Homeschooling Then and Now

Interview and Presentation by Shaila Piercey

I recently had the opportunity to interview my grandma by letter on the subject of her experience when she first began homeschooling her kids. I decided to interview my grandma, because I was interested in what homeschooling was like when she homeschooled, versus what homeschooling is like now. 

    My grandma began homeschooling in about 1975, she said. Grandma had recently put her faith in Jesus Christ, was married, and had two young children. Grandma replied to the question of why she decided to start homeschooling by saying “The entire focus and direction of my life became oriented toward my responsibility as a wife, mother and homemaker.” Grandma went on to say that she saw this as a spiritual calling instead of a “mundane role of drudgery”, as she said the culture in her time often seemed to view it as. Grandma said that as she viewed it from a Christian perspective, she “preferred to answer, “I am a homemaker”.  The “maker of a home”, the “keeper of a house”, the “nurturer of a family” seemed more in keeping with the view that God held for the woman he ordained to be a wife, mother, and laborer within her home. 

    Grandma said that her oldest daughter came closer to school age, and they had planned on sending her to the local Christian school. But around this time Grandma said that there was “a flurry of women’s literature and women’s speakers proposing the advantages of teaching our children within our homes…. homeschooling.  This was all very new to me.  It certainly would require a lot more work on my part and research into the legalities and logistics.  But there were many other women asking the same questions, and the path forward seemed to be a real option that I would like to try.” 

    Grandma said that homeschooling was growing in popularity very quickly in the Christian community. Support groups formed, and many Christians started writing books on curriculum that parents could use to homeschool their children. 

    When I asked Grandma how much homeschooling has changed from the start, she replied, “I would say that the number of homeschool families has only increased over the years and that the effort to build a support system around these families has increased.   It has grown in curriculum options and creative ways to approach teaching within a “support group” setting rather than an institutional classroom.  I know that many Christian publishers have taken on the job of equipping homeschool moms with materials that are creative, sound, and very usable.” 

    I then asked my grandma what she has found to be the best benefits, or opportunities that she found homeschooling offers. She replied that one of the benefits is that the class is small, which means that it “can tailor materials specifically to each student’s interests and abilities and the lack of distraction of large group management.” Students do have different ways that are easier for them to learn, so Grandma said that it is easier in homeschooling to get materials that work for your student. Grandma also pointed out that there is a “ lack of distraction of large group management.”

    Homeschooling has grown in popularity and resources, it seems, since my grandma first began homeschooling her kids. I also loved how Grandma viewed her role as a homemaker, and how she viewed it as a “spiritual calling rather than a mundane role of drudgery”. As Grandma said, “The “maker of a home”, the “keeper of a house”, the “nurturer of a family” seemed more in keeping with the view that God held for the woman he ordained to be a wife, mother, and laborer within her home.”