Home-schooling in the modern world: Success of home-schooled children

By Shaunti Feldhahn Syndicated Columnist

Like many critics, I used to feel vaguely sorry for home-schooled kids. What a shame, I thought, that they might be deprived of the well-rounded education and social skills to become integrated, productive members of society. I never thought to question why cafeteria food fights or the predatory pack habits of teenage girls would be better for molding productive members of society.

This uninformed, critical opinion lasted precisely until I met my first home-schooled children several years ago. Within one month I met five home-schooling families, and their 13 children were among the most polite, well-adjusted, socially adept and academically advanced kids I'd ever seen. Being home-educated seemed to have given them a confidence and maturity — and yes, social skill — far beyond their years. They had many friends, but didn't seem dependent on their peers for approval — a far cry from what I remember as a kid.

I've since learned that these kids were not the home-schooling exception but the rule, which makes me wonder how anyone could look at the data and say it deprives kids of anything. In a landmark study by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, among 7,000 young adults who had been home-schooled, 74 percent had attained some college courses, compared with just 46 percent of other young adults — and 82 percent said they would home-school their own kids. On the social front, almost twice as many home-schooled adults as those in the general population were active in their community (71 percent to 37 percent) and "very happy" with life (59 percent to 28 percent).

In 1998, a Home School Legal Defense Association's study of 20,760 home-school students found that: "In every subject and at every grade level (on standardized tests), home-school students scored significantly higher than their public and private school counterparts." Younger home-schoolers performed one grade level higher than their public and private school counterparts, and by eighth grade, "the average home-school student performs four grade levels above the national average."

Obviously, home education doesn't fit every family. But the evidence makes me think it's the kids who aren't home-schooled who may be missing out, not the other way around.
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A recent article in the New York Times "Home Schoolers Do Not Just Stay Home" gives a picture of what modern home schooling looks like in practice, and how museums across the USA have developed programs for home schoolers.
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This Infographic on the realties of home schooling can be viewed here: http://offers.degreesearch.org/infographics/homeschooling-by-the-numbers/


The Home Advantage Infographic can be viewed here:
http://www.coursehero.com/blog/2011/09/08/infographic-the-home-advantage/

Swedish Home Schoolers Need Your Help!

Anytime an authority grossly misunderstands and forbids a fundamental freedom, I just can not keep my mouth closed about it. I hope you will spread the word in your circle, and through your blog about this...

Sweden has made home schooling a crime. People are refused meeting to even discuss approval of their plans to home school, and their requests for meetings are met with fines of $20,000 per kid per year instead. There are a number of cases in Scandinavia where social services takes the children from parents like that of Dominic Johnson and Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya in Norway, so parents here are afraid not only of fines but that their children will be removed from the family and put in foster care. This means they do not feel safe to stay in the country and fight the law with acts of civil disobedience, but must leave the country to insure their family is safe. This impacts me because the one family we see on a weekly basis home schools, and will move away this fall. They are relocating the technology company the husband runs to USA. We will miss them, and are sad to see the great lengths they must go to make a choice freely available to responsible adults and parents through out the rest of the free world. It worries me even more, as the response of the average educated Sweden here is not indignity, but to defend the move to outlaw homeschooling. Puzzling.

We also are undecided about our plans for the future, and have been trying to work out a life that involves living part time in Sweden, and part time in the USA. Our schedule will not sync with the school year, so we  would home school. My home town in Florida has a very active home school group we could be a part of, even some Waldorf home schoolers. But, it would not be safe to stay in the Swedish system and not follow the school enrollment rules, so we are looking at just making the move more full time to USA so we can home school and be free to travel, with out the burden of the Swedish schedules.

There are only about 100 families home schooling in Sweden. I easily know that many home schoolers myself. I know it is a fun, exciting way to provide individualized education. In the age where we can work anywhere, certainly people should understand children can learn anywhere.

The following is a message and video about an action to raise awareness about the situation for home schoolers in Sweden.
Latest updates are available at: http://askofamilycamp.info/?page_id=199#eng



"For many of you this may be a new concept, but here in little old Sweden the government have passed a new law making education in schools compulsory unless you have exceptional circumstances. This means that home educating has become increasingly difficult, and has left many people struggling with councils, local governments and the government. In many cases the situation has forced them to leave the country due to the pressures and fines placed on them because of their desire to home educate. The laws passed go against article 2 of the European convention of human rights.

So what is actually happening in Sweden today in 2012 is that families are fleeing their home country due to a new law that have been passed. This law goes against the Human Rights and is robbing    the families of their right to freedom.  Sweden, previously known in the world for being a safe place for refuges is now creating its own. And this just because families want the right to educate their children at home, something that has been proved through research over and over again just as good as any school – and often even better.

So we’ve had a new thought about how to try and raise awareness over the situation of home education here in Sweden. We thought we could end the Askö Family Camp  by setting off on a  “Walk to Freedom”. Well, our thought is to walk from little Askö to Åland which is about 170 km to the ferry in Stockholm. This represents the sacrifice made by so many of the Swedish home educators who are leaving the country they love with the endeavor to find the freedom of home educating. Åland, a Finnish island of the coast of Stockholm, has different home educating laws and home education is not prohibited and also the official language is Swedish.  So by walking from Askö (“Sweden’s international home education camp”) to Åland where many people are fleeing, we hope to portray what people are going through in order to achieve this freedom.

We were hoping to walk via Eskilstuna, Strängnäs and Södertälje on our way to Stockholm to try and make awareness in some of the bigger places on the way. Stockholm, being the capital is of course very important in this sense. We would get the ferry from Stockholm to Åland because if we don’t it’s a pretty long swim out in the Baltic sea.

With many educators moving to Åland, we are hoping that this will symbolise the struggle that some of you have gone through and that to find Freedom you actually have to leave Sweden. This, we believe, will make a powerful message to send out to society, the media and the government and will help promote awareness of the issue.

Well if you’re up for being a part of this please let us know. We’re hoping that families, parents or anyone that is interested will join. It should be a fantastic adventure, challenge and will give us all another opportunity to promote and make awareness for home education here in Sweden.

The intention is to walk the whole distance in 5-6 days and of course get the ferry from Stockholm. We were thinking to start the last day of or the day after the Askö Camp has finished on the 13th July.
If you just want to walk part of it, the start, the end, meet us at places we aim to be (if we get there), walk just a little, drive with us or carry equipment, then please feel free to join us, the help and support will be much appreciated. If you can or cannot join us but wish to help or get involved in the walk to freedom here are a few suggestions:-This is a short list of possible ways to help, if you think of anything else please let us know.

-spreading the word (inviting friends, family or sharing on other blogs and forums)
-If you know of any contacts (people within the media or potential sponsors)
-Financial aid (help with cost of ferries and possible support vehicles)

And, the more the merrier, so we hope many will join us and turn this into an awesome manifestation!"

Demeter's Grief

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."

- William Congreve

As a maiden midwife student I really related to the Persephone story- the idea of exploring the underworld, finding magic in the star arrangements of the jeweled red pomegranate seeds. There was a romance in finding out what lies beneath, exploring the unknown and dark. I saw it as the necessary work for creativity, a metaphor for all birth. Going deep and emerging new. Initiation. Now, perhaps it is partly that I am a mother, I see it from Demeter's side. The tragedy of her daughter taken while picking flowers. Both the mother, and the midwife in me can feel under my skin the potential depth and power of a mother's grief. Demeter, so devastated she shuts down the green of the world for the length of her daughter's absence...every single year!!  Now, after my first few winters, I get that that imagery is no joke. Winter, a grieving mother. 

