Home schooling offers flexibility, but some worry there’s not enough oversight
Homeschooled children. Photo by Alice Tejkalová.
Prague 2007: Common Ground
Shelley Schenderline decided to home school her two daughters after seeing how they were treated at the public elementary school in Harrison, Montana. “They were the only Natives,” she said. “They had a lot of discrimination both from students and teachers.” Schenderline added that other students often pulled her daughters’ hair.
If you ask two families why they home school, you’ll most likely get two different answers. Some, like Suzi Schrock, decide to home school because their children have trouble with the pace or format of public school curricula. Shrock’s oldest daughter had trouble focusing in school. “She’d come home feeling stupid: ‘I’m never going to learn anything. I’m always behind,’” said Schrock. Some parents want more personal involvement in the content of their children’s education. Others want to protect their children from the negative experiences they had in school.
In Montana, there are 144,418 students in the public school system and 4,093 registered home schoolers. The only requirement for parents who wish to home school their children is to register each year with their county superintendent. Joyce Silverthorne, director of tribal education for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, said that such freedom creates a lot of variation in the quality of education received by home-schooled children.
“Good home schooling produces children who are really capable and able to do many things [children in] the public schools do not,” said Silverthorne. On the other hand, she said, parents who are not academically prepared or who do not set clear educational goals for themselves and their children are leaving their kids at a disadvantage. Silverthorne would like to see the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes establish their own home schooling program that has check points to determine whether kids are getting the education they need.
Shelley Schenderline grew up on the Crow Agency and dropped out of school during junior high, partly because of discrimination. She said that she had to learn to fight because she was a “half-breed.”
At home, Schenderline also taught her girls about tribal culture, but the main reason she decided to home school was to instill them with Christian values. Her daughter, Tiara Thomas, has decided to begin home schooling her own children next year. Thomas wants to be personally responsible for what her children are learning. “We want to be the ones that teach them about God, teach them about the ABC’s or sex or whatever. We don’t want other people teaching our kids that,” she said. Thomas and her husband want to incorporate lessons in Apsaaloke, the Crow language, into their home schooling curriculum.
Suzi Schrock also teaches her children about their tribal culture and heritage. Her oldest daughter, Shelbi, 17, has decided to go to boarding school in Bozeman next year. Shelbi said that she has enjoyed home schooling for the most part. “You can go as slow or as fast as you want,” she said. “You can wake up when you want.” Her only complaint is that she doesn’t get as much of an opportunity to socialize with her friends as she would like.
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