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When School Is At Home
Still Under The Radar For Most Local Parents, Homeschooling Is On The Rise In NYC--And Families Have Formed A Vibrant Support Network
What? Homeschooling in New York City? Is that even legal? As a matter of fact, it is legal, flourishing and has its own office within the NYC Department of Education. What’s more, there is a vibrant community of homeschooling families—families who began their journeys for a variety of reasons, and support each other by sharing information and resources.
Homeschool pioneer Laurie Block Spigel, author of the book “Education Uncensored,” runs the website HomeschoolNYC.com. Spigel homeschooled her two sons, now successful young adults, ages 19 and 25. With their homemade high school transcripts, the boys were accepted to their first-choice colleges with scholarships. Through her website, Spigel helps parents take advantage of all the city has to offer when it comes to homeschooling. “It’s ‘world schooling’—you’re not at home, you’re exploring and experiencing,” she says. “And what better place to do this than in New York City? We have an educational and cultural candy store right outside our door.”
Jane Ray, an East Village mom, decided to try homeschooling as “a last resort.” Ray’s son, Simon, had attended Montessori preschool and started at a public school kindergarten, which turned out to be a “disaster,” she says. “Simon was diagnosed at a very young age with ADD,” she explains. “He is also exceptionally gifted. These twice exceptional children fall through the cracks.” Ray pulled Simon out of public school in the middle of first grade.
They tried a small private school north of the city, which wasn’t a good fit, either. They were waitlisted for three different gifted programs; they went on interviews for private schools. “His needs were just not being met, so I decided to give homeschooling a go.” Simon has now been homeschooled for first, second and third grades, and he will start at a private school this fall. After the “breather” that homeschool provided, Ray says, Simon feels ready to head back to a traditional school environment.
Sandra Leong, a native New Yorker who attended private schools, approached homeschooling a bit more intentionally. Her 5-year-old son, Brennan-Pierson Wang, had also been enrolled in a Montessori program when he was about 2-and-a-half, but he dropped out halfway through the second year. “I felt like we were paying a lot for not so much; it seemed more like daycare,” says Leong, who lives in the Financial District. “The more I read and the more information I gathered, the more I believed homeschooling was the right path for us.” Leong’s 3-year-old son, Julian-Alexandre, has been exclusively homeschooled. “My husband was not on the boat at first, but he saw the development,” Leong says. “It’s amazing how much children absorb if you give them the chance.”
For Spigel, homeschooling puts the joy of learning back in education. “Our schools are becoming all about fear: kids terrified of tests, teachers imprisoned by a test-driven curriculum. That’s not a quality learning environment,” she says. “Getting A’s in school is not about learning, it’s about pleasing the teacher. Is that who we want our children to be? Don’t we want them at some point to change the world and not just say ‘yes’ and be blindly obedient? Where is the enthusiasm?”
Ray and Leong agree. “This individualized focus is the way every kid should be taught,” Ray says.
“Kids have so much capacity to learn; adults hold them back,” says Leong. “Let the child blossom, and they tell you what they need.”
Is it too much empowerment, though, letting the kids run the show? Spigel doesn’t think so. “Child-led learning is inquiry-based and interdisciplinary, but there is still structure,” she says. “I have a plan, but I’m willing to throw it out. There is creative expression and creative freedom, but I still said, ‘It’s time for math.’”
Ray concurs, saying, “With a filmmaker father and an actress mother, there is a lot of creativity in educating Simon. I hired tutors for a few hours a week for more rigorous math and science, for example, but Simon loves to read a lot and we studied Latin when he read Harry Potter, and he wrote poetry in Latin. He loves martial arts and was able to study it in a way he never could have going to a school.”
Ultimately, says Spigel, “There is no one-size-fits-all.”
Just the way no two schools are the same, no two homeschooling families are the same. “Part of the beauty of homeschooling is that you can change if your kid changes, you can adjust how much structure you need, you adapt as you see fit,” she says. “You create a curriculum based on the interests of the child. Kids are encouraged to become experts in what they love.”
Resources For Homeschoolers In NYC
Thinking about homeschooling? Here are some helpful resources for city families:
The Central Office of Home Schooling, NYC Department of Education, 333 Seventh Avenue, 7th Floor, 917-339-1748, homeschool@schools.nyc.gov
NYC Department of Children’s Services
Home School NYC
New York City Home Education Alliance
New
York State Loving Education At Home
City Schooling
Pictured: Sandra Leong at home with her sons, Brennan-Pierson Wang, 5; and Julian-Alexandre Wang, 3. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.
Also in Also In Schools:
Also from Michelle Levine:
Thank you NY Family for writing an objective article on Homeschooling in NYC. Homeschooling has become an important option to many families in this era when we cannot rely on the public school system to provide a good education for all children. I began homeschooling 10 years ago, when my daughter was in first grade because she had learning disabilities and was not getting the support she needed in her public school. I quickly realized that I could either fight with the school system to keep her in barely adequate programs or give up my career and change the course of our famiy history. I c hose the latter and have no regrets.
Homeschooling has allowed my daughter to become an amazing, responsible and talented teenager with strong family values and respect and compassion for others thanks to all of the opportunities available here in NYC, including the ability to obtain special ed services as a homeschooled student. However, homeschooling is not always the best solution for every family that has a struggling child. It requires a time commitment on the part of the parents and not every family is able to get by on one income. It is also a wonderful option for many families who seek it as a first choice alternative education. I had always embraced the idea of homeschooling but my husband was not on board until he saw the kindergarten disaster.
As my daughter enters the high school years, homeschooling becomes more of a challenge due to curriculum requirements imposed by the Dept. of Ed and lack of support by them of the homeschool process and standardized testing procedures. Our economy has become test-score driven and it is harder to stay on the path of 'learning how to learn and think critically' when we are surrounded by a whirl of test-prep prgrams and Regents driven curriculum.
As New Yorkers we are very fortunate to live in a city that is literally a living classroom with so many public and private museums, parks and opportunities for learning. Those resources, combined with the internet, literally puts the world at our fingertips.
Nancy D'Antonio
I enjoyed this article very much. Thankyou for covering this important topic in an unbiased manner.
Thank you for writing this article. I'm sure many parents, after reading this, would be encouraged to consider home schooling their children in New York City, especially given the overwhelmed public school system and the trepidacious private school path. There's certainly no shortage of learning opportunities here!
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