AND SPEAKING OF COSTS
Mike Peach sent me a link to How Stuff Works’s article on homeschooling. Included is this:
Can your family afford to homeschool?
The actual expense of the materials required to run a homeschool can range from as little as a few hundred dollars each year to much, much more. The real expense generally comes in the form of a lost salary. Traditionally, homeschool families find it necessary for one parent to manage the homeschool — meaning there’s no room for an outside job for that parent. However, with more and more folks working from home, this doesn’t have to be the only scenario. In fact, some homeschooling families find it possible for both parents to work if a home-based business or telecommuting is involved. In this situation, with a creative schedule, both parents can share the role of “teacher” in their homeschool and have another job, too.
The rest of the article is hit-or-miss. A big miss is found in the 2nd ‘graf:
At 0.5 percent of the 2002-2003 school-age population, 1.1 million homeschooled students may not sound that impressive, but consider this: Only 20 years ago, homeschooling was illegal in much of the United States.
It’s 2%, of course. The article also tends to spend a bit too much time in legalese (NC specific, at that). Finally, I’m not real keen on asking a 7-year-old their opinion as to whether she should be home educated.
At 0.5 percent of the 2002-2003 school-age population, 1.1 million homeschooled students may not sound that impressive, but consider this: Only 20 years ago, homeschooling was illegal in much of the United States.
Call me authoritarian, but I don’t think a child will have the info or wisdom to make an informed “recommendation.”
Lest you think I’m being completely negative, I thought that the descriptions of the various “flavors” of home education was particularly good.
One Response to “AND SPEAKING OF COSTS”
 Comment by Michelle September 1st, 2004 at 11:28 pm |
I don’t see the “few hundred dollars” minimum cost. With two school-aged children and an ebay account, I managed to spend around $200 this past year, including art supplies and homeschooling theory books that were only for my personal interest. Next year will be cheaper still. |