

                    by Nola Kortner Aiex



Home schooling is defined by Preiss (1989) as "the educational
alternative in which parents/guardians assume the primary
responsibility for the education of their children." This Digest will
offer some background information on home schooling and discuss
conflicting viewpoints culled from research on the socialization of
home-schooled children.

Rapidly Escalating Numbers

While a Department of Education study in 1990-91 concluded that
between 250,000 and 300,000 school-age children were being educated at
home, "USA Today" recently cited the Home School Legal Defense
Association figures for 1994 as between 750,000 and 1 million--up from
only 15,000 in the early '80s (Thomas, 1994). What is the reason for
this explosion?

Mayberry (1991) pinpoints the gradual development of the modern state
and public education as arenas which attempt to legitimate themselves
by embodying the ideologies of many different public segments. She
argues that by considering other agencies of socialization (in this
case, the church or the family) as arenas which embody ideologies in
contradiction to those transmitted by state institutions, the "context
surrounding parental choice to home educate gains clearer focus." She
stresses that "...the decision to home school (or seek other forms of
privatized education) represents a political response by people who
perceive a threat in the current organization and content of public
education." Thus, the home schooling movement is directly linked to
the State's struggle to balance contradictory imperatives (Mayberry,
1991).

Background and Professional Resources

For historical background on home schooling in America, both Bliss
(1989) and Aiex (1994) provide enlightening information. Preiss (1989)
offers a concise treatment of the legal aspects of home schooling. 

With the tremendous growth in numbers of the home schooled, there has
been a corresponding growth in the market for home schooling
information--indeed, there are now myriad newsletters and books aimed
at parents who home school, as well as at least one scholarly
newsletter, "Home School Researcher." According to Preiss (1989), "In
1987, in one home-schooling catalog alone, over 300 suppliers of       
home-schooling materials are listed." With the explosion in home
schooling during the past few years, one can only imagine how large
the network of professional suppliers of materials is by now.

The granddaddy of all the providers of courses for home study is the
venerable Calvert School of Baltimore, which, for many years, was
almost the only institution which offered correspondence courses below
college level. It was founded in 1906 and has enrolled, through the
years, upwards of 360,000 students in its home instruction courses. It
has, of course, been joined by other entities in the past decade.

Why Parents Home School

Parents home school for a wide variety of reasons--for example, many
parents still live in areas where schools are not readily available (a
number of rural areas and some parts of Alaska come to mind), and many
parents are anxious about the physical well being of their children in
an increasingly more violent school setting. Still others simply feel
that they can give their children a better education at home.
According to Mayberry (1991), however, two groups of parents home
school primarily for ideological reasons: (1) deeply religious
parents, and (2) "New Age" parents. Mayberry surveyed 1600 Oregon
families who home schooled, receiving a 35% response rate to her
questions. Their responses led her to conclude that the two groups
cited perceived home schooling as an activity that provided them a way
to reproduce their "way-of-life" by controlling the content of their
children's education. She reports: "...the meanings and values
embodied in public education were not the ones that these parents
wanted articulated to their children" (Mayberry, 1991).

Socialization of Children

Does the research show any clear-cut advantages or disadvantages to
home schooling, in relation to the social and emotional development of
children schooled at home? Does the home-schooled youngster do as well
in measures of interpersonal skills and communication skills as the
conventionally schooled child?

The stereotypical home-schooled child is often portrayed as being shy,
passive, and lethargic because of his/her isolation from the normal
socialization found in formal schooling. Critics further allege that
the self-concept of the home-schooled child suffers from lack of
exposure to a more conventional environment (Stough, 1992).

Another socialization-related accusation faced by home educators is
that of overprotecting their children from the real world. If this is
true, however, at least one researcher (Bliss, 1989) does not consider
this to be a serious problem. She argues that "Protection during
early, developmental years for purposes of nurturing and growth is
evident in many arenas: plant, animal, and aquatic. Why should it be
considered wrong or bad in the most vital arena, human development?"

