Julie Edwards: Hello, everybody! Welcome!
Julie Edwards: I see you all joining us. We're going to get started here in just a little bit. Feel free to hop over to the chat and say, Hi! We are actually right at the top of the hour, and I want to
Julie Edwards: make sure that we have as much time as possible with our presenter today. So I'm going to go ahead and formally start our Webinar. I am Julie Edwards. I am the instructional designer and librarian at Niche Academy, a instructional designer, and the library, and at Niche Academy. I'm. Thrilled to have you all here today. Welcome to this webinar on library services to home schoolers.
Julie Edwards: so i'll do a little bit of our standard housekeeping, and then we will launch right in to the Webinar today. So let me start by introducing Niche Academy. Niche Academy is an easy to use. All in one learning platform to help libraries create and deliver effective training and measure learner's. Success.
Julie Edwards: Our platform is the perfect tool for libraries. If you're looking to increase your E resource, usage, move your programming, including your story times, online and deliver and track training for staff development.
Julie Edwards: If you're interested in finding out more about our e-learning solution or chatting with a member of our team, or hearing what your colleagues have to say. I will drop a link to our website in the chat box, and you can check us out there.
Julie Edwards: We are recording this, Webinar and I will make the recording the slides, the Chat transcript, and the audio transcript available to everyone who is registered. After the presentation.
Julie Edwards: It takes me a few days to put all that together. It takes us a few days to put all that together, and I will email all of that to you By the end of this week
Julie Edwards: you can turn on closed captioning at the bottom of your screen. If you would like to use that during the presentation I see many of you coming into the chat, saying, Hi! Letting us know where you're from. Welcome to all of you. Please continue to chat with each other in the chat. When we get a whole bunch of librarians together, the chat is often amazingly full of great information. But if you have a question for Christina. Please use the questions and answer box for any questions for her. So there are so many people in here already. I expect that that will grow. Sometimes things get lost in the chat.
If you use the Q. A. Box, I will be able to moderate those questions. At the end of the presentation.
Julie Edwards: This Webinar series is part of our commitment to solving bigger problems together and providing continuing education in the library space. I'm so so happy to see so many of you joining us today. I will put a link in the 150
Julie Edwards: chat to our future Webinar. So you can see what those are okay. So without further ado, our presenter today is Christina Giovanni Caputo.
Julie Edwards: Christina is the author of Library Services to Home Schoolers, a guide, and the founder of all learners welcome With over 20 years experience in education and librarianship, she has paved the way for equitable and inclusive services in the library arena.
Julie Edwards: Her advocacy has united administrations, libraries, and school districts to work cohesively across the nation to support school and diversity. She is the knowledge services manager at forefront and Illinois nonprofit, and grant Maker Statewide association, and she's a mom to 4, and an advocate for youth everywhere. I am so thrilled to have her here today, and with that I will turn it over to Christina.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So much, Julie, i'm so pleased and excited to be here with all of you. As she said. My name is Christina, and I am going to be your presenter today.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I currently in a librarian. I've been a librarian and a teacher for almost 20 years is really a sad.
and so I have a really deep experience
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and customer focused
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: experience as well. So let's get started.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I am
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: there. We go. So, as I said I'm Christina.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I have been a teacher and library. My friend is from the, and I have always had
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the thought that education didn't only span from 93 every time. Monday through Friday. That occasion was something that we had to foster and provide lifelong learning, and while I was a classroom teacher. I did that instruction in the classroom, right?
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And when I became a librarian we would do so.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: for to our programming. and we would do so through community engagement and bringing people into the library and bring your services outside of the library. So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: in 2,016, when my administration, my former library had approached me about
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: serving the home school population. I was like I don't know if i'm the right person for this. Frankly.
I don't know You know I I was a formalized teacher, but I believe very strongly that as a parent I am my children's first teacher, and I didn't understand that truly, until I out of my family of my own.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And when they approached me I said, Well, you know. maybe maybe I can. I can figure this out. So I began researching.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and there was not that much information that I was able necessarily to find that really fit my needs as a librarian looking to serve a very specialized audience that historically in my area was be very much under served.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so I started researching, and I started
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: compiling this information, and I began ready for
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: voyage was voices for his advocates, but one off that turned into a series. and for American Labor Association I started speaking at conferences and advocating for
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: deeper engagement and expansion of services within the arena with them libraries.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I started
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: library.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: staff, professional development groups. I'm talking about this sharing the information that I have learned and researched a long way.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And then there's approached by your Fiber Association to teach for them, and they teach this at the college level as well for people coming into being librarians.
