When Americans think about education, they see a school. They take the notion of spending their formative years in a school setting for granted. In fact, American children will attend at least three or four schools in their youth: elementary school (grades K-5), middle school (grades 6-8), high school (grades 9 – 12) and – in many cases – college. Schools have become both a rite of passage as well as the singular accepted methodology for education in this country. This view of educating children in a formal classroom setting, however, is a relatively modern (and largely western) notion.

Prior to the passage of compulsory attendance laws in the United States during the period stretching from the 1850′s to the early 1900′s -homeschooling was the norm, with an uninterrupted history stretching back thousands of years to Alexander the Great.

Education in the Gymnasium

Alexander the Great was privately tutored by famed Greek philosopher Aristotle, and today is recognized as one of the first known homeschoolers. His tutor – Aristotle – as well as his predecessors (Plato and Socrates) actually attended early schools, known in Greece as gymnasiums. The ancient Greek gymnasium focused not only on physical strength, but also on health and education. Philosophers such as Plato held lectures and provided instruction in ethics and philosophy. This formalized educational structure didn’t last long; the Romans failed to widely adopt the system as they inherited the reigns of power from ancient Greece.

Historically – long before the creation of public schooling – there were two principle methods by which parents educated children: private tutors or parental education. Private education became the rule for the elite; royalty, the wealthy and the powerful had access to private tutors allowing for expert homeschooling.

The vast majority of the remaining population was either homeschooled by their parents … or provided no education at all. Slowly, beginning around the time of the Renaissance, the Church began providing education, mostly to young boys. The educational tide changed in Europe only after the Protestant Reformation, and spread from Scotland to Prussia and Austria with the establishment of local parish schools funded by taxpayers.

American Trends in Education

Eventually, the model of standardized, one-size-fits-all education made its way across the Atlantic. Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to mandate compulsory education in 1851. The last state – Mississippi – finally passed such legislation only in 1918, less than 100 years ago.

In the U.S., the 20th century became known as the era in which education was available to all. Throughout the latter part of the 20th century, American school districts began to consolidate and standardize curriculums. In the 1960′s and 70′s – a little over a century after public schooling first began in the U.S. – researchers’ findings began to reveal that formal schooling could – in fact – be detrimental to most young children’s character. Such research bolstered the burgeoning homeschool movement’s philosophy that the critical emotional development of children was best left in the home.

In the 1980′s and 90′s, studies found that students in other industrialized nations were outperforming U.S. students, leading to more frequent testing and control of curriculums at the state level. This gave way at the turn of the millennia to federal oversight and control, as No Child Left Behind became law of the land.

In public schools nationwide passive learning still dominates – save for a few hands-on courses in a science lab. The very real problems created by educating children outside of the home have become not only common but actually expected and even tolerated! For instance, bullying – and its devastating consequences – have risen to such prominence that policies, organizations and courses have been created to deal with the problem. The public has even grown accustomed to a certain ‘acceptable’ amount of bullying.

Homeschooling: From Fringe to Fashionable

Despite evidence that having children learn in the home created a positive impact on child development and learning, in the 1970′s homeschooling was still considered an atypical and peculiar practice. In the thirty-odd years since, homeschooling has transitioned from something many felt was somehow ‘deviant’ to a conventional educational option – one with exceptional outcomes.

In the mid-1970′s, homeschooling began to shift away from the stereotype as a rural, fringe phenomena, helped along by (among others) educator and education reformer John Holt.  Holt authored several texts critical of conventional schooling, vocalizing the belief that schools were sorting our children according to standardized test scores, thereby deciding their future economic fates by a single measure. Such a system did not (and still doesn’t) take into account other character traits or circumstances of the child.

The writings of Holt and others fueled growth in homeschooling, from an estimated 20,000 homeschooled students in the early 1980′s to over one million students two decades later…a growth rate of 5000%. Some studies indicate that just ten years later that number has doubled to more than two million homeschoolers – indicative of a rather remarkable trend in education.

Today, parents see an array of educational options available for their children – public school, private school, parochial school, homeschool – and they weigh the particular strengths and weaknesses of each. The easy availability of computers coupled with the speed and reliability of the internet have made distance learning a strong option for military, diplomatic and well-travelled families. As a result, homeschooling has largely moved online and lowered the barriers to entry for apprehensive parents afraid of fully embracing the teacher role.

The Evolution and Devolution of Education

With a growing recognition that education is much more than merely a prerequisite to starting one’s “adult life,” in some ways it has come full circle since the times of Plato and Aristotle. Homeschooling represents both a devolution and an evolution of modern western education. In one sense, American trends in education are devolving from the 100-odd years of classroom-based learning that permeated society in favor of a return to more traditional home-based educational roots.

Viewed through another lens, homeschooling represents an evolution of the notion of passive learning in a classroom environment. Homeschooling has seized on the weaknesses of traditional in-school education. It transitions away from singular modes of learning to embrace methods that best suit the individual student and allows a choice in curriculum development to focus on specific interests…thus enhancing the learning experience.

Homeschooling’s growing popularity reflects wider changes in our society, including the recognition and promotion of individualism. In recent years, a growing distrust of public officials and their views and prioritization of education has further stimulated the growth of home-based learning. With children subjected to constant mass messaging in their lives and engaging in risky behavior at a younger ages, many parents are embracing the notion of instilling their children with values and morals that they feel are important.

American Homeschooling Today

Homeschooling today would not be very recognizable to the home-educated founders of our nation, and certainly not to its earliest practitioners in ancient Greece. Today in the U.S., homeschooling is typically monitored for adherence to specific government educational standards – generally through testing and approved curriculums.

Despite this modicum of oversight, homeschooling retains its individualistic focus.

Where homeschooling once symbolized the sole educational option for the elite, today it is defined by its flexibility.  As parents encounter the inflexibility of today’s traditional schools, more are choosing to abandon America’s hundred-year-old underfunded and overcrowded educational system. They are returning to methods proven over thousands of years, in the tradition of one of the world’s first homeschoolers…Alexander the Great.