Stough (1992),looking particularly at socialization, compared 30 home-
schooling families and 32 conventionally schooling families, families
with children 7-14 years of age. According to the findings, children
who were schooled at home "gained the necessary skills, knowledge, and
attitudes needed to function in society...at a rate similar to that of
conventionally schooled children." The researcher found no difference
in the self concept of children in the two groups. Stough maintains
that "insofar as self concept is a reflector of socialization, it
would appear that few home-schooled children are socially deprived,
and that there may be sufficient evidence to indicate that some home-
schooled children have a higher self concept than conventionally
schooled children."

This echoes the findings of Taylor (1987). Using one of the best
validated self-concept scales available, Taylor's random sampling of
home-schooled children (45,000) found that half of these children
scored at or above the 91st percentile--47% higher than the average,
conventionally schooled child. He concludes: "Since self concept is
considered to be a basic dynamic of positive sociability, this answers
the often heard skepticism suggesting that home schoolers are inferior
in socialization" (Taylor, 1987).

From the findings of these two studies, it would appear that the
concerns expressed by teachers, administrators, and legislators about
socialization and home schooling might be unfounded. Indeed, Bliss
(1989) contends that it is in the formal educational system's setting
that children first experience negative socialization, conformity, and
peer pressure. According to her, "This is a setting of large groups,
segmented by age, with a variation of authority figures...the
individual, with his/her developmental needs, becomes overpowered by
the expectations and demand of others--equal in age and equally
developmentally needy." 

Webb (1989), one of the few researchers who has examined aspects of
the adult lives of wholly or partly home-educated people, found that
all who had attempted higher education were successful and that their
socialization was often better than that of their schooled peers.

More Research Is Needed

At this point, more research on home schooling is necessary--what we
have is inconclusive about many of its aspects. Although more and
deeper studies are certainly called for, the population to be studied
is not readily accessible to researchers. And the types of research
that can be done are still limited to case studies of families or to
surveys of self-reports by participants.

Notably, the success or failure of the home schooling experience
depends inevitably on the success or failure of the family's
interpersonal relationships. Home schooling is a complex issue and
represents a tremendous commitment on the part of the parents--in most
cases, the father must function as the sole breadwinner, and the
mother must spend most of her time instructing her children. 

For now, we will let Preiss (1989) have the last word. She says:
"Because home schooling contains so many diverse and changing factors,
each family situation is unique. Yet there exists within the           
home-schooling community a sense of unity which transcends
ideological, political, and religious concerns. That unity lies in the
parents' commitment to the education of their children, whose welfare
is their primary concern."


References

Aiex, Patrick K. (1994). Home Schooling, Socialization, and Creativity 
   in Children. [ED 367 040]

Bliss, Barbara A. (1989). Home Education: a Look at Current Practices. 
   Research Project, Michigan State University. [ED304 233]

Mayberry, Maralee (1991). Conflict and Social Determinism: The         
   Reprivatization of Education. Paper presented at the American       
   Educational Research Association Meeting (Chicago). [ED 330 107]

Preiss, Jane S. (1989). Home Schooling: What's That? Paper presented   
   at the Mid-South Educational Research Association Meeting (Little   
   Rock). [ED 314 856]

Stough, Lee (1992). Social and Emotional Status of Home Schooled       
   Children and Conventionally Schooled Children in West Virginia.     
   M.S. Thesis, University of West Virginia. [ED 353 079]

Taylor, John Wesley (1987). Self-Concept in Home Schooling Children    
   (Doctoral Dissertation, Andrews University, 1986). Dissertation     
   Abstracts International, 47, 2809A.

Thomas, Karen (1994). "Learning at Home: Education outside School      
   Gains Respect." USA Today, April 6, 1994, 5D.

Webb, Julie (1989). "The Outcomes of Home-Based Education: Employment  
   and Other Issues." Educational Review, 41(2), 121-33. [EJ 393 193]