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Jun 3, 2006
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Jun 3, 2006
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| Online Phonebook | Sandhills Guide | Business News | National News |
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BY Caroline Kornegay: Staff Writer More than 400 boys and girls in Moore County never set foot inside traditional schools. Their parents teach them at home. The phenomenon of home schooling is one of the fastest-growing trends in education -- and a practice that many of the county's families embrace. Michele Lupkas, a Pinehurst mother who has had a wide range of experience in education, says that teaching her children at home is the best option. She wants to expand on what they were learning in the schools they attended. "I thought, 'I'm already teaching them myself,'" she said. She has been pleased with the progress her children have made under her own direction. "I want them to learn how to be teachers, too," she said. According to the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE), 240 home schools were registered in Moore County in the 2004-2005 school year, involving a total of 444 students. Statewide, 58,780 students are home-schooled. U.S. Census data reveal that almost two million American children are home-schooled, and the number is growing by 15 to 20 percent per year. "Home-schooled children are more likely to be non-Hispanic," the Census reported. "White, they are likely to live in households headed by a married couple with moderate to high levels of education and income, and are likely to live in a household with an adult not in the workforce." Lupkas' family fits this profile. Legally, almost all parents can home-school their children. State law defines a home school as a non-public setting in which a student receives academic instruction from his or her parent, legal guardian or other member of the household in which the student resides. Parents must meet certain regulations, but they have significantly more freedom for home schooling than staff members of charter or private schools. Hours and days devoted to schooling are flexible. Parents must still keep immunization and attendance records for the DNPE, and students must still pass state-required assessment exams. The instructor must have at least the equivalent of a high school diploma. Home schools are allowed to set their own schedules and move at their own pace. Children can learn as quickly or slowly as they need to. They can spend more time on some areas of study and less on others. Jody Harvey, Moore County mother of three children, home-schooled all of her children beginning with her oldest son. She kept at it because her children enjoyed it so much. She has worked hard to create the best curriculum for home schooling, but she says few people (even professional educators) are prepared to teach at home. With one student in fourth grade, one in fifth, and one in sixth, she has to juggle curriculum and learn the subject matter while creating her own lesson plans and activities. "The adults who teach at home are ongoing students," she said. Catalogs and Web sites offer pre-packaged curricula, but Harvey is like most mothers: She picks and chooses from options, testing out different brands and mixing and matching. "You might have some people who call it a school in a box," Harvey said. She learns as she goes along and passes on information at conferences, in meetings with other parents or in play groups.
'A Personal Decision' Parents manage the daily routine of running an educational program, but some turn it into a career. Leigh Bortins is a Seven Lakes mother who has taught four sons at home. "We like learning together as a family," she said. With her husband, she started an online company, Classical Conversations. More than 2,000 students have participated in the 10 years she has run the program, she said. "The parents who teach longest and are most successful are the ones that teach the whole year," Bortins said. She created her curriculum based on the classical Greek model of learning: memorization, logical thinking and rhetoric. Her model is accompanied by resources and twice-a-year group meetings. Bortins reports that mothers have regarded the time spent educating their children as an investment -- just as business persons invest in a company. This analogy helps parents to explain why they work at home schooling. Home schoolers are investing in the future of their children. Primarily, home educators are not reacting to bad public schools, Bortins said. She believes the school system in Moore County is good. For her, teaching children at home was just "a personal decision."
More Personal Attention Home schooling can also prevent parents from becoming frustrated with their children. For the learners, an advantage is having more time to be with with adults. Almost all women teaching in their homes are well educated, many with post-graduate degrees and a number of years of experience in a field. "Most of us have a skill that we had before we did this," Bortins said. Teachers do take breaks from their children and pupils to prevent burnout. Activities like camps, youth leagues, musical practice and other activites relieve the parents from 24-hour daily contact with their children. Spending large amounts of time with her children doesn't bother Lupkas. "I like hanging out with my kids," she said. "We have great conversations." The women also try to introduce families to the idea of home schooling. Lupkas encourages families to try home education for themselves during the summer, or during one of the school-year breaks, to see if the concept may be suited for the family. A cross-country trip is a history, geography, civics, economics, and fun lesson rolled into one, she said.
No Lack of Critics On the other hand, there are adamant voices in professional education criticizing home schooling. The National Education Association has been vocal in its opposition to home schooling, including a column with the headline, "Home Schools Run by Well-Meaning Amateurs." Most Web sites, blogs and Internet resources for home schools offer some advice on how to handle criticism both public and private. Home schools are often stereotyped as religious fanatics, isolationists, overprotective mothers or families with a grudge against the school system. None of those ideas apply broadly, the mothers said. Those stereotypes aren't reflective of home schooling. Bortins said parents occasionally jerk their children out of a school because they are unhappy with the school environment. But such instances are rare. Families who are religious often integrate their faith into studies, tending toward what they consider a well-rounded curriculum. In North Carolina, about 68 percent of home schools are religious, according to statistics provided by DNPE.
'Not Just Academics' A predominant question about home schooling has to do with whether the children have adequate chances to interact with others. The women countered the stereotypes by listing groups their students were involved in. "You don't have any lone wolves in this group," Bortins said, adding that home-schooled children socialize a great deal. Harvey and Bortins speak of their friendship with Mala Chintalapudi, who is a member of the Christian Home Educators of the Sandhills (CHES). This group holds unit studies where several age groups all study the same text or theme, often based in Christianity. . One group came together to study the Middle Ages, and they read versions of Beowulf, accompanied by studies of the art, science and style of the period. Parents take charge of different activities and teach different subjects. "The kids have a great time," one teacher reported. The families in CHES, and the group of mothers who meet during the week, all fit the Census profile. Mala Chintalapudi does not think she will home-school her children. "It's been a wonderful network and support system for the adults," she said. The CHES group holds regular meetings at individual households and will e-mail or chat by phone during the week. Chintalapudi, of Pinehurst, had not considered home schooling until she met with other mothers who taught their children at home. After discussing it with her husband, who supported her in home schooling, she decided it would be best in the long run for her two daughters, ages 11 and 9. "I think it is a mindset that grows on you," she said. She grew up in India, where home schooling doesn't exist, and it was a strange concept to her, she said. Her Christian faith told her a mother's job is to care for and oversee the instruction of her children as they become adults. She wanted not only to be their instructor, but also to be a role model for them, she said. "Education is not what you know but how you live," Chintalapudi said. Chintalapudi said she is teaching her daughters life lessons that will stay with them when they enter the world as adults, ready to make responsible decisions for themselves. Having parental structure around the education is also a positive influence, she said. "The fathers can be a great influence," Chintalapudi said. For her, home schooling was a difficult decision, but in her heart she felt it was important to be a full-time mother to her children and lead by example. "Education is teaching life skills and how to handle life-building," she said. "Home learning is not just academics."
Caroline Kornegay can be reached at 693-2484 or by e-mail at ckornegay@thepilot.com. |
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