Kingdom of Children : Culture and Controversy in the Homeschooling Movement (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology)

Rating:
Summary: Profound insights into modern humanity and home schoolers
Review: Home education is such a remarkable modern movement that it has long deserved close scrutiny by serious social scientists. Mitchell Stevens has given the American home school movement a long and careful look. For almost a decade (from 1990 to 1989), this dedicated sociologist met with home schoolers singly and in groups. This book will be "must" reading for home school leaders of every persuausion, including those who are openly uncomfortable with the concept of "home school leaders."

As a sociologist, Dr. Stevens is interested in how home schoolers went about constructing an entirely new set of organizational structures. He delves deeply into the differing "schema" of the differing wings of the home school movement, and explores how different paradigms affect developing institutions. He notes the details ("inclusive" home school groups arrange chairs in circles for highly democratic meetings, while "Christian" home school groups routinely sit in pews while their "leaders" address them from pulpits), and then draws broad but credible conclusions from them.

As a home schooler who has been in "leadership" in Christian home schooling since 1986, I was impressed at the depth and thoughtfulness of this book. While I may disagree with him on certain points, this is a book that no thoughtful home schooler will be able to ignore. Although I am deeply committed to a united home school movement, Dr. Stevens has spelled out the specifics of how that movement is divided at present, and the deeper reasons of why it has grown apart. The challenge to home schoolers who want to bridge those divisions is now clear. The solutions are not.

Opponents of home schooling will find little to love in this book. While it is painfully honest about the differences between modern home schoolers, it concludes with some breathtaking observations on modern womanhood, modern childhood, and modern society. In his final chapter, "Nurturing the Expanded Self," Dr. Stevens argues that home schooling is a movement that finally deals with the "reproductive costs of the expanded self." The "expanded self" he refers to is the truly developed individual, who from childhood has been raised to explore his or her own unique capacities. By breaking out of the assembly-line institutions of modern "schooling," home educators have opened up a world of post-modern possibilities. Home schoolers have been willing to pay the cost of this investment: a full-time parent, most often the mother, who is willing to lay down her life for her child's abundant life. Stevens says:

"The logic of contemporary individualism presents all contemporary mothers, feminist or not, with a deep dilemma. On the one hand, conventional wisdom now encourages women to be cautious about family encroachments on the integrity of their own identities. Making too many sacrifices for husbands and children is regarded as problematic for women's own self-development and psychic health. On the other hand, contemporary assumptions about the nature of childhood oblige parents to invest ever more maternal labor in their children. At the same time that women AS WOMEN have learned to be more defensive about their own needs, then they also have faced increasing demands AS MOTHERS to honor their children's individual needs."

Stevens uses the data of the modern home school movement to ask and answer big questions about the way that people organize their lives, their families, and their communities. Hundreds of thousands of serious home schoolers will become wiser and more effective by reading this book. Those who are not home schooling - yet - may want to follow their example.

Rating:
Summary: First high quality analysis of the home schooling movement
Review: Mitchell Stevens provides the first in depth study of the American home schooling movement. Instead of assuming that home schoolers are right wing fanatics or left wing bohemians, he takes the time to attend their meetings, visit their homes and read their literature. From his in depth study, he concludes that home schooling is an activity that grows out of long traditions in American politics and is an honest, and possibly successful, attempt at reconstructing education so that it meets the needs of children.

The focus of Mitchell's book is the division between home schoolers who view home schooling as a form of Christian education and those who view home schooling as a secular activity. Mitchell's thesis is that this division defines much of the discourse, organization and politics of home schooling. It also reflects concepts of womanhood, childhood and family.

From a sociological perspective, I think that this book's biggest contributions is an implicit critique of some themes in the sociology of education, where schools are seen as propagators of the status quo. Here, we have an example of how an institution, public education, is relaxing its grip and new forms of education are being created. This is not to say that public education is on the path to extinction, but this book shows how viables alternatives to dominant institutions emerge.

