In an elite tweak on home schooling, a growing number of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes, says Susan Saulny of the New York Times.
Parents say in-home teaching arrangements offer unparalleled levels of academic attention and flexibility in scheduling, in addition to a sense of family cohesion and autonomy over what children learn; to them, these advantages make up for the lack of a school social life, which they say can be replicated through group lessons in, say, ballet or sculpture, says Saulny.
But unlike traditional home-schoolers, these families are not trying to get more religion into their children’s lives, or escape what some consider the tyranny of the government’s hand in schools, ordinary education just doesn’t fit their lifestyles, says Saulny:
Furthermore, although many who follow the new model are wealthy, increasing numbers of middle class families more sociologically and racially diverse have begun to school their children at home, says Saulny.
Source: Susan Saulny, The Gilded Age of Home Schooling, New York Times, June 5, 2006.
For text (subscription required): http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/05/education/05homeschool.html
For more on Education: http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 20 June 2006
