Under one roof: living and learning in the home

For more than 25 years Kansas’s capital city of Topeka has played host to a growing independent Christian home education assistance organization named Cornerstone Family School. What began as one man “haphazardly” overseeing an effort to have greater accountability and support for people looking to homeschool has grown to more than 75 families with no sign of declining.

“Cornerstone is a unique organization along homeschool groups because at the time it was setup the environment was much different than it is now,” said Kent Vincent, Cornerstone founder. “Cornerstone provides not only opportunities but accountability for homeschooling families and that was the big concern back then.”

The Vincent family started home education in the early 80's when it was generally considered to be illegal said Kent. There were court cases that concerned the couple and they started an organization working with a local Christian school. After a few years of having a satellite school program, they decided to spin off a separate organization.

“The board at the Christian school didn't have time to deal with all the issues we had so we formed our own board and it's been going ever since, 25 years or so,” said Vincent. 

Christy Vincent looks on as her husband, Kent, discusses how Cornerstone Family Schools was formed. The couple have been members of the home education movement for more than thirty years.

The Difference

Homeschooling in Kansas is far from uncommon nowadays; with some associations having more than 2000 families belonging to them. Cornerstone acknowledges their size is quite small in comparison but the families who have joined enjoy an accountability process lacking in other organizations.

People have to apply and go through an interview process before they may join the association.

“We're also an accountability group,” said Lori Brewster, Cornerstone board member. “We track out hours and turn the reports into Cornerstone, just to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.”

The Brewster family joined Cornerstone when their eldest daughter, Kayla, was in 8^th grade. Kayla expressed a desire to attend public school because of the ability to participate in extra-curricular activities. The family found Cornerstone and agreed to give it a chance for a year; since joining the association none of the kids have brought up public school.

The group also does standardized testing which is not a requirement of the state. Cornerstone does this to go above and beyond as well as collected grades twice a year. The decision to keep accountability has been a decision supported by the members themselves. Kent said at one point the group debated removes the record keeping requirements but many families enjoy having the extra piece of mind.

This stems from the inadequate protection of homeschoolers.

Currently, the requirements for home education is to register as a non accredited private school. The school must to be taught by a competent teacher, but there is no definition of competent. “The law reads they have to be in school for substantially equivalent to number of hours or days which equates to 186 days of school,” said Brewster.

Additionally the household must register with the state education department as a homeschool.

No one has been stopped from homeschooling since 1983, said Kent. While some states have more strict regulations than Kansas Kent said he doesn’t believe their results are any better.

“If you go to court here you don't have safe harbor like in other states,” Kent said. “So there is an incentive to do the best job you can.”

The Advantages

The same laws that haunt homeschooling families also contribute to their enjoyment of in home education.

“Training begins from the time they wake up until they go to bed,” said Christy. “I think it gives a lot more time for building relationships if you choose to.”

            School isn’t limited to a classroom setting in the home. Families can take trips to museums; participate in extra-curricular athletic activities all in the name of class credit. Families are also afforded control over their children’s grade placement.

"Each family decides what grade their kids are in,” said Brewster. “My kids have never been in all one grade material at the same time.”

Brewster said teaching her kids allows her to cater specifically to each child for each subject.

Schoolwork aside, many families choose to join the Cornerstone family because of the extra-curricular activities. Cornerstone conducted a survey in 2008 to ask why people were joining and it the results were split between the access to sports and the fine arts.

“Accountability and testing was a small part of it,” said Brewster. “There was a lot of different reasons people had for joining, but the biggest was the extra-curricular activities.”

 Cornerstone Family School’s sports teams “The Saints” compete with public and private schools in a wide variety of sports ranging from soccer and basketball to track and field. Students can even letter in sports offering a similar experience to their traditional school counterparts.

Brewster’s eldest son, Keaton, is currently in 7^th grade, but would be in 6^th grade in a public school because of his age. Keaton plays basketball for the junior high Saints.

“It’s tough, but it’s a lot of fun,” Keaton said.

Another plus of home-schooling is the flexibility of the class schedule. The Brewster family took vacation in the middle of Sept. this year to avoid the vacationing masses.

"We avoided the tourist times and the crowds from tourist in the summer,” said Brewster. "We worked our lives and our vacation around school or school around our lives and vacation, whichever way you want to look at it."

The Curriculum

All the families sit under the umbrella of Cornerstone, but that is a loose organization – each family has the ability to conduct their curriculum as they choose.

"For me, I don't use one particular curriculum, we pick and chose based on what I think will be good for my kids,” said Brewster. "The grades aren’t important, it’s about the learning."

Instead of grading assignments and moving on, Brewster goes over everything her children miss until they understand it. Brewster maintains a planner for each of her children and updates it each week.

            With 11 children, the Vincent family had six children in school at the same time. Christy credits the ability to manage having so many different subjects to teach to strict scheduling and great children. 

“As they get into high school there were opportunities to take classes outside the home and get them to branch out into the things they were interested in,” said Christy. “You know when you've done it this long, it's just a way of life and you know what resources you like and what resources and people you can use.”

The home education movement has grown so much since the beginning Kent said it is easy to be overwhelmed by the curriculum choices.

“It's grown so much, you can use the internet now and there's so much you can use inside the home you don't have to go outside the home for things,” said Christy.

Kent said regardless of the growth of curriculum choices the struggle of motivating kids has remained the same.

Lori Brewster studies Bible with her son, Levi, following breakfast.

The Challenges

As one would imagine schooling at home can become a difficult environment for children and the teacher. At a time when the average attention span of a child seemed to be measured in seconds how can families keep a focus on the content being taught with all the comforts and distractions of home?

“It's very frustrating some days because you're the parent and the teacher,” said Brewster. “There's good days and there's bad days and kids don't always want to cooperate, whether it's doing chores or doing their schoolwork.”

When the teacher is mom, competing for attention and assistance quickly becomes personal.
“It's kinda crazy,” said Keaton. “Usually I try to get my mom's attention and find out what I can do by myself so she can work with my brother.”

Keaton and his brother, Levi, are in the same history class, but all other courses are tailored specifically to each of them.

Another problem can be over-committing to groups and extra-curricular activities. Brewster said since all the extra-curricular activities are outside the home a lot of time must be spent driving to and from the events, practices, etc.

“Trying to keep up with the housework sometimes can be challenging,” Brewster said. “The schoolwork is first priority.”

The Socializing

As the topic of socialization comes up the home educators faces glaze over as they prepare to walk a well trodden path. Socialization is a constant “go-to” for those questioning the legitimacy of the home education movement.

“There is what is called a peer dependence, which is where kids pickup their norms and standards from their peers - which ain't always good,” said Kent. “What we try and sell is that we're trying to co-locate those values from adult to child instead of peer to peer.”

 The Vincents say there is much more socialization from the internet alone then ever before; and stress it is not always good.

“The social relational testing that they did back in the 80's and 90's the homeschooled kids were better socialized then their traditional school counterparts,” Kent said. “On the whole, because there's always gonna be exceptions.”

Christy attributes this to the role of adults in the children’s lives.

Kent said the kids gain better socialization skills because of the absence of age segregation. also more of an opportunity to be around kids of separate ages.

“All of our kids had no problem adjusting to the places we went or the people they were with,” said Christy.

The families in Cornerstone have found a way to mix their desire to teach their children and offer a comparable experience to public schools.

“Our kids are some of our best friends,” said Kent. “This decision has been good for our family to spend the time together and grow together.”