It's life lessons-not just scholastic lessons- that drive many parents toward home schooling their children.
Scott and Nancy Kennedy of Amsterdam have been educating their five children at home for the last 14 years.
Scott Kennedy, a sales rep at Canon in Albany, said many parents choose to home school primarily for one of three reasons: they think they can do a better job educating their children than the public school system; they believe their local district is unsafe or a substandard school; or they do so for religious reasons.
Kennedy said he guesses about 90 percent of parents he's met who home school want to supplement their children's education with their faith.
"As Christians, we feel it's kind of a God-given responsibility to rear our children," he said. "Our main goal is to develop character."
The Kennedys said they are not against the public school system, but that it tends to draw children away from religion.
"It's not necessarily intentional," Kennedy said. "I wouldn't advocate the public schools teach Christianity but some things can be confusing for kids."
He pointed toward the evolution and creationism debate and said in public schools the theory of evolution is taught as fact.
Nancy Kennedy, a homemaker who also has substitute taught in the public school district, said the most challenging aspect of home schooling is staying on track.
"It's hard day-to-day," she said. "There's no one to blame anything on. There's not substitutes and no sick days."
The couple has graduated their three oldest sons - Jordan, 20, Parker, 18, and Levi, 16 -from home school.
The Kennedy's youngest children, Hannah, 13, and Hudson, 11, are two of 277 children in Fulton and Montgomery Counties who were listed with the state Education Department in the fall of 2009 as educated at home.
As for the success of home schooling, Kennedy said he feels the "proof is in the pudding."
Levi and Parker both scored above 1800 out of a total of 2400 points on their SATs. Jordan is attending classes at the State University of New York in Cobleskill to be a paramedic and works as an EMT in Albany at Western Turnpike. Parker works in construction and hopes to own his own business. Levi is doing carpentry work.
As for socialization, the Kennedys are leaders in the Family Pathways Loving Education at Home group that provides a social network for about 30 area kids this year.
The LEAH groups are all over the state and provide an assortment of classes and field trips for home-schooled students.
The Kennedy children said they have many friends at church, in the home-school group and at other activities they do, like rock climbing. They also said they mow lawns and do work for their neighbors, many of whom are elderly.
The children said growing up in a large family has provided socialization-especially being home schooled and having to learn to work with each others' differing personalities.
"Once you can get along with your family you can get along with just about anyone," Levi said.
"Sometimes you get sick of everyone but I never had any regrets about being home schooled," Parker said.
Arden Detweiter, who is home schooling the last of five children, said her children have been better socialized by being home schooled.
"They're not peer-dependent," she said. "They can be in a group with people of all different ages."
Detweiter teaches a choir and music theory class that is split into two groups, grades K-5 and 6-12.
She said the kids "love and respect" each other and she never hears complaints from the older students because they have to work with the younger children.
According to state home-school regulations, parents must send the school district in which they live a notice of intention to instruct a child at home. Then they must submit an individualized home instruction plan to the district that includes a syllabi and curriculum materials, dates for submission of quarterly reports and names of those who provide instruction.
The quarterly reports are to prove the student receives the substantial equivalent of 180 days at school or 900 hours of education per year for grades one through six, and 990 hours per year of education for grades seven through 12.
In January, Richard W. Cressy and Margie A. Cressy each were charged with four misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child after they failed to register their four children with the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District in which they live.
Investigators from the Montgomery County sheriff's office said in January that they arrested the couple, even after they worked the situation out with the school district, because the parents knew the proper procedure but hadn't followed it before.
The Cressys retained Amsterdam attorney Bill Lorman and Home School Legal Defense Association Deputy General Counsel Jim Mason. For more than eight years, Mason has defended home schooling families throughout the United States. Mason, an Operation Desert Storm veteran, and his wife home schooled all of their seven children.
He said the Cressy's case is the first time he's seen parents face criminal charges for failing to follow home school regulations.
"The kinds of things we deal with are disputes over paperwork," Mason said. "They're often resolved and don't turn into court cases."
Mason said that this state is one of very few that require quarterly reports.
He said the Cressy's case is still in the pre-trial phase.
Amanda Whistle can be reached by e-mail at montco@leaderherald.com