and then
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I was through on a little field. They asked if I wanted to write a book, and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that's just just brought us to where we are now. So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I am, as I said, extremely happy to be with here. and i'm excited to learn about you, and hopefully connect with you when this is over.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Much of my book. And what i'm talking about today is based on research.
and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: it is something that I found through informational text.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and anything that I've experienced myself, or if it's my opinion, I will office that with
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this is my opinion, or this is in my experience. just as a little disclaimer.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So librarians are titled to school in communities we know that. and it's imperative for us to expand services to meet the alternative education methods of home scores and at home learners.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And in this session i'm going to share about how I inherited a home schooling program, but I knew nothing about the
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and I've grown it into something that I hope will be really helpful to you
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: as my brands.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: We know everybody's welcome in the library. At least I like to think that we we know that. and i'm a youth, youth, librarian. That's where I started.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and I became familiar with
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the windows, mirrors, and fighting glass doors, framework, and philosophy.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that when we see each other in a book or in literature, we can learn about the lives of others. So we we talk about this in the sense of what children. But
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: i'd like to think that this is something that we can do as well as a jaws right. And so I don't i'd like to think that it doesn't stop this notion doesn't stop when we're
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: when they're grown up. And so my learning went through. This journey was a viewing
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this, and what I had learned it was the same opportunity for me to explore, lived opportunities and lived experiences of others.
and this helped me to build empathy and understanding
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and examining the diversity in education. It was very important, and it's been going to be hopefully important to you, too, because it will give us a deeper look into the roots, the social aspects of it, the cultural aspects, the political and historical
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: context of education.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So in order for us to completely understand, or even begin to understand.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the why, in the how of how people school differently, or how people school in a traditional sense. So you have to understand where they people have come from within this journey.
and we have to learn the origins of education.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So education is not a new concept.
The education, the traditional education that we know today that is, what is an more of a new concept.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Home education.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: The first child born to the first person ever in the entire world was a home, educated child, because the formal schooling had not been developed at that time.
and there was not a formalized educational system.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: you know, here in America is what i'm going to mainly focus on for the history of education because I live and serve in America.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so researchers actually have recently found that remains of human life. I believe it's 11,000 years before presence. So a very, very long ago. And within this community they also found
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: traces of the hunter, gabber community.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and people who are hunters, and you have to as well.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: We know that there wasn't a formalized schooling system at least not that has been recorded. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the people have been learning from someone, and they are learning from something.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so it's my assumption and that of researchers that this was some type of training that the elders were teaching the you because they were learning somehow.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so, as we move on through the history of America, the native people who are here
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: prior to organization already had had a rich education. History.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Native American education consisted of specific roles within their tribe or within their family or organization.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the education was focused mainly on the history of the group and tribe, and also survival.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so the knowledge was passed on typically through gender from men, boys, women to girls with the elder being teacher through an oral tradition.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so it was the very practical hands on type of learning.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Now
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the organization of America actually began the 15 hundreds with the Spanish conquistadors coming to Florida, I think. and so but it wasn't until 1,620, when the pilgrims had come.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and they now the first and oldest school in America, was formed in 1,635, and that is the Boston Land school
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and the Boston Land School was only for Boston's elite. The sons of Boston's elite, and they
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: we're schooled in the Humanities freakin Latin. while the girls were continued to be school at home Now, interestingly enough.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the but the the Boston Mountain School just became more recently Co-head in 1,972.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I thought that was very interesting.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: The Massachusetts by colony that was formed at that time the first law everybody asked was for education, and that was in 1,642.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: It was to be taught the children would be to be taught to read and write. and then, 5 years later, in 1,647, the old, the water that was passed again.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: people who were concerned that parents were not necessarily following the act, and that meant that schools were to be erected for every 50 families.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and this didn't necessarily work out so great for them. Those who have landed because people were settling very far apart.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: so the schooling at the time was few and far between in the sense of the traditional schooling we know.
So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this was a very, very slow process that was occurring.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Dame's school started to emerge. This is like the modern day preschool, and these were tuition based. Children would go into a mother's home or a caregivers home, and they would learn around the kitchen tables ABC is in religious studies.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this was for the little kids, because the bigger kids were needed at home. Whether it was that they were farming or taking care of the house they were needed in their home.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and so wealthy families may have hired tutors at this time, so they would have tutor come to the home, and then they would have their instruction predominantly. That was for the males.
The girls would
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: be learning about how to take care of their home and learning all of this through their mother.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and as we move on
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: coming into the nineteenth century become comes horse man. He is very, very well known for endorsing a public education and teacher training.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and he also formed this common school, which was the one Room School House, and Massachusetts was the first state to have a Board of Education, and that was formed in 1,837,
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and man ended up being a secretary of that.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: The common schools were early public schools, and they were established to give children all children, regardless of their religion or social class and education.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And at this time. and when I say all children, this is for white children. Only my children were receiving this education.
so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I would be remiss if we didn't focus and touch upon this as well.
