Homeschooling in the Nineties, Part 3 — Compulsory Education
Yesterday Ray and I enjoyed going through some pictures from our precious homeschooling days. Ah, I miss it! I have enjoyed sharing the history of homeschooling in the nineties this week. Here is a link to Part 1 on Monday and Part 2 from yesterday, in case you missed them.
Today’s section is about compulsory education.
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When Europeans began to settle in America, some parents taught their children at home, some used tutors, and some sent them to public or private schools. Many of America’s most famous historical figures were homeschooled at least for a portion of their childhood, including:
Patriot Patrick Henry
First Lady Abigail Adams
Chief Justice John Jay
President John Quincy Adams
Inventor Thomas Edison
(And here is a statue of Edison and his mother.)
President Theodore Roosevelt
Photographer Ansel Adams
Before 1852 all American families had the freedom to educate their children as they thought best. That year Massachusetts became the first state to pass a compulsory attendance law that required parents to send their children to school. By 1918 all states had a compulsory attendance law.
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Tomorrow, look forward to what happened next when Dr. Raymond Moore and Dr. James Dobson started talking to parents about a new idea that was really a quite old one.
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction,
And do not ignore your mother’s teaching;
For they are a graceful wreath for your head
And necklaces for your neck.
Proverbs 1:8-9
I started homeschooling in the 90’s also. One of the memories I have of the early years is deciding on a name for our homeschool so that we could receive curriculum from some of the providers, since there weren’t a lot of homeschool-friendly options at the time. We also tried to have a classroom at home for a few years.
I’ve always found the statue of Young Edison amusing because his mom is trying to show him something in a book and he’s not paying attention :-)! I’m sure his mind was busy with something, perhaps what she was saying, and maybe something else. That’s the story of many of our children. They may not end up being the inventor that Thomas Edison was, but they have journeys of their own.