Defying the Stereotypes of Special Education: Home School Students

This article discusses cases from my 9-year longitudinal study of 100 home school students. The article focuses on students who have been identified as exhibiting learning disabilities and giftedness. There has been widespread concern that parents who are not trained in special education cannot adequately teach children with special needs. This article chronicles the academic development of 6 special education students and examines their parents' educational backgrounds and pedagogical approaches. I conclude that these students have not followed the expected patterns for students with their classifications and they have not been taught with the same assumptions and techniques used by special educators. These cases raise serious questions about the stereotypes that influence current practices in special education.