Now.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: in the Portuguese had gone into Africa
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: to look for riches to do whatever they were doing. That is, the first
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: recorded History was in like the late 1,400, and according to the Encyclopedia for Tanaka, there was slave trading by the chiefs with
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the Portuguese for whatever they like for firearms or goods. and now it's beginning to display trade. But prior to that there was a very rich
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: educational system that was put into place, and it was an oral in the oral tradition.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: talking about cultural values within African communities and tribes. And so when
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the slave trade happened, and then there was the the people with the slaves came to America that educational system was lost. Families were torn apart, and, as we know this, this horrible.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: horrible situation, there was not schools for the black children or slave children.
So they did
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: what they had they that they could do? There was the plantation schools. Some masters would teach the slaves how to read only when it would necessarily benefit the plantation. Some of the women would teach
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: some of the other women this labelman, and how to read. So then they would end up passing that on. There was, like, I said, the plantation schools and pit schools that people would go into in the fields and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: tell each other
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: of some knowledge of what they had or remembered, and trying to continue to have that or tradition.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And I believe the statistic was 10%.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: The slaves at that time and literate. So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: There was not many resources. if you will, that were available. And now, in the eighteenth century there was some there in the North there was a free school for black children, or in the Free States for black children. I think it was 1,787
that was open, called the African Free School, but
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: still largely underserved. So all of this is happening
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: right. There is the common school. Then we have movement that we have a civil war and incomes compul there. Another reform education is going to be a reforms. Are people talking about how they're going to reform it. How we're going to
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: do whatever that they're going to do to it, and in comes the compulsory attendance
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: law.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So at the time. Private schools were very much tuition, based just as they are today, and widespread schooling still was not something that was commonplace.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Parents were educating their children at home, and they were sometimes setting them to private school, or they would go to public school.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And actually and I thought this was super interesting. They would go to school for 12 weeks out of a year, and only 6 weeks would have to be consecutive. So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: when we're looking at school, it's not the schooling system that we know today where the students go to school typically 191 days per year we're looking at this on a much
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: a different scale. So the first compulsory attendance law was passed in Massachusetts in 1,852, and what this meant was, those are the days the students were required to go to school, and the ages they were required to go to school.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and so parents to refuse to send their children to school were fined, and occasionally their parental rights were stripped.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: as time went on, by 1,918, all States had adopted compulsory attendance laws on different scales. And so much of this, though, was in response to child labor, and also to assimilate the influx of immigrants that are coming into America.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So each State has different laws for compulsory education that still stands today what they just are. The kids go to school for how many days that they are in school, etc., etc., so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I definitely. As
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: for librarians, if you are on the desk customer-facing patron facing, know what the compulsory attendance. Laws are for your State. because they will vary. So you can look at your States Board of Education to find that information.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: or also the national Center for educator Statistics breaks it down in a in a chart as well. So it's something I would definitely look into. Now, all of this is going on with compulsory attendance.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Something else was happening, and Educational trust was formed by big players in America, by Carnegie, by Harvard, the Rockefeller family.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and also it's, the University of Chicago, Stanford, and then they were forming the National Education Association. But what isn't just commonly now is that there were
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: other groups involved within the formation of the National Education Association and the Educational Trust.
And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this is what I found when I was researching for myself that made alternative schooling kind of click, and understand why the why and how
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: of why people are choosing an alternate path. And so what I learned was
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the Kkk. The Klux Klan was aligned with the National Education Association, and they were lying so much that for a decade this group, both groups multiple groups were working toward federalizing
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the educational system, and at the time the National Education Association was the largest teachers union in America. They lobby together for a Federal department of education.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and so in 1,922, they work together. The Kkk had worked with
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Governor Pierce she passed the 1,922 Oregon compulsory attendance lot. And what that meant was that all youth, regardless
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: of
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: anything they were going to go to public school there wasn't going to be no other option for schooling. It was going to be public school, or you would be fined public school, or you'd be put in jail. So it was pretty much to eliminate
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: religious schooling. Any sort of homeschooling it was to eliminate
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: any sort of opportunity to have a different experience if you will.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So this was met with quite a bit of opposition. It wasn't something that was just accepted and wanted to practice.
