It's pretty clear that "homeschooling," one-word, is the favored term among homeschooling families. Why then do we so often see "home schooling" and "home-schooling" used in the media and legal literature? Does the spelling matter? I think it does and I'm not alone.
Larry and Susan Kaseman, in their "What's in a Name?" HEM article, urged homeschoolers to use and encourage others to use the one-word spelling to differentiate independent homeschooling in its many forms from the school-at-home stereotype, as well as from distance and online public and private school programs.
"There’s more than one way to learn at home, but not all of it is home school [homeschool]," said Rachel Schleif in her The Wenatchee World article, "Home-School Definition, Identity Blurs with New Programs," in which she outlined the controversy over homeschooling terminology and regulations.
Homeschooling is More than Home Plus School
The term "homeschooling" appears to simply represent schooling at home. There's the implication that school-at-home is just like school, only at home, which fails to represent the varying styles of homeschooling. Splitting homeschooling into "home schooling" only accentuates this problem.
The Kaseman's argued that the combination term "homeschooling" represents a new expanded concept. Maybe it does. Maybe not. But why not help to make it so by consistently using it?
What is homeschooling, then? It's not school, right? It's Charlotte Mason, Classical Education, Unschooling. It can even be just like school, but it's not homeschooling if it's school.
Homeschooling Laws and Any Schooling Done at Home
Then there's the larger problem of confusing independent homeschooling with any schooling done at home. Why does this matter? If independent homeschooling in its many forms gets lumped in with public and private school distance and online programs, "home-schooling" laws will become just as confused.
We want homeschooling laws to apply to true homeschoolers so they accurately reflect our particular needs and issues. Distance and online public and private school students have different needs and issues.
By consistently using "homeschooling," we can help define the freedom and flexibility of a host of independent homeschooling styles and options from the public and private school programs done at home.
Sources:
Kaseman, Larry and Susan. "Homeschool v. Home School: What's in a Name?" Home Education Magazine, May-June 2010
Schleif, Rachel. "Home-School Definition, Identity Blurs with New Programs." The Wenatchee World, 3 April 2010.
Sara McGrath - Sara is a veteran homeschool mom of three, Usborne consultant, and the author of Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning.
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