Parents who home school: no teaching degree?

Question

Hello I'm currently researching on the fact that many parents who home school their kid out their don't have a teaching degree, or any teaching training.

Does anyone have any detail on this? Or opinions on whether they should be required to have a teaching degree or not?

Answer 1

Some states do require some sort of certified teacher oversight (annual evaluations, portfolio review, etc.) but no state requires a parent to have a teaching degree.

I've been HS'ing for over 5 years.  My husband and I both have B.S. degrees.  Between the two of us, we had *way* more math and science courses, among others, than those who had an education major.  Most of the education degree involves psychology and classroom management.  Perhaps also learning styles.  As a parent, we don't need psychology to understand our kids (or we can read about it), we don't need classroom management techniques, and we can easily learn our child's learning style (but it's typically quite obvious).

My husband and I balance each others' academic strengths.  He's heavy in math and science as an engineer, and I'm heavy on languages, fine arts, and history.

Our son will take online high school courses, with a teacher, and also take community college courses as a high schooler (actually he'll start cc classes at age 12).  So even with high schooll, which we could teach if we needed to, our son will be "covered" if it's not an area we're strong in.

We use a very broad and deep curriculum, and what I didn't have in my K-12 or college classes, I learn right along with my son.  An example is art history.  I've learned a ton, right alongside him, in the past 5 years.

BTW, I have a lot of education training and did public education as a career before I quit to stay home and be a HS'ing mom.  I'll be getting my master's in adult ed when my kids are grown.

So, the short of it is no, a parent does not need a teaching degree.  Many don't need even a college degree at all.  I'm hoping someone will post a link to the studies showing that parent education has nothing to do with the academic outcome (read:  testing) of HS'ed students.

FWIW, my son, as a 3rd grader, took the EXPLORE test through and academic talent search.  He scored better than 90% of 8th graders (private/public schooled) for his composite.  For science, he scored better than 99% of them.  This year, as a 4th grader, he still scored better than 90%, and in grammar, better than 99% of 8th graders.  Either homeschooling works well for him, or public/private school education isn't all that great!  In our city alone, there's only a 42% graduation rate.  Hmm, and certified, teaching degree holding individuals teach from K-12 here.  Interesting.

You should view the statistics at NHERI:

http://www.nheri.org/

Have fun with your research!

Answer 2

My mom finished high school and had a year or two of art school.  She managed to turn out two well-rounded individuals and is still homeschooling my little sister.  Both my brother and I are doing very well in college, my sister is a busy, happy, social butterfly.  Could my mom pass tests to get her teaching degree?  I dunno.  I'm thinking not.  Does that mean she should not have been allowed to teach us?  Definitely not.  It was always cool learning things with my Mom while she relearned things.  And it made me feel special when she had to study before getting to a concept because I knew she cared enough for my education and me to put time and effort into it.  Most of the homeschool parents I know might have a degree, but it's probably not in education.  And yet, their kids are all turning out just fine.  Go figure.

Answer 3

As a child of two certified teachers, I've got to ask - why on earth should I need a teaching degree in order to facilitate my own son's education?  I think you may have confused what goes into a teaching degree with what it takes to design a child's education.

These are some of the grad courses in education at a large university in my city:

Leadership Studies

Contemporary Curriculum Issues

Comparative Education

Organizational Theory in Administration

The Superintendency

Strategies for Educational Change

Superintendent’s Role in Personnel Management and Evaluation

Business Management Practices in Education

Resource Development (has to do with financing schools)

School Facility Planning

Administration and Supervision of Programs for Exceptional Individuals

Legal, Political, and Ethical Issues in Educational Administration

Well, there's the first 10 or so, anyway.  The list keeps going, and they're all on this order.  Why, I ask again, would I need these in order to teach my own child?  I don't see anything in there on teaching him to read (which I did), teaching him mathematical functions (which I did), teaching him to research (which I did), or teaching him through science experiments (which I do weekly).

I don't have a teaching degree, nor will I get one.  I do have a linguistics degree, and I teach foreign languages.  I love to teach students (elem-high school) how to break a language down, analyze the parts, and put it back together into a useable, understandable language.  It's something I'm good at, and I really don't think that classes in "Contemporary Curriculum Issues" or "School Facility Planning" is going to affect that ability much.

I respect public and private classroom teachers - they have an incredibly important, stressful, and often thankless job.  However, they also deal with a much different facet of teaching than we do.  Many of my friends are former classroom teachers who chose to homeschool their kids, and every one of them has stated that their education background did not prepare them in the least for homeschooling.  It's just a whole 'nother ball park.

