Home schools double in months, but pandemic isn’t the only reason

A report by the National Home Education Research Institute shows that in the early 1970s, 13,000 children were home schooled across the country. Almost 50 years later, that number has grown to 5 million homeschooled children in Kindergarten to Grade 12, with a further increase from 2019 to 2021.

The US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey found that 5.4% of households with school-aged children were home schooled at the start of the pandemic in 2020. As of last fall, that number had doubled to 11.1%, he said.

For Travis and Stephanie Goodrich, home schooling is something they believe in because of their own experiences in public schools while in high school. Travis Goodrich having a younger brother in school who was being bullied, their parents decided to make the switch.

“My younger brother was being bullied, and let’s just say I was his protector,” Goodrich said. “He was being bullied and I was in trouble for fighting back.”

So Goodrich completed his last two years of high school by home schooling his brother every four years.

“At that point in my high school career, it wasn’t painful at all,” he said of the change. “It really didn’t take long, it was like doing homework,” he said of the workflow.

Goodrich being in construction and relocating a lot, he and his wife made the decision earlier in their life to go to homeschool.

“It made sense for homeschooling,” he said.

Now a father of four, he and his wife home school all children – ages 12, 11, 9 and 6 – and feel that not only are they getting a better education, but they are also getting more. opportunities for extra-curricular activities.

“There are so many extra programs outside of school and fewer extra programs in schools because of the funding,” Goodrich said, adding that other families who study at home are planning activities such as planning. trips to the zoo or visiting historic sites.

“You can actually go out and see it, touch it, hear it, smell it,” he said of visiting the places they discover.

When it comes to accountability, the programs their kids use are created so that when they take a test they can’t access the lessons, forcing them to study and learn through their mistakes – something Goodrich considers an important part of education.

“You can’t pamper them,” Goodrich said. “You have to let them make mistakes.”

Proud of his children and the fact that his youngest is surrounded by siblings who study at home, Goodrich said his 6-year-old is already being disciplined to study at home and learn.

“He was reading when he was 3,” he says.

For Corinne and Robert Ishum, two of their three children have experienced home schooling, the third, who is blind, attends the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired at 658 E. State St.

Libby Ishum, 13, has been homeschooled for the past two years and now attends Westfair Christian Academy, located at 1815 W. Lafayette Ave., while Robby Ishum, 11, is homeschooled and Bradley Ishum, 10 years old, is a student at ISVI.

“We moved to Jacksonville so he (Bradley) could go to ISVI,” said Corinne Ishum, adding that they had lived in Jacksonville for six years.

Corinne and Robert Usher – who are high school sweethearts – understand that there are great qualities in public schools, however, the reasons the Ishums decide to homeschool come from the fact that they have both feel that they did not receive the best education in public schools. together.

“My husband and I were on the same page – we both had bad experiences in public schools,” she said, adding that in their minds there were only two choice for their children to learn, one of them being home-schooled.

“If there is a Christian school, they will go there, if not, we will house school them,” she said.

For Robby Ishum, home schooling has more benefits than none.

“It has its pros and cons,” he said, adding that he missed seeing his friends even though “I don’t need to get dressed in the morning,” he said. laughing.

Corinne Ishum, who is in a home schooling program, said she appreciates the way schooling is done because it allows her son to learn when mistakes are made.

“When they get it wrong, they have to go back and fix it,” she said. “Where at school you take a test and you just get a ‘C’ or a ‘D’,” she said, adding that it doesn’t allow students to learn why they got it wrong. .

For her daughter, who now attends the academy, Corinne Ishum said that she had had a fairly smooth transition into the classroom and that she saw that her home schooling had taught her to be disciplined, to the point that her daughter did not. did not understand why. other students sometimes speak during class.

“Why don’t they shut up when the teacher speaks,” Corinne Ishum said of her daughter’s comments.

Understanding that home schooling is unique in every family situation, Corinne Ishum said that “do what’s best for you – it’s not a cookie cutter”.