Homeschool: An American History

277 Pages·2008·2.972 MB·English

by  Milton Gaither (auth.)

Homeschool

Homeschool
An American History
Milton Gaither
palgrave
macmillan
HOMESCHOOL
Copyright © Milton Gaither, 2008.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-60599-2
All rights reserved.
First published in 2008 by
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ISBN 978-0-230-60600-5 ISBN 978-0-230-61301-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-61301-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gaither, Milton.
Homeschool : an American history / by Milton Gaither.
p. cm.
1. Home schooling—United States—History. 2. Home schooling—
Social aspects—United States. I. Title.
LC40.G34 2007
371.04920973—dc22 2007038055
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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First edition: July 2008
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
One The Family State, 1600–1776 7
Two The Family Nation, 1776–1860 27
Three The Eclipse of the Fireside, 1865–1930 51
Four Why Homeschooling Happened, 1945–1990 83
Five Three Homeschooling Pioneers 117
Six The Changing of the Guard, 1983–1998 141
Seven Making It Legal 175
Eight Homeschooling and the Return of Domestic
Education, 1998–2008 201
Notes 227
Index 265

Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the willing a ssistance
of many people. Several colleagues, including Sheila Moss, Jim Carper,
Bob Hampel, Ed McClellan, Barbara Beatty, and John Fea, gave me
valuable feedback on different parts of the manuscript. Thanks to the
wonderful group of scholars in the History of Education Society
whose work and comments at conferences inform even more of this
book than the footnotes suggest. I benefited greatly from unpublished
research and editorial assistance by Annie Blakeslee, Jesse McBride,
Philip Martin, Autumn Carpenter, and Danielle DuBois. Messiah
College’s excellent library staff, especially Beth Mark and Dee
Porterfield, located obscure references, answered questions, and filled
countless interlibrary loan requests for me. Every homeschooling fam-
ily I contacted was, without fail, generous with time and graciously
answered my many questions. I cannot thank everyone with whom I
spoke, but I am particularly grateful to Gregg Harris, Mark Hegener,
Susan Richman, Linda Dobson, Cathy Duffy, John Holzmann, Jim
Gustafson, and Deborah Stevenson. Special thanks to my wife and
intellectual companion Elizabeth for enduring too many hours of
table talk (and not a little pillow talk) about this book and giving me
dozens of helpful leads and ideas over the past several years. Our chil-
dren have grown up a lot as I’ve been writing it, and in its own way
this book on home education has contributed its fair share to the
learning going on all the time in our own kitchen and living room. I
dedicate the book to them. Maybe they’ll even read it!