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If this lesson sounds rudimentary, it's because Dungan knows that these students have had fewer opportunities than many of their peers to share snacks in a classroom. They are homeschooled students who attend classes and clubs at a nonprofit learning center called Dimensions Family School (DFS). Dungan founded DFS last year with the intention of providing peer support, social opportunities, and high-quality teaching to children and parents who have opted out of the conventional educational structure.
It's a sophisticated advance on an old idea. For the roughly 2 million homeschooled children in the United States, learning doesn't necessarily entail sitting at a kitchen table all day with a parent and siblings. "Homeschoolers rely extensively on networks of the like-minded," writes Robert Kunzman, a professor of education at Indiana University and managing director of the International Center for Home Education Research. Those networks range from informal playground groups to co-ops in which parents share the teaching or occasionally hire outsiders. Some public schools also offer part-time programs for homeschoolers.
