For a growing number of Utah children, home and school have the same address.
Although Utah still has one of the country's lowest percentages of home-schooled children, more parents are opting for this alternative.School-district officials who keep tabs on the number of children officially removed from schools for instruction at home say they see a larger total each year. (See chart)
"Our numbers doubled in the past two years," said Nancy Hardy of the Salt Lake School District. The current total is 120. She said it appears the greatest growth is in the junior high school age group - perhaps a reflection of the problems confronting many of Utah's schools that deal with this troubled group of early teenagers.
In Granite, Utah's largest district, the 10-year period from 1983 to 1993 saw a jump from 56 to 322, said district spokesman Kent Gardner. In Jordan, the second largest, the number is growing at the rate of about 100 per year.
Utah County is a hotbed for home schooling. In the Alpine District, 465 had requested releases to home schooling at the beginning of the school year, said Barbara Thomas. "But by the end of the year, we'll have as many as we did last year (665) or more,"
The Utah Home School Association lists about 4,700 families as members and has about a thousand other names of home-school enthusiasts from other states who want to receive the Utah newsletter, attend the association's annual conference and otherwise share ideas, said Karl and Betty Pearson, Provo, current co-presidents. Five of their seven children are currently being taught at home.Utah law requires that parents wishing to teach their children at home submit a request to the school district in which they live, with "sufficient information to convince the school board that the children will be taught," said Douglas Bates, legal/legislative counsel for the State Office of Education.
Compliance is "all over the map," he said. "Some districts follow through well. Some don't do anything."
Karl Pearson believes that Utah would see even more parents defect from the public-school system in favor of educating their own children if it were not for the "marriage between schools and the LDS Church." Because so many teachers and school administrators are affiliated with the church, parents in Utah's majority religious group feel comfortable in having their children in the public schools, he said.
The desire to incorporate particular religious values into a child's education - or to keep them out - are among the most frequently cited reasons parents give for home schooling. Conversely, the social decay that some parents associate with today's schools, coupled with a growing sense that the schools are no longer safe from violence, is the impetus for others.
"Most often, it's some kind of moral agenda. Many parents want their children away from the school atmosphere," said Jordan spokeswoman Patty Dahl. Eventually, public educators say, children need to learn to live agreeably in society. The home-schooling association provides some opportunities for member families to take field trips and to socialize, the Pearsons said.
Other parents see the schools as inadequate or too crowded. They undertake their own children's education to enrich and accelerate progress toward higher education.
In some instances, they believe their children have strengths that will be overlooked in the public system. The Pearsons, for instance, have children who are musically gifted. At home, they are able to devote more time to practice.
"They get the best of both worlds," said Betty Pearson.
When the parents' reasons for home schooling are good, the results generally are good, education experts say.
"Harvard would rather have a home-schooled student than any other," Betty Pearson said. Many studies have shown home schooling to be effective, with students often performing several grade levels ahead of their peers in the public schools, she said.
Because parents have an integral interest in the well-being of their children and are aware of a particular child's strengths and weaknesses, they can tailor education in a way the crowded public schools cannot.
"If (parents) sincerely want to teach their kids, they do a good job. Then there are no problems," Jim Cushing, Granite's associate director for pupil services, said.
"In some cases, the children probably get an extremely good education," Hardy agreed. "But, in some instances, the parents are illiterate themselves. They ask me things such as `What does curriculum mean?' " - a bad omen for the quality of teaching the children will receive.
Karl Pearson said that he believes the critics of home schooling tend to look only at the failures. "Generally the only home-schooled children they see are the ones whose parents have become discouraged and upset and put their kids back in school. The ones we see are the ones who succeed."
Often, parents who choose to keep their children at home are trained educators themselves or have completed higher education, he said.
Still, too many parents keep children home for bad reasons, Bates said - to babysit, to contribute to the family financially, to cater to the adults' needs. Or children become pawns of their parents' anti-social tendencies. In some instances, school officials suspect abuse, but there is little opportunity to follow through on such suspicions.
"We occasionally see problems with children who are supposed to be in home schools, but the parents work and the children run the streets. We get complaints from grandparents, divorced spouses or neighbors," Bates said. Such complaints are referred to the school district in which the children live.
The school administrators and teachers who sometimes have the results of poor home schooling dumped into their laps when the parents finally admit defeat have strong feelings on the subject.
Many of the parents whose motivations are questionable don't go through the process of legally withdrawing their children from the schools, said Bates. Although there are laws against "educational neglect," it's hard to pin down cases, since educators have no way of knowing how many Utah children fall into this category.
The majority of children being taught at home probably are in the elementary grades, said Dahl. Some home-school advocates find the demands of secondary education outstrip their ability to provide all the courses the child needs and they send them back to school.
Some find that public education suits the needs of one child while home schooling is advantageous for another.
Many districts believe it is in the best interests of children being home-schooled to establish a cooperative home/school relationship with the parents.
Granite District offers parents a packet of information about curriculum and sources of information to help them in a home school, said Cushing. The district encourages the parents to contract to provide 990 hours of schooling per year - the same required by law for students in the schools - and to cover the subject matter required in the state's core curriculum. The use of a loaner library also is offered.
The State Office of Education also provides information for home schoolers.
There is no dearth of instruction materials from which home schoolers can choose, Betty Pearson said. In this year's UHSA convention, more than 90 exhibitors showed their wares.
How much authority school officials can or should exercise over home schools has been a difficult issue. Those who choose home schooling sometimes have strong anti-government sentiments and resent any interference.
On the other side of the coin, society has a strong stake in the education of all children, Bates said, and courts have consistently upheld the right of governments to impose education requirements.
A Utah attorney general's opinion established the right of school districts to require periodic testing of children being home-schooled to determine if they are learning on a par with children in the public schools. But, Bates said, the Utah Legislature doesn't provide any funding for such testing, and "some districts are gun-shy about getting involved with home educators because of their strong feelings (about what they see as meddlesome oversight)."
Some home schoolers see advantages in a mix of home and school teaching. The Pearsons' teenage daughter, for instance, takes orchestra and interior design classes at her neighborhood school and attends an LDS Seminary class nearby.
Such "dual enrollment" offers the opportunity to socialize with others of their own age and take part in group activities such as athletics and music.
For years, many districts have offered home-taught students the opportunity to enroll in a public school for some subjects. The Utah Legislature has tried over the past two years to remove impediments to a combined home/school education. Next month, the State Board of Education will receive the recommendations of a committee working out problems.
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(Chart)
Out of school
The number of students officially released by area school districts for home schooling this year includes:
Granite 322
Jordan 386
Salt Lake 120
Murray 29
Alpine 465
Provo 153
Nebo 373
Davis 224