Learning Freely Network

by Christian W. Beck

In the USA modern home education started in the late 1960s. There are today more than one million home educators in the USA. Norway is a small country. Home education appeared here much later, at the beginning of the 1990s. There are few home educators in Norway, both absolutely and relatively in comparison with the USA. Home education has a very different status in these two countries. It is of interest to compare them:

A comparison of social background for a sample of 128 home educated pupils with corresponding information for the Norwegian population is made:

Home educating families in this survey-investigation have little less education than the corresponding group in the population. One should especially notice that there is a relatively larger group of home educating mothers that have only compulsory school than there are in the population.

The income of the home educators lies at a lower midlevel. About 60% of the home educating households earn from 175 000 NKR to 350.000 (20.000 – 40.000 euro) a year. They have an average income less than half of what the corresponding groups in the population got.

Typical for Norwegian home educators is that they live out in the countryside. Home educating families often have a number of children. Home educated children have an average of 3,6 brothers and sisters. However, there is a great variety. 40% of the home educated children have two brothers and sisters or less. Home educated children to some extent live together with both parents, than what is the case in the population as a whole, Beck (2003).

A survey has been done, based on three great investigations about home educating families in the USA. One has then compared the home educating families in these investigations with data from the population in the USA, Bauman (2002).

The greatest difference between Norwegian and American home educators is that American home educating families earn somewhat above the average of the American population and that they have some higher educational level than the average American population. The number of single mothers is the same as among Norwegian home educators, however the Americans differ more than the Norwegians as the national average is concerned. In the US the home educators are most numerous outside the big towns and suburbs dominated by a white population, and less numerous in central areas in big towns, Bauman (2002).

An analysis of average figures on variables in the Norwegian investigation gives the following picture of the common home educator:

The tendency is that home educators start home education on a basis connected to a certain events in school, for example bullying. If they continue home education for a long time, they get a more principal view on their own home education.“The home educating teacher” is the mother. In a few cases the father takes part in the teaching, then mostly in mathematics and practical subjects. A number of home educators give their children practical tasks and practical project work in addition to teaching them basic subjects. The most common teaching form is an effective theoretical teaching from the parents This is often combined with that pupils to a different extent work with the subjects themselves, solves problems and cooperates with brothers and sisters or sometimes with other home educated children.

The majority of the home educators are generally satisfied with their home education. The parents are fairly satisfied with the progress their pupils make in the core subjects mathematics, reading and writing.

Many parents do home education on a broader basis of values than purely education. Research from the USA throughout a number of years, shows that home educated children get high scores on final tests, Ray (1997); Rudner (1999) and Bauman (2002). The average home educated pupil scores way above the average school pupil. These results must be corrected because of the differences between the home educating population and the national school population.

The home teaching parents in the USA have some higher education and income than the parents of the school pupils, and there is a greater part of white middle class families with both parents in the household. In spite of such corrections the conclusion that home educated children are doing very well at exams, is maintained.

It is difficult to obtain an objective and justifiable answer on how well Norwegian home educated pupils are doing on their exams. Home educated pupils in Norway do not have a obvious right by law to get a certificate with marks, when they finish compulsory education as home educated pupils. Such a right is a matter of conflict in Norway. A number of home educators do not wish to have marks on the certificate. The right to be admitted to further education does not depend on a certificate from compulsory education containing marks.

Experience from several single cases over several years does indeed give the impression that we in Norway have the same situation as in the USA. Home educated pupils often get good marks on tests and exams.

A conclusion must be: The phenomena Home education/homeschooling is quit the same in two different countries like USA and Norway. But there are some interesting differences in social background for home educators in the two countries.