Home-schooled brothers create lasting projects

Lee Scrivner

Saturday, Sept. 2, 2000 | 9:23 a.m.

Jill Tietjen's last name sounds like "teachin.' "

The connection is appropriate. A former kindergarten and third grade teacher for the Clark County School District, she has devoted the last four years to home schooling her own children.

"It's a labor of love," Tietjen said. "I like to be creative in teaching them, in shaping their future."

Her three sons' latest academic project shows just how creative she can be. As she ran out of room to store the many papers that the students had generated, she devised a solution that would also challenge their creativity.

She assigned Tim, 13; Zach, 10; and Samuel, 5, to make their own quilt, each with a historical or geographical theme.

Tim's quilt covers American history. The eighth grader used permanent marker for textual information and patches shaped like historical figures for decoration.

Equally informative and decorative, Zach's quilt pays homage to Nevada's history as part of his fifth grade studies. Kindergartner Sam's quilt is a map of the United States.

The historical scenes on the quilt squares blur the boundaries between academics and art.

"I know that making quilts sounds goofy," Tietjen said. "But I think they are a great way to learn. Normally, old schoolwork is just put in boxes and is never looked at again. But by putting our work on to these quilts, we'll want to keep looking at it forever."

If making quilts seems whimsical, it may belie the Tietjens' seriousness about learning. Their schoolhouse, built three years ago in their back yard, contains a library that would make college freshmen nervous: Chaucer and Shakespeare are included.

"I choose to home school my children because I am convinced that it is the best education they can receive," Tietjen said.

But it was the lack of quality time for the family that first prompted Tietjen and her husband, Mike, to take Zach and Tim out of a local Christian school four years ago.

"As soon got they got back, it was 'Hurry, do your homework,' and the kids never got to see Dad," Tietjen said.

Since then Tietjen's enthusiastic advocacy of home schooling has gained the interest of other families at her church.

"Home schooling is certainly a growing trend in Clark County," said Brad Waldron, director of pupil personnel services for the Clark County School District.

The number of home-schooled students tracked by the district has doubled in the last five years, Waldron said, from 1,466 in the 1995-96 school year to 2,968 last year.

"Many factors might be contributing to this trend: prevalent school violence, overcrowding. And many families that choose to home school do so for religious reasons," Waldron said.

The Tietjens are no exception. Bible studies are the core of their curriculum. Many of the English and history lessons are Bible-based, and the home school textbooks are from an unabashedly Christian perspective.

"Home schooling allows parents to expose their children to religious ideology, just as public schools expose children to a secular ideology," said Maralee Mayberry, chairwoman of UNLV's Sociology Department and author of a book on home schooling.

But Erin Harisay, Southern Nevada Home School Advisory Council president, says the majority home-schooling parents she meets say, like the Tietjens, that quality of education is their main concern.

"They think that educational standards are not being upheld in public schools," she said. "Home schoolers on average score higher in standardized tests."

A recent survey by the Education Policy Analysis Archives at Arizona State University backs up Harisay's claim. The survey, published in 1999, found that "the median scores for every subset at every grade (of home school students) are well above those of public and ... private school students."

But an child's educational experience cannot be fully gauged by test scores, Mayberry said. "Home schooling is a complex issue. You have to look at all the intertwining pros and cons. Sure, it gives each child individual attention, but there is some concern that not all home-schooled children are exposed to diversity -- racial as well as religious."

Exposure to other children and other ideas can still occur in home-school families, Harisay said. "They are often socialized by belonging to extra-curricular organizations like scouting or dance."

Tietjen says she is aware of the criticism that home-school children lack opportunities for socialization, and she is conscientious about going on numerous field trips with other home-school families.

"I like to approach things from lots of different angles," Tietjen said, caressing one of her son's quilts. "As I said, I like to be creative in teaching them. I would not want it any other way."