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Homeschool: An American History
This is a lively account of one of the most important and overlooked themes in American education. Beginning in the colonial period and working to the present, Gaither describes in rich detail how the home has been used as the base for education of all kinds. The last five chapters focus especially on the modern homeschooling movement and offer the most comprehensive and authoritative account of it ever written. Readers will learn how and why homeschooling emerged when it did, where it has been, and where it may be going. Please visit Gaither's blog
273 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 11, 2024
Gaither presents a fairly balanced and certainly interesting look at the history of homeschooling in the United States. The work is ambitious and as such often relies on generalities, but I think that's going to happen when covering education from 1600 to 2017 in 300 pages. I found it informative and generally would recommend.
That said, despite being relatively short, it isn't the most engaging read. I seriously struggled to push my way through it. The generalities also grate after a while if you know anything about what he is writing about. Take, for example, this statement about the Home School Legal Defense Association:
"HLA was speared for several years by an attorney Christine Field, who as a woman would never have been given an attorney job at HSLDA."
The inference, of course, is that HSLDA is a sexist, patriarchal organization. There is no citation or other backing for this claim. And it is patently untrue. Literally three years after this revised edition went to print I (a female attorney!) started working there as a (gasp) lawyer. So, besides trying to paint Christian homeschoolers in a seriously outdated light, I don't know what that statement accomplishes. (And seriously, how does the book have space for something like that?)
That said, despite being relatively short, it isn't the most engaging read. I seriously struggled to push my way through it. The generalities also grate after a while if you know anything about what he is writing about. Take, for example, this statement about the Home School Legal Defense Association:
"HLA was speared for several years by an attorney Christine Field, who as a woman would never have been given an attorney job at HSLDA."
The inference, of course, is that HSLDA is a sexist, patriarchal organization. There is no citation or other backing for this claim. And it is patently untrue. Literally three years after this revised edition went to print I (a female attorney!) started working there as a (gasp) lawyer. So, besides trying to paint Christian homeschoolers in a seriously outdated light, I don't know what that statement accomplishes. (And seriously, how does the book have space for something like that?)
February 5, 2021
In Homeschool: An American History, Milton Gaither presents a history of American education in the home since the colonial era. I was surprised to learn the extent of state intervention in the home during the colonial and early American era. Partly due to invasive Puritan communities, officials could forcibly remove children from homes and send them to other homes, for education or vocational training, or to make up for a not-Christian-enough home life. As people continued to colonize the frontier, such centralized oversight was no longer feasible.
Private tutoring served as a "home school" for many wealthy and rural families well into the 20th century. In the early days of colonizing the West, circuit tutors helped rural families educate their children. (I don't recall coming across any Christian historical romance novels with this plot, but it's ripe for the picking.) A child of the home school movement myself, I can attest to Gaither's point that home school families are quick to label any historical figure a "homeschooler," applying the contemporary label (usually understood as parent-educated) to autodidacts and the privately tutored alike.
Gaither's strongest chapters make up the latter half of the book, when he considers three major figures who spurred the contemporary form of home schooling, legalization, and the time that elapsed since the first edition of the book (1998-2016). The figures he names are actually four: John Holt, Raymond and Dorothy Moore, and Rousas J. Rushdoony. Holt was not faith-affiliated. The Moores were Seventh-Day Adventists (as Gaither notes, many evangelical Protestants consider this a "cult.") Rushdoony is his own can of worms. A member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, he promoted Reconstructionism, the institution of Old Testament law, and ideas like proslavery and Hinduism's incompatibility with basic math (did anyone tell him about Srinivasa Ramanujan?). Holt made inroads into conservative Christian home schooling, but as the movement radicalized, he was forgotten. His first alignment was with non-religious home education. The Moores were Dobson darlings, and their appearances on his radio shows gave wide publicity to home schooling. When Gregg Harris and the HSLDA decided the Moores were personae non grata, they quickly faded from view in conservative Christian home schooling circles. Rushdoony is the silent ancestor of the conservative culture wars. Hardly mentioned today (because of that slavery thing, you know), he nevertheless greatly influenced Francis Schaeffer, Geoff Botkin, Doug Phillips, and others. Publications like Christianity Today tried to avoid mentioning Rushdoony at all costs--hence his small name recognition--but he continued influencing "soft Reconstructionism." Certain folks, like Botkin and Phillips, still promoted his name.
Gaither identifies three major groups of home schoolers. First, "Sectarians" are fundamentalist Protestants. I'm known to shoot down any use of "fundamentalist" that don't fit the narrow historical origins of the term, but Gaither's use was, for once in my reading life, wholly acceptable. Second, "Romantics" are (often secular) home schoolers who seek an affirming, individualist approach to education. Third, "Pragmatics" are those Gaither identifies as "second-choice" home schoolers, or those who do so out of necessity. Families who do not subscribe to any widespread home school "vision" but take their kids out of public/private/parochial schools due to bullying, special needs, et c. fall under this category. Of course, it's impossible to create neat categories for any movement with as much ideological diversity as home schooling--each family's experience with it is unique--but I appreciated these three categories. I would place my own family in each, at different times and in different ways. The fact that I could find myself in this book was important, though there wasn't a category for "Christian Home Schoolers Who Weren't, Like, Crunchy or Patriarchalists or Anything."
Toward the end, Gaither nods toward non-Christian religious home schooling, and communities that use home schooling to keep their traditions alive. He names Mormon, Muslim, Native American, Hawaiian, and Jewish home schoolers. Unfortunately, he doesn't spend any meaningful time on these, claiming lack of data and other resources. What goes unmentioned is that he happily contacts Christian home school leaders (his conversations with Gregg Harris, for one) but hasn't made similar contacts with non-Christian home school organizations. However, he does show a little more scholarly inclination toward Black Protestant home schooling, devoting a few pages to it. Yet, he did not discuss the effects of segregation on the education of Black children until this point at the end of the book. While he mentions Brown v. Board of Education, he doesn't discuss segregated schools before forced integration, nor does he discuss Black home education before the very end of the book. I'm sure that could be a study on its own, and I hope to read it someday, if not from Gaither.
I was disappointed in the lack of information about Catholic and Mormon home schooling, since those movements are pretty widespread and well-populated. Mormonism is rather geographically limited, in my experience, so I understand why a Pennsylvanian scholar didn't detail the vast nature of the movement. Growing up in the Midwest, I encountered very few Mormons, but when I lived in Colorado, they and their home school groups were much more populous. Outwardly, the Mormon concept of the family aligns somewhat with Quiverfull concepts, but they differ theologically.
On the subject of home school debate competitions sponsored by the HSLDA, Gaither writes, "there was something intrinsically dangerous in teaching these very conservative children how to spot logical fallacies in arguments, amass evidence for and against various positions, and think critically and carefully." (261) Out of this group came Homeschoolers Anonymous and many other whistleblowing/survivor story blogs/groups. In college I encountered a lot of these ex-conservative, still-debating homeschool grads, who leveraged the tools given them by their conservative upbringing against conservatism itself. It's one of the great ironies of the movement.
One of the stories Gaither tells is that of Cheryl Lindsey, publisher of Gentle Spirit, who promoted crunchy patriarchalism and was quite popular until she divorced her abusive husband. She was ritually silenced and practically conned by the conservative wing of the movement (gasp). They tried to stop her from doing anything (answering the phone, speaking publicly, continuing to support herself) and tried to convince her to fulfill outstanding subscriptions to Gentle Spirit with a rival publication. Amazingly--I'd like to shake hands with whoever came up with this idea--she sued everyone under the Sherman Antitrust Act, eventually winning over a million dollars (because awards are tripled in antitrust cases).
