One of the fastest growing phenomena in the United States today is the Home Schooling movement. According to Faith Popcorn, an economic analyst, in the Popcorn Report, more and more families will be opting to educate children at home as education lingers behind the explosion in technology and information available. A strong organized faction, these parents are fed up with the few alternatives and schools that exist and home school for a variety of reasons. There are religious, morals and values issues as well as health issues. There are social issues and intellectual issues. All parents who opt for this method of educating their young make a strong, dedicated commitment. Children across the globe who have been home schooled share a common bond in the strength of their principles. Students display high self-esteem and more importantly a strong sense of security. The ability to independently find information from a variety of sources is apparent. A group of home schooled children in Pennsylvania in the 1980’s testified before the General Assembly and state Senate, on the logic behind amending the laws that prohibit (jailing parents) homeschooling. Among the presenters were eight, ten and twelve year old youths on the floor of the Capitol, living proof of the effectiveness of this alternative educational model.
Much of the success of the homeschooling movement is attributed to John Holt, author of How Children Learn, How Children Fail, Teach Your Own and the central clearing house for books and resources accessible to home schooled children. Holt said, “The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.”Of major concern to legislatures is the growing number of families opting to home school their children. This causes a decrease appropriation of tax base for local schools. Home schooling is the largest growing model of education in the US today with the National Home Schooling Association boasting of numbers in the millions. The rate of increase is approximately 35% this past year. The speculation for the increase is due to many factors: high crime, lack of security, outdated curriculum and tools, poor job performance and lack of training in major skills areas like quality of life and family living.
Reggio Emilia Schools
In Italy, Villaggio della Madre e dell Fanciullo was instituted for young unwed mothers during the end of the last war trapped in an intolerant political and religious culture. In 1945, pregnant girls and women returning from concentration camps and those that had been raped by occupying and liberating troops were cast out by condemning families. Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella’s vision was to serve adolescent girl-mothers by respecting, preserving, and supporting the integrity of the mother-child relationship through pregnancy, delivery and early childhood. By women caring for other women, Elda created a safe supporting-residential environment where young women could discover and develop within themselves the capacity to respond appropriately for their own and their child’s well being. Today, it thrives as the Reggio Emilio schools of Italy graduating the most creative, intelligent, self-secure children imaginable.
In the Reggio Emilia, children are revered and honored because according to its founder, “A school needs to be a place for all children not based on the idea that they are all the same, but that they are all different.” Mothers and children developed a deep respect for each other as beings filled with potential. Children are treated as whole human beings, respected and honored for their innate character. Today, this school is a model of excellence for the world reflected through its exhibition tour around the world The Hundred Languages of Children.