Family Ties

Relying on a decade-long participant observation study, this book focuses on the salience of parent-child relationships for home schooling. Those experiences with traditional schools emerge as a major motive for home schooling. The quality of the relationships that develop between parents and children are the major predictor of a successful home schooling experience. Comparing the socialization between traditional schooling and home schools, Family Ties: Relationships, Socialization and Home Schooling investigates significant controversies in these two separate environments. Professor Gary Wyatt is able to represent a parent with both experiences and contends to dispel the typical home schooling critiques. The efforts of home schooling parents to negotiate favorable identities with others and the techniques used to manage the anxiety associated with this unconventional lifestyle are explored.

Author Biography

Gary Wyatt has served as a member of the faculty of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Emporia State University since 1988. He received the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Annual Award for Excellence in Teaching for 1998-1999 and the College’s Annual Award for Excellence in Scholarship for 2006-2007. He has also served as President of the Faculty of Emporia State University. Dr. Wyatt received his Ph.D. in sociology from Washington State University and his masters and bachelor’s degrees in sociology from Utah State University. He lives with his wife Ranae in Emporia, Kansas. They are the parents of three sons.