So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the Us. Federal role, though in education, was always very much limited. So that's why we don't have this overarching
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: same regulations. Same rules in each state, because they're controlled by the State level and local albums. So this
this change there is a supposition that was occurring. And so.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: if you'd like to read more about this and definitely have lots of suggestions but 2, that I, from being books being most informative for me about this, was the Ku Klux Klan in the City, by Kenneth Jackson, and also the Department of Education's battle
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: in 1,918 to 1,932 by Roberts Lawson so they have longer titles, but those are the authors last names.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so, while this was being met with much opposition, this this form of mandatory public schooling.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this one all the way up to the Us. Supreme Court organizations were.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: This was affecting organizations in organizations that would serve children, whether it be in an orphanage, whether it be where they were receiving schooling, Whether it be in a religious school or different groups, that this
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: religious groups or political groups that didn't feel the same alignment, began battling with us. They they did not want it to become commonplace, or only public schools.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so what broke this chain of events was in Oregon, the society of sisters of the holy name of Jesus and Mary.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: They had an orphanage where they would teach
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Catholic and well. They would teach religion than they would have they have a school, and so they have sued the Governor of Oregon at the time peers, and they won.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and they won because the Jah is unanimously they have one, and so so held up the fundamental right. The judge of the parents and he had written.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: The child is not a a mere creature of the State.
Those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right and high duty
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: to prepare him for applications. And so this was the beginning of the school choice movement. It was the beginning of private schools that we know today.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Another very significant historical event that occurred down the line was in 1,954, the brown first the Board of Education.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and this sets the precedent and reinerates that separate is not equal.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled. that it's unconstitutional to separate the youth by their race in the public schooling system.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the civil rights movement. And in these things we know, but this will be in for for us to touch back upon further on in the presentation.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So all these court cases were going on at the time, and that brings
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: on the reemergence of home. School, like now was not necessarily eradicated. It just was under the radar because it was not legal.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: It was not necessarily thought it as a form of private education, because there was this very large push for public education for all of those years.
So it just kind of flew into the radar right.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And then came John Holt. So John, who is important for us to know.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and that is, he's often called the father of the Home Schooling movement, and he is a he was a former teacher who graduated from, you know, went on to be a teacher, and for 7 years of his teaching
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: career, if you will. He partnered up with Bill Hall. and they would observe each other's, classrooms, and serve each other teaching and take notes.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so, through his observation of what he had done to this experience is, he wrote his first book in 1,964 called how Children Fail in this book. He talks about how compulsory schooling destroys a child's natural curiosity.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and so I bring this up, and I'm going to tell you about these revolution less, if you will, or homeschool early homeschooling advocates because these items that these books that they've written are important for
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: for you and for your patrons to have access to. Because if you're looking to grow a program, as we know, we need to have the resources to do so. So, having books by John Holt is going to be
important because he is the father of home school, and he is a very strong. He is a very strong advocate for unschooling, which is just child blood learning.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and he also was very important with the legal system that was occurring as well, he
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: At the end.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Before he had passed away he had gone into the foundations and appearances in court and through legislature, and he was very much integral in getting to where we are today.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So he became in the mainstream when he went on to built the filled on a huge show with a homeschooling family, and then he begins right, for I think time. So.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: He is a cool guide to now about and refer people to if they're interested in learning about on schooling. and at the same time
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: on the if you could put them on a spectrum, John, hold to some pro popped, and then we have the father, the grandfather of homeschool, Dr. Raymond Moore.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and he was on the far right, which politically. and so do you even more. And his wife, Dorothy often refer to as grandparents of home education, or to about Christians, and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: they advocated for delaying education and delaying education and academics for children.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So he was the former at the time he was a superintendent of California public schools.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and during that time period California was going to create the compulsory attendance to go down to 2 years and 9 months. Well.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Dr. Moore didn't agree with that. And so he wrote for an oracle for Harper's bizarre in the early 1970 S. Pretty much just saying that that's way too young
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: for the kids to be in school, and they should still be playing through early early there is the app right. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: it then was published in readers to address, and then it became so popular that he was commissioned. Try to book, and that book is called Better late than early. So they also worked with legislatures to have legal precedences. Here. They were witnesses in law cases, and they traveled the world advocating for these services for the youth.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: They also have a curriculum still to this day, and it's called the more formula.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So if you look it up online. That can be a really great resource, too. If you're looking to disseminate resources to your family is, the more the more foundation is more of a traditional
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: traditional curriculum within the Christian realm
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: as a side.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I mean. I think my favourite, in my opinion, my he revolutionist, is John Taylor got out. I think he's just, but that's just my opinion. You know. We're all going to have different ones. But, Johnny, he was a 30 year school teacher.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and he had one, in a word, 3 times. for he was a 3 time winner of the New York State.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: New York City teacher of the year 3 times New York State teacher of the year, 3 times.
and then in 1,991. He wrote article in the Wall Street Journal, and it was called, I quit, I think. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: he had said, after his experiences in public education, that the government and government schooling is very the most radical adventure in history.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and he was no longer willing to hurt children. So he wrote: this
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I I quit, I think, and published it, and then obviously did not go back to school. And then he wrote a groundbreaking book at the time, and it was called Duming down the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and he wrote another book called the Weapons of Mass Instruction, a school Teacher's Journey through the dark world of compulsory schooling, and pretty much what this was is, he was saying that compulsory education was hurting and destructive to you
through that one set curriculum was not going to meet the needs of all students
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: once that pathway wasn't going to meet the needs. And so he also called for attention to educational systems for black youth. He had called for families to break away from an educational system, and he was calling it indoctrination and mainstream society.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So he rose in prominence as well as an unschooling advocate.