The editing of Homeschool was sloppy. "Dad" and "kids" were used to describe fathers and children in the colonial era--historically inappropriate terms and nonacademic terms. Capitalization and spelling of names varied wildly, even on the same page. Given that the copy I read was a revised second edition (also expanded, including a chapter on events up to the year before publication), these errors should have been corrected. Gaither also plays loosely with terms like "hippie," never really defining them to my satisfaction. Since C. J. Mahaney and Gregg Harris, among others, were all hippies-turned-Sectarians, I'd have appreciated a more careful examination of that movement.
Overall, I recommend Homeschool to those interested in the history of, well, home schooling in America. If you were formerly home schooled like me, you might just find it a great way to reckon with your educational background. Gaither envisions home schooling remaining popular on the American scene, and its rapid and continuing growth indicates that he's right.
Private tutoring served as a "home school" for many wealthy and rural families well into the 20th century. In the early days of colonizing the West, circuit tutors helped rural families educate their children. (I don't recall coming across any Christian historical romance novels with this plot, but it's ripe for the picking.) A child of the home school movement myself, I can attest to Gaither's point that home school families are quick to label any historical figure a "homeschooler," applying the contemporary label (usually understood as parent-educated) to autodidacts and the privately tutored alike.
Gaither's strongest chapters make up the latter half of the book, when he considers three major figures who spurred the contemporary form of home schooling, legalization, and the time that elapsed since the first edition of the book (1998-2016). The figures he names are actually four: John Holt, Raymond and Dorothy Moore, and Rousas J. Rushdoony. Holt was not faith-affiliated. The Moores were Seventh-Day Adventists (as Gaither notes, many evangelical Protestants consider this a "cult.") Rushdoony is his own can of worms. A member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, he promoted Reconstructionism, the institution of Old Testament law, and ideas like proslavery and Hinduism's incompatibility with basic math (did anyone tell him about Srinivasa Ramanujan?). Holt made inroads into conservative Christian home schooling, but as the movement radicalized, he was forgotten. His first alignment was with non-religious home education. The Moores were Dobson darlings, and their appearances on his radio shows gave wide publicity to home schooling. When Gregg Harris and the HSLDA decided the Moores were personae non grata, they quickly faded from view in conservative Christian home schooling circles. Rushdoony is the silent ancestor of the conservative culture wars. Hardly mentioned today (because of that slavery thing, you know), he nevertheless greatly influenced Francis Schaeffer, Geoff Botkin, Doug Phillips, and others. Publications like Christianity Today tried to avoid mentioning Rushdoony at all costs--hence his small name recognition--but he continued influencing "soft Reconstructionism." Certain folks, like Botkin and Phillips, still promoted his name.
Gaither identifies three major groups of home schoolers. First, "Sectarians" are fundamentalist Protestants. I'm known to shoot down any use of "fundamentalist" that don't fit the narrow historical origins of the term, but Gaither's use was, for once in my reading life, wholly acceptable. Second, "Romantics" are (often secular) home schoolers who seek an affirming, individualist approach to education. Third, "Pragmatics" are those Gaither identifies as "second-choice" home schoolers, or those who do so out of necessity. Families who do not subscribe to any widespread home school "vision" but take their kids out of public/private/parochial schools due to bullying, special needs, et c. fall under this category. Of course, it's impossible to create neat categories for any movement with as much ideological diversity as home schooling--each family's experience with it is unique--but I appreciated these three categories. I would place my own family in each, at different times and in different ways. The fact that I could find myself in this book was important, though there wasn't a category for "Christian Home Schoolers Who Weren't, Like, Crunchy or Patriarchalists or Anything."