Edit - as far as the testing, no, I don't.  I am in charge of my son's education - I determine where he does and doesn't go - and no government testing will define or change that.  Do you realize how many teachers out there are not certified, yet have been teaching for for at least 5 years?  Or how many of them have no background in their subject, yet continue to teach it?  Quite frankly, I don't want my son to have the *same* education as is offered in a public school...if I did, he'd be attending one.  

I think you may be misunderstanding what goes into homeschooling - that the parent doesn't necessarily teach every course.  For example...even though my degree work is in linguistics, my son's former Spanish teacher is a native speaker and college Spanish prof.  His writing teacher is an actual writing teacher - she's been teaching writing for several years.  (Even though I'm more than qualified in this area, he responds well to her and loves her class, so he takes it from her.)  His math curriculum is DVD-based, and taught by math teachers that break down the concepts in ways that I can't.  He'll be taking CLEP and college courses by the time he's 12-13.

A homeschool parent is not only a teacher, but a facilitator.  Our job is to find resources and instructors that fit our children's needs, and then to work with our kids on these subjects to make sure they understand.  I don't know how many teachers you've been able to find that have the time to do this for each one of their students...but I can guarantee you that there aren't many outside of the homeschool world.  Again, it's just a completely different form of education, one that a teaching degree does absolutely nothing to prepare you for.

Answer 4

Let us turn this around.  Fair is fair.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics nearly 60% of "public school students [are] taught by teachers with no major and no certification in the course subject area."

What about PS teachers who are completely bad teachers? Don't get me wrong - there are many great teachers in the PS - but there are also bad ones.  Many do not have the the education to teach what they teach.

Shouldn't PS teachers at least be tested to see if they can read, write, spell, do basic mathematics and teach in their particular subject area?  Teacher's Unions fight this idea tooth and nail.

Also - you may be operating under a bit of a misconception about homeschooling.  It is NOT all about sitting at home all day with mom (or dad) ... It IS about utilizing a staggering variety of resources available to anyone willing to take advantage.  Most areas have active coops with very highly qualified teachers.  Many community college classes have homeschool kids earning dual credits.  One of our local colleges sponsors a year long state-of-the-art lab experience for homeschoolers.

I am a certified teacher by the way.  The masters level certification program I completed had very very little to do with subject matter.  It had more to do with classroom management, program management, public relations, and a bunch of other stuff that NEVER directly effects the education of a child.

Answer 5

If you are looking for trends in education and job performance, you have probably found no correlation.  I think this goes for teaching as well as most jobs.

My spouse and I both have doctorates, but no elementary or secondary teaching background.  I have met many people who tell me that we are so educated that it's ok for us to homeschool, but not others.  Personally, I think they are judging it too superficially.  

Some teachers in public school are really terrible and shouldn't even be around children, let alone in charge of them.  And surely this is true amongst some homeschool parents too.

Parents should be responsible for their children educationally as well as emotionally and physically.  This is the role of the parent.  If they choose to get assistance in some areas, that is only natural, but it boils down to them being responsible for that choice.  And no one should take away the basic right of a parent to decide for them, how to raise their children.  

So, no, I don't think there should be a test for parents to be parents.  And I think that it is my right as a parent to choose how my child is educated, that choice does not belong to the state.

:D

Answer 6

I have a MBA and I feel that I am more qualified to teach my kids than most teacher. What is the purpose of school anyway, to teach your children how to read, write, mathmatics, and science and history which they will never use.

Answer 7

I know of a few people that have been home schooled and their parents don’t have a teaching degree at all. Actually their mostly just stay at home moms that attempt to teach their kids, but I don’t know if their really teaching that well. don’t get me wrong I’m not discriminating or stating that parents that home school are dumb or don’t have any other duties but home duties, I’m just talking about the ones that I know of.

Answer 8

A teaching degree is ONLY needed for teaching in schools because SO much of it is about controlling and trying to motivate a large group of children with widely different abilities and interests. That just doesn't apply at home. I know several ex-teachers who now home educate and their teacher training and experience is about as useful for home ed as chocolate is for making a teapot.

We live in a society where the vast majority have been brainwashed into believing that the school model is the standard and even the only way that children can get an education. I used to think that too and didn't question it until  I started looking at home education for my own child. Even if a home educating parent doesn't 'teach' at all, if no formal curriculum is followed, there are no workbooks, no tests, the child still learns and often learns more and better than they ever would in school.

If you're doing research I suggest you get hold of a copy of  "How Children Learn at Home" by Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison and maybe the earlier "Educating Children at Home" by Alan Thomas. Both books contain the results of actual research with home educating families and reference a lot of other work which you might want to follow up on. For example the research by Tizard and Hughes which exploded the myth that parents have anything to learn from nursery school professionals.

