Homeschool Environment

Homeschooling, also known as home education, is the education of children inside the home, as opposed to in the formal settings of a public or private school. Home education is usually conducted by a parent or tutor.

HISTORY

For much of history and in many cultures, enlisting professional teachers (whether as tutors or in a formal academic setting) was an option available only to the elite social classes. Thus, until relatively recently, the vast majority of people, especially during early childhood, were educated by family members, family friends, or anyone with useful knowledge.

The earliest public schools in modern Western culture were established in the early 16th century in the German states of Gotha and Thuringia. However, even in the 18th century, the majority of people in Europe lacked formal schooling, meaning they were homeschooled, tutored, or received no education at all. Regional differences in schooling existed in colonial America; in the south, farms and plantations were so widely dispersed that community schools such as those in the more compact settlements were impossible. In the middle colonies, the educational situation varied when comparing New York with New England until the 1850s. 

Formal schooling in a classroom setting has been the most common means of schooling throughout the world, especially in developed countries, since the early- and mid-19th century. Native Americans, who traditionally used homeschooling and apprenticeship, vigorously resisted compulsory education in the United States.

In the 1960s, Rousas John Rushdoony began to advocate homeschooling, which he saw as a way to combat the intentionally secular nature of the public school system in the United States. He vigorously attacked progressive school reformers such as Horace Mann and John Dewey, and argued for the dismantling of the state's influence in education in three works: Intellectual Schizophrenia, a general and concise study of education, The Messianic Character of American Education, a history and castigation of public education in the U.S., and The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum, a parent-oriented pedagogical statement. Rushdoony was frequently called as an expert witness by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) in court cases.

Nicholas Kristof: How to Have a Positive Impact, One Person at a Time