Declarations of Independence: Home School Families' Perspectives on Education, the Common Good, and Diversity

Abstract

This study examined the perspectives of home school families regarding the rights, interests, and responsibilities of family and state over education. These families viewed the common good differently than critics of home schooling. They believed the diversity of curriculum and worldview in their home schools positively impacts the common good by increasing the overall diversity of society. These families situated the practice of home schooling within the exercise of religion inserting a Constitutional challenge into the debate over home schooling.  The voices of these families, their declarations of independence from the educational norm in our nation, challenge our views of what really is the common good, what diversity we value, and what activities we include in our definition of the free exercise of religion.