The English professor, historian, author of 18 books and holder of a doctorate in American studies from the nearby College of William & Mary is one of the forces behind America’s burgeoning home-schooling movement, which is growing about 7 percent each year. The National Home Education Research Institute estimates that there were 2.04 million home-schooled children in the United States as of 2010, about 4 percent of the nation’s school-age population. That’s almost double the 1.2 million home-schooled children in 2000. A June article in U.S. News & World Report said that home-schooled children graduate from college at higher rates than their peers, earn higher GPAs and are better socialized than most high school students.

[Susan] Bauer is best known among home-schoolers for “The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” — writtenwith her mother, Jessie Wise, a former teacher — which has sold more than half a million copies since its first publication in 1999. Classical education focuses on the great books of Western civilization, Latin, and lessons about morality and virtue, and is based on the medieval European curriculum that divided learning into the “trivium”: grammar, logic and rhetoric. The concept of fusing classical education into modern teaching was popularized by a 1947 essay by British author Dorothy Sayers called “The Lost Tools of Learning.” But it was Bauer and her mother who provided parents with a template.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Education • Marriage & Family

1. Jill C. wrote: If Bauer is a homeschool pioneer then what are the parents who were homeschooling in the 1980s and 1990s?  Pre-pioneers?  Or maybe just hippies?  We taught our children in our Dallas, Texas home, beginning in 1984 and believe-it-or-not, there were books and educational materials available.  If there wasn’t a support group in the area, we formed one.  Our oldest was already in college and our youngest, finishing up high school level studies when Susan Bauer’s book came out.  And yes, even back then, there were different kinds of homeschoolers as far as philosphical and religious differences.  Somehow we managed to sift through the mediocre and choose what worked for our family.  Not sure what all the ruckus is about with Duin’s article.  Perhaps just a mid-life crisis for Bauer? November 4, 6:37 pm | [comment link]

2. montanan wrote: Jill C. is correct - there have been homeschoolers for decades.  However, the growth of the movement is a recent phenomenon and Ms. Bauer’s book sparked the imagination and drive of many a homeschool parent - such as my wife.  The divisions described in the article are real - and, in truth, are reflective of the divisive nature of this century in American society.  Churches are this way, politics is this way, the internet fosters this ... to bastardize our national motto, E unus pluribum these days. November 4, 9:09 pm | [comment link]

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