To summarize: first in depth sociological work on home schooling, takes home schoolers seriously as people, clear

writing and very little jargon and furthers our understanding of educational institutions and social change. A sure winner!

Rating:
Summary: Great as an introduction to the homeschool world!
Review: Rather than tell you what the book says (see other reviews) let me just say that having read this just as we are beginning homeschooling with our children, I have a much deeper understanding of the people we are going to be relating to in the future. Many of his insights have already been borne out in my observations. I appreciated the fact that this book is fairly up-to-date (written in the late 90's). I think I will be able to relate to other homeschooling families in an understanding way after reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Deserves 10 Stars
Review: We have been homeschooling since the early 70's. earlier if you consider my homeschooling in the 50's. This is why I was eager to read this book and why I recommend it. Because the author gives the reader one of the most complete and balanced view from the outside, of who homeschools and why.

I also like the fact that the author was interested in parents and families and not simply whether or not the homeschooled child tests better, gets enough socialization, have their own friends and get into college. What the author set out to find is what drives the parent to homeschool. And what "practical household decisions" make homeschooling possible. Because as he notes "conventional parenting is a lot of work" and he "suspected that homeschooling is even more labor intensive." And he set out to find out "how people decided that they could afford the time, lost wages, and mental energy that homeschooling costs." And "how homeschoolers assemble the help they need to get the job done."

He also include the study in 1995 that sociologist "Maralee Mayberry and her colleagues released the best comprehensive statistical study of home educators to date." The authors fifty-six item questionnaire included measures of parental occupation, educational attainment, religious affiliation, household size and income and the divisions of domestic labour. Working with a sample of home educating families in Nevada, Utah and Washington the researchers painted a picture of a predominantly white, middle class and religious movement. Ninety-eight percent of the survey respondents were white 1 percent were Asian Americans, the rest a mix of African American, Native American and Hispanics. Most parents were under age forty and the vast majority or 97% were married. 43% claimed at least some post secondary education, and additional 33 percent were college graduate. Professional and technical and managerial and administrative occupations were heavily represented among the fathers some were craft or service workers and a few were ranchers or farmers. 57% reported incomes of between 25 and 50k, 26% reported less. Compared to the general public the respondents were better educated slightly more affluent and more likely to be white. They also found that homeschooling is heavily gendered. 78% of mothers do the homeschooling. Also of interest to is the religious aspect. 91% reported that religious commitment was very important. 78% claim they attend church weekly. Yet 20% say they are not religious per se. 12% didn't answer the religious question. What surprised me was the fact we know more Asian and Jewish homeschoolers that any group, so this study should have studied homeschoolers in NYC, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco as well in order to get a better read on a more diverse section. The states studied are higher income and better educated so the results make sense.

I also like the book because the author notes the SAT study by Jon Wartes of Washington State homeschooled students. Although these were done in the 80's. The author does note the HSLDA funded study by Lawrence Rudner and I was happy the author noted "The study's findings must be tempered by the fact the research was built with a nonrandom convince sample, financed by a highly interested advocacy organization, and has received criticism from both within and beyond the homeschool community."

The author also explains the while homeschooling is legal in all states that some states have strict rules as far as parents reporting to state educational authorities. This is often one of the first questions I get from a parent asking about homeschooling. Is it legal? How do I find out? And I like the fact the author noted the Sikkink study that shows that homeschool parents are more involved in cicvic life than public school parents.

And the history of homeschooling since the 80s is covered well. And I am glad ton see that John Holt and Holt Associates are given good coverage since this is the one organization we joined in the early 80s and was the most secular or accepting of all homeschool families. So often all I hear is that the majority of homeschoolers are conservative Christians, even though my experience since the early 1970s shows (yes I live in a more liberal area of California) that there are more secular homeschoolers, or at least ones who are free spirits.

This is a book that any fair minded person interested in homeschooling should read. This is one of my top 3 homeschool books.