Homeschooling in the News: Your Weekly Update
Fellow homeschool nerds will be interested to check out the National Center for Education Statistics’ report Homeschooling in the United States: 2012. (That’s the most recent year data’s been compiled for.) Of note: There were an estimated 1.8 million homeschoolers in the United States in 2012; about one-third of middle and high school homeschoolers took online courses in 2012; and about one-fourth of homeschool parents took a course to prepare to teach their kids at home.
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Homeschooling is on the rise in Israel, where compulsory education laws mean parents who want to homeschool must get permission from the school and have check-in visits with the country’s Education Ministry. Israel’s Education Ministry estimates that there are 550 homeschooled children in the country, which doesn’t sound like a lot but which represents a huge jump from the 229 homeschooled children reported in 2008.
“Why homeschooling? Because it’s great fun,” says Sagi Galor, the father of one of the homeschooling families profiled in this piece.
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College costs may be increasing in the United States—the average cost-per-year for one of Forbes magazine’s top 10 colleges is a whopping $64,602—but students who are willing to think outside the geographical box can find affordable higher education overseas. France, especially, seems poised to become an international education destination for U.S. students.
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Usually election years are a great learning opportunity for homeschoolers (and if you’re pulling together a last-minute plan of study, we have some great resources in the fall issue), but the tone of this year’s election has made it harder to bring into the classroom. The Boston Globe peeks inside a few classrooms to see how teachers are handling the election this year — though it’s not homeschool-specific, there’’s a lot of interesting input from teachers navigating these complicated issues that might prove useful for homeschool parents, too.
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And finally, homeschoolers have long appreciated Minecraft’s educational potential, but the popular online game has recently launched Minecraft Education, designed for use in classrooms. The best part about the launch: The starter teacher’s guide to Minecraft, which may be just what you need to finally, really understand how the Minecraft world that your kids are so obsessed with actually works.
