Dewey and the American movement to homeschooling

ABSTRACT

The last 10 years has seen a dramatic increase in the number of parents in the United States choosing to homeschool their children instead of sending them to public school. One report had the number increasing by 61.8% from 2003 to 2012, with the total number of homeschooled children reaching nearly 2 million (Snyder, T. D., and S. A. Dillow. 2015. Digest of Education Statistics 2013 (NCES 2015-011). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education). With more students withdrawing from public education to a more insulated environment (often due to religious reasons), there are concerns about the long-term ramifications this trend may cause. This paper addresses the degree to which a religious homeschooled education might be problematic within John Dewey’s conception of education as laid out in Democracy and Education. For Dewey ‘Common subject matter accustoms all to a unity of outlook upon a broader horizon’ (Dewey, John. 1985. Democracy and Education, Collected Works. Middle Works Vol 9, 26. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press). I argue that persons raised in a virtual vacuum in which education is rooted within a particular faith may be less capable of serving as vibrant members of a democratic-based society.

KEYWORDS:

• John Dewey
• homeschooling
• religious education
• democracy
• citizenship
• public good

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.