And so.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: while all this is occurring.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I'm saying, it's illegal. It was just not you or not. It was not legal at the time, as I,
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the revolutionaries were so important because they were going to court. They were giving these resources to the community that needed them. So in early 19 eighties 2 lawyers, 2 Christian lawyers.
both name Mike started and formed
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the Home School Legal Defense Association.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: This is going to be important, not just. You know the history of education. But
the Home School Legal Defense Association
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: is a resource, and it has been a resource since the eighties that to protect families right to give their child. Personalized, educational. and people and families would join this organization and still can do to
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: do so today, for I don't know you a couple of years ago is $125 or so for the whole year, and within that you would have legal representation for the entire year. So something ever to happen.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: You would call home schooling up the fence, and then they would come and help you. And this was really very much important in the eighties when home schooling was legal.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and it did not become. It did not come into the mainstream
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: full legal in all of the United States until 1,983.
And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this is very important to know. Now. when I how about Home school, legal defense data, it'd be really remiss if they didn't tell you this as well
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: on the map. On their website they have an interactive map
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: which will give you
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: very quick resource to looking at the homeschool laws in each State. So we have a we are. We have different states that have different levels. There's
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: no regulation too low, and it goes all the way up to high. and so this will give you what will.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: if parents come to you and say, hey, what will I need to do if I am homeschooling in Florida.
and you can pull that information and give it to them in a quick
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: reference. If you're doing that so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: definitely, you recommend for using home school, you get the Fence Aid or Defense Association, if you're looking for additional resources that are easy to use, and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: have a string whose way is growing? It it wasn't huge, but it wasn't, you know, mental. So the percentage, though in home education and at home learners and education. Alternative education has been consistently on the rise
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: during Covid. We know that over 90 of all you in the world they were home school
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: just through the pandemic.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: when I say home school, I mean like learning from him. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this has been growing. and home school has nearly tripled since 2,019,
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and the Us. Sent us when they had just put out one of the recent studies. They had said one in 12 students, our home school. So for every 12 that come in, there's going to be the percentage
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that's our home school. So there's home schoolers in every community they're in your community if you're not aware of them.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I guess that each State has different regulations. And so. but it's really important for us when we go to talk about the home school, legal defense, aid, or if we're talking about the regulations by State, or if we're looking up some information for
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: a homeschool family or person, or whoever
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that maybe around legality for us to really give a disclaimer and say pretty much, you know. i'm not providing legal advice. I'm giving you this resource. Do with it as you wish. But I as a librarian in my organization we don't interpret this law for you, and can't necessarily tell you what this means, but we'll give you the resources in order for you to do that for your family.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: so I always would give that sort of disclaimer, because I never wanted to be held that I was actually an expert in legal advice for home school. I'm not at all. But.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: like I said during COVID-1990% of the school's population. It was schooled at home. And so, even when vaccines came out, even when the schools began to open their doors again. Home, schooling, numbers and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: at home learners and alternative education methods they just kept rising and rising.
And so.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: because of this, there's even more of an opportunity for us as librarians to reach this population, because
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: it's just continuing to grow. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the census didn't separate information necessarily out
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: for native American children, Muslim children, and by this type, so it's hard to to garner that type of increase within our groups, however, leaders from those those groups, and have said that those numbers have been rising to.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and so we have some of the breakdown here, that is, from some of the reports. This is from the house.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: The whole surveys the household pulseeries that were sent out around Covid and right after Covid, and it shows the breakdown by demographics
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and backgrounds on the numbers of youth and percentages, and how high they jumped.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So no reason. I I really want to touch on this, because when I was first approached to to serving homeschoolers, I thought. well be the first. I don't know what i'm doing. Second
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: well. my immediately. My immediate thought was that this is an very much white population
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that comes from parents that
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: have
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: money where the mom can stay home and school the child that they all would sit around the same kitchen table, and their mom would be teaching them education. This is my opinions what I thought originally, and so that was not the case, as they begin to learn more and more. And so what the household Polls survey showed us. They're always with diversity and in
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: home education. But what the household pulse showed us was how drastically it was growing during. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: there also was a study that showed nontraditional students
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: was non-traditional student in home education, alternative education that was very much growing to in the Lgbtq community, and that
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: they believe is 20% of all school age Children who identify are
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: 20% are in an alternative educational setting.
