For the past 10 years, Pamela Wantz of Butler Township has used the basics of math, science and literature to challenge the perspectives of her students.
“This is a really short time in your life,” Wantz tells them.  “What are you going to glean from this time so that you can become a valuable part of this world and give?”
It’s not uncommon for a devoted teacher to instill such altruistic ambitions.  What sets Wantz apart is the fact that her students are her own children.  Her classroom is her dining room table.
As a home educator, Wantz’s message is one of hard work and strong faith.  She exhorts her children to “Give like God wants you to give, not for yourself, but for the building up of other people.  That’s the hope, that when they leave here they will think about those things.”
Rev. Charles Jackson, pastor of the Covenant Presbyterian Church and coordinator of Geneva Classes for homeschooled students, agrees.  “Homeschooling gives education a good flexibility,” Jackson said.  “It’s really not about teaching a particular subject, it’s about a way of life.”
 A Growing Trend
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 1.1 million students in grades K-12 being homeschooled in the United States, up from 850,000 in 1999.
The National Home Education Research Institute sets the figure a little higher.  The organization, founded by researcher Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., estimates that there are somewhere between 1.7 to 2.1 million homeschooled students in the United States. 
Ray is the editor of the academic journal Home School Researcher. According to Ray, homeschooling has grown roughly 7 percent in the last four years.
A reflection of this growing trend, many museums, amusement parks and other attractions schedule special programs to attract homeschool families.  The National Air Force Museum, and even Paramount’s King’s Island schedule “Homeschool Day” events.  Boonshoft Musum of Discovery, COSI museum in Columbus, the Dayton Art Institute, SunWatch Indian Village, and Brukner Nature Center, among others, offer help and resources to homeschool families.
Reasons Behind the Trend
Concern over the school environment and a desire to give moral and religious instruction were cited as the most pressing reasons given for homeschooling, according to the National Center for Education statistics.  
Wantz agrees, but also sees homeschooling as a chance to build stronger relationships with her children.  “I think it’s a great opportunity to learn and grow with your child,” she said.  “This gives me a time with my children that they hear my voice on a day in, day out basis.  That’s what homeschooling means to me.  It’s more than just the education.  It’s the chance to teach them God’s standard for us to live.”
The Faith Factor
In the homeschool community, strong faith is a common denominator.  The overwhelming majority of homeschooling families identify themselves as Christian.
“We take seriously our faith,” said Wantz.  “People try to say that your faith doesn’t influence who you are, whatever your faith is.  But really, you base your decisions in life on what you believe.”
Wantz and her husband Doug began their homeschool journey when the family was living outside the Vandalia-Butler district and when their oldest child, Craig Collins was still in elementary school.  Behavior issues among classmates had left the fifth grader and his parents feeling frustrated.  At the end of the school year, it was Collins who approached his parents about the idea of homeschooling.  Wantz shared her son’s concern over the daily toll of negative influences.
“I believe that what you feed yourself day in and day out and is what comes back out of your mouth,” said Wantz.  “It’s a daily commitment to keep that positive.  The world’s just going to hammer you, tell you something that need cosmetically corrected…tell you don’t own the nicest of things.  It doesn’t matter in the end.  People matter in the end.”
Homeschooled from grade six on, Collins is now 21, has done well in college and will transfer to Ohio State this fall.
The couple has homeschooled their three other children as well.  Zachery Collins and Alexandria Wantz are juniors at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center while receiving supplemental instruction at home.  Olivia Wantz, the youngest of the four, receives 100 percent of her education at home.
In addition to her work as a home educator, Wantz works part-time as the pastor of the Linden Ave. Baptist Church.  Doug Wantz is a licensed plumber and works for a commercial heating and air conditioning company.
State and Local Requirements
In Ohio parents may legally provide home education for their children if they inform the local school district and provide assurance that required subjects will be covered.  Each year between 30 and 35 students are homeschooled in the Vandalia-Butler school district.
Notification to district superintendents is required before the beginning of each school year.  Parents are also required to supply, “for informational purposes only” a brief curriculum outline and a list of textbooks and basic teaching materials to be used.
As long as a parent can demonstrate the completion of a high school education or its equivalent, that parent may legally instruct their child.  A minimum of 900 hours of home education is required in Ohio, which translates to 180 five-hour days.
Once this information is supplied, it remains on file in the superintendent’s office and the student is excused from truancy.
