"Home schooling is a fact of life and legal in the United States," announced Leslie Dahm, coordinator of the Des Moines (Iowa) Home Instruction Program. Indeed, researchers estimate that close to one and a half million children in the United States receive their schooling at home.
Therefore, Dahm proclaimed, public school educators need to "get past" their qualms about home schooling and look at what they can do to help home schoolers.
- monitoring and evaluation services,
- books and other materials,
- access to teacher support,
- extracurricular activities for students, and
- access to technology and district services.
Home schooling will never replace the public school system, Dahm assured conference attendees, so "educators shouldn't fear or feel threatened" by home schoolers.
Copresenter Brian Ray, a home schooler, agreed. Ray, founder of the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Org., thinks public school educators should also learn more about why parents choose to home school and should take care not to patronize those they espouse to help.
Ray added that there is a population of home schoolers who will want nothing at all to do with the public schools (he and his family included). Still, he said, for those who do want a "respectful, interactive relationship" with the public schools, it would be "advantageous for children" if a home school/public school partnership existed.
Dahm agreed. Such a relationship, she said, helps educators "meet their responsibility to educate and protect all children."