Homeschools more popular than private schools in McDowell

When a family wants to opt out of traditional public school, they find there are few alternatives.

Thirteen of the state's 100 counties do not have any private schools operating in 2010. According to the state's Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE), which tracks "non-public" schools, about 90 percent of the state's "compulsory education-age" students (in grades kindergarten through 12th) attend traditional public schools.  

            Charter schools are limited to no more than 100 by state law. There can be no charter school in McDowell without a change to that law.

            There are two private schools operating in McDowell County: Marion Christian Academy and New Manna Christian School. For a surprisingly large number of families locally and statewide, homeschooling is the answer.

            McDowell's private schools had a total of 235 students combined in the past school year. Statewide, 96,421 students attend private schools. That's down slightly from 2009, when the state counted 244 McDowell kids in private school. In 2008, there were just 217.

            More kids are homeschooled in McDowell. Although the state has not released its figures for the 2009-10 school year, in 2008-09, 293 homeschools in McDowell educated 491 kids, more than twice the number who attended private schools.

            Although homeschooling appears to have been more popular in McDowell than private schooling, that trend is not reflected statewide. In total, for the 2008-09 school year, 77,065 North Carolina kids were homeschooled and 98,545 were private schooled.

            Some families begin homeschooling after being unable to resolve differences with public school officials, but others homeschool out of a desire to form the closest possible bond with their children or for reasons of faith.

The McDowell News recently spoke with Pam Gessler of Hendersonville, who has homeschooled 12 children. Attempts at reaching adults in McDowell who homeschool were unsuccessful.

            She said when she and her husband, Joe, became interested in homeschooling, it was practically unheard of.

            "It was 1983," she stated. "We had never heard of homeschooling until a friend, disgusted with every public and private school in the county, kept her child at home. It was being done in other states, but we knew no one in Henderson County who was doing it."

            Indeed, she added, when they started, it was unclear if North Carolina law allowed homeschooling.

            "We looked into the legal requirements of education and found that North Carolina didn't require a child to attend school until they were 7,” Gessler stated. “Our daughter was 5, so we began to teach her at home, and we prayed that God would protect us and make it work" 

            A challenge to state mandatory attendance restrictions by another family resolved the issue in favor of homeschoolers, keeping the Gesslers out of the courtroom and in the classroom, she added.

            "They won their case before our daughter turned 7, so we never had to decide what legal steps to take next," said Gessler.           

            In those early days, she continued, the family was often challenged by friends and strangers alike. People asked, sometimes insistently, if homeschooling was legal, if she had a teacher's license and how the children could ever get into college.

            "We felt like pioneers in those days. People were shocked and often hostile in their attitude," said Gessler. "The (objection) my husband and I found the most comical was, 'What about their socialization?'  The question itself implied that herding children together teaches them social skills."

She added that the social pressures in a traditional school were one of the main reasons her family chose to homeschool.

"When students are slaves to the latest fads or they feel compelled to experiment with alcohol, drugs, pornography and sex, that is not good socialization," Gessler stated.

            Today, Pam is a single mother. Joe died nearly six years ago, but she is still homeschooling. Seven children have graduated. The eldest is 31 -- and she has five more to teach. The youngest is only 7.

            "We still have several years of school ahead," she said.

            The requirements are pretty simple, she added. The DNPE asks for annual attendance records, either immunization records or a signed objection and results of an annual standardized test. 

            Gessler credits North Carolinians for Home Education and Home School Legal Defense Association of Virginia for "tenaciously defending" the rights of homeschool families.

            "We knew that we had to answer to God for what we taught our children," she said. "We couldn't put them in a secular school that would teach things contradictory to the truth."