A yearly academic assessment of all homeschooled students is also required, although the homeschooled student is not required to complete Ohio Proficiency testing.
When it’s time for yearly evaluations, Wantz calls on Ian Berry, last year’s teacher of the year for the Huber Heights City Schools. 
“He looks at their work, he tells me where things are as far as the state’s expectations,” Wantz said of Berry. “He’s been a real encouragement.”
It is estimated that over 80,000 students in Ohio were homeschooled last year. The law does not require that parents who home educate be monitored by public school employees.
According to Wantz, the Vandalia-Butler district has been very easy to work with.
“I have received nothing but positive in working with the system,” said Wantz.  “They’ve not made me feel that I was taking away from them.  Our homeschooling is not a reflection on the public school district.  Vandalia’s already proven their status of excellence.  This (homeschooling) is just another way to contribute to the community.  I’m not in competition with them; I’m just doing what God has called me to do for my kids.”
“The decision to homeschool is a parental right by law and provides an alternative to public education,” said Vandalia-Butler Superintendent Christy Donnelly. “…The advantages and disadvantages are viewed differently by the families who choose the option of homeschooling.”
A Misunderstood Choice
Homeschooling families across the country are not always warmly received by their local school districts.  The Home School Legal Defense Associations, a non-profit advocacy organization, exists to aide families with any legal issues that might occur.  For a yearly fee of $115, families can call on the association if they feel that their right to homeschool is encroached upon.
Geneva Classes coordinators Charles and Connie Jackson homeschooled all three of their children, choosing to enter them in private school for some of their high school years.
“We like for them to get the high school experience,” said Charles Jackson.  “Some homeschoolers are died in the wool, got to be homeschool all the way through.  It’s a nice option, but it’s not the only option.  We recognize that schools are good.  We’re not anti-school.”
Jackson acknowledges that an anti-school undercurrent does exist in the larger homeschooling community.  “It’s going to be interesting as homeschoolers grow and develop,” Jackson stated.  I think that in time, they’ll be less defensive.”
School districts can be defensive as well.  The Home School Legal Defense Association’s web site maintains information on various cases in the Untied States where intercession with authorities was necessary.  The organization has defended parents on issues varying from school districts who invented homeschooling regulations beyond what the law requires to social security benefits being withheld from individuals because of homeschooling. 
The organization currently has no active cases in the state of Ohio. 
Jackson summed up the dilemma: “Some homeschoolers are so gung-ho that they don’t see clearly out of their own little circles.  Some districts are aggressive.  They don’t like homeschoolers.  But again, if homeschoolers wouldn’t be so defensive, they would probably get along better with the superintendents and school districts.  Hopefully, as things develop, there will be a healthy relationship between the public, Christian and homeschool communities.”
In most school districts, including Vandalia-Butler, homeschooled students are considered withdrawn from school and therefore ineligible to participate in district programs and extra curricular activities.  Many members of the homeschooling community see this as an unfair restriction. 
“There’s going to be an uprising on this,” said Jackson.  “We pay taxes but our kids can’t play band or sports.  It’s really fundamentally unfair and there’s going to have to be some changes in the future.  As homeschoolers become more aware of themselves, aware of how many thousands and now even millions of them that there are in the nation, they should probably flex their muscles.  They should say, look, we pay the same taxes as everybody else, we really ought to be able to play sports and do this kind of thing.”
Pooling Efforts
Homeschool support groups and co-ops have formed to help families through the sometimes daunting task of home education.  Local groups include North Dayton Christian Home Educators, Home Schooling Under Grace, Dayton Area Homeschoolers, and Wright Independent Learning Cooperative. 
 These organizations offer support, activities and often classes that supplement education efforts at home.  “More homeschoolers are recognizing that it’s hard to do it all,” Jackson explained.
The Geneva classes meet each Monday at the First Grace Brethren Church on Stonequarry Road.  Jackson donates his day off to teach Latin, Spanish, humanities, and history.  Other teachers include several former school teachers and an Air Force Colonel.
“We started this six years ago because we just wanted to do so much more with our older daughters than we felt competent to do,” said Jackson.  “We figured we could do it, but it’s kind of like fixing your own car.  You don’t want to buy all the tools and try to learn how to do it.  We had enough people in our church that we pooled resources.”
Geneva students are charged a small tuition that is pooled to pay expenses.  Some individual teachers charge a per-student rate, but keeping costs down is a priority. 