But the drastic, most drastic increase in
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: diversity is going to be from our black families. They have the largest increase in homeschool numbers
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: even to this day, since all of this has occurred, and I also would be remiss if I didn't tell you 38 of all home schoolers and home learners are
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: have a form of special needs or another, so that's 3 times higher than the public school students who have that average, I think, is 14. So 14 of all school age Children in a public school
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: have a special need, and then 38% from home. So and i'm telling you. This because it's not a one. Size fits all. Education is not a one-size-food solid. It never will be it never has. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the reasons why people are looking to home school or have an alternative education method.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: It's just because they're really trying to find the right way or find the right way of what's going to meet their needs, their child's needs. and with the hope that
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this may work, and so like that there's not a one size fits all approach. Not every, not not all this for the same size pants, or like the same sandwich, so we try it till we figure it out, and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: more unique reach, unique. And so is schooling, and it's a very, very personal choice. Some of the reasons that parents have cited to me, and just to studies. I've read that they
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: 5 day home school. I had a that competitive figure skater. Her family told me it's because she's competing, and they're traveling. There are some that feel bullied at school, and they pull their child out, or they're having it. A gender reassignment surgery. They've told me that they pulled their child, and they're hopefully from home
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: The very, very large differences and vast differences. And why and how?
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: But
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: it never really mattered to me, because it didn't matter like how
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and why they were choosing to do this because they were in my community, and they needed our resources. And so
I was there to serve them.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and i'm really glad that I did so. I think what we're going to do is i'm going to tell you about what I did, and see then, if you have any questions about that, but
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: awesome oh, oftentimes when there is a shooting which we recently seen. For. obviously, like Covid, what would happen when the school shut down
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: things of that nature or things that are happening in the world. Parents pull children out of schools and start to school from home. There's just historically been an uptick when things like this happen. So pay attention. What's happening in your community? What's happening in the world? Because that may give an indicator to
of how to respond with library services.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: there are lots of different types of home education methods. Like so many.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: There is not a one-size that saw their ones that I thought of when I first started this journey of traditional education, that schooling from home and trying to have a very similar experience to when you were in a traditional classroom. There is unit studies where parents will completely focus on
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: different subjects or historical moments in order to really immerse themselves within that. So, for example, if you, the families in doing a unit study and they're learning about.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: they're learning about the civil war. That would be. They would do everything. Every subject would be about the the Civil War. So it'd be like they would go to the sites.
They would have artwork about the Civil War. They would do their fiction, reading their factual reading. They would have math problems all tied together for an immers immersion of learning.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So there also is classical homeschooling, and I'm. E. Bringing this up, because if you're going to build a collection, you want to build a collection that would serve your community, knowing the different types of methods of homeschooling is going to be important for you, too.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So classical home schooling is done. There's a very big group called Classical Conversations, and this is a Christian group, and it goes Pre. Pre. K. Through High school, as many of them do.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: But this one has a specific list that there's a very
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: very well-known blog called the Half 100 Acre Wood, and they have book list on there
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that focus on what they're learning in their foundations. And so what I did is I would go through the book list and see what we had in our collection.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and as I begin to foster relationships with our home exclusion, our community, I would have that on hand. I was able to share what we had in the library
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: in order for them to meet their curriculum.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: There's unschoolers who we learn through play, and it's very much, child, that there's Charlotte Mason, method who is more nature based in art based, but doesn't necessarily use textbooks or word cheeks work. She
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that that would focus on living books and rich literature to teach. So focusing on.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Do you have Charlotte Mason educational methods in your community looking at the some of the curriculum that Charlotte Mason has doesn't have to match a 100. But see what resources that, whether it be the the groups.
or what is recommended, and having those available within your collection.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I know that that'd be much much appreciated. There's an inactic style which is using a bit from every homeschool group or very method. what is new on the horizon, and has been, is travel schooling. Some families that travel
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: summer live. It's called also Rv. Already School, where they live in an Rb. And then they travel throughout the country, or wherever and they live very minimally. Public drivers are extremely important to them, because they don't have a lot of space.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So, having opportunities to have toys and different books and resources and things to do
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: are very, very. The families are very grateful for that because of the limited amount of space. Now.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: cultural and racial schooling is on the rise, and we're definitely seeing that. And that is you, even if you you know, do a quick Google search, or you look in your academic journals, you'll see that that is on the rise, and the number of black families increased 5 times over from before Covid to now.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: so it has the biggest jump in any racial group on the home schooling level. It's an alternative education levels.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I said. There, there's so many reasons why. But one of the main reasons that we can focus on a little bit is that African American history
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: in schools and the curriculum traditional curriculum. We're focused on civil war
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and then civil rights movement. It kind of stops from there, maybe touched on a little bit, but most of its Western history. So black homeschool families are focusing oftentimes on Afro-centric curriculums. So really looking at the deep history of Africa, and how that relates to them
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and their children and feeling this pride. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that is what currently is. You know the numbers I can give you is 16. That's it's a pretty big percentage of.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Where are you being school from home?
