When Elizabeth Dean was four, her mother took her out of kindergarten to teach her at home because she could already read Charlotte’s Web while other kids were just learning how to write the letter C.
That was 10 years ago and homeschooling was “still on the fringe of acceptability,” said Elizabeth’s mother, Lisa Dean, between classes in the family home on the history of ancient Rome, the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, online geometry and English for Elizabeth, 14, and 11-year-old Teddy.
“Ten years ago, folks typically would list their reasons for homeschooling as religious reasons or wanting to fly under the government radar,” she said.
But she gave up a well-paid job as a lawyer in Washington to become a stay-at-home mom who homeschools for academic reasons and because she is a self-avowed mother hen.
“I read the same things everyone else reads about what’s happening in schools — sexual activity, drugs, bullying, violence — and don’t feel that kids need to experience that,” she said.
Dean hailed homeschooling for allowing children to choose topics they are interested in, within a set curriculum, and to advance at their own pace.
When Elizabeth, who goes by the nickname Bitsy, begins high school next term, she will enroll in Spanish and writing courses at the local community college, while continuing her homeschooling, which will include an online trigonometry course for students two years older than she is.
Homeschooling dates back to colonial America, but lost ground when institutionalized schooling became compulsory in the mid-1800s.
At the height of the hippy culture in the 1960s, homeschooling enjoyed a renaissance as left-wingers seeking to buck the establishment taught their children themselves.
Christian conservatives were the next to embrace homeschooling, and “by 1990, 85 to 90 percent of all homeschoolers came from the ranks of the religious right,” Paul Petersen, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, wrote in Education Next, which he edits.
The number of homeschooled children soared by 29 percent between 1999 and 2003, from 850,000 to roughly 1.1 million, data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) show.
In Maryland, which keeps its own statistics on homeschooling, there were 2,296 home-schooled children in 1990, and more than 10 times that number — 24,227 — in 2006.
A survey conducted in 2003 by the NCES showed that the reason given most often by parents for homeschooling their children was the environment in traditional schools.
Just over 30 percent of parents polled said they homeschooled their kids because of worries for their safety, about drugs or peer pressure.
Slightly less than 30 percent said they chose to homeschool their children for moral or religious reasons and 16.5 percent because they were unhappy with the academics in traditional schools.
Tamara Bergen has homeschooled her two daughters for the past 15 years, partly because she wants to share her Christian values with them, but also because “families that educate at home have more flexibility with their schedules.”
“You can teach to your child’s level, abilities, pace, interests, gifts and talents. Home education teaches students to be self-starters and independent learners,” says her Web site, theenterprisinghomeschooler.com.
The biggest criticism leveled at homeschooling is that it deprives children of social contact.
“My sister said when we started this, ‘You’re going to turn your kids into freaks! They won’t know how to behave!’” Dean said.
“But while socialization is a big problem in homeschooling, it’s the opposite of what you might think: There’s too much of it,” she said, as Teddy took a break from a history lesson to play in the classroom-basement of the family home with two friends.
“The kids are always together; the problem is finding time to do the book work,” Dean said.
Bitsy and Teddy share their homeschooling credentials with the likes of the second-place finisher in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, 12-year-old Tim Ruiter, and US Olympic and World Cup skier Bode Miller, who was homeschooled during part of his elementary education years.
According to Teri Ann Berg Olsen, creator of the Knowledge House Web site, poet Robert Frost was homeschooled, and flight pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright were often “allowed to stay home from school to work on their own projects.”
After rolling around on two large exercise balls with his friends, Teddy sat down at the desk he shares with Bitsy in the basement and began sounding out spelling words.
Bitsy tucked into some online geometry, using headphones to block out the sounds of Teddy’s lesson.
It had just gone noon, and the school day — which had begun four hours earlier over a bowl of oatmeal and an Edgar Allen Poe story — was moving on.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
The past few months have seen tremendous strides in India’s journey to develop a vibrant semiconductor and electronics ecosystem. The nation’s established prowess in information technology (IT) has earned it much-needed revenue and prestige across the globe. Now, through the convergence of engineering talent, supportive government policies, an expanding market and technologically adaptive entrepreneurship, India is striving to become part of global electronics and semiconductor supply chains. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision of “Make in India” and “Design in India” has been the guiding force behind the government’s incentive schemes that span skilling, design, fabrication, assembly, testing and packaging, and
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrapped up his visit to the People’s Republic of China, he received his share of attention. Certainly, the trip must be seen within the full context of Ma’s life, that is, his eight-year presidency, the Sunflower movement and his failed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, as well as his eight years as Taipei mayor with its posturing, accusations of money laundering, and ups and downs. Through all that, basic questions stand out: “What drives Ma? What is his end game?” Having observed and commented on Ma for decades, it is all ironically reminiscent of former US president Harry