“In our own homeschooling, I didn’t like the fact that my kids hadn’t had some of the discipline that you have to receive in a classroom,” said Jackson.  “A lot of homeschoolers are realizing that this discipline is helpful.  And if you can do it one or two days a week, you get the best of both worlds, really.  Sometimes kids get to a certain age and it’s just mom telling them what to do all the time.  It’s helpful to have another teacher or two.”
Resources
 “Choosing curriculum and resources can be very overwhelming to the first time home-schooler,” explained Pamela Wantz.  For help with these choices, many parents attend the annual homeschool curriculum fair in Columbus in June. 
STL-Appalachian Distributors, the second largest buyer of Christian products in the nation, works with Christian bookstores across the country to offer a kind of one-stop shopping for homeschooling parents through its Homeschool Headquarters division.  The yearly Homeschool Headquarters catalog features a wide variety of curriculum, teaching aides and home education helps.
Pat Marcum, director of Homeschool Headquarters, and his wife Linda, homeschooled their own children and have been long time proponents of the movement. 
“I saw that products weren’t available locally so that people could buy year round and actually have hands-on shopping,” said Marcum.  “In terms of academics, there is a concern that parents aren’t trained to teach their children.  And yet, how is it that homeschooled students have outscored and outperformed consistently for over 20 years students that have been in public schools?  The fact is homeschooled students have on average been about 2.5 years ahead of their public school counterparts.”
As a homeschooling mom, Wantz also believes in striving for excellence; “The homeschoolers that I know hold a high standard because they want their child to be successful.” 
   Over 16,000 home schooled students scored well when tested with the nationally normed Iowa Test of Basic Skills, scoring in the 77th percentile, well above the national average of 50 percent.
Every year, Wantz reevaluates her approach and tailors it to each individual child.  At times, she finds herself re-learning subjects from her own elementary and high school days. 
“The kids think I’m silly, but I get excited when it comes back to me,” smiled Wantz.  “I stay fresh on that stuff.”
Socialization
 Critics of the homeschooling movement often cite a lack of socialization as a drawback to home education. 
Classes outside the home and church activities have provided socialization for the Wantz kids.  
“Socialization in public school’s overrated,” Wantz stated.  “There’s a bullying mentality out there, so much so that you’re willing to maybe deny your family’s values in order to fit in.  The hope in homeschooling is that a sense of family stays important.  Kids are either going to draw who they are from what you teach them or what the world teaches them.”
Wantz feels that the moral values and religious instruction that she and her husband provide helps to equip their children to function well in the world.  “Jesus was about people and serving others and humbling yourself, not thinking more highly of yourself than you should,” Wantz said.  “I can’t help but think that if a child is learning these things, how could they not be able to socialize with people?  They are treating them the way that God wants them to treat them.”
The Public in Public School
Homechoolers like Wantz and Jackson are quick to extend credit and respect to public school teachers and administrators. 
“It wasn’t the education that my kids were getting in public school that bothered me,” said Wantz.  “I was very pleased with what was being taught.  But when you say public, you get it all.”
Wantz went on to cite stories of first-graders with belly-button rings, and bad language at the elementary level as examples of influences that she wanted to limit. 
“Our children are by law entitled to a good education, free of garbage like that.  What message is coming across to our children by this world that tells them to hurt themselves?  It makes me sad. They’re searching, and they’re not finding it.”  But Wantz is quick to add that she understands the impossibility of completely protecting children from negative influences. 
“I kind of hesitate to use the word protecting,” said Wantz.  “I filter it…We talk about it.  They know it’s out there.  Let’s face it, kids talk about some inappropriate subjects and who’s doing what and how. We talk about that, but we talk about it from the Lord’s perspective and how inappropriate that is.”
Success Story
  By all accounts, the Wantz family demonstrates a homeschooling success story.  Oldest son Craig will complete his education at Ohio State this fall.  Zachery and Alexandra are standout students at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center where Zachery maintains a 4.0 and has qualified for a $3000 scholarship when he graduates next year.  Still studying at solely home, youngest daughter Olivia seems to be thriving under her mother’s instruction.   
  With only one child now being homeschooled full-time, Wantz sees her homeschooling years coming to a close. 
     “I feel like I am at the tail end of this,” smiled Wantz.  “I tell my kids, ‘You’re educating your own kids, don’t come to me! Grandma’s got things to do!’  I don’t know if they will decide to homeschool or not.  They may try the public school system, or private, and find it perfectly fine.  And that’s ok.”