DATE: Wednesday, May 21, 1997               TAG: 9705210058

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAGGIE WELTER, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:  143 lines

BENEFITS OF HOME-SCHOOLING FOUND ON CAMPUS COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO HAVE BEEN HOME-SCHOOLED MAKE SMOOTH TRANSITION

Kicked back on a multi-colored pastel sofa in her family's Manassas living room, Shoshanna Linder looks relaxed as she plows through chapters of ``Music Theory: A Historical Perspective.'' The freshman at George Mason University is comfortable learning in this room because for nine years it was her classroom.

Last September, Linder, who was home-schooled through 12th grade, swapped individualized attention, the freedom to structure her own curriculum, and the peaceful learning environment of her living room for highly structured syllabi, tighter deadlines, and crowded, sometimes unsettling college classrooms.

``It really surprises me sometimes when I look around and see people are talking or sleeping and using foul language in class,'' said 18-year-old Linder of her college experience. ``That really bothers me. It is so disrespectful. It makes me glad I was home schooled. I try not to be opinionated, but I don't like it.''

As the number of parents opting for home instruction increases nationwide, so does the number of home-schooled students showing up on college campuses. Many are finding the leap from living room to lecture hall is full of surprises and challenges, but they are making the transition successfully.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the number of students home-schooled through 12th grade has more than doubled from about 350,000 in 1990 to more than 900,000 today. Virginia's numbers mirror the trend, according to Charles Finley, a policy associate at the Virginia Department of Education. During the 1995-96 school year, 8,600 students received home instruction, up 9.5 percent from the previous year.

Currently, about 300 colleges nationwide, two-year and four-year, have home-educated students enrolled, according to the National Center for Home Education based in Northern Virginia. In 1996, about 10 Virginia schools enrolled home-schooled students.

The first hurdle often faced by the home schooled is admissions. Without high school diplomas and traditional transcripts, college admissions officers have a difficult time evaluating the students for enrollment.

``With high school students we have a sense of who's going to do well because we can compare the records against other students,'' said John Blackburn, dean of admissions at the University of Virginia. ``Without the transcript we are forced to put a lot of emphasis on SAT's, but it's still very difficult to get a sense of their background.''

To help with the evaluation process, UVa. requires home-schooled applicants to take three College Board achievement tests. The university also considers portfolios and personal essays.

Some schools, such as Old Dominion University, use the General Equivalency Diploma. ``We've run into problems where some parents don't use curriculums approved by any school systems so we evaluate them based on the GED,'' said Ken Gideon, an admissions counselor at ODU.

Once they get past the admissions process, home schoolers tend to shine academically, posting above average test scores, Gideon said. If they have problems, it tends to be in socializing with other students or adjusting to large classes.

``The students do well with say 10 to 20 people, but in some of our lecture classes with 300 people, they tend to be a little more intimidated in those settings,'' said Gideon.

Richard Shipe, spokesman for the National Center for Home Education, is not surprised that home schoolers do well in college. He said the individual responsibility and self-pacing of home education is similar to college learning. Shipe cited a recent study of more than 5,000 home schoolers that found home-schooled students scored about 37 percent higher on standardized tests than public and private school students.

``Like college, the education is customized to the student's interest,'' Shipe said. ``That encourages them to want to learn.''

Linder clearly has that passion for learning. After her first semester, she boasts a 3.7 grade point average. Though she excels in all her classes, Linder said home schooling allowed her to devote more time to the one thing that matters most and is now her major - music.

Since her first piano lesson at age 7, Linder has dreamed of becoming a professional concert performer. Some days she would spend up to four hours in front of the keys. Her dedication translated into numerous trophies and awards from local competitions. Linder said being home schooled played a big role in fostering her career choice.

``I was able to devote a lot of time to studying lessons and practice,'' she said. ``Some kids hated piano practice because it was something they had to do after school. I was able to do it during school and I wanted to do it, I loved it.''

As for her performance in college, Linder, who commutes to GMU, said she agrees that home schoolers do well in college because they are taught independent learning early on.

``I never relied on a teacher to push me to do my work. I was given assignments and due dates. I knew what had to be done and learned to budget my time,'' said Linder.

Linda Linder, Shoshanna's mother and former educator, said her daughter's character, including her desire to learn, results from her home education. ``When you home school a child the peer pressure to not like school disappears, then it's easy to make learning exciting.''

The elder Linder said she did all she could to ensure that Shohanna and her older sister Tabitha, 21, developed socially, spiritually and academically.

``When I decided to take them out of school I wanted to make sure they still learned to interact with people and make sound decisions,'' said Linda Linder.

The home-schooling experience is an interesting area of study for many college professors. At Elon College in North Carolina, Virginia Beach resident Matthew Plaster has been asked by several of his public policy teachers to discuss his home learning. They want to know how his education was structured, how he studied, and how he thinks some of the techniques of home schooling could be used in public settings.

``I've been able to use it to my advantage,'' said Plaster, a political science major. ``It's one thing I have that's unique. So I write it in papers and use it in class discussion. A lot of people are fascinated.''

They are also interested in how home schoolers adjust to the college setting, which can be difficult for all newcomers, but even more challenging for home schoolers.

``We've had a few students come in and identify themselves as home-school students and say, `I'm not used to these larger classes. What can I do to adjust,' '' said ODU's Gideon.

Some seek counseling or academic advising. Others, like Leah Shaw, keep busy by piling on the classwork.

Shaw, a senior at Virginia Tech, started taking college courses at Piedmont Virginia Community College near her home in Charlottesville County at age 15, because she said, ``that's when I was ready.'' At 17, she transferred to Tech. Now she not only maintains a 4.0 grade point average, she also carries a heavy course load with a double major in physics and math and minors in biology and chemistry. Shaw, now 19, said social adjustment wasn't easy.

``When I first moved on campus and had a roommate I had some difficulty. I like to read a lot in quiet,'' said Shaw. She coped by burying herself in school work. ``I missed home and my family a lot but I took like 22 credit hours so it wouldn't get to me.''

Back in Northern Virginia, Linder believes that the structure of her home learning, which included field trips with other home schoolers, adequately prepared her for college.

``People think we were locked up in a room and never saw anyone else,'' said Linder, ``that's just not true. . . Every student reacts differently to college. The only difference I see is that home-schooled kids don't see college as a big party place like some of the other kids.'' MEMO: Maggie Welter is a senior at James Madison University. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot

Matthew Plaster, who was home-schooled, relaxes in a swing at his

Virginia Beach home while on spring break from Elon College in North

Carolina.

Photos

CHARLIE MEADS/The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia Beach native Matthew Plaster attends Elon College. KEYWORDS: HOME-SCHOOLING

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