The Future of Home Schooling: A New Direction for Christian Home Education

by Michael Farris

Discusses the advantages of home schooling, evaluates current home schooling materials, and includes a listing of resources and state home schooling laws

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 1997

Reviews

[Adriane Devries]

Written by HSLDA founder, Michael Farris, this book projects trends in home school education based on the data and research available in the late 1990’s. Most of it has turned out exactly as he predicted. It’s packed with awesome tables and graphs comparing ranges of factors between homeschoolers’ testing scores vs. their public/private counterparts, as well as among those whose parents are highly/not highly educated, rich/poor, Caucasian/minority, etc. Though the overall high test scores (a whopping 37 points higher than public/private counterparts) were no surprise, what was extremely enlightening was the fact that these scores were true across the board for homeschoolers, whether their parents were college educated, certified teachers, or merely high school educated themselves; AND the scores did not vary when the homeschoolers were minorities or came from lower income families— extremely good news. FINALLY, there is an education option that is not only excellent academically, but is also cheap (avg. yearly expenditure per child is $500 vs. the $5000 at public schools), and truly does not discriminate against race or status. Though the book is over a decade old, there are still plenty of practical ideas for use in the classroom, from Kindergarten through college and/or trade apprenticeships. A quick, informative and encouraging read, especially for those who are new at homeschooling or are still considering it for their family.