Customer Reviews

Home Schooling: The Right Choice: An Academic, Historical, Practical, and Legal Perspective

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I read this book after hearing it recommended by Chuck Missler in one of his briefings. This book is filled with a lot of information on the historical background of home schooling here in America. It lists many examples of home schooled children that went on to become some of the most important people in American history (basically most of the founders of the USA). Klicka also has a lot of statistics that show the success of today's average home schooled students when compared to average public education students. The book has been around for years, and this is a new, updated, version of that old book. Since this book was first written the number of home schoolers has skyrocketed. After reading this book, one can fully understand why most public school teachers choose to send their own children to private schools (if they don't choose to home school). Klick know from where he speaks. He is the head of the Home School Legal Defense Association that assists home schoolers around the country. He and his wife have home schooled all of their children and he is dedicated to the cause as part of his religious convictions. Today, there a many people, including many non-religious ones, who are choosing to home school, and Klicka is one of the people who have made that option possible today by making sure their rights to do it are kept intact. If you have even the slightest interest in possibly home schooling your children, then this is the book to start with.

This is the book that convinced me to homeschool. It looks at the failure of the public school system in teaching our children, statistics regarding teachers, increase in crime, SAT scores, etc. and the political issues driving the public schools. Great book.

Originally published in 1995 and updated in 2000, Home Schooling is less a defense of home schooling than it is an argument for why you, too, should home school. In one of his speeches at the NICHE conference, Klicka made the point that the most important job we have as parents is to raise our children to know and love Jesus. In Home Schooling, Klicka makes the point that we cannot expect our children to think and act like Christians if they spend their whole day, five days a week, in an environment that teaches them to think and act like a secular humanist.

Home Schooling begins with an indictment of public schools, underscoring its propositional rather than defensive nature. Public schools, in general, are failing our children academically, morally, and philosophically. Particularly enlightening is chapter 3's recitation of the express goals of the founders of state education and of the professors at education colleges and the subsequent manifestation of those goals.

But all of that is just why you should avoid home schools. In Parts II and III, Klicka affirmatively addresses why you should home school. Klicka notes the Biblical principles supporting home schooling, the benefits of home schooling, and the large number of influential Americans who were home schooled. He also sets forth practical steps to successful home schooling--providing the encouragement you need to realize that you can do it--as well as the success home schoolers have in college.

Home Schooling goes on to recite the victories won against those with an interest in a public school monopoly. The victories have come in both the legislative and judicial branches. Klicka has firsthand knowledge of many of them and some of them have been truly miraculous. Included in these sections is a thorough, but easy to understand recitation of home schoolers' rights.

The book also includes a number of helpful appendices, including "The Difference Between Christian Education and Humanistic Education," "Fifteen Reasons to Home School Your Teenagers," and "The Social Worker Skit: How to Handle a Visit From a Social Worker."

Throughout the book, Klicka effectively refutes each of the criticisms directed toward home schooling. Given the documented success of home schoolers versus their public and private schooled peers, no one can legitimately claim academic deficiencies as a basis for opposing home schooling. What about socialization? The question is too simple. What kind of socialization is preferable? As a wise person once told me, proper socialization comes from modeling adults, not other children. The public school environment is an artificial one where our children only interact with, save their teacher, other kids their age. No other setting in society is like that.

The one criticism of the book that I can muster is Klicka's reliance on substantive due process arguments for the constitutional right to home school. "Substantive" due process (an oxymoron) is the underpinning of the U.S. Supreme Court's created right to abortion. Clearly, as an attorney in a court of law defending home schoolers, Klicka should latch onto anything the Supreme Court has given him, but in a book dealing with home schooling history and long-term strategies going forward, substantive due process is not something to rely on. It was made up out of thin air and could vanish just as easily, or could be applied arbitrarily.

In any event, Home Schooling is the perfect book for people already home schooling who will be encouraged that they have made the right decision and will gain a greater appreciation of the sacrifices those who started home schooling in the 1980s made, for people thinking about home schooling but are not sure they can do it, and for people trying to understand why their friends and family are home schooling rather than doing what just about everyone else does. It will remain a valuable part of my library.

Homeschooling: The Right Choice by Chris Klicka

For some perspective on this book it is helpful to know something about the author. Chris Klicka was the first full-time employee of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) - joining HSLDA after graduating from law school in 1985. He was also its first executive director and first full-time attorney. Unfortunately, Chris was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1994 and on October 12, 2009 he lost his battle with the disease. Chris leaves a legacy to home-schooling that is hard to describe.

The thing that struck me the most about The Right Choice is how incredibly researched this book is. Nowhere does Chris merely present an opinion about, for instance, the terrible state of the public school system today. Every point that he puts forth is documented thoroughly. I was also surprised to find that the low standards which are the norm in the public school system are not an aberration. They are actually the result of a well-choreographed plan by humanists to dumb down the general populace. Sadly the plan has worked only too well.

I would particularly recommend The Right Choice: Home-Schooling to anyone who is on the fence about whether to home-school their child, particularly if that child is in the public school system. I also recommend it to home-schoolers who need something to share with family members who are expressing doubts about the veracity of home-education. Not only does Chris Klicka reveal the deficiencies of the public school system but he also documents thoroughly the superior education which home-schooled students are receiving as well as the academic and social achievements of home-schooled students today.

A great book to encourage parents and family to home educate their own children-thus raising them with their own Christian values, work ethic, choice of curriculum, and love.

If you are thinking about homeschooling or just begun you will want to read this book. It is filled with information you will want to know. Well written and documented.

This book is very insightful and well worth the read. The author is a bit extreme in his views, but he has lots of wonderful ideas that got me thinking.