In a Class of Their Own

Just after my daughter started high school, it became clear to both of us that we were not excited about the school she was attending. As a reference librarian for the Corpus Christi (TX) Public Libraries, I had been exposed to homeschooling while assisting homeschooled students and their parents at the reference desk. Their consistently respectful behavior and intelligent questions impressed me.

Looking into homeschooling for my daughter, I sought out friends who had already taken the plunge. Though they did not downplay the responsibility and work involved, all of them were positive about the experience. I told my daughter about my research and shared with her what I thought it might take to embark on such an adventure.

Still, weeks later, when she turned to me and said, “Mom, I want to homeschool,” I can remember my jaw dropping. But the materials I had read and my friends’ successes convinced me we could do it.

That was in 1997, and as any public librarian doubtless knows, homeschooling has only increased since. A study by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that in 2003, the number of students being homeschooled was about 1.1 million. That’s a whopping 29 percent increase from 1999, when the department first collected information on the subject.

When my daughter decided to learn at home, I at first kept my full-time job as a reference librarian and enrolled her in a “home study school,” which sent books and coursework to our house. There are many such schools around the country, accredited institutions that essentially become a mail-order version—or, nowadays, a Web version—of a local school. It was the same program that a friend’s daughter was in, and the two would work on their coursework at my friend’s house. Two months later I cut my hours to part-time and homeschooled my daughter in the afternoon. It was her responsibility to work on her own at home or at a friend’s house while I was gone. When I got home, we would get together for explanations or questions. I would read the chapters and learn right along with her. Sometimes we hired tutors for extra help (in math, for instance) or did group sessions with homeschoolers in the area.

Soon I realized that I was seeing my reference library job from a new perspective: that of a homeschooling mom. I took more interest in the resources the public library provided. I kept contact names and numbers up-to-date and suggested books and other materials for purchase. Of course, not every homeschooler has a librarian for a mom, but every homeschooler has access to a library. And one of the main things I realized is that for homeschoolers, libraries are an invaluable resource.

Librarians who want to expand or improve their work with homeschoolers can find a great model at the Johnsburg (IL) Public Library and its Homeschool Resource Center (HRC), which offers one of the most extensive public-library homeschooling programs in the nation. (Check out the center’s Web site, including information for librarians, at www.johnsburglibrary.org/hrc.htm.) The Johnsburg program started in 2001, when the library received a $55,000 grant to establish a homeschool center. The grant was a onetime gift from the Illinois State Library, with funding from the federal Library Services and Technology Act. Because the money had to be spent within a specific time frame, Johnsburg was able to open the HRC with a panoply of curriculum materials, science equipment, math manipulatives, educational games and kits, software, and print materials. Everything since has been done without the benefit of grant money. This year, for instance, the Johnsburg library board allocated $500 to the center.

One of the engines behind the creation of the Johnsburg HRC was a local resident named Kathy Wentz, a certified science teacher who left teaching to homeschool her own children 15 years ago. It was Wentz who dreamed of starting the resource center and who ultimately shared her idea with the library’s director, Maria Zawacki. Now Wentz holds the title of homeschool parent advisor, volunteering her time to the center and making herself available for consultation at the library each week.

Illinois law does not require homeschoolers to register with local school districts, so there’s no way of knowing exactly how many homeschoolers are in the Johnsburg area. Wentz thinks the number is similar to the nationwide average of two to three percent of the school-age population. And since many homeschoolers are concerned about privacy issues, the HRC does not track its users in any way.

But the Johnsburg homeschool center has clearly thrived. Though a small rural community in northern Illinois, Johnsburg is within a two-hour drive of Chicago, Milwaukee, Rockford, IL, and Aurora, IL. According to Wentz, Johnsburg has become a “destination library,” with people traveling long distances just to visit the center. If they have a library card from any town in Illinois, they can borrow materials. “We frequently have items checked out via interlibrary loan from patrons throughout the state,” says Wentz. “We have even had people drive in from other states, even though they know they can’t check out the materials.” According to the HRC Web site, a year after opening, homeschool materials were 6.5 percent of Johnsburg’s total annual circulation and still rising.

Since its inception, the HRC has continued to add materials to the collection, through fund-raising and a small annual budget. Wentz has successfully solicited donations of materials from homeschooling authors, companies going out of business, homeschooling families, and retired teachers. Some donations are added directly to the collection and some are sold at the annual Homeschool Resource Center Open House with the profit going toward buying new HRC materials.

Wentz also sends out quarterly e-mail notices about the new materials added to the HRC, which remind patrons to donate their materials when they are through with them. “Having a good working relationship with other homeschoolers as well as retiring school staff has helped, too,” she says.

Wentz and I agree that both homeschoolers and libraries benefit when they work together to boost services to homeschooled children. For their part, it’s important that library staffers become familiar with the needs of homeschooling parents and children—and break free of any lingering stereotypes they may have about homeschoolers and see them for who they are: patrons.

“All homeschoolers are different, and they use different styles, believe in different educational philosophies and are homeschooling for different reasons,” stresses Wentz. Some homeschooling parents, she says, complain of library staff members who are disrespectful or seem judgmental when they ask for help finding high-interest, low-readability books for children whose reading might not be very strong.  In addition, “some parents complain of staff who frown at them and ask them why they are there during school hours. “Library staff should understand that homeschoolers want to be welcomed to use the library during public school hours,” Wentz says. (The HRC Web site has some useful advice about the best way for librarians to deal with homeschoolers, as well as information from a survey the Johnsburg Library did when creating its resource center.)

 That said, most homeschooling parents realize that libraries are a tremendous resource. Librarians, for instance, are the experts on what books are out there, and “library staff who can provide lists of mixed-use books are worth their weight in gold to homeschoolers,” says Wentz, citing diverse needs such as locating historical fiction on the Revolutionary War or a great children’s book that features math.

Sometimes, parents are also looking for information on the legal issues involving homeschooling. For instance, some districts won’t allow homeschooled children to attend certain classes or take part in after-school programs. Or sometimes parents can’t get access to textbooks, even though such access may be mandated by their state. Librarians shouldn’t offer legal advice, but they can point out books that might help parents.

According to Wentz, many homeschoolers change schooling styles or materials a lot in the first few years of homeschooling, often in order to find the right match for their child’s learning style. Being able to check out a variety of materials at a variety of levels lets a homeschooling family see if a specific set of materials actually is working for a child before buying them. “This can save the average family hundreds of dollars a year,” Wentz says. Many parents choose homeschooling because they hold religious beliefs they feel are not reflected in a public school setting. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, more than two-thirds of parents say they are concerned about the social environment in public schools and cite the desire to provide religious or moral instruction as their reason to homeschool. But a growing number of parents see homeschooling as a way to distinguish their children from other students in the college admissions process.

My own child ended up using homeschooling as a way to accelerate her path to college. She wanted to finish high school early, so she took the GED exam and entered the local community college. She earned her associates degree and then went to Texas A & M University at Corpus Christi. Then she took a break and moved to Bethesda, MD. She is now a stay-at-home mother to a one-year-old daughter and was recently accepted as a transfer student at the University of Maryland. She will resume her studies in the fall.

As the number of homeschoolers continues to rise, these parents and students will continue to look to public libraries and librarians for support. Wentz says the key to working effectively with them is simply to understand their needs.

“The biggest single concept has to be that we need to build bridges of understanding,” Wentz says. “Libraries need to build bridges to their homeschool community by understanding the wide spectrum of homeschooling styles and the people who choose homeschooling. And the homeschool community needs to build bridges to the library and be willing to work toward a common goal.”