Home schooling grows by 80 percent in state in past decade

From Article by Kelly Tyko
Monday, August 11, 2008

For the 2007-08 school year, the Florida Department of Education estimated 56,650 students were home schooled, compared with 31,440 students in 1997-98 — an 80 percent increase.

About 1.1 million students were being home schooled in the United States in the spring of 2003, a 29% increase from the 850,000 four years earlier, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Education.

There are many reasons and methods for home schooling…Beth Gunsalus of Vero Beach is beginning her 13th year of home schooling. The mother of two said there are many different reasons families choose to home school.

She and her husband made the decision at the urging of their son, Neil, who was 7 at the time. They thought it would be a one-year experiment.

"I think it has been one of the wisest choices our family has made," said Gunsalus, who is the district 10 director of the state organization, Florida Parent Educators Association and represents Indian River, St. Lucie, Brevard and Okeechobee counties. Neil, now 20, graduated from home school in May and also earned an associate's degree from Indian River State College, where he was dual-enrolled. Gunsalus said her daughter Catherine, 16, should also receive an associate's degree from IRSC by the time she finishes high school.

"Home schooling has created a greater family unity, but it has allowed us to sculpt an education program that's met our children's learning styles and met the desires of their hearts," Gunsalus said.

DIFFERENT WAYS

Susan Garman said the best part about home schooling is the "freedom it gives my kids to study and learn what they're interested in."

Some families opt for the traditional textbook approach, while others use the unit study approach, where instruction in several subjects is woven around a particular theme. Still others use the unschooled approach, allowing a child to pursue his or her own interests. Garman teaches her two daughters, Sara and 17-year-old Kaitlyn, using a variety of different methods.

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Ina Says:
My little girl will be 3 in 10 days, and would have started pre-school any time soon. I’m so happy that I have made the choice to do what I feel is right, that is I want to raise my daughter, not pass her on to some stranger. just know she wouldn’t have coped in a classroom full of kids. It would have broken my heart to walk away from her, for a teacher to tell her to sit down and be quiet, listen and learn. No thank you. She would be wasted in a classroom.