So, no teacher training is pointless and possibly event detrimental to home educating parents who can do a better job than schools even if they didn't finish high school themselves!

Answer 9

Well I was home schooled and really liked it. My mother didn't have a teaching degree however she had several other degrees.  May I add that I turned out rather nicely intelligence/educational wise.

Answer 10

A lot of teacher training is centered around more than teaching.  Several courses in classroom management (homeschool doesn't require this), dealing with different types of learners/abilities/languages when trying to master the SAME lesson, education law, etc.  Many going through the teacher training program are in their late teens or 20s.  They (we) required more info than a parent raising their kids.  Homeschooling lesson plans are very flexible and are intended to be student directed rather than curriculum or state tested directed.

Answer 11

What about those bad parents?  Hmm, I have seen only ONE in my life who did not make a good teacher for her home schooled child.  Why? She did not make a good parent for her child.  She and her husband did not pay the gas bill and her child was showering at his grandmother's house.  They were reported to the child protective services and in the report, it was specifically stated that they should visit the house which was filthy.  A teaching degree would not have improved her parenting or made her leave her dead-beat husband.  Did the "trained" child service people go to the home?  NO!  They called and prepared the parents, who, in turn, told their child he better not say a @#%@ (their words) thing to anyone about anything.  The interview was at the CPS office and not their home.  Home school qualifications would mean diddly in such a rare case.  In fact, it was a public school teacher who made the report.  CPS did nothing and the child stayed home and learned nothing except when another homeschooler from another family offered to teach the child for free, a price the lazy parents could not resist.  The boy went up two grade levels in that other home where the mother had a high school education!    I am sorry, but I am afraid that your concern should be with the inept child protective services, not with home schoolers.  Home school parents are very capable or else why would universities be seeking, in droves, their children for enrollment?

Answer 12

Most of  homeschool parents have very strong opinions on this.  I am one of them.

I have a high school education and have worked in customer service/sales for  20 years and have worked  in the public school system as a cafeteria worker and bus driver for 8 years.   I have learned more in my adult years than I did in the public school.  It was not my public school teachers' fault.

They gave me the books and I memorized the facts long enough to take a tests but I did not learn until daily  life created the desire to learn what I needed for myself.

I believe in home schooling because every person is a self taught person.   We only learn what we want to learn.   The best teacher in the world cannot teach a person who does not want to learn.   The most difficult part of teaching is motivating students to learn.  We have  different learning style,  goals,  aptitudes, and  interests.   It is easier to motivate when you know the child and create a curriculum that fits the child.   This can be done in homeschooling.

In the high school where I work, the teachers have 3 classes a day with 20 plus students in each class.   That is one teacher for 60 plus  students.  There is a required curriculum that the state has formulated based on thousands of students.

Teacher training may be   necessary for these teachers to know how to maintain order, manage the time schedules and have knowledge of variations of teaching styles to accommadate the 4 learning styles of class population.  This is not necessary in home school.  

My brother is a teacher in the public school and has taught for 30 years.   I taught him to read.   He was 4 and I was 6.

I did not have a degree.     This is simplified but it is basic.

I am thankful for the internet that gives use information with a simple search.    There are so many free resources that learning is easy.     I hope that my son will follow my example and become a life long learner.

Answer 13

Hmmm, well, some states (until VERY recently) did not require a teaching degree to teach in public schools. Some public schools (most) don't require a substitute teacher to have a teaching degree. I personally am working on my Bachelor Degree and then will get my Teaching certification.

I have met many VERY intelligent people, with only a high school diploma,  who did a better job of teaching their children than the teacher they were sending them to. Why? Because they had a genuine interest in their children's education, welfare and future. Why does it matter to anyone whether my kid is being taught by a certified teacher or not. It really doesn't, does it. Perhaps it just bugs them because they don't really know what it's about...and because they believe that we are all somehow of a cult-ish mentality?

I find it interesting that my kid has learned more in his 2 years of homeschooling than his cousins who are in public school and are either at the same grade level, or higher. What qualifies my government (or anybody else for that matter) to tell me that they know what is best for my child? The same government who believes that breastfeeding mothers should stay in bathrooms to give their children the very diet that nature created for them?  (Would you eat in a public bathroom?)

Sorry, this topic irks me.

Edit:  They don't test public school teachers to see if they will be effective teachers. Actually, they test students to see if they are learning...then do little to improve on what they know is broken. Some states require mandatory testing of home schooled children. The home schooled children usually test better than public school children.