Death was more fun when it was a myth, instead of a season. Winter was new to me when I moved to Sweden. I had never owned a coat or seen the leaves change in Autumn until we lived here. I am from Florida, where Americans go to evade winter and death in their retirement by playing shuffleboard in the eternal sunshine, and lounging on inflatable rafts in swimming pools like Ponce De Leon's fountain of youth. I am not sure I am cut out for these winters. Maybe I am just bad at it, lacking training. Maybe it is just been a part of having babies, being home with kids in a country where few other mothers are. Not having anyone to talk to, not a single soul sister who knows what I mean, if you know what I mean! Maybe I just lost all the sparkle, creativity, or power I ever had and just suck now, and forever. Is it the Vitamin D? Will St. Johns Wort help? These are the questions you ask yourself after a while if you live somewhere where the sun may set at 3:30 in the afternoon. Shouldn't I relish the cozy quiet and warm my hands and heart sipping tea by the light of my wood stove, and knit in my rocking chair? I have the knitting needles, the awesome wood stove, the red cabin the woods, the tea. Why then did I spend my winter asleep, in agony of loneliness, or on facebook looking for something it can never give me? This makes me very cautious of my favorite escapist pursuit, planning alternate lives. If I can not enjoy this one, what makes me think any of my other invented options will help?

Winter is long, hard, and on a psychic level I become immobilized like Demeter, not sure I can have faith in the return of the light and delight. The last days of winter are like the end of labor, when you are lost and not sure you can really make it- it is just too much, it is not okay, it is stupid, and will never end and is probably not worth it anyway...as a midwife if a woman expresses that in birth, I recognize it as a signpost and feel a little rush of joy, for I know it means she is about to start pushing and the baby will soon come. The babies really do come come, despite the moment of doubt, and winter does end, despite the bleakness  within and without. 

The spring is really, really springing here, a rebirth, and not one that came to us with out labor. Today was truly warm, the first rabbit ears of young leaf buds are showing more than just a little bit, and the rhubarb has hit the point of rapid unfolding where you can see changes in it's growth from the beginning to the end of the day. Really, it is over. I am remember what it is that is okay and even good about this life in Sweden. Words can not say how my body responds to the sight of a little more young green on the birches. 

Now, as spring really comes upon us, I feel the sap running in my veins again, life returning, and can imagine how Demeter felt when Persephone returned. That, is also no joke, the joy a mother feels when her long lost child returns. 

Spring. Part of the cycles. Birth/Growth/Death, Maiden/Mother/Crone.

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

“How can one person be more real than any other? Well, some people do hide and others seek. Maybe those who are in hiding - escaping encounters, avoiding surprises, protecting their property, ignoring their fantasies, restricting their feelings, sitting out the pan pipe hootchy-kootch of experience - maybe those people, people who won't talk to rednecks, or if they're rednecks won't talk to intellectuals, people who're afraid to get their shoes muddy or their noses wet, afraid to eat what they crave, afraid to drink Mexican water, afraid to bet a long shot to win, afraid to hitchhike, jaywalk, honky-tonk, cogitate, osculate, levitate, rock it, bop it, sock it, or bark at the moon, maybe such people are simply inauthentic, and maybe the jacklet humanist who says differently is due to have his tongue fried on the hot slabs of Liar's Hell. Some folks hide, and some folk's seek, and seeking, when it's mindless, neurotic, desperate, or pusillanimous can be a form of hiding. But there are folks who want to know and aren't afraid to look and won't turn tail should they find it - and if they never do, they'll have a good time anyway because nothing, neither the terrible truth nor the absence of it, is going to cheat them out of one honest breath of Earth's sweet gas.”
― Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker

Jonas Himmelstrand Interview -
March 4th 2012 - Sligo, Ireland
by WellBoyFilmsIreland

Interview with author and mentor Jonas Himmelstrand dicussing his reasons for leaving Sweden for a life in exile in Finland, due to the Swedish Local Authorities' alleged persecution of his family for engaging in homeschooling. Jonas has long been a critic of Sweden's much-vaunted child-care system and has travelled the world speaking on that topic as well as the benefits of attachment in childhood development.


Jonas Himmelstrand Interview - March 4th 2012 -... by

It was a long dark winter.

Cabin fever, defined: For the second winter in a row, for nearly 6 weeks, the only adult I spoke to who knew my name was my husband.



