From Voice of America’s News USA, an article titled Education Begins at Home in Many US Households and subtitled Homeschooling has broadened to include parents of all faiths:

Before 1918, when Mississippi became the last U.S. state to require that school-age children attend public or private schools, many children were taught by their parents at home or by teachers informally hired by the community. Quite often in rural areas, kids of all ages were taught in the same one-room schoolhouse.

Decades later in the 1980s, homeschooling made a comeback when religiously conservative parents convinced states to approve and give full credit for the teaching of children at home. The homeschooling movement has since broadened to include parents of all faiths – or no faith at all.

Linda Dobson’s Parent at the Helm is featured in this quick overview of homeschooling.

Holly Craw, the Phoenix, Arizona Homeschooling Examiner, asks a question we’re hearing more and more often these days in her article Arizona loses out on Race to the Top Funds: Is this a new opportunity to strengthen homeschooling? A couple of excerpts:

The Arizona homeschool community may need to gear up for an increase in its ranks. When U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, announced yesterday the winners in the Race to the Top competition for billions of dollars in federal assistance for state education funding, Arizona had missed a $250 million windfall by 5.3 points.

This examiner predicts that there will be an upsurge in families deciding to homeschool because of the issues that are being exacerbated in the public schools.

If you are having second thoughts about your local public school, and the programs and staff that it no longer has, you may want to consider the pros and cons of homeschooling.

ParentDish, a new weblog launched by AOL and dedicated to parenting, asks Would You Homeschool Your Kids? and the lengthy comments are as interesting as the well-written pro and con commentaries about homeschooling, penned by Amy Hatch and Crystal Paine.

Bring on Homeschool Part 2. I’ve seen a lot worse Homeschool Part 1′s in the media.

WGGB in Springfield, Massachusetts, interviewed a family about the pros and cons of homeschooling.

Homeschool Part 1: A Look at the Pros and Cons of Homeschooling abc40 March 31, 2009
By: Faye Hoffman

When we asked them, they couldn’t come up with many “cons” of homeschooling. But Mejias is quick to admit it’s not for everyone. Parents need to be driven to do it, requirements in Massachusetts are tougher than many other states, and it can be expensive.

There’s always that question about the cons of homeschooling. I suppose it makes sense to ask the question.

But it does beg the question. Does anyone, besides families considering homeschooling or homeschoolers ‘living the life’, ask about the cons of going to school? Seems like it would be a pertinent question from media and other folks….

“I’m not homeschooling because I think I can do a better job than the schools, or because I’m smarter, or anything like that. I think it’s like with anything in life, if you have an interest in something you learn it and you do it.”

Mejias says her kids were growing up fast, and she wanted the family to have more time together. Her husband thought she was crazy at first. “I was like ‘what? I said no, we don’t have to do that, I never did that. The kids are fine in school.’” says Bob Ackerman.

Watch the interview. It’s great fun listening to the family.

Posted by Susan Ryan