Answer 14

If there are parents out there incapable of teaching they are few and far between.  A teaching degree is helpful to learn how to teach large numbers of children whom you do not know well, all of different abilities and backgrounds.  It is not necessary to teach ones own children.

Statistically, homeschooled children perform better academically and are more likely to obtain a college degree, and this holds true even when the parents are not High School graduates.  

Some interesting studies have been done, here are some links to them:

http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/20...

http://www.hslda.org/research/ray2003/de...

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/comp2001...

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/rudner19...

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/ray1997/...

Now, do I think parents should have to be certified teachers to educate their children?  No, I don't.  Not even all school teachers are certified, there are many private schools that hire uncertified individuals to teach.

Should kids be tested periodically to see that they are learning?  Well, possibly.  There are pros and cons to testing.  

I know one thing, the state and or public school system has no business telling homeschool parents what to do until they fix their own failing system.

Our public school system is one of lowest performing in the world, so excuse me if I say that I do not aspire to give my child an education equal to that of the public school system, rather I aspire to give my child an education superior to the Public Schools.

I don't have a teaching degree, in fact I don't have any degree.  However my High School student consistently scores at the Post High School level in most subjects on standardized tests.  My second grader has special needs, but he is still performing above average in math, and within normal range in other subjects.  My kindergartner easily reads second grade level material.

When I don't know something, I either learn it with my student or find someone else to explain it to her.

If I had 30 kids, I would probably need more training to handle them, but I have 3, not 30.  It doesn't take a degree to say, "I don't know the answer, but lets research and find out."   In fact, that has the added benefit of teaching the child that information does not have to be given to them from a teacher, they can search it out for themselves.  If they want to know about something, they can go to the library, to the internet, to the Chamber of commerce, to the local veterinarian, the museum or science center, etc.  and find out.

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Edit, this is a really good link to learn more:

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/comp2001...

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Answer 15

I don't have a degree and teach my children! Why do I need a degree to teach three kids? I'm not trying to herd 30 kids around nor do I need to be taught crowd control techniques!

I use a program that includes lesson plans, and everything I need to succeed with it! I have taught my children everything they need to know so far. I didn't need a degree to teach them to walk, or talk, to eat with a fork, and everything else they knew before school began.

My 5 yo is learning to read (by his self) My 9 yo is enjoying Am history and Math (gasp). She couldn't subtract when I pulled her out of the public schools here. She was in second grade for the second year! She was coming home from school with 4 hours of home work I had to teach her anyway! My husband and I talked about it and said were doing it anyway why not make it official!

Should we have to get a degree? NO!

Answer 16

I guess statistically you would just have to look at the test scores.  It's amazing how parents who homeschool consistently turn out kids with better health scores.  They consistently turn out kids who win spelling bees, geography bees, etc.

Answer 17

I have a teaching degree but most parents I know who homeschool don't.

I would have to say that a teaching degree doesn't have a predictive measure in any way shape or form on how well a homeschooled student does. Why not? Because a teaching degree, at least for me, was more about class management, breaking down a curriculum into a year, how to present a lesson to a class and meet all the different needs, setting things up to be able to assess the progress of 30 students... It was about GROUP teaching and meeting provincial standards, NOT about teaching an individual child.

A high school student can get paid to tutor somebody else in just about any subject. How is that any different than a parent helping their child to learn? It isn't. In fact, some research has been done on homeschool student success and educational background of the parents and there has been no correlation whatsoever. One study actually had a POSITIVE outcome for those whose parents did not even have a high school diploma--it seems that those students had parents who were determined to make sure their kids got a diploma and did well.

Furthermore, many private schools still do not require teaching degrees. Two of the most amazing educators ever--Marva Collins and Maria Montessori--never had teaching degrees. Marva Collins has had tremendous success without ever once taking a teacher training course--although she has directed many. :)

Therefore, I can not in any way say that a teaching degree should be required to homeschool.

As for:

"But what about those who are completely bad teachers and pull their kid out of school just because the kid hates their teacher or emotional reasons?"

What about them? It sounds like you are focused on an imaginary system where everthing works out in the end. A parent can have a teaching degree and still be a horrible teacher. Does that mean they should homeschool? Although the real point would be: does that mean the government should take away their right to homeschool? No. There's no such thing as perfection, no such thing as guaranteeing one outcome or another. If a parent pulls a child out for reasons you suggest (although I have yet to meet a parent who has done so for those reasons, and I know MANY, many homeschooling parents), they are doing what they feel is in the best interests of their child--it's not abuse. One could argue that it's far more removed from abuse than what many parents allow their kids to eat each day.

