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Home schooling (1) It is not a secret that the quality of public education in America has considerably dropped in last two decades. This tendency goes along with students increasing inability to identify public issues that are crucial to the effective functioning of democracy in this country. Many people point out to the fact that public schools in America are slowly turning into places where children learn the basics of crime, instead of receiving a factual knowledge. Therefore, parents express their concern over the issue of public education in America.
Mimi Rothschild in her article Reasons to Homeschool: Homeschooling - The Rationale is absolutely right when she says: The biggest reason that parents choose to home school their children is merely to keep them out of danger. Drugs, gangs, bullies, weapons: some schools can be a dangerous place to be. They don't want their children to have to pass a police officer in the hall on the way to the restroom. How sad that any children anywhere have to be preoccupied with their safety (Rothschild).
Rich parents are able to send their children to private schools, where educational standards are maintained at high level. However, the cost of studying in such schools is too high for majority of parents to afford. Also, private schools chose their students and no other way around. Parents can only petition to have their children enrolled, without guarantee that they will be approved.
Many private schools owners are really reluctant to admit minority children, as they believe that this would undermine schools educational efficiency. This is why more and more parents choose in favour of home schooling, as they believe that only this can provide their children with quality education. It is very remarkable that 90 % of home schooling advocates are White. Apparently, this issue is not very actualized for the representatives of ethnic minorities. Blacks and Hispanics often have a large families with 5 - 7 kids and their foremost concern, regarding the public education, is how to get more welfare checks form the government and how to keep their children out of sight for as long as possible. Therefore, public schools serve them just fine, in this respect.
This is why we need to understand that the issue of home schooling is socially motivated. We cannot discuss this issue outside of subconscious desire of White folks to be separated from racial minorities. The promoters of home schooling are driven by the same instinct as those people who move into exclusive White suburbia, while saying that the only reason for them to do so is because the levels of crime are significantly lower there. Those who speak in favour of home schooling do not admit even to themselves that they simply do not want their children to become a part of multiracial melting pots, which our public schools are turning into. Of course, they would never say it openly.
Usually, the advocates of home schooling point out to the logical advantages of such practice. Paul Hill in his article How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education says that home schooling is absolutely normal: There is nothing un-American about home schooling. Home-schooling families are, however, breaking a pattern established since colonial times education has been becoming increasingly institutionalized, formal, and removed from the family (Hill). The advantages of home schooling are directly related to psychological factors. For example, at home, teacher can concentrate his attention on one particular child. This allows his educational approach to be more individualistic.
It is believed that child will benefit enormously out having his educational needs being addressed in precise manner. In the same article, Paul Hill points out to another important advantage of home schooling, which has to do with the fact that American public schools are becoming a testing ground, where obscure social theories are being tested on students. He says: Home schoolers dread bureaucracy, unions, and liberals. They complain about liberal social agendas, particularly those associated with homosexuality and perceived attacks on the family being pushed down childrens throats in public schools (Hill). This is very valid point. In public schools children are being increasingly brainwashed, they are expected to follow an accepted code of behavior, where the ability to think independently is not encouraged.
Even as recent as 20 years ago, schools used to be the places where children were acquiring an empirical knowledge. In order to be academically successful, they were required to increase their academic adequacy on continuous basis. Even if they proved to be failures in some particular discipline of knowledge, they could still become productive members of society. The idea of public education has shifted from giving students an actual knowledge to making them aware of their certain constitutional rights, which they are much likely to abuse, without being aware of another crucial concept of democracy the principle of civil responsibility. One of the biggest appeals of home schooling is that it allows the educational process not to be undermined by bureaucratic procedures, as it is the case in public schools.
Parents can teach their children any way they want, for as long as they think that it is academically beneficial. However, studying at home cannot be considered as some uniformed process. Some parents strive for nothing less than indoctrinating their children religiously, rather then providing them with a factual knowledge. They want to tell them stories of world creation in 7 days, talking donkeys and other nonsense. At the same time, such parents want their children to grow up to be productive members of society, which is quite impossible. Gary North in his article Why Home Schools Are Superior to Private Schools says: Christian day school parents are more confrontational.
