Episode 18: Real Stats on Real Homeschoolers with Dr. Brian Ray

Dr. Brian Ray discusses his research at the NHERI, including the history of home education, the reasons families homeschool, and how COVID has impacted homeschooling.

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Episode 18: Dr. Brian Ray

Summary

Dr. Brian Ray is the president of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) and a leader in homeschooling research. The NHERI specializes in conducting and collecting research about homeschooling and publishes the research journal, the Home School Researcher. Dr. Ray is an author, speaker, and veteran homeschool father of eight children. He received his PhD in science education from Oregon State University and his master of science in zoology in zoology from Ohio University. In this episode of Refining Rhetoric, Robert and Dr. Ray discuss his research at the NHERI, including the history of home education, the reasons families homeschool, how COVID has impacted homeschooling, and the future of the homeschool movement.

Quote

“When I see more parents taking on the responsibility of educating their children, I’m happy about that. Whether they’re Christians or atheists or agnostics or Muslims or Mormons or Jews, I’m glad about that. It’s good overall for society and it’s good overall for children.”

Dr. Brian Ray

Topics

  • Intro to Dr. Brian Ray [0:48]
  • What is NHERI? [1:40]
  • How NHERI’s research is funded [2:28]
  • Why research into homeschooling is so important [4:47]
  • The changing trends in homeschooling over the decades [8:50]
  • Why Brian and his wife chose to homeschool; most common reasons why people choose to homeschool today [11:16]
  • What surprised Brian in his research during the past few years [19:15]
  • What the future of homeschooling will look like [24:12]
  • NHERI’s current research, including research about children experiencing abuse in private, public, and home schools [26:45]
  • Farewell to Brian [30:17]
  • “Classical Tools Recap” [31:16]
  • “Current Events Discussion”: Student loan forgiveness: Part 1 [33:24]
  • Ad: Museum of the Bible (Discount on CC Connected!) [38:55]
  • “Classical Crypto”: The Chinese economy [39:38]
  • Outro [43:28]

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