Essay on Homeschooling
John L. Hubisz, Ph.D., Hubisz@unity.ncsu.edu

Whether you spend 100% or 10% on homeschooling or just try to supplement your child’s education with work outside the classroom, I believe that you will find some useful material here. Parents are the first and most important teachers of their children. To be a good teacher one must provide a nurturing environment as well as have the requisite knowledge for imparting knowledge and the tools for learning on their own.

What most parents are looking for are resources at appropriate age level and assurances that their child will have a full, well-rounded education, often impregnated with a solid religious orientation.

Quite a few materials have been generated in this effort and many sets of appropriate materials have been available for years. There is, most importantly, a strong emphasis on Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Science in these materials. The latter area is accompanied by a great deal of controversy these days. From the outset, let me tell you that I am an ordained Catholic clergyman as well as a physics teacher with over 50 years of experience.

Programs 

The Paideia Program was started by Mortimer J. Adler around 1980 and is described in his three volumes: The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto, Paideia Problems and Possibilities: A Consideration of Questions Raised by “The Paideia Proposal,” and The Paideia Program: An Educational Syllabus: Essays by the Paideia Group. Adler has many other books that are very relevant to education and I recommend them. Google “Mortimer J. Adler” and visit some of the references, e.g., http://radicalacademy.com/adlerdirectory.htm and start a library. I have over 30 of his books not counting 39 of “The Great Ideas Today” series, Encyclopedia Britannica, Great Books of the Western World, The Great Ideas Program, and the Gateway to the Great Books. Go to http://www.paideia.org/content.php/system/index.htm for further information.

The Junior Great Books Program is excellent. I have used the Shared Inquiry approach for many years, even before I took one of their workshops. Get a group together and arrange for one. See http://www.greatbooks.com/ for more information, click on Junior Great Books K-12.

The Robinson Curriculum is a program developed by a mother of six children, who was not satisfied with the public school education that her children were getting, especially the non-Christian orientation of that education. She died, quite unexpectedly, when the youngest was 16 months old and her husband the older children continued the program making available a complete educational program for grades 1 through 12 on 22 CDs and available for $195. Go to www.robinsoncurriculum.com for further information. You may also purchase G.A. Henty’s 99 books and 53 short stories and get a 20% discount on the Saxon Math books from this source.

Resources

McGuffey’s Eclectic Readers: Primer through the Sixth are still available in a variety of formats. These are classics.

What Your nth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good nth Grade Education edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. These books are part of The Core Knowledge Series. I have seen schools, public and private, use these as sources for their own curricula. All you need is 20 minutes per day during the school year dedicated to these grade level books to ensure, at least, a fundamental nth grade knowledge. The essays in the General Introduction are worth reading as an argument for such a core curriculum.

The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric by Sister Miriam Joseph, C.S.C., Ph.D. edited by Marguerite McGlinn. This is an excellent book that essentially describes my own education, at least, the first 3/7ths, for which I am most grateful. The Quadrivium consists of Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and Astronomy, which you will hear about in other references.

The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer. The title says it all.

How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom. Reading is an active sport; it requires a constant dialogue with the author. This book is more directed than the simpler How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren.

The Power of Paideia Schools: Defining Lives through Learning by Terry Roberts and the Staff of the National Paideia Center. This is an expansion of the ideas of Adler with practical suggestions. Paideia does not attempt to establish a curriculum, but does argue for the thinking that should go into making up a curriculum.

The Paideia Classroom: Teaching for Understanding by Terry Roberts with Laura Billings. It is the classroom that is “radically” changed in the Paideia program. The content might look the same as a “regular” classroom. The authors present many workshops that are well-worth attending.

The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. It is a dictionary, so do not expect detailed information, but more readable.

Test Your Cultural Literacy by Diane Zahler & Kathy A. Zahler. This is a collection of four-option multiple-choice questions that appear to be of the quick recall only type, however, it is in the Explanatory Answers section that many will see the benefit of such tests.

“The New York Times” Book of Science Literacy: What Everyone Needs to Know from Newton to the Knuckleball by the editors and reporters of “Science Times,” Richard Flaste, editor. I do not always agree with the presentation, but there is no question that the work stimulates the mind.

Dictionary of Scientific Literacy by Richard P. Brennan. This is much more than a typical dictionary that is aimed at core knowledge with many cross references.

