1. Homeschooling By Nicola Jackson and Ilka Fedor

2. The Nuts and Bolts of Home-schooling in New Zealand What is it?  The education at home rather than in a school setting Home educators primarily are parents (unregulated) 1 Sometimes “combined” schooling 2 Varied debates: ▫http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWWL5CNld A0&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWWL5CNld A0&feature=related The internet benefits homeschooling 3 UN Convention

3. Home-schooling in New Zealand Students must have an “Exemption Certificate” from the Ministry of Education 1 Home educators do NOT have to follow the NZ Curriculum in their lessons 2 Home educators do not have to be qualified teachers 3 The MOE stipulates that home schooled children must “be taught as regularly and as well as in a registered school” 4 ERO once monitored home-schooling in NZ 5

4. The Origins and Trends of Home- schooling 1970s: educating school aged children deemed the law 1972: Amish parents exempted from schooling 1 1980s: Christian conservatives “seize” homeschooling 2 1990s: Expansion of the internet leads to a growth spurt in homeschooling 1993: Homeschooling recognised as legal in USA TODAY: homeschooling grows, with secular homeschooling becoming more prominent 3

5. Reasons Parents Choose Home- schooling Parental concerns about conventional school setting ▫Violence, bullying, no individual attention Religion ▫Decisions to home-school are sometimes based on religious reasons 1 No access to proper schools (i.e. – if the family is traveling for an extended period of time)

6. Links with Classroom Practice Acknowledgement of the general state and trends of education worldwide and in NZ Homeschooling proves the benefits of individualised teaching and parental involvement Extra-curricular activities have an important role in education 1 Combined schooling – part time homeschooled, part-time conventional 2

7. The Homeschooling Debate Benefits of Home-schooling and Reasons for Choosing it: Individualised lessons, higher standard of education 1 More attention given to student than in a conventional classroom Students can freely develop an academic strength Better option for families living far from a school or in a poorer socio-economic area 1

8. The Homeschooling Debate Benefits of Home-schooling and Reasons for Choosing it: Greater exposure to extracurricular activities 1 Learner-driven pace and structure 2 Richer relationships with family Time to follow the interests of the learner Removal from school-related peer pressure and bullying 3

9. The Home-schooling Debate Criticisms of home-schooling: Lack of daily, large group social contact Homeschooled children are not required to follow the national curriculum 1 Concerns about the quality of the teaching Home-schooling threatens the timing of what society is based on 2

10. Final Thoughts… “As educators and community members, we need to respect parents’ choices because this is the essence of a democratic educational system. Instead of constantly comparing and contrasting public schools and home-schools, we should look at how each can learn from one another and then use this information to improve the learning experiences of all children, no matter what form of education takes place.” (Rowmanowski, p. 129)

11. References and Further Resources References: Clements, Andrea. Homeschooling: A Research-Based How-To Manual. The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Oxford, U.K. James, Antoinette. Home Educating in New Zealand: Choosing to Teach Your Children At Home. Zenith Publishing, New Plymouth, New Zealand NZ Ministry of Education (www.minedu.govt.nz)www.minedu.govt.nz Romanowski, Michael. Revisiting the Common Myths about Homeschooling. The Clearing House, January/February 2006, Vol. 79, No. 3. Stevens, Mitchell. Kingdom of Children: Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement. Princeton University Press, New Jersey Further Resources: http://www.home.school.nz/ http://www.homeschoolingnz.org/homepage.html