Home school growth

Home schools are growing like crazy here in North Carolina and across the country.  Check out my story here.  You could say they're growing as the population grows but parents in the movement point to some other reasons, too. 

Parents have a lot more support these days.  Home school parent Kim High told me there is a lot more curriculum available than there was 12 years ago when she got started.  High and Home School parent Dottie Barco also use co-ops.  That means their children study sometimes with other home-schoolers and their parents.  This comes in handy if, for instance, a parent isn't good in chemistry and needs some help teaching the subject.  High also told me there's so much growth that the graduation ceremony for seniors in this area used to be held in one room but now it's held in two.

Black home-schoolers are a growing demographic.  Dottie Barco, who's black, said she gets lots of strange looks from people who say things like "I didn't know you all did that."  Barco says she and a lot of other black parents, especially parents of black boys, got tired of  fighting a system that wasn't working.  Statistics from many areas show black boys lagging behind other students.  Barco says she found a lot of support from other home schooling parents at her church.  She says her four boys are thriving. 

Home-schoolers have long been stereotyped as being socially inept.  Senior Elise High said she worked at a fast food restaurant last year and always dreaded answering the question of where she went to school.  She said many people would roll their eyes or just say, "oh."  One girl said to her "you actually talk to people, you don't seem like you're home schooled." The High's say they get their daughters around other people through field trips and sports.  North Carolinians for Home Education sponsors boys and girls soccer and girls volleyball, as well as boys and girl's basketball.  They have a tournament in a couple of weeks in Wake Forest. 

The Barco family also does field trips.  Twelve-year-old Caleb Barco said, "it's quite fun to do lots of things that public schools don't.  Here we get to go to the History Museum, the zoo, all those cool places."  He and his brothers are preparing to do the play "Hamlet" with other home-schoolers.  Nine-year -old Zachary may have had the best answer about why he likes going to school at home, "we don't always have to bring our heavy backpacks to school and don't have to worry about making lunch and buying lunch because we can just look in the refrigerator and look for food."