Toward the end, Gaither nods toward non-Christian religious home schooling, and communities that use home schooling to keep their traditions alive. He names Mormon, Muslim, Native American, Hawaiian, and Jewish home schoolers. Unfortunately, he doesn't spend any meaningful time on these, claiming lack of data and other resources. What goes unmentioned is that he happily contacts Christian home school leaders (his conversations with Gregg Harris, for one) but hasn't made similar contacts with non-Christian home school organizations. However, he does show a little more scholarly inclination toward Black Protestant home schooling, devoting a few pages to it. Yet, he did not discuss the effects of segregation on the education of Black children until this point at the end of the book. While he mentions Brown v. Board of Education, he doesn't discuss segregated schools before forced integration, nor does he discuss Black home education before the very end of the book. I'm sure that could be a study on its own, and I hope to read it someday, if not from Gaither.
I was disappointed in the lack of information about Catholic and Mormon home schooling, since those movements are pretty widespread and well-populated. Mormonism is rather geographically limited, in my experience, so I understand why a Pennsylvanian scholar didn't detail the vast nature of the movement. Growing up in the Midwest, I encountered very few Mormons, but when I lived in Colorado, they and their home school groups were much more populous. Outwardly, the Mormon concept of the family aligns somewhat with Quiverfull concepts, but they differ theologically.
On the subject of home school debate competitions sponsored by the HSLDA, Gaither writes, "there was something intrinsically dangerous in teaching these very conservative children how to spot logical fallacies in arguments, amass evidence for and against various positions, and think critically and carefully." (261) Out of this group came Homeschoolers Anonymous and many other whistleblowing/survivor story blogs/groups. In college I encountered a lot of these ex-conservative, still-debating homeschool grads, who leveraged the tools given them by their conservative upbringing against conservatism itself. It's one of the great ironies of the movement.
One of the stories Gaither tells is that of Cheryl Lindsey, publisher of Gentle Spirit, who promoted crunchy patriarchalism and was quite popular until she divorced her abusive husband. She was ritually silenced and practically conned by the conservative wing of the movement (gasp). They tried to stop her from doing anything (answering the phone, speaking publicly, continuing to support herself) and tried to convince her to fulfill outstanding subscriptions to Gentle Spirit with a rival publication. Amazingly--I'd like to shake hands with whoever came up with this idea--she sued everyone under the Sherman Antitrust Act, eventually winning over a million dollars (because awards are tripled in antitrust cases).
The editing of Homeschool was sloppy. "Dad" and "kids" were used to describe fathers and children in the colonial era--historically inappropriate terms and nonacademic terms. Capitalization and spelling of names varied wildly, even on the same page. Given that the copy I read was a revised second edition (also expanded, including a chapter on events up to the year before publication), these errors should have been corrected. Gaither also plays loosely with terms like "hippie," never really defining them to my satisfaction. Since C. J. Mahaney and Gregg Harris, among others, were all hippies-turned-Sectarians, I'd have appreciated a more careful examination of that movement.
Overall, I recommend Homeschool to those interested in the history of, well, home schooling in America. If you were formerly home schooled like me, you might just find it a great way to reckon with your educational background. Gaither envisions home schooling remaining popular on the American scene, and its rapid and continuing growth indicates that he's right.
June 12, 2021
A lot of information, much of it interesting. This is big picture history, looking at events, movements, and a few big names. But there is essentially nothing about what happens day-to-day and how that has changed. Sometimes the author seems to homogenize things a bit too much, using three categories (sectarians, romantics, and pragmatics) into which he puts all homeschoolers. Reality is not so rigid. There are a lot of different shades, many of which blur these lines.
April 13, 2020
A fascinating book on the history of homeschooling. However at times I felt the book wandered away from homeschooling and on to personal commentary on how religious people should conduct themselves.
September 8, 2008
I learned a lot from this book, which covers the history of American homeschooling in detail. The early history was interesting and more recent events were enlightening (and sometimes a bit shocking). I was glad to learn how homeschooling got to where it is today, with a cultural gap between two sides which are frequently suspicious of each other.
January 15, 2015
I had no idea about much of the history of homeschooling and I feel I learned alot from reading this book! I liked how this author's perspective seemed more objective than most homeschooling books too.
March 4, 2015
There are several excellent chapters in this book, but overall it tries to do too much. More focus would have been better.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews