Homeschool Fever

You are browsing the archives of influential homeschoolers.

The Education Outlook
We are glad to see a new edition of Miss Mason’s excellent homoly lectures on Home Education.  They are so full of common sense and so well adapted for young women who stand with “reluctant feet where womanhood and girlhood meet,” that they may be safely and strongly recommended. Miss Mason’s ideal [...]

Moral Instruction and Training in Schools Report of an International Inquiry …
By Michael Sadler, Executive committee of the inquiry of the
United Kingdom on moral instruction and training in schools
Question:  The comparative ethical value of different school studies - Is it desirable that more practical work and manual training should be introduced into the curriculum?
Reply from Miss [...]

So you want to learn more about homeschooling?
Here is a general overview of what you need to study up on.
Educational Beliefs / Philosophy of Education
Why do you want to homeschool?  What reasons do you have in mind?  Are you looking for a quickfix for an attitude problem or do you firmly believe in home learning?  [...]

Pre-1850s - Many children are educated in private schools or in the home; grammar schools are available in many larger towns, but attendence is not forced.  Parents had the right to choose and it wasn’t questioned!
1842 - Charlotte Mason is born in England
1852 - Massachusettes declares a compulsary education law for all
Mid-1800s - McGuffey Readers [...]

By Dorothy L. Sayers
Historical Note:  This essay spawned the re-birth of classical education training in America, specifically among the homeschooling movement.
That I, whose experience of teaching is extremely limited, should presume to discuss education is a matter, surely, that calls for no apology. It is a kind of behavior to which the present climate of [...]

British native Dorothy L. Sayers was a renown crime and detective author, who’s best known character was Lord Peter Wimsey.  She was very well educated and one of the first women to receive a degree from Oxford College in 1920.  Her literary contemparies - and friends - included the great C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
As a student [...]

John Holt, a teacher, is best known as the “Father of Unschooling”, based on his views of education that called for radical reform of the American education system during the 1950’s - 1970’s.
His work evolved from teaching, to recognizing that the current educational system needed a change, to realizing that change was not likely to happen, [...]