Before I had children, I admired parents who home schooled their children. It is something that I wanted to do for my (eventual, at the time) children, but did not know if we would be able. Once Hannah was born on April 8, 2004, home schooling her and our future children weighed more and more on our minds. In time, my wife and I became convinced together that home schooling was the right choice for us. That my wife and I had the same conviction was essential. As the primary teacher, my wife had to be dedicated to the decision. At the same time, my wife's dedication would undoubtedly waver if I did not provide the necessary support.
It was after we had made the decision to home school our children that we attended the 2006 Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators (NICHE) annual conference and heard Chris Klicka speak. Klicka is Senior Counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association. We were struck by his love of the Lord, his sincerity, and his in depth knowledge (built through personal experience) of the home school movement. He is an excellent, inspiring speaker who has also written the excellent book Home Schooling: The Right Choice.
Originally published in 1995 and updated in 2000, Home Schooling is less a defense of home schooling than it is an argument for why you, too, should home school. In one of his speeches at the NICHE conference, Klicka made the point that the most important job we have as parents is to raise our children to know and love Jesus. In Home Schooling, Klicka makes the point that we cannot expect our children to think and act like Christians if they spend their whole day, five days a week, in an environment that teaches them to think and act like a secular humanist.
Home Schooling begins with an indictment of public schools, underscoring its propositional rather than defensive nature. Public schools, in general, are failing our children academically, morally, and philosophically. Particularly enlightening is chapter 3's recitation of the express goals of the founders of state education and of the professors at education colleges and the subsequent manifestation of those goals.
But all of that is just why you should avoid public schools. In Parts II and III, Klicka affirmatively addresses why you should home school. Klicka notes the Biblical principles supporting home schooling, the benefits of home schooling, and the large number of influential Americans who were home schooled. He also sets forth practical steps to successful home schooling--providing the encouragement you need to realize that you can do it--as well as the success home schoolers have in college.
Home Schooling goes on to recite the victories won against those with an interest in a public school monopoly. The victories have come in both the legislative and judicial branches. Klicka has firsthand knowledge of many of them and some of them have been truly miraculous. Included in these sections is a thorough, but easy to understand recitation of home schoolers' rights.
The book also includes a number of helpful appendices, including "The Difference Between Christian Education and Humanistic Education," "Fifteen Reasons to Home School Your Teenagers," and "The Social Worker Skit: How to Handle a Visit From a Social Worker."
Throughout the book, Klicka effectively refutes each of the criticisms directed toward home schooling. Given the documented success of home schoolers versus their public and private schooled peers, no one can legitimately claim academic deficiencies as a basis for opposing home schooling. What about socialization? The question is too simple. What kind of socialization is preferable? As a wise person once told me, proper socialization comes from modeling adults, not other children. The public school environment is an artificial one where our children only interact with, save their teacher, other kids their age. No other setting in society is like that.
The one criticism of the book that I can muster is Klicka's reliance on substantive due process arguments for the constitutional right to home school. "Substantive" due process (an oxymoron) is the underpinning of the U.S. Supreme Court's created right to abortion. Clearly, as an attorney in a court of law defending home schoolers, Klicka should latch onto anything the Supreme Court has given him, but in a book dealing with home schooling history and long-term strategies going forward, substantive due process is not something to rely on. It was made up out of thin air and could vanish just as easily, or could be applied arbitrarily.
In any event, Home Schooling is the perfect book for people already home schooling who will be encouraged that they have made the right decision and will gain a greater appreciation of the sacrifices those who started home schooling in the 1980s made, for people thinking about home schooling but are not sure they can do it, and for people trying to understand why their friends and family are home schooling rather than doing what just about everyone else does. It will remain a valuable part of my library.