So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: our home school families are heavy, heavy library users
very much so and so 78% cite that the public fiber is their biggest and best resource.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So you may have pushed back from my administration. If they're like. Well, why, you know why we need to serve them. They are. They can come to our programs after school. Well, yeah, but library of right states that
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: we, as librarians.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: serve our community so to else competencies. You also competencies.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and we can point to different resources if you need additional resources or data, and why
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: we would need to serve the population.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: But
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: you're probably thinking enough about the education portion of it right like. How did I engage these families? Well
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: due to the home school battles, legal battles that the families have gone through. They even just come up to the dust and be like Hi! I'm Christina, i'm a homeschooler like you. You may have to dig a little bit. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: there are many that don't that census data because they don't want to be out it or fear what will happen in the future if educational laws change.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So my first
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: method, and how I engage my community. So when I was on a desk.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I started watching. I mean we're observing that I was observing who was in the library during a traditional.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: the scene, If there was a disgrace, child there, the caregiver was there. If a school age child came to me 3 times, or programs during the school day with their younger sibling.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and it didn't bum rush them with. You know I don't know it was. It was more so like kind of Christina, you know, if you read any good books lately that you'd like to recommend to me? Or have you seen this really cool program that's coming that kind of stuff just to be down to re, begin to build this report
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: with the child and their family.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: because there's just statistic that 78% of homeschool families use the library. So there is that very large chance of this child and this family was going to be coming back into the library.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so these are things that we do every day. But now, having this different lens on it is going to give us a more targeted approach.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So, paying attention when you're on a on the desk.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: look through social media.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I just did a quick Google search to see what home school groups or my neighborhood
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: a lot of homeschoolers spread through word of mount. They may not put it on websites, or have it on social media. But they may. You know it's it's going to be dependent on your community.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So I like to look at everything. I
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: went through social media. I joined various groups. I saw what type of organizations for recommended. Then, if some groups didn't accept me, that's okay.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I figure out a different way to to engage this population, so I just kept trying and trying until I found something. I also encourage you to leave the library. If you are able to
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: being out in the community and being seen and meeting the people where they are, that is going to
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: build your report with it, not only just in your community, but within a group that sometimes doesn't want to
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: share. It is a very private group about their educational system. It can be very simple as offering to do a story time at a laundromat, or at the grocery store.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: or, you know, anywhere with a new community offering a service. And so you even do it at a coffee shop, have, like an informational meeting or a coffee, and heck cocoa bar
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: at 10 am on a Tuesday, and as for Tweens and their caregivers to come, see who shows up a lot of this for me was trial and error.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: parents need support, too, and we do this through every child ready to read that a lot. Libraries. We do this through our story times and our programming for littlest patrons.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and this is, if you're not doing it already. It is a early literacy initiative through Alison Pla that talks about the importance of our illiteracy for our caregivers.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: this is a really great program to kind of piggy back some of your alternative education with because you're already bring community partners in typically with this program. And so when you're building that relationship with your community partners through everything ready to read.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: that's gonna come back for another program or have a problem right after it for your homeschool population. So think about tapping into resources. You already have that Don't cost a lot of money and begin to form your programs and your relationships.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: because then I found when I was starting to want to extend my services while it did come down the cost.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So if I could have done it when I did it, I did it at the lowest cost possible to start, because in it just proved, when my numbers would continue to rise, and I have my reports. My data pulled.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: It just gave me more support when I would go to my board and administration to share this information. So home, school. advisory team.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: endless parents in your community for my home school
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: advisory team. And that's just having parents. Tell you what type of home, education or alternative education, philosophy they're using, and you can learn so much about your community just by having a coffee hour at the library and asking
for home. My heated parents to come, and, you know, share their experiences and what they like to see from the library
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: offering a formalized survey is really great, too. If people don't necessarily want to
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: give you their name, having like a survey, monkey or anonymous survey, even if it's in your newsletter online platform you have a paper survey how, whatever works for you community having a survey asking about the learning needs of your community.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: you may be doing it already for your public schools or traditionally schooled students. So pick you back off that, too, and find out about your community.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and and so asking what?
