(This post is from 2/28/06, but I had technical difficulties and am posting it now!)

Part of my Arguing to Inquire paper....

Home-School Community

Although it is necessary to see the education community as a whole, let us first look at the home school community. The home school community consists of students, generally ranging from grades K through 12, and their enthusiastic parents. This particular community deals with homeschoolers in the United States. Factors defining the group include the group’s tendency to settle in rural areas, a broad age range but mainly youth and their parents, interests in having complete control over their education, and similar values concerning education. Some evidence suggests that the average income of home-schooling families is around the national average, and many families have low-incomes and are raising their children in rural areas with the support of small-businesses and farming (Holt 15). Researchers have collected data indicating the demographics of the home-school community, looking at home-school associations, home-school magazine subscribers, and those that have registered with state and local officials. The home-school community includes a group made up of patriotic American two-parent families, more likely white than other, more likely rural than urban, typically of a higher education than the average American, and typically Protestant (Galen, Pitman 14). The homeschoolers community came into being for many reasons. Parents pull their children out of school when they feel their children are not receiving a good education, fear their children could get hurt, or feel entirely responsible for the well-being of their children. This community gets countless objections from the outside education community. Although grey areas exist, many people argue that home-schooled children lack diversity because they do not meet many children from different religious and ethnic backgrounds, and grow up anti-social and cannot fit into mass society. Outsiders also direct their frustration at the parents of the home-school community, arguing that some parents are not qualified to be teachers, some impose their biased beliefs on their children, and some shelter their children from the harsh realities of the outside world (Holt 45-55). After looking at who makes up the home-school community, detailing geography, age, interests, ethnicity, values, controversies, and objections, one can see that this is a very complex community.