Home-Schooling Mom: Positive Results Breed Popularity
by Jim Brown
August 5, 2004
(AgapePress) - The home-schooling movement continues to grow in popularity amid dissatisfaction with public schools. The U.S. Department of Education says almost 1.1 million students were home schooled last year -- up 29 percent since 1999.In surveys, parents offer two main reasons for home schooling: 31 percent cite concerns about the environment of regular schools, and 30 percent want the flexibility to teach religious or moral lessons. Third, at 16 percent, is dissatisfaction with academic instruction in schools.
Donna Spann, a home-schooling mother of six, says she is not surprised that home schooling is growing in popularity.
"I think home schooling is growing as people see the results of home schooling, as people meet home-schooled kids, and they see that those kids are respectful, are smart, are not weirdoes. They think, 'You know what? If that mom can do it, maybe I can do it.'"
The experienced home-schooling mom says the parent-child relationship is what home schooling is all about. "You don't build relationships with your kids overnight. You don't repair them overnight. It's something that happens every day from the day they're born," she shares. "And that's really the priority for us -- the relationship with the kids, their relationship with the Lord -- and the academics seem to follow."
Spann believes more moms are deciding to stay home so they can really get to know their kids and be more important to them than their peers.
In response to a common criticism of home schooling, Spann says her home-schooled children are not socially isolated, noting she could live in her car driving her kids to all their activities -- and her family always has a house full of other children.
