A Boom In Pandemic Home-Schooling Tees Up Conflicts Over Religion, Rights and Regulation

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(OPINION) When the pandemic lockdown hit the United States in March of 2020 an old friend (who attended elite private schools his whole life) called and quipped, “The home school revolution is finally taking off!”

On Twitter a few days later, I saw some conservatives positing that more Americans will keep home-schooling after the pandemic and that Coronavirus will body slam public schools. That’s the long-held dream of some home school communities. And it may be the new nightmare of some atheists, leftists and public school loyalists.

Initially, I scoffed at the Twitter pundits championing a home school contagion. As someone home-schooled most of K-12, I hoped the pandemic quarantine – and nationwide home-schooling - would only last a few weeks. In actuality, various forms of home-schooling became the norm in the last year.

A Pandemic Home School Boom

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that home-schooling has grown to 11.1% of U.S. households with school-aged children (not including virtual learning from home through a public or private school) up from 3.3% of the U.S., a doubling of home-school households. Although the recent upward spike may be driven by the pandemic, the longer trends include parents’ dissatisfaction in some school districts with either poor educational outcomes or progressive ideology that some families believe is damaging to students.

The Census Bureau reports the “unprecedented environment” during the Covid-19 pandemic fueled a boom in “pandemic pods” as well as parents considering virtual schools and home-school organizations beyond the neighborhood public school. The Census Bureau reported home-schooling among Black or African Americans increased by five times to 16.1% of households last fall.

The trend is concerning to some metro area school districts as The Boston Globe reports public schools in Massachusetts were down by 37,000 students, or 4% last fall. Chalkbeat Reports New York’s public schools lost 31,000 students in 2020 year compared to 2019. Similar data is rolling in from parts of Virginia, California, Wisconsin and beyond. A survey by RealClearEducation last May found 40% of parents are more likely to consider alternative education, including home-schooling, after the lockdown ended last Spring.

To be sure, many of us whose children remain in public schools are actually hybrid homeschoolers, with kids studying online from home with more family time but learning from their public-school teachers via computer. Yet many expect the overall growth in pure home-schooling and hybrid homeschooling will kick off more tension about religion, regulation, child abuse and the rights of parents v. the rights of children.

Rights of the Child?

Elizabeth Bartholet, faculty director of the Child Advocacy Program at Harvard Law School, published an 80-page opus in the Arizona Law Review last year focusing on how home-schooling may damage children and gives parents too many rights. She planned a conference on the topic as well (which was postponed because of Covid-19). Her paper drew thunder and lightning from the home school community and its defenders.

“Homeschooling is a realm of near-absolute parental power,” Bartholet wrote in the introduction. “This power is inconsistent with important rights supposedly guaranteed to children under state constitutions and state legislation throughout the land.”

Bartholet writes that home-schooling today grew from the mid-1900s as progressive left figures like John Holt suggested “traditional education as stifling the child’s natural creativity and instinct to learn.” She explains that, over the years, some American families chose to home-school to allow children to pursue intense paths in the arts or athletics; others home-schooled because of school bullying or poor disability services at a public school; and a conservative Christian movement grew to advocate home-schooling as a way to reject public education values that were inconsistent with religious beliefs.

Bartholet suggests a majority of homeschoolers cite religion as a primary reason for homeschooling. “It is the religious ideologues who dominate the homeschooling movement,” she writes. “And they dominate overwhelmingly.”

A piece by Bartholet in the Harvard Magazine in 2020 drew a large critical response including a letter from a Harvard Law School graduate named Alex J. Harris, who edited the Harvard Law Review and clerked with Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Harris also was home-schooled and writes about being grateful for the experience. Harris also graduated with a bachelor’s from Patrick Henry College in Virginia, which was founded by leaders of the Home School Legal Defense Association.

“Imperfections are not unique to homeschooling. There are risks to sending your children to public private or parochial schools,” Harris writes. “Unfortunately, it appears Bartholet singles out homeschooling based on her mistaken belief that it is driven by ‘conservative Christian beliefs’ of which she disapproves.”

