The following information is designed to give families interested in teaching their
children at home confidence and a better understanding of this successful alternative to
school based education.
Since the 1970s home education has grown as a popular movement, and like all such
phenomena, has attracted research in an attempt to understand, not only why families turn
their back on institutionalised education, but also what long term effects may occur for
those families and the implications for society as a whole.
Drawing from several studies the following reasons for parents choosing home education
emerge (not listed in any order or priority):
a marked lack of confidence in state related institutions overall, with a tendency
toward conservative view points;
lack of influence in setting school agendas and determining curriculum;
opposition to the ideological content of school programs and/or methodology used;
conflicting value orientations of home and schools;
individualised attention for children with special needs (gifted and talented and
specific learning problems);
focus on perceived gains in social development from home education, with a strong
focus on family unity and relationships;
concern with declining academic standards;
perceived lack of availability of educational programs to suit individual children’s
learning needs, styles, rates and interests;
avoidance of negative peer influences and damaging socialisation experiences;
perceived lack of attention in schools to holistic development of children, including
spiritual;
strong parental sense of primary responsibility for children's education, with a need to
have access to, and some control over, their children’s educational experiences as a
strong motivating factor;
offers solutions to present or potential educational problems, sometimes as a result of
deterioration of communications and hostile relationships between families and
schools;
parents’ own educational experiences, or memories of unhappy or unsuccessful
personal experiences of schooling;
high cost of alternative and/or private (including correspondence) education;
lack of availability of choice of schools in local area;
opposition to the competitive nature of schooling, including grading and testing;
perceived gains in autonomous home learning programs, independent study skills and
higher student motivation;
the development in parents of a stronger sense of satisfaction with their own lives
through directing their children’s education;
home education offers a natural learning and socialising environment as opposed to the
contrived and artificial environments and learning programs of schools.
No doubt there are many more reasons as each family has a unique set of circumstances
leading to the decision to home educate. Most families’ reasons change over time as the
benefits of home education become more apparent.
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