When we opened a personalized learning lab school back in 2014, a large portion of the 50-middle school-aged kids who enrolled came from homeschool backgrounds. One of the first differences I saw between those kids and kids coming from the traditional K-12 public system was the homeschoolers’ ability to take risks with their learning. They were totally at ease moving away from their comfort zone, whether it be with experiencing new places to learn, meeting new people who could help them with their learning, or embracing technology and everything that came with it.
Yesterday I ran across an article posted by The 74 titled “Homeschoolers Embrace AI, Even As Many Educators Keep It at Arms’ Length.” Excerpts of the article follow:
“Like many parents who homeschool their children, Jolene Fender helps organize book clubs, inviting students in her Cary, North Carolina, co-op to meet for monthly discussions.”
“But over the years, parents have struggled to find good opening questions.”
“’You’d search [the Internet], you’d go on Pinterest,’ she said. ‘A lot of the work had to be done manually, or you had to do a lot more digging around.’”
“The came ChatGPT, Open AI’s widely used artificial intelligence bot. For Fender, it was a no-brainer to query it for help developing deep opening questions.”
“The chatbot and other AI tools like it have found an eager audience among homeschoolers and microschoolers, with parents and teachers readily embracing it as a brainstorming and management tool, even as public schools take a more cautious approach, often banning it outright.”
“A few observers say AI may even make homeschooling more practical, opening it up to busy parents who might have balked previously.”
“’Homeschoolers have always been unconstrained in the ability to combine technology – and kind of tech,’ said Alex Sarlin, a longtime technology analyst and co-host of the EdTech Insiders podcast.”
“The reasons are readily apparent, he said: Home internet service typically doesn’t block key websites the way most schools do. Families can more easily manage data privacy and get the digital tools they want without fuss. They’re basically able to ignore ‘all the dozen reasons why everything falls apart when you try to sell to schools,’ Sarlin said.”
“Persuading homeschoolers to try out new things is also a lot simpler: If a student and parents like a tool, ‘There’s nobody else you have to convince.’”
“Indeed, a September survey by the curriculum vendor Age of Learning found that 44% of homeschool educators reported using ChatGPT, compared to 34% of classroom educators.”
“’Not everyone is using it, but some are very excited about it,’ said Amir Nathoo, co-founder of Outschool, an online education platform.”
“The most interesting uses he has seen are by gifted and neurodiverse homeschoolers, who often use chatbots to explore complex topics like advanced math and science, philosophy and even ethics, which they wouldn’t ordinarily have access to at a young age. They ask it to provide simple explanations of advanced topics, such as relativity and quantum mechanics, then pursue them on their own. ‘They’re able to go on a relatively unstructured exploration, which is often the best way that kids learn.’”
“Alternatively, he said, kids whose ability to express themselves is limited can also benefit from what many consider the non-judgmental qualities of tools like ChatGPT.”
“Tobin Slaven, cofounder of Acton Academy, a self-paced, independent microschool in Fort Lauderdale, said he’s been experimenting with AI tools for the past year or so and is excited by what he’s seen. ‘This is what the future looks like to me,’ he said.”
…
“For Fender, the North Carolina homeschooling mother, one of the most helpful aspects of AI is that it helps parents organize what can often be a chaotic, free-form learning environment.”
“Fender subscribes to a type of homeschooling known as ‘unschooling,’ which seeks to teach students to be more self-directed and independent than in most public schools. Her kids’ lesson are ‘very much interest-led’ and her small co-op has grown in recent years.”
“But she must also persuade state bureaucrats that she’s providing an adequate education. So she and a few other homeschool parents in Cary rely on a website that uses AI to detail what activities their kids have done and auto-completes all of the relevant North Carolina educational standards. ‘I thought that was a genius tool,’ she said, and one that allows stressed, busy parents to build a comprehensive portfolio for annual state reviews and high school transcripts.”
…
“Like most parents, Fender has read about the downsides of AI but believes schools are short-sighted to limit its use.”
“’Why are you banning a tool that is definitely here to stay?’ she said. ‘Maybe we don’t understand all the ins and outs, but at the end of the day, our goal is to prepare kids for the jobs of the future. And a lot of these jobs of the future, we don’t even know what they are.’”
“Why are you banning a tool that is definitely here to stay?”
Great question, and question that, honestly, I haven’t heard a good answer to from the traditional K-12 community.
I remember when homeschooling became more popular back in the 1990’s. Those of us in the public school system thought parents who decided to homeschool their kids were quacky, and usually some far-right, conservative family who feared their kids would learn the wrong things in public school.
I changed my mind when I saw homeschool kids excel at our personalized learning lab school.
And now, homeschool parents appear to be trendsetters, ready to use AI and other 21st century technology to benefit their children’s learning.
The current public school system?
Maybe they will be remembered as a new generation of Luddite, not only incapable of adapting to new technology, but resolved to destroy it.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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