Religion & Home-Schooling

The American Atheists non-profit wrote, in January, that it is nervous about “the number of families choosing homeschooling skyrocketing” during the pandemic and it worries that 64% of parents homeschool to “provide religious instruction” according to the U.S. Department of Education. It noted that 13 states allow religious or other exemptions to homeschooling requirements and argues that regulations on homeschooling are lax in many states.

“Religious exemptions can thoroughly undermine the few state laws that protect children from educational deprivation and abuse,” said Allison Gill, vice president of Legal and Policy at American Atheists and author of the organization’s report. “Nearly every state’s homeschooling laws are in dire need of reform.”

In recent decades, the rights of homeschool parents and families gained clout through advocacy organizations such as the Home School Legal Defense Association, which is based in Purcellville, Va. It’s led by a team of attorneys and homeschool parents and funded by 95,000 member families and donors who provide an annual revenue of $11 million or more many years. Many of its members are concerned about progressive trends in some public school districts, particularly curriculum that undermines religious belief or traditional religious teachings on sex and gender. Many also believe that progressive curriculum based on critical race theory is factually inaccurate and aims to indoctrinate students into illiberalism, anti-Americanism or anti-racist racism. Many of them also believe parents can create a more inspired learning environment than schools.

“We’re here to empower and encourage homeschooling parents as they seek to teach their children in a way that celebrates their uniqueness and nurtures their love of learning,” HSLDA says on its web site. “In short, our mission is to make homeschooling possible.” Bartholet notes the organization points to parental rights and religious freedom as “fundamental, God-given, constitutional rights of parents.”

Meanwhile, critics of HSLDA have said it relentlessly lobbies for a laissez faire regulatory environment and works a sophisticated ground game in state legislatures using its legions of home school families to apply lobbying pressure. That approach, critics say, gives parents maximum power and authority over their children and creates climates in which child abuse easily happens.

A younger, rival organization, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, identifies itself as “a child advocacy nonprofit funded and run by individuals who were homeschooled, focused on the rights of children who are homeschooled.” The group argues that homeschooling “should never be used as a cover for child abuse or neglect.” Rather, it says that good homeschooling is “child-centered and evidence-based and prepares children for an open future.” It has drafted an extensive Bill of Rights for Homeschooled Children that addresses many of the zones it sees as potential for neglect and abuse (critics would argue some of the rights are vague and tilted against parents and home-schooling).

Bartholet advocates for a “general presumption against homeschooling” by implementing a burden on parents to justify exceptions. She suggests young, gifted athletes or artists might receive an exception to pursue their craft with flexible schooling. She suggests students at risk for bullying, racism or with severe disabilities might receive an exception.

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, is strongly opposed to homeschooling being permitted at all. It advocates for licensing and testing requirements if home schooling is allowed. The NEA, Bartholet notes, has nowhere near the “passion and resources of the homeschooling movement.”

Loss, Stress and Déjà vu

As someone home schooled for nearly 12 years in my formative years, the Pandemic-induced home-schooling – the situation where most children in America are attending school from home using some combination of digital tools – initially brought a sense of loss, stress and déjà vu.

My daughter and I lost our cherished morning walk to the bus stop and our pleasant interactions with neighbors and classmates. In my neighborhood, after the children get on the bus, they talk Pokémon cards, soccer teams and YouTube channels. The parents walk to the commuter train to NYC and stop for a coffee on the way. Like parents and children around the country, we lost that sense of community.

The stress mounted in March to June of 2020 as my then second grade daughter rebelled at doing school on a Chromebook. Our district, school and teacher (wonderful overall) were, understandably, not ready for the pandemic-induced home school situation and dumped assignments into confusing tangles of Google pages. We had little to no video teaching happening. It created confusion for students and extra work for parents, many of whom work full time jobs.

My daughter sometimes slammed her book in frustration, flailed on a bench in our kitchen and yelled, “I HATE online school!” In fact, she wrote a narrative essay for a class using that exact title. She seemed disheartened as the weeks wore on with limited interactions from peers and friends, a widespread experience for American families during the pandemic.

