[Opinion] Homeschooling

On January 18, 1979, a farmer named John Singer was at a standoff with four policemen at his farm in Camas, Utah, the United States. He had been fined and received administrative orders several times on charges of breaking a “compulsory school attendance law” for not sending his five children to school.

As a devoted Mormon, Singer had been teaching his children for six years at home, citing that he would not send his children to the Sodom-and- Gomorrah-like school, where violence, sex, drugs, rock and roll, cursing and swearing were rampant. Singer resisted the policemen who were trying to arrest him, but in the end, he was shot to death.

This case served as an opportunity to strengthen the argument in the U.S. that there should be a clear line between “obligation to educate children” and “obligation to send children to school.” After many battles in the court, homeschooling was acknowledged legal. Homeschooling was first started by some people based on their own religious reasons but it has started to spread across the U.S. as growing number of parents increasingly feel anxious about sending their children to school in light of miserable school environments, shooting incidents, violence and bullying at school.

In the U.S., an estimated 1.3 to 1.5 million children are currently receiving homeschooling in various forms. Recently, in U.S.’s prestigious Spelling Bee, children who were homeschooled, not regular school students, took first, second and third places, embarrassing those who tend to look down on homeschooling.

In Korea as well, homeschooling is on the rise. Distrust toward public education and the cookie-cutter education system, which disregards each student’s capability and aptitude, is fueling attention to homeschooling, which is a kind of tailored education. Those who already experienced homeschooling say that it can help establish the right sense of value and religion and deepen the closeness among family members. They also say that thanks to advanced Internet environment and field trips to a museum or art gallery, the learning ability of children who are homeschooled does not lag behind. However, some point out the possible lack of sociality, which can be formed when children play with their peers, as a problem.

Inha University has become the first university in Korea to select its 10 freshmen through its own admission process for homeschooling students. Instead of scores on the College Scholastic Ability Test, the university selected them based only on scores of Government High-school Equivalency Examination tests and an in-depth interview. It remains to be seen whether Inha University’s new experiment can change Korean people’s perception of homeschooling.