More families across the country have switched to homeschooling since the pandemic—and East Tennessee is no exception. The U.S. census estimates that around 5.4% of Tennessee families homeschooled in the spring of 2020 with this increasing to 13.2% by the fall.
“I think there was a stigma behind it, like homeschoolers are weird,” says local homeschooling parent Rachel Smith. “There was a lot of fear in that, but I feel like the pandemic gave people the opportunity to try it—and they saw that it was really great.”
According to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau between September 2022 and August 2023, Tennessee ranked second in the country with 9% of children being homeschooled.
Sarah Mashue, a Knoxville parent, feels similarly about homeschooling’s growth in popularity.
“Homeschooling has always had a variety of people, a variety of styles, a variety of educational approaches, but the public in general only had one picture of what it looked like,” she says. “I feel like, because of the pandemic, the outside perception of it has changed a lot and I think that’s positive.”
Both Smith and Mashue express that they were interested in homeschooling prior to the pandemic, but Covid pushed them to make the switch. And they weren’t alone. A 2023 report by the Urban Institute shows that homeschooling in Tennessee increased by 20% by the fall of 2021.
While the pandemic was a leading factor in families’ decisions to homeschool their kids, Knoxville parents also see other benefits with the switch.
Smith says that family time, flexibility, and lack of testing were positive changes that arrived with the change.
“Just knowing that [testing] is never gonna be a part of my kids’ reality. There’s a place for it, but I don’t think that should have to drive their academic focus. That’s not why they’re trying to learn it. They’re learning because they are interested in it,” says Smith.
Smith and Mashue have both taught in the classroom before homeschooling their kids and see the importance of individual attention and adjusting the curriculum based on a child’s learning style.
As for their day-to-day schedules, both moms note that homeschooling looks different for everyone.
Smith explains that her family starts their day with a devotion or book to read aloud together before moving onto memorization through a co-op called Classical Conversations. She then likes to get kids going on more individual things so she can work one-on-one.
Mashue, similarly, tries to keep the morning more structured with math, memorization, and reading aloud. Her family’s afternoons are filled with more elective or co-op type activities.
Supporting this growing community are co-ops, which exist across the region. Co-ops offer Knoxville homeschool families a space to engage in their children’s interests and further assist them with learning and socialization.
“Anything from dance lessons to lego robotics,” says Mashue.
The homeschooling community in Knoxville has grown and seems to be continuing to grow. Resources and extracurricular activities have increased while the stigma surrounding homeschooling has lessened.