The Isolation Issue

The situation brought déjà vu, reminding me of the frustrated feelings I had as a child, often studying by myself or with my older sister and then, during our lunch break, watching from our living room window as children across the street at an elementary school in Rapid City, SD, played at recess. We had to content ourselves with tossing a frisbee in our front yard.

Responsible home-school families look for social interaction for their children – pod-learning with other families and kids, sports teams, extracurricular classes. My parents thankfully did that at times and it helped make my home-school experience less isolating.

As we grew older and my parents had five more children, we moved to a more rural part of South Dakota. My father became a pastor at a non-denominational country church. We lived in a parsonage, nine people in a double-wide trailer house. Somehow, my parents continued to home-school and, for the most part, I felt more isolated. My sister and I would flip open our Saxon math books and were supposed to teach ourselves pre-algebra.

When we completed that book, our high school math education was announced complete. We were shuttled off to work with a ministry called the Institute in Basic Life Principles, which I consider cult-like. Its founder and figurehead, Bill Gothard, was forced to contend with lawsuits alleging he harassed several young women, including my sister.

Was our high school education complete? We had, after all, always scored high on standardized tests and aced the GED. But that logic would later cause me problems when I went to college at the University of South Dakota. Despite being an honors student, I had to drop calculus and take remedial math for lack of adequate high school math. It delayed my college graduation and cost me thousands of dollars.

Later, I managed to complete that degree (thanks to a great online math course) as well as two master’s degrees, one in journalism from Columbia University and an MBA from Steinbeis University in Germany, and to become a professor as my second act in life, which has brought a host of adventures and honors. My older sister, an intelligent woman with five children in Minnesota, is now pursuing her bachelor’s in her 40s, earning good grades and scholarships. This spring, she was the commencement speaker for students in her Associate’s degree program. I’m proud of her.

The Coalition for Responsible Home Education notes that responsible homeschoolers don’t create unnecessary roadblocks and hurdles for children to overcome on a path to college and professions. Rather, responsible homeschooling should aim to prepare young people for these stages of life. I give my parents a mixed grade on this part of their home-schooling as I had to take immense initiative and seek mentors to help me figure out how to go to college and develop professional skills.

When I went to college, graduate school and professional life, I left my home-schooled past completely behind. I rarely talked about it with anyone. I rarely thought about it. My approach (for good or ill) was just to move forward, forgive and forget.

Nevertheless, some of these lonely memories came flooding back as my daughter languished over her laptop. I retreated and took over all food shopping and cooking duties. My wife soldiered on, helping my daughter through math and Mandarin and every subject in between, their yelling matches escalating as we trudged through April, May and June of 2020.

Making Peace with Home-Schooling

Fast-forward to third grade and the Fall semester, our district got its game plan down better over the summer. Our teachers actually taught online, spending time with the students via Zoom.

Our daughter responded well. She learned to type. She learned to adroitly manage Zoom and Google drive. I bought her a wristwatch so she could manage her own schedule. She has some social interaction with peers via the new system.

My office is next to hers. I hear her singing during her music class. She stops by my office at lunchtime so we can head to the kitchen to have a bite and hang out. She’s able to be part of some Covid-safe extracurricular activities such as a soccer team and I’ve been able to coach the team since I don’t have to travel as much as I do in non-Covid times.

Does she still miss school in person? Yes.

Is she flourishing anyway? Yes.

And the experience of pandemic home-school has helped me make peace with my own home-schooling past.

A Centrist And Pro-Diversity Position

While I agree with some criticisms and concerns about home-schooling, I also agree with some arguments by the apologists and recall many good things about home-schooling. I read a set of encyclopedias that exposed me to a broad set of knowledge. My mother, despite our family income placing us in poverty status, had us listen to classical music and study music history. I learned to be a self-starting learner, requesting books and CDs through interlibrary loan in South Dakota. I learned to multi-task and think outside the box - sometimes practicing juggling while watching TV or riding an exercise bicycle while playing Nintendo in the evenings.