"Shouldn't parents be at least tested to see if they can give the child a better education/equivelent education as the public schools?"

No. First of all, because many parents homeschool to NOT have an equivalent education. Sure, maybe down the road, but flexibility is often demanded in the early years and many things get studied by homeschooling families that are never studied in schools. That's not going to be tested, is it? Why should my grade 5 child HAVE to study the same things as other grade 5 students? She likes algebra and square roots (done in grades 7-9), but still struggles with division (done in grade 4). Is that really a problem? Besides, are adults so incapable of learning that they can't learn things along, or just a step ahead, of their kids? Maybe in some difficult areas, like math, but there are a growing number of amazing resources out there that teach the kids without the parents even having to be involved. Why would parents need to test high on that if something else is going to be doing the teaching?

" Because of course there are parents out their who do a much worse teaching job than the teachers at public schools, but yet they still home school their kid."

My response: so? There are a lot of parents who are much worse parents than teachers, doesn't mean the teacher should take the kids home with them. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PERFECTION. Truly. As I've said, you've got a model image in your mind that no system will ever make happen, much less be able to guarantee or even say that there's truly a better chance. So what if the parent can't teach? I've seen kids who didn't do ANY academic work until ages 10-12 and they still ended up going to college. Abraham Lincoln didn't read until he was 14--ended up being a lawyer, what 5 years later? I've read too much about the Sudbury Valley School and the Albany Free School to ever think that a child is going to be completely lost with a bad teacher. Their emotional growth and character determines their future far more than how well somebody can teach them long division.

ADDED: I just have to add that my husband is a jr. high teacher. Although he took no science courses while in university, he spent his first 5-6 years of teaching with a science class. Yep. If he'd had to take a test on it the first year BEFORE teaching it, he wouldn't have passed. But you know what? He's got a brain. He learned the material, used what resources he could, found ways to explain the stuff to the kids, although pretty much just relied on the resources that came with the text. Much like homeschooling parents do. And btw, his students did just fine despite him not knowing a thing about the subject matter before that first year.

SECOND ADDITION: One thing they can't and don't test for a teaching degree is how well you can actually teach, how much you care about the students learning. There are plenty of university professors out there who know their subject matter extremely well but they can't teach worth beans! Requiring a minimal set of knowledge is pointless. I can read something in 5 minutes and then go teach it to my kids. Why should I have to know it all years ahead of time?

THIRD ADDITION: Do parents have to be certified child providers to be able to take care of their own kids? It's a law where I live that any daycare (aside from a home-based dayhome) MUST have certified people to work there. There are different levels of certification, plus the requirement for first aid training. Should parents who aren't willing to put their kids in daycare because of problems there not be allowed to because they aren't certified?

Answer 18

Well, I'm 15 and one of nine siblings, all of whom are home educated. Neither of our parents have any teaching qualifications (although they do both have other degrees).

We're unschoolers so would have very little, if any, use for 'teachers' in the conventional sense of the word so no, I do not believe it is necessary or even useful for home educating parents to have a teaching qualification.

Teaching has more in common with and relevance to schooling...and schooling isn't necessarily the same as education!

This is a viewpoint that tends to be voiced from within the school system; those who believe 'schooling' and 'education' are synonymous rather than exclusive.

Incidentally there are thousands of teachers in government schools who have no formal teaching qualifications either. Neither are the teachers in independent schools required to have any form of teaching qualification in order to teach.

There has also been research done here in Australia that clearly demonstrated that it is the children of parents who failed to finish high school who do especially well when educated at home rather than at school.

*Daily experience shows that it is energetic individualism which produces the most powerful effects upon the life and actions of others and really constitutes the best education. Teachers, schools, academies and colleges give but the merest beginnings of education in comparison with it. Far more influential is the life-education given daily in our homes, in the streets, behind shop counters, in workshops, at the loom and the plough, in counting houses and manufactories, and in the busiest haunts of men*

Source: Murray, John. London: 1886.

That quote pretty much sums up why I do not believe in the necessity or usefulness of teachers in home education. They are, as my dad would say, neither use nor ornament to the vast majority of home-educating families.

Answer 19

In alot of homeschooling curriculum the parents don't need a

teaching degree. For our high school work we do american school of corr. and the people at american school grade all my work and keep the records. The books are self explanitory and if you need help you can call american school. For my algebra and geometry we hired a tutor to help me.  For all the lower grades than high school we took ACE which is also self explainitory and if I had a question mom could always help me. Even if we took ACE for high school there is dvd's you can get to help you with stuff like algebra. Why would my parents need a degree to home school us if there are recources you can get to help you through the company we use?