They have broken with the public schools. But they still want their children to have the social experience of bureaucratic education. They cannot resist the lure of league sports and proms and pom-poms (North). Christians are always been known for the lack of logic in their thinking.
However, even they cannot deny the fact that it is crucial for the child to have social skills, in order to become successful in life. (2) If we analyse the issue of home schooling from social prospective, it will appear that this educational approach is absolutely wrong. As popular saying goes road to hell is made out of good intentions. The same can be said about home schooling. We are being continuously told that children need special attention and that they need to be protected from bullying etc. The fact is they are given too much attention, as it is, even in public schools. There is no doubt that, while studying at home, child is going to experience almost no educational discipline, especially when mom is in charge.
This will automatically undermine educational effort. In public schools children know that they risk the chance to be expelled, if they cannot keep up with academic requirements. Therefore, they are left with no choice but to study and to memorise formulas. Nevertheless, at home, parents will not have effective means to encourage their children to study. This especially applies to families where liberal attitudes shape the relations between members of family. The biggest problem with home schooling is that it deprives children of important social experiences.
Dennis Evans in her article Home Is No Place For School is making a very good point: The isolation implicit in home teaching is anathema to socialization and citizenship. It is a rejection of community and makes the home-schooler the captive of the orthodoxies of the parents (Evans). The parents who support home schooling allowed this country to start turning into the Third World, but now they want their children to be unaware of this. They want their kids to grow up in greenhouse, where they are separated from the social reality.
However, when these children become older, they will have an increasingly hard time trying to adapt to the ways of street. Parental love can be very dangerous, because it is blind. It focuses mainly on protecting the child, without having any considerations about the future. If parents were able to, they would have their children staying at home on the leash at all times, because its safer this way.
One does not have to be a professor to realise that parental instincts often contradict the process of studying; this is why home schooling can never be as effective as people think. Being educated person does not consist of having memories a lot of factual data, but in ability to use this knowledge practically. Therefore, social interactions do not simply help children to feel more comfortable in the world they are essential part of educational process. Home schooling advocates do not understand that the role of school is not limited to providing child with basic information. Only in school children are being taught how to apply theoretical knowledge in practice. Being part of collective teaches child what kind of qualities are required, on his part, to be socially respected.
Social interaction allows children to acquire empirical knowledge, which does not have anything to do with memo rising data. Home schooling is based on assumption that anybody can be a teacher. Is it really so? If this was the case, than teaching would not be an independent scientific discipline. Apparently, individual need to study for 4 - 5 years, before he can be licensed as teacher. This is because the process of teaching is very complicated and it can never be effective, if teacher does not follow a certain set of rules.
First of all, teacher must be objective in how he evaluates childs academic performance. Can we really expect a typical soccer mom to consider her child as not being very special? I doubt it very much. Even mentally retarded children are now being referred to as kids with special needs. This means that we cannot seriously talk about the principle of educational discipline as essential part of home schooling.
As a result, we also cannot talk about home schooling as such that meets educational criteria, accepted in the world. This is especially the case with home schooling in religious families. In fact, more and more people begin to realise that Bible thumper's must be deprived of their right to teach their children at home, in the same way that alcoholics are often deprived of their parental rights. Only an institutionalised set of educational standards, accepted in schools, can serve as basis for effective teaching process. Parents teaching abilities are limited. The article Cons of Homeschooling, which can be found on the site of Homeschooling and Homeschool Information points out to the fact that parents are not likely to recognise in what kind of scientific discipline their child is likely to excel: Sometimes, the child is brilliant at a particular subject that may be the parents' weakness or one of the subject that the homeschool teacher lack expertise on.
This can severely limit the child's developing abilities. Such situation, of course, is unacceptable. It is very important to encourage children in early age to acquire hobbies. Only in public schools children are able to develop their skills in the particular field of science, because school provides them with a practical field to use their knowledge. Public schools teach children how to compete for the place under the sun. Social interaction allows them to understand principles, upon which human relations are based.
