Is it all homework or all schoolwork?

For homeschooled students, the question is academic.

Estimates of the number of homeschooled students in the U.S. range between 700,000 and 1.25 million, reflecting a growth in the homeschooling trend that started in the late 1980s. Approximately one percent of school-age children are homeschooled, some experts estimate. More than 20 families at West Point homeschool their children.

"It’s getting to be bigger and bigger," said Master Sgt. Warren Palmer, the senior enlisted aide to U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Daniel W. Christman.

Palmer and his wife, Maria, have been homeschooling since their oldest son, Aaron, who is now 23, started second-grade.

"We were pioneers," Maria V. Palmer said with a laugh.

Homeschooling at West Point is very organized, her husband said. Dorothy Pilgrim, a homeschool parent, heads a group of homeschool parents on post who get together to share ideas and offer support to each other.

And West Point is also supportive of the homeschool families, according to Jan Buchheit, a homeschool parent.

"We’ve been allowed to participate in different activities if we chose to here at West Point," Buchheit said, like hearing guest speakers at the school and using the school libraries.

The parents’ group is an important resource for homeschoolers at West Point, whose reasons for homeschooling are varied, Master Sgt. Palmer said.

"Everyone has their own reasons," he said, and they can range from concern with local school system to the supervision homeschooling parents can offer their children.

	Sarah and Andy Buchheit review math lessons at their kitchen table. The Buchheits are just one of the more than 20 West Point families who have chosen to homeschool their children.

Buchheit said academic excellence is why she and her husband, Lt. Col. Nate Buchheit, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, got interested in homeschooling for their two children. She said they continue homeschooling Sarah, 14, and Andy, 12, for that reason and "to raise godly children." Jennifer Wilson, Jan Buchheit’s 17-year-old niece, now lives with the family and is being taught in the home as well.

Buchheit said she was somewhat intimidated by the idea of homeschooling and homeschoolers when she was introduced to the idea by friends at church in the early 1990s.

"I was just sure that they were a bunch of eggheads who were just so super intelligent they could homeschool their own children," she said.

That impression, she has learned, was not necessarily the case.

Standards vary from state to state, but a high school diploma is usually sufficient for parents to homeschool their children

"You don’t need a teaching certificate," Palmer explained.

Curriculum and attendance requirements also vary depending on the state, but, typically, homeschooled students are required to be in school 180 days per year for four-and-a-half hours a day. Paperwork usually has to be filed with the school district, and there may be other requirements depending on where the homeschooling is taking place.

"You just find out the requirements, and you adapt accordingly," Buchheit said.

The Buchheits are typically in school from 8:30 a.m. until 2:30 or 3:30 in the afternoon, with time out for lunch, Buchheit said.

"We have set hours for school," she said. "Depending on what we’re doing, it can be a long day or short day."

And differentiating between when mom is mom and when mom is teacher is not a problem, according to the Buchheit children.

"She’s always our mom, and when we’re in school, she’s our teacher," Sarah explained.

There’s also the time that the primary teaching parent has to have to plan for the classroom. Grading the students’ work and making reports to the school district also takes time.

"You don’t have as much time for yourself," Maria Palmer said, "but you get to spend time with your children. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun."

Homeschooled fourth-grader Bethany Palmer takes violin lessons..

"Overall, it’s been a wonderful thing for our family," Buchheit said. "I would not go back, I would not change it."

Her son concurs, but does see a disadvantage to homeschooling.

"We never have any snow days," Andy joked.

All that fun work, snow days or not, has additional payoffs when it comes time for a permanent change of station.

"A plus for military families is that you can PCS any time of year," Palmer said. "You pack up, you land on the other end, and you resume your class work."

"There’s continuity,’" Maria Palmer said. "We can do school everywhere. It’s very advantageous that way."

Buchheit agrees.

"We even homeschooled when we were in transient quarters," she said.

That’s not something she expected to be doing when she first heard of homeschooling, even though, she said, she was intrigued by the idea of teaching her children at home.

"I had no intention of homeschooling," she said.

She said she went to a homeschool conference out of curiosity. Now Sarah is starting her ninth year as a homeschooled student.

"I like it" Sarah said. "I have my own little group of friends."

Jennifer Wilson gets feedback on parts-of-speech exercises.

The issue of homeschooled students and their friends is part of the "socialization" discussions parents of homeschooled students often find themselves in.

Homeschooled students get plenty of socialization, their parents say.

"They get plenty of time to socialize after school, on weekends and during the summer," Palmer said.

A myriad of activities is available to homeschooled children, he added. Youth Services, Scouts, Four-H and church activities are just a few of the things homeschoolers can participate in.

Andy Buchheit, for example, is a Boy Scout and a member of Baptist Student Union. Sarah has played soccer for years, is in a Bible study group and went to camp over the summer.

"They get all the social activity they need without being in a school environment," Palmer said.

They also typically get a good education, according to studies conducted on the subject.

A study conducted by Lawrence M. Rudner, a professor at the University of Maryland’s College of Library and Information Services, and published in the March 23, 1999, issue of "Education Policy Analysis Archives," an electronic journal, states that homeschooled students fare well in standardized tests, usually scoring in the 70th to 80th percentile.

That performance is partially because of the individualized attention that homeschooled students get, proponents say.

"I think the individualization and the student-teacher ratio is helpful," Buchheit said. "We’re not having to cover material along with a large group of people."

"You work with them on a daily basis and you see their skills," Palmer added.

"Your contact with students is so much more frequent that I think it’s much easier to assess their individual needs," said Buchheit.

And that can result in students who are less stressed about how they will do.

"You don’t have to worry about being left behind, "Wilson said. She added that she is "looking forward to the individualized teaching."

That individualized teaching, Palmer said, allows the parent to tailor the curriculum to what is best for the student.

And the variety of curricula available because of the recent growth in homeschooling allows for an even better fit.

"There are many different programs to use," Palmer said.

"I pick and choose the programs I feel work best for us," Buchheit said.

And finding programs that work can help the students matriculate on some of the top post-secondary campuses in the country.

USMA Director of Admissions Col. Mike Jones said some members of the U.S. Corps of Cadets were homeschooled before putting on cadet gray.

"We have some great homeschooled students who enter every year," Jones said.

And the fact that they studied at home does not put them at a disadvantage in the selection process, he added.

"We look at every file as an individual," Jones said. "We look at the quality of the instruction, the depth of it, and how the applicant fared on standardized tests." Activities after school or outside school — like involvement in sports, the community and organizations — factor into the selection process for all applicants to the academy, he added.

Once they are at USMA, homeschooled students fare no better or no worse as a group than other cadets, Jones added.

"They run the gamut, just like students from private and public schools," he said.

So is it homework or schoolwork? Either way, it seems to work.