There are no stay at home moms in Sweden. For me, this means raising kids here has been a surprisingly lonely prospect. 92% of children are in daycare after age 18 months, and according to Jonas Himmelstrand, the advocate for parents at home with children and leader of the group Haro, "Home care is discouraged, and in a sense socially marginalized. Parents will be persuaded, during medical checkups of children, on government institution home pages and through media, that children above one year of age need day care for their development, and that parents need work for their well-being." This contradicts my cultural givens, personal experience, as well as developmental psychology that children under three do best with their parents. That being home with your parent is best if at all possible certainly until age three, and best if at least until school age. A parents nurturing makes the brain grow more. Children can also thrive with a care giver who really knows and loves the child. We had a wonderful nanny when my first was young, she no doubt loved my daughter and their relationship enhanced my daughters life and development. But our school here does meet that criteria for my youngest. Even with a 4:1 ratio of kids to teachers at our Waldorf school, it is not warm and nurturing enough for my three year old who clearly prefers home. I get it, I see the teachers do not understand her context, at the end of last year they did not recognize the word she calls her big sister who she plays with at that school everyday. In other words, they do not really know her, and could not be the caring personal assistant a young child needs to navigate the world. We benefit from the Swedish preschool by using the Waldorf school as a drop off play group for my girls, especially valuable in the absence of relatives that could watch the kids a few hours or friends we would play with if parenting in the more social world we had in Florida. And my 6-7 year old really does do great with a group of kids she can play hard with often. I am mostly home with my kids, but very few others are. I often find myself longing for the community of mothers and families I had in the USA that made this work of raising kids light and fun.

The one good friend I have here who has kids is a german literature professor. Education and language are her natural skills, and she spends lots of one on one time with her kids, so it did not surprise me that her kids had learned to read and write german, english, and swedish by age 4. Her oldest will reach school age this year and is not a fit for the swedish school system, since she is far advanced of the typical swedish child. So her family wishes to continue to teach the child at home, but since Swedes do not value being at home with young children, they are down right suspicious if you wish to be at home with an older one. My friend and her family will relocate to USA, shall I say flee, as if they stay and do not enroll the girl in school they will face fines and even the threat of imprisonment. I was rather hoping that the education law that passed in June 2010 and banned home schooling would not be strongly enforced, but Jonas Himmelstrand the voice of the Swedish home school movement and attachment parenting movement just fled the country under threats and fines of $26,000 a year for not enrolling his children in school.

This place is pretty, oh the red barns and canola fields and children skipping to school through the woods!!...but today I feel rather condemning. People do not socialize. Having barbeques here to extend my social circle results in quiet stares, and comments like "wow, this was such an interesting thing to do, why thank you!". I miss my friends, my people, and no matter how crazy the US is, at least you can be yourself and find someone to go along with it! I have a baby about to turn one, I am going to be doing this taking care of young kids thing a few more years and I can not stand to do it in isolation like this. Back home in the Florida sun there are people who love me who could meet me at the beach, or hang out and have a cup of coffee with me while our kids play, and provide the simple connections that sustain me.

I was admiring someone else's bloggy life from afar, dreaming of her town of Nederland, CO thinking maybe with more sun, English language, and friendly Americans this gig of being at home in the forest with kids would be more fun. But then she picked up and moved from loneliness. Funny how the pictures can convey the dream with out the emotion. I want to catch this blog up with all the pictures of the living the dream in Sweden, it has been good, I will fill in the blog so it is a record of our time here... but I think the clock is ticking, a count down towards our next phase of life....

We came here to get to know family, immerse myself and the kids in Swedish language and culture, and help out family. We have done what we came to do.

Sorry, got a three year old who wants me to drive her pretend train to IKEA. Not much time for blogging these days, so the story is not told in full!

Still Swede.

Being busy with three kids and a lot of travel adventures, as well as some grumpy feelings about plagarism of the blog name, photo ideas, and some content have kept me off the blog circuit.

But....I am returning from a long USA trip, and my dear friend has made me swear if I am going back, I will at least show her how it is going.

So expect me back once again!

But help me out...is this a mom blog, a Sweden blog, an expat blog, a midwife blog, a food blog, or a waldorf blog? I have periodically been of the mind to tighten it up and limit my ramblings to a more concise topic. Seeing other people take my blog name and my ideas and bring them to outlets like The Local and Sweden.se makes me wonder if I should do the same. So far this blog is just me and my not very well orchestrated thoughts off handly whipped out in a quick unartful post on stolen time between nap time and dinner time.

What do you think I ought to do?