As a college professor at The King’s College in NYC, I value the perspective of students who are home-schooled and can see how their unorthodox upbringing or educational approach sometimes helps them think in creative or inspired ways.

Research by the Institute for Family Studies at the University of Virginia shows that the three biggest reasons people home school are: 1) Concern or dissatisfaction with academics or the environment at other schools; 2) A desire to provide religious instruction; 3) A desire to provide moral instruction. The post by Notre Dame sociology professor David Sikkink at IFS also cites data showing home school families in America are more diverse than many critics realize (41% are racial or ethnic minorities) and are more engaged and civic and community activities than their public-school counterparts.

Real Clear Education surveyed 628 registered voters last May and found Asian Americans (53.8%), Blacks (50.4%) and Hispanics (38.2%) were more likely than whites (36.3%) to choose home-schooling. Democrats were actually more likely (45.7%) to express increased interest in home-schooling than Republicans (42.3%), breaking down the notion that home-schooling is only for conservative, white, religious families. And a recent feature story in The New Yorker by Casey Parks explored the growing trend of Black families pursuing home-schooling.

The extreme critics of home-schooling are sometimes blind to the needs and desires that people of color have to provide a great education for their children. Some families from these diverse backgrounds feel trapped in public school districts where they live and desperately want more educational choice, whether private, charter, magnet or home school. To ignore their pleas is both cruel and, arguably, racist.

7 Takeaways for Lovers & Haters

Does this mean I have converted back to the home-school fold in which I was raised? No. It does not. I look forward to returning to the bus stop this coming fall and being more robustly connected to my community again. But I have gained some insights during the Pandemic-induced home-schooling.

While my home school education was far from perfect, no education is exactly perfect. Learning to understand the past and to keep moving forward may be the biggest, most healthy lesson of my adult life.
Social interaction is a human need. Too much of the wrong kind in public school may be harmful. And too little of the right kind in home school may also be harmful.
Religious formation is in the purview of parents along with the intellectual and emotional development of their child. But spiritual abuse is no more acceptable than (and often coincides with) physical or emotional abuse. The secular left should focus on reasonable definition of the latter and reasonable understanding of the former.
Policy on home-schooling at local, state and national levels is needed. But it shouldn’t be treated as a political football by ideological foes. That doesn’t create healthy policy outcomes for children or families. Given the state of polarized, two-party politics in America, this point about reasonable regulations seems like wishful thinking. America needs more centrists who are willing to tell the right and left extremes, “I’m not part of your bleeping tribe.”
Given the strong interest by diverse families in home-schooling, some in the secular left needs to avoid racist policies in their quest to eradicate home-schooling. And some of the white home-school community need to re-evaluate issues of racism and inclusion / exclusion in their communities and curriculum as highlighted in The New Yorker piece. If anything, maybe this experiment with pandemic home-schooling can lead us to more and better hybrid models with innovative and improved school choice options?
Technology, used well, has incredible potential to help us learn and thrive. Used poorly, technology can make us addicted and depressed. One positive pandemic home-school hack occurred when I stopped fighting with my third grader about iPad time and, instead, structured a deal in which she can play Minecraft for one hour after she reads either one longer book for herself or two smaller books to her sister. She negotiated a bit to also include iPad time for her sister. For a while, she was content with these boundaries and stipulations, even proudly telling her teachers and classmates about this arrangement. We’ve had to restructure the agreement a few times.
Parents do play a big role in education. So let’s hope the pandemic, through ups and downs, shows us ways to be more involved and to not leave the entire responsibility on the public schools.

While 2020 was a doozy of a year and 2021 isn’t over, I am grateful the pandemic has helped me make some peace with home-schooling, at least temporarily.

Paul Glader is executive editor of ReligionUnplugged.com and is chair of the journalism program at The King’s College in NYC. He is a former staff writer at The Wall Street Journal and has written for numerous outlets including The Washington Post, Forbes.com, The Associated Press and BusinessWeek. He is on Twitter @PaulGlader.