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A summary of the research report “Homeschooling and the Redefinition of Citizenship” by Bruce Arai. Bruce Arai teaches courses in research methods, statistics, and the sociology of work at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research interests include homeschooling, educational assessment, and economic sociology, particularly self-employment. Professor Arai is also the author of a study entitled “Changes in Parents’: Motivations for Homeschooling” which was featured in the October 1999 issue of Home Rules. He has been researching the topic of homeschooling for three years, and is currently in the process of gathering data on attitudes towards homeschoolers. He and his wife, Tracey Appleton, homeschool their three children, aged 4, 6 and 8. A great deal of research on homeschooling has focused on comparisons between homeschooled and schooled children with respects to academics and why people choose to homeschool their children. In his research paper entitled “Homeschooling and the Redefinition of Citizenship,” Professor Arai focuses on the area of citizenship — can people be good citizens without going to school? His paper shows that homeschoolers have a different but equally valid understanding of citizenship. Most of the concerns/objections surrounding homeschooling revolve around whether or not homeschooled children are being properly socialized in order to develop into good citizens. What is meant by “proper socialization” can be broken down into several components: 1) homeschooled children will not be able to cope in and with the harsh realities of the real world; 2) parents will provide a biased and narrow curricular content for their homeschooled children — schooled children are exposed to many different teachers with various areas of expertise; 3) homeschooled children do not receive enough exposure to others and this will produce people with higher levels of prejudice and intolerance. Parents who homeschool their children are also accused of elitism. They are removing their children from the public school system because it is in a shambles when they should be staying and fighting to improve the system. It is also believed that home schooling can only be done by parents with higher levels of education. Only the elites have the ability to educate their children at home. Another concern deals with post-secondary education. Many believe that if children do not go through the traditional school system and receive a high school diploma then they will not have the proper credentials to attend college and university. This concern is perhaps the only one that is shared both by the critics and homeschoolers themselves. Coping in the real world, getting along with others, working for the common good and contributing to society through higher education becomes part of what is considered a good citizen. Can homeschoolers fit properly into the larger society? Eamonn Callan feels that there should be no parental choice in education. He believes that all children should attend a common school to receive a common curriculum in order to ensure a “vibrant sense of citizenship among present and future generations.” Callan believes that a common school can provide: a) critical tolerance of diversity; b) the power of rational thought and argument and c) a commitment to a moral code. (Editor’s Note: Eammon Callan used to be Dean of Education at the University of Alberta and is currently the Mactaggart Fellow in the Department of Educational Foundations at this university. He has written several very respected books on education, and educational philosophy. He is basically an advocate of “Common schooling” by which he means all kids attending the same school, with a common curriculum, underpinned by a rather liberal, but firmly held moral code. He has written two books on education entitled, “Creating Citizens: Political Education & Liberal Democracy” and “Autonomy & Schooling.”) Callan refers to his vision as ‘schooling as the great sphere.’  “This is a form of schooling in which children are helped to explore the world and in the process they acquire the abilities to decide for themselves how and where they wish to live in that world.” Callan argues that parents should only be allowed to keep their children out of school in clearly defined circumstances and “exemptions should only be granted after careful scrutiny of each case.” He does not believe that parents should have the right to reject this great sphere schooling for their children since it “would interfere with the child’s future ‘zone of personal sovereignty’ by keeping the child ‘ethically servile’ to her or his parents. ” Children removed from the great sphere schooling could be brainwashed into accepting their parents limited view of the world which would be harmful for the child and the larger society. So…if the purpose of school is to create good citizens, then what type of citizenship education should children be receiving in school? Many models have been presented and debated, however, no one has presented a single vision of citizenship which has been acceptable to everyone. Over the years more emphasis has been placed on teaching facts about a country’s political system stressing rights and responsibilities. Less emphasis has been placed on participation and connection in the community. Schools are now beginning to rediscover that participation in the community is important for the education of proper citizens. Today, many students may believe that participation in the community is important, however, very few actually participate in these activities. Therefore, do homeschoolers make good citizens? Do homeschoolers pose a threat to citizenship since they do not attend school? Professor Arai believes that “yes” homeschoolers do make good citizens. However, there are differences between the vision of citizenship presented in schools and what is found among homeschoolers. Homeschoolers have responded to the above criticisms by creating a different kind of citizenship through their actions. They do not accept the assumption that school is the only place that one can go to become a good citizen. Most homeschoolers do not want to isolate themselves from the larger society and, therefore, seek “meaningful integration” into society which produces a different but equally valid understanding of citizenship. Homeschoolers believe that school is not the