This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, April 2nd, 2020.

I'm Kima Brown.

The modern homeschooling movement really isn't that old and has roots in both the countercultural

left and religious right. As parents find themselves with an opportunity to

more directly educate their children, Cato's Carrie McDonald discusses what might be coming next for the homeschooling movement

in the United States.

We're seeing a lot of parents increasingly curious about what real homeschooling looks like. Of course we've said all along this is not

real homeschooling. This is a situation that all of us are finding very stressful and difficult,

but it is prompting some parents who may have been intrigued by the idea of

homeschooling to look for some more resources.

So I'm seeing many conventional school parents joining Facebook groups for homeschoolers and

seeing increased interest in what real homeschooling might look like.

In fact, I ran into a neighbor recently whose 10-year-old child is in a

conventional public school and you know at a safe six foot distance was asking

her how things were going at home and she said that her child is just

blooming just devouring books writing short stories really taking charge of her education and is so much happier.

And so I said, oh, I wonder, you know, would you think about continuing with this after

the pandemic ends?

And she said, we are strongly considering it she said I'm so

surprised it's going so well so I think to the extent that parents can

disconnect from curriculum assignments and a lot of states they're being

absolved from curriculum

...