Maine news, sports, weather from Waterville Morning Sentinel

Home-schooling on the rise for a good reason, say advocates

By Craig Crosby ccrosby@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

VASSALBORO -- Heather Stamler never gave it a second thought.

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Gwinna Remillard, left, works on her mathematics as she sits with her mother, Heather Stamler, at their home in North Vassalboro.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan

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She was going to sign her son up for kindergarten. It's what parents of 5-year-olds do.

But something changed when Stamler visited Vassalboro Community School during an open house.

A group of people she had never met were going to decide whether her child was kindergarten material or needed a year of pre-kindergarten instruction.

"They hung up pictures and showed which children were more mature," Stamler said. "I didn't like the characterization and judgment."

Stamler left the school looking for another way. She found it within the confines of her own home, where, over the past 20-plus years, she has schooled all four of her children.

"I can't recommend it enough," Stamler said of homeschooling. "You get the incredible excitement of seeing their learning styles."

Home-schooling parents from around the state will gather today to purchase materials and exchange ideas at a curriculum event at the Augusta State Armory.

The group organizing that event for the 16th year, Camden-based Homeschoolers of Maine, said the interest in teaching children at home is at an all-time high -- and not just among parents who do it for reasons of religion.

"Good parents seek out the best opportunities for their children. They want their children to succeed," said Homeschoolers of Maine President Ed Green. "If the present educational choice isn't working for whatever reason, alternatives are sought."

Increased interest

Green said the number of families homeschooling children increases nationally by about 7 percent each year.

"Home-schooling has become a mainstream choice among the educational choices," he said. "It's a viable option for any family willing to make the commitment."

In Maine, 4,600 students are registered with local school superintendents and the state to be schooled at home this year, according to the Department of Education.

That is down from 4,900 last year, but up from 4,000 during the 2004-05 school year.

The number of registered home-schooled students rises and falls dramatically from year to year.

Green attributed that fluctuation, in part, to the number of families that enroll children in home-based, nonapproved private school programs that help compile test results and transcripts necessary to fulfill state guidelines.

"These programs do not require approval," Green said. "The numbers of students enrolled in these programs are not included with the number of home-schoolers that file a notice of intent with the Department of Education."

The impact has been felt locally. Rich Abramson, superintendent of Regional School Unit 38, which includes Manchester, Mount Vernon, Readfield and Wayne, said the number of students leaving public school to be taught at home has been growing for the past decade.

He said about 50 students within his Maranacook school district are now being schooled at home. A total of 1,271 students are enrolled in the RSU's schools.

"Over the last year or two, we have started to level off, but I think it's more than a rural district like ours should be facing," Abramson said.

The school board has responded by developing strategies aimed at keeping home-schooled students involved at the public school.

"We do everything we can to bend over backwards to keep our kids connected," Abramson said.

Public and private

State law requires public schools to allow home-schooled students to participate in individual classes and extracurricular programs as space and materials permit, so principals in the Maranacook district contact home-school parents every year to make sure they're aware of the services their children can continue to receive at public school, Abramson said.

"If you're home-schooling, you may want to come in have your child participate in chemistry or art class," he said. "Some families are interested in doing that, and some are not.

"There's a wide variety of reasons people homeschool their kids."

A recent survey sent to Maranacook parents indicates many pull their children from school during the years they would attend Maranacook Community Middle School, which has failed to make "adequate yearly progress" on standardized tests under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The school board has taken steps to improve the school -- forming small groups to give extra help to struggling students, for example -- and is committed to continuing that process, Abramson said.

"My job is to make sure we provide the best education we can for all our kids," he said. "We certainly want to make our schools attractive to families.

"Not that we think we do a poor job, but I respect the families' decisions."

But the decision to home-school is not always a matter of a deficiency within the local public school.

A matter of faith

Ann Foshay, of Vassalboro, decided to home-school her children after reading an article in a Christian magazine 25 years ago.

"It intrigued me," she said. "I never thought about home-schooling until then.

"At the time, I hadn't thought about having 10 children, either."

All of those children, the youngest of whom is 8, have been taught at home -- though some, similar to Stamler's children, attended public or private high schools.

"I thought it was best to try, not that I wouldn't put them in public school," Foshay said. "Parents are good teachers for their children. We have their best interest in mind.

"Ultimately, God places our children in our care, so it's our responsibility."

Home-schooling allows parents to take on that responsibility in unique ways, Green said. The curriculum and teaching style can be tailored to a child's needs and interests in the home in a way that is impossible in public schools, Green said.

"The one-on-one tutorial method of providing instruction cannot be matched," he said. "Historically, this method of instruction has always produced the best results."

Stamler said teaching opportunities are as likely to arise from mundane tasks of life as they are during formal instruction time when children learn at home.

"I never felt like I could teach the kids," she said. "I really felt like they would reject me unless I was learning with them."

While instruction can be individualized, learning and living in the same house has sparked concerns that home-schooled students will not develop appropriate socialization skills.

Social study

Foshay said the growing number of home schools has made it easier than ever for students to mingle and even learn together outside the home.

"Aligning yourself with other home-schoolers and doing things together that are easier to do as a group, like sciences, is very helpful," Foshay said.

Stamler said her children had to adjust to the pace of a public education when they went to Waterville High School.

By then, she said, her children had learned to respect their teachers and to ask questions when something was unclear.

"When they went to high school, they were open to what they could learn," she said. "They thought learning was great. They weren't worn out and calloused by years of learning things that didn't necessarily mean a lot to them."

Green said most home-schooled students eventually spend time in a classroom -- many take classes at high school or at community colleges -- by the time they reach college age.

Green cited studies that show more than half of the students schooled at home go on to college. That's about the same as the rate for students who graduate from a traditional high school, according to the state Department of Education.

"As a parent of three college graduates who were home-schooled, and having met countless others, I know that they go on with an excellent foundation and clear goals," he said. "They are self directed and self-motivated students and are less peer-dependent."

Bill Trumble, vice president of academic affairs at Unity College, disagrees somewhat. The adjustment to college can be difficult for students who are home-schooled for all 12 years pror ot college, he said.

Home-schooled students sometimes lose focus when they enter a classroom without the intense supervision offered at home, Trumble said. Other home-schooled students rebel in the new freedom afforded on a college campus.

"The necessity of dealing with different personalities is experienced in the public school environment, from bullies to bad influences to exceptional competition," Trumble said. "Home-schooled students may not have experienced so broad a range of people and situations, and this makes the college environment new and sometimes challenging."

Home-schooled students often enter college with a superior education to public school students in areas such as history or math, but in most cases the education is not as broad, Trumble said.

He says home-schooled students often lack experience offered in public school music rooms, art classes and science labs.

"Academic preparation of the home-schooled student may be compared to Swiss cheese," Trumble said. "In some areas it goes all the way through. In some areas there is hardly a dent."

Trumble said it can be difficult to evaluate home-schooled students for college admissions because there might not be a history of grades awarded by known high schools and counselor recommendations to compare the students to others.

Stamler said she considered enrolling her son in public school for several years, but visits to school only strengthened her resolve to continue teaching at home.

"There was a lot of time spent on just crowd control," Stamler said. "At home, we could do our basics and then follow our particular interests."

Stamler's son, Jesse, is now working toward a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of California at Davis.

"People say, 'You did a good job,'" Stamler said. "I don't think that's true. I think he was naturally inclined toward mathematics.

"The whole idea is life learning. Who is your child? What are they interested in? You follow what they're interested in."

Craig Crosby--621-5642

ccrosby@centralmaine.com