Most parents are still not yet sure whether their children will be attending school in person this fall. So, some have decided to take matters into their own hands and create their own kind of school — a sort of microschool that relies on traditional homeschooling techniques.
In the past three weeks alone, the National Home School Association has referred about 3,000 parents to local homeschooling groups, according to the organization’s executive director, J. Allen Weston. That’s a significant number, Weston told the Wall Street Journal, and it will very likely continue to grow over the next few months. Right now, about 4 million K-12 students are homeschooled, he said. By the end of this year, Weston believes that number will rise to at least 10 million.
But homeschooling isn’t always easy, especially if both parents work, which is why many are looking for “pods,” or community-based groups that bring households together for in-person instruction or outdoor programs. Joining other families in the community allows parents to rely on each other and share the educational burden that distance learning has thrust upon them.
The educational alternatives don’t stop there. Those who can afford to are looking at hiring private tutors, trained teachers who can travel to families’ homes to provide the in-person instruction most students need. The price tag for a private education, however, isn’t cheap. Yet parents who need to work but are concerned about the spread of the coronavirus and the consequences of distance learning aren’t sure what else to do.
“Even though this is out of their price range for most families, they are letting go of something else to make it happen,” Teresa Lubovich, a representative of the National Tutoring Association, told NBC News. “And that has never been more true than now.”
Strictly online homeschooling groups are also experiencing a surge in interest. Outschool, a program that offers online classes for K-12 students, said its enrollments over the past two months have totaled 250,000, which is more than double the enrollments it’s had over the past three years combined. Similarly, Tinkergarten, an online, outdoor-focused curriculum for preschool- and elementary-aged students, said its enrollments have skyrocketed since March 15.
These are all reasonable options, and parents’ interest in each of them proves they’re making the well-being and education of their children a priority. Now, if only our schools would do the same.
