The Foreign Service Journal, December 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2012 63 W hen they are out and about in the middle of a weekday, my three kids are routinely asked by confused and curious strang- ers, “What are you doing out of school?” Their confusion only grows when my kids answer proudly, “We don’t go to school— we homeschool.” We are one of many Foreign Service families that have made the choice to educate their children at home over the years, following a general trend in the U.S. population. The number of homeschool- ers in the U.S. is difficult to track, but estimates indicate that homeschooled students increased from about 850,000 in 1999 to approximately two million in 2010. While there are no hard and fast numbers for the Foreign Service popula- tion either, anecdotal evidence indicates that there has been similar increased interest among the FS community in homeschooling over the last five years. The Family Liaison Office estimates that approximately 1,000 Foreign Service children are currently homeschooled overseas, with more families choosing to educate their children at home each year. Homeschooling can include a wide variety of educational styles and prac- tices. They range from establishing a very structured, traditional school-at-home approach, where a parent serves as the formal teacher, to technology-reliant participation in an online school or distance learning program, to a more eclectic or unstructured approach such as “unschooling.” Foreign Service families participate in all of these types of homeschooling, with the support of the State Department’s education allowance to help cover the costs of their chosen education program. Why Homeschool? Although some families choose home- schooling due to a specific situation at post, such as dissatisfaction with the local school options, many families choose it as a way of life, regardless of where they are posted, because of its well-documented benefits. Numerous studies have shown that homeschooled students match or exceed the academic performance of their traditionally-schooled peers. In addition, homeschooling offers the ability to adjust instruction to meet a child’s particular need or follow a specific interest—which can be much harder to do in a traditional school setting. Homeschooling families often spend more time together as a fam- ily, and less time stressing over homework and other school requirements. There are also a number of benefits specific to Foreign Service life. Bidding on posts becomes much easier when you don’t have to factor in the local school options; all of a sudden, places that you would not have considered become more attractive. At a post where most of the Foreign Service population is trying to transfer within the same eight-week break in the school calendar, homeschooling families have the flexibility to arrive at or depart on a different timeline. Similarly, those families can schedule their vacations NO, REALLY, THEWORLD ISMY CLASSROOM! HOMESCHOOLING IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE Homeschooling is a growing trend within the Foreign Service, as it is in the general U.S. population. BY E L I ZABETH POWER Elizabeth Power and her husband, Conor, homeschool their three children in Lima, where she is consul general. They have also been posted to Lagos, Montevideo, Ciudad Juarez, Maseru and Washington, D.C. EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT