More Pupils Learn Their Lessons in the Home

Hundreds of parents are educating their children at home in Ventura County, where the number of home-schoolers has doubled since 1990.

And home-schooling information, which was once in short supply, has recently become more available in the county.

A home-schooling newspaper that began in Newbury Park in 1995 now has a circulation of 14,700. And the county hosted two home-schooling conferences this spring.

Recently, a home-schooling conference at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks attracted more than 500 people.

“Home-schooling used to be kind of an underground thing and it is really still emerging,” said Linda Davis, who has taught her two children at home in Moorpark off and on for the past seven years. She also has been a parent representative on state-mandated special-education committees.

Unofficial statistics from the state Department of Education show that the home-schooling trend is growing in Ventura County. In 1990, there were 117 home schools in the county, enrolling 220 students. In 1996, there were 224 home schools and 440 students.

The home-schooling increase in the county is consistent with other parts of the state. Los Angeles has seen a rise in children taught at home, from 431 in 1990 to 850 in 1996. The number of home-schooled children in the state has grown from 9,400 in 1990 to 13,825 in 1996.

Although parents in Ventura County give a wide variety of reasons for choosing home-schooling, a common motivation is that they want to individualize their children’s curriculum, which is difficult to do in the traditional classroom setting.

Some parents want their child’s learning to reflect a particular religious philosophy and others want to tailor assignments to their child’s learning style and interests.

“My daughter is very creative and so we like to do a lot of field trips, hands-on work and enrichment classes; things that traditional schools just can’t do a lot of,” Davis said.

Davis took her children out of public school when her son, Jeremy, was in third grade and her daughter, Amanda, was in kindergarten. Her son, now 16, has gone back to public high school, but her daughter, 12, plans to remain in the home school until college.

Many home schools in Ventura County have religious ties. Of the 224 home schools in the county, 90 are affiliated with a religion.

Roger Willis, founder of the Bible Community Church in Simi Valley, said he wants members of his family to follow a “biblical conviction” in their education that is not available in most public or private schools.

According to Willis, the Bible says that education starts with faith and is followed by virtue and knowledge.

“Most schools have it the other way around, with knowledge coming before faith,” said Willis, whose six children will all be educated at home by him and his wife.

Many parents mention values as a reason for teaching their children at home.

“There is a lack of a good, old-fashioned sense of caring. Values just aren’t being taught in the schools,” said Arnel McAtee, who taught special education in the Ventura Unified School District for 11 years and now teaches her two children at home.

McAtee also mentioned efficiency as a reason for home-schooling. “I can teach in 90 minutes what my children would learn in six hours in school because of all of the time wasted on discipline in school,” she said.

Home-schooling young children typically requires that one parent not work, but other options become available as children get older.

By state law, once a child is the equivalent of a junior in high school, they can take courses at at junior colleges.

Some educators have criticized home-schooling, saying it isolates students from their peers and harms social skills. But home-schooling parents in Ventura County say their children have a lot of social outlets.

“There are a lot of home-schooling support groups in the area that we get together with and do field trips and science projects and other structured activities,” said Davis.

Davis’ daughter Amanda says the academic freedom she gets from home-schooling is more important than the social aspects.

“I like to pick my own subjects and work at my own pace. My brother likes public school because he likes to be around a lot of people and be a showoff,” she said.