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Asking the community in school and community what they like to see from our services can really help us move forward as well. because what work for me. It may not work for you. It worked what worked for you may not work for the next person, so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: these are methods that I use, that I hope will assist you on your journey.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: So, after every program that I would have is, I would have like a paper survey when people would come. So I started doing a home school hangout. That was a traditional program that was already established. I made a mistake. I failed big time on the first one I tied it to.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I tied it to the common core. I had a whole packet. I thought it was the most amazing program it was not, and it wasn't what my community needed, because I didn't know my community at the time. And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: what I found was really helpful for us within my homeschool programming was having one of the the equipment that he maybe the use hadn't had experiences with. So like our robots, our 3 do their pens.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: having schemes for homeschool hangout, do you? Looking at simple machines, but not having the worksheets or standards based, learning, having projects in conversations and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: thinking outside the box.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: but knowing my community in order to do so.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: so I had a very different home schooling group. Everyone had a different philosophy, so I was trying to match all the different philosophies. So I did. A lot of the pettings use like heavy different stations set up, so they'd be technology. And then there would be an art project, and then we would have, you know, sensory tables and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: programming a lot for different ages. But it was so much fun, and it was so welcomed by my community.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so, you know, I just want to give you a quick heads up on the time we've got about 5 min left. I'm going to
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: tell you my body programs, and then I will ask for any questions you could do a. Behind the Scenes library tour. I did home school movie that was requested by my family's Home School lunch. Punch was a really great one, costed absolutely no money. Kids would Brown beg their launch would be together.
It's something that was recommended by my homeschool families because
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: they were not having that in the traditional school just using lunch together.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: home school book clubs, reading the same book and talking about it, or offering our book selections to our home school families for them to bring to their home school groups to have book discussions for teacher, library cards.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: That's something that is very important to offer as well. In United States, our homeschool families, alternative families, those are a form of private school. So the same opportunities you're offering. Traditional schooling families offer it to
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: your private schools and homeschool families. Do a curriculum audit. So all these things that I was sharing before are leading to this. But I talked to you well, but do a curriculum audit, not when you know who is in your community, making sure you have books on how to support your learning community for the parents
is going to be very important for the parents
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: collaborate with your co-workers. You may have. You have subject experts in your library, and so tap into them seeing how you can work together to fit the needs of your community.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: And so
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: you don't. I have a friend at what work, or if you're not sure what to do.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: you can always reach out to me, I mean I would love to help you, and I thought to knock with you.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I started a library and serving home school home at home learners and home school families on Facebook so feel free to join. You can reach out to me there, too. Start if you haven't a professional Development group in your area.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: and you can work together to fit this. But
I am definitely here to support you. If you find me on Linkedin.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I am just an email away, and
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I will help you reach your population. So I appreciate your time today, and i'll turn it back to you, Julie, for like 2 min.
Julie Edwards: Thank you so much, Christina, and thank you all. I want to let you all know that I will be sharing the Chat Transcript. You all shared so much great information with each other, including someone shared at some point. Christine is linked in profile, so
Julie Edwards: that's in there. I will be sharing that with you all, so that you can reach out to her because we are not going to get to all of the questions that have come in. But we will. We'll do our best. Let's see.
Julie Edwards: Christina. Do you have like a database or resource that you use to connect with homeschoolers in specific counties or States like your number. One recommendation.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I used a lot of not necessarily a database, because there there isn't going to be that out there a lot of it's going to be word of mouth. So, making that connection with your families, I I honestly I would use my kids. I would show up at the park that I had heard they were going to be at through social media, or
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: when I visit them, I would just bring up tons of swag to to give out, and and it was a lot of trial and error for me in the beginning. But I, this is popping up on my computer.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: We can definitely. I can definitely help you and connects you to the right people within your right area.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: I'm just. I'm not sure who asked me. So you can connect with me on Linkedin, and then and figure it out too.
Julie Edwards: That's fantastic. And thank you so much for that generous offer. We are at time, but we know where to find you, and I'm sure that you will get some connections on Linkedin and some emails.
Julie Edwards: Lot of several people are saying they would like to see more. So we can. Maybe we can do a follow up with focusing on conversations and programming. In the future i'll. I will look into that. Thank you all so much. There's information about where to get a Ce. Certificate in the chat. You can scroll back through that, or check that out
Julie Edwards: when I send all of this information out, Christina. Thank you so much for today.
Christina Giovannelli Caputo: Thank you. Thank you so much. It was my complete. It was an honor to be able to speak to all of you. So thank you.
Julie Edwards: Thank you so much, and we will. I'll be sending you out all this information pretty soon. In the meantime, have a great day. Everybody thank you for attending Bye, bye.