Ann Arbor: Teaching children at home won't make them social misfits, a University of Michigan study suggests.

The detailed study of 53 adults who were taught at home by their parents is one of the first to examine the long-term effects of homeschooling - a practice now followed by as many as 300,000 American families.

"One of the major arguments against home schooling is that it deprives children of the peer contacts needed for normal social development," says J. Gary Knowles, U-M assistant professor of education. "Public school educators and other critics also question whether home-educated children will be able to become productive, participating members of a diverse and democratic society.

"But I found no evidence that these adults were even moderately disadvantaged in either respect. Two-thirds of them were married - the norm for adults their age - and none were unemployed or on any form of welfare assistance. More than three-quarters felt that being taught at home had actually helped them interact with people from different levels of society."

For the study, presented recently at an educational conference in New Zealand, Knowles analyzed data from a mail questionnaire. He then conducted extensive interviews in person or by telephone with 10 individuals who agreed to the in-depth discussion and were geographically accessible.

The survey respondents were, on average, 32 years old, and nearly three-fourths were women. One respondent was Hispanic, another was Black and the rest were white. "Minority home-educated adults are extremely difficult to locate and identify," Knowles says.

More than 40 percent attended college, and 15 percent of those had completed a graduate degree. Nearly two-thirds of the individuals were self-employed; but only a few worked alone as crafts people or in other solitary occupations; while most either provided employment to others or worked along with family members.

"That so many of those surveyed were self-employed supports the contention that home schooling tends to enhance a person's self-reliance and independence, " Knowles says.

"The religious conservatives who operate home schools are strange bedfellows with the often liberal proponents of the practice who support home schooling for its superior pedagogical benefits," he notes. "What both groups share, though, is a feeling that public schools are not serving the best interests of their students, in one way or another. They're perceived as rundown, dirty, dangerous places filled with drugs, weapons, immorality and poor teaching. Whatever the reasons for being educated at home, the adults Knowles surveyed had many positive things to say about the experience. When asked whether they would want to be educated at home if they had their lives to live over again, 96 percent said, "Yes." "They had many warm memories about their home schooling," Knowles says. "Many mentioned the strong relationship it engendered with their parents while others talked about the self-directed curriculum and individualized pace that a flexible program of home schooling permitted."

"...this survey and the life history accounts that arose out of it clearly show that, done in an enlightened, broad-minded way, with plenty of flexibility in curriculum and methods, home schooling can be a positive experience for children with benefits that last for many years."