Scientific Literacy from AAAS and edited by Audrey B. Champagne, Barbara E. Lovitts, and Betty J. Calinger.This is a collection of papers from the 1989 AAAS Forum for School Science placing the problem in several contexts. The problems have not changed much.

The Game of Science 5th edition by Garvin McCain and Erwin M. Segal. Much of the misunderstanding between science and religion comes from ignorance of what science is and attempts to do and what religion is and attempts to do. This is just one of many books that will be included in this list to place the problem in perspective.

An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones and William Wilson. This book fills in where most introductions to a topic stop and with an added touch of humor and assorted trivia makes pleasant reading. The various sections can be read in any order.

Philip Morrison’s Long Look at the Literature: His Reviews of a Hundred Memorable Science Books by Philip Morrison. For about 20 years, the author reviewed books in “Scientific American.”

Reading for the Love of It: Best Books for Young Readers by Michele Landsberg. I love reading. I read long before I went to school. By the 2nd Grade, I had read all the children’s books in the Peabody Library. I started on the adult sections and eventually got an adult’s card so that I could check out any book. We need to instill a love of reading early! Not only does the author deal with books, but also with many of the questions that you have been concerned with such as censorship and various types of stereotyping.

A Parent’s Guide to Children’s Reading by Nancy Larrick. The copy that I have is a fourth updating of this guide. It contains much more than just suggestions about books.

Treasure for the Taking: A Book List for Boys and Girls revised edition by Anne Thaxter Eaton. There are 1584 titles in 64 categories typically with a paragraph of information about each.

The RIF* Guide to Encouraging Young Readers (* Reading is Fundamental) edited by Ruth Graves. This is described as a fun-filled activity book for parents and kids. It is.

The New Read-Aloud Handbook: Including a giant treasury of great read-aloud books by Jim Trelease. My parents read aloud to me as they pointed to the words with their finger. Parents who read aloud to their children carry the implied message that reading is important and can be fun.

The Catholic Lifetime Reading Plan by John A. Hardon, S.J. Over 100 major Catholic authors are highlighted.

The Lifetime Reading Plan 3rd edition by Clifton Fadiman. The author introduces over 100 classics of Western literature.

Clark Smart Parents, Clark Smart Kids: Teaching Kids of Every Age the Value of Money by Clark Howard and Mark Meltzer. The sub-title tells it all. If you are a fan of his radio show, you know his message.

Teaching Class Clowns: (And What They Can Teach Us) by William Watson Purkey. You know the type! There is no need to give up on these characters; in fact, you can use them to your group’s advantage.

Homeschooling the Early Years: Your Complete Guide to Successfully Homeschooling the 3- to 8-Year-Old Child by Linda Dobson. Contains many useful suggestions, philosophy, and discussion of perceived problems.

The Homeschooling Handbook Revised 2nd Edition by Mary Griffith. Similar to the preceding, but covers pre-K through 12th Grade.

Problems with Available Schooling

The reasons for Homeschooling are many and varied. Some feel that the schools are not providing the desired education at the level expected. Some are fed up with the overloaded bureaucracy. Some find that teachers use improper English to the detriment of their children. Some feel that the schools are not safe. Some want solid religious values to permeate the whole educational experience. Catholics, and Christians generally, see the important work of the Church through the centuries neglected and false stories promulgated. The following references highlight the problems. Some will scare you, but all will emphasize the fact that something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

“Dumbth”: And 81 Ways to Make Americans Smarter by Steve Allen. Steve Allen is most often thought of as a comedian or talk-show host, but he has a broad-range of interests and aptitude. I remember well his TV show, “Meeting of Minds,” where he brought in important thinkers from history to discuss important issues. I have transcripts of many of the shows in book form.

The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn by Diane Ravitch. The author is a historian of education and a passionate advocate for improving education.

The War against Excellence: The Rising Tide of Mediocrity in America’s Middle Schools by Cheri Pierson Yecke. Another passionate advocate outlining the efforts of some to use the schools for social engineering rather than education.

The War against Grammar by David Mulroy. There are four study areas that emphasize and encourage the use of logic: English in the diagramming of sentences, Latin in the structuring of language, Algebra in the study of mathematical logic, and Geometry in the requirement for supporting statements for each step in a proof. Each of these areas has been systematically dropped from the curriculum. There is much more to be culled from this book than evidence of the “war.”