Despite the fact that in recent times public schools try brainwash children on the subjects of tolerance and diversity, the social reality in such schools teaches children something opposite. Very early they learn that thousands of sophisticated words will have absolutely no value in situations when all that is required is the strength of a muscle. In another words, home schooling will never able to instil a competitive spirit into the child, which is absolutely necessary, in order for him to become a socially successful individual. There are a lot of people that were being home schooled, when they were children. Their social inadequacy is easily noticeable. Usually, such people apply extra effort to prove that they are just like everybody else, even better.
This is because they lacked the opportunity to prove their social value to themselves, when they were kids. Ancient Greeks were well aware of the fact that harmony between physical and mental health is absolutely necessary for the individual to be able to fully realise its potential. Therefore, the propaganda of physical culture among children has always been one of educational priorities in healthy societies. Public schools provide children with possibility to engage in sports, while studying. We cannot say the same about home schooling. In fact, many parents want to teach their children at home, because they think that physical activity might cause them harm.
As article Cons of Homeschooling points out: Without attending a public school, where can a homeschool excel in sports? What if the homeschooler is born to be a professional football player? Where can he or she realize his or her potential being a homeschooler? Today many parents complain that they are afraid of their children being bullied at school. We can look at this from another prospective. Maybe it is beneficial for the child to be chased around by bullies, because it helps him to loose weight.
According to recent surveys 50 % of American children under 15, are grossly overweight. So far, there had not been invented a better way to fight obesity than physical exercises. In public schools there are classes of physical culture. The advocates of home schooling, on the other hand, do not even think of this issue as being serious. This shows that they clearly lack educational vision. We can argue a lot about pros and cons of different teaching systems, but we do not have the right to test our innovative educational approaches, on children.
The whole concept of home schooling is isolationist in its nature. This is why we cannot think of it as being motivated by merely educational considerations. It is nothing but White parents irrational desire to create a little haven for their families, in the middle of drug abuse and gang related violence. Therefore, it is not to too hard to envision what kind of person a home schooled child will become, when he grows up. He will be socially ignorant. He will not be able to stand up for his ideas, because of lack of social skills.
Also, it is very likely that he will simply become another religious fanatic, just like his parents, which means that he will be lost to society. Dennis Evans says: Schools, particularly public schools, are the one place where all of the children of all of the people come together. Can there be anything more important to each child and thus to our democratic society than to develop virtues and values such as respect for others, the ability to communicate and collaborate and an openness to diversity and new ideas? (Evans). This question is rhetorical. It is obvious enough that we simply cannot substitute public education with home schooling.
This educational concept is comparatively new and we still do not know how it might affect children in the long run. (3) To conclude this paper we need to say that, just like any teaching system, home schooling has its advantages and disadvantages. However, it appears that the advocates of home schooling view educational process out of social context, which is intolerable. This is why, it is only matter of time, before even White yuppyish parents will realise ineffectiveness of home schooling. Instead of pushing their secular agendas, such parents should strive for making public schools a better place for studying. Indulging in isolationism, on the part of promoters of home schooling, will not solve the problem of educational standards in America hitting new low.
In our country, people should be able to take their children to public schools, without even considering better alternatives. The fact that they do shows that something is rotten in the kingdom of Denmark. Apparently, we can no longer suggest that our nation is united on the spiritual level, because citizens often express a diametrically opposite views on educational issues. Home schooling can remain as one of educational options, but under no circumstances should it be given a status of legitimate teaching practice. We cannot allow having different learning standards in this country, because this would initiate the process of American educational system loosing its former efficiency.
The practice of home schooling should simply be banned by legislative act. It is better for the children to face the prospects of being involved in crime at public schools, than do not face any prospects whatsoever at home, while studying under the guidance of their parents. Bibliography: Cons of Homeschooling. 2006. Homeschooling and Homeschool Information. 10 Apr. 2007. web Hill, Paul How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education. 2000. The Brookings Institution. 10 Apr. 2007.
web Evans, Dennis Home Is No Place For School. 3 Sep. 2003. USA Today. 10 Apr. 2007. web Rothschild, Mimi Reasons to Homeschool: Homeschooling - The Rationale. 2005. The Morning Star Academy. 10 Apr. 2007. web North, Gary Why Home Schools Are Superior to Private Schools. 15 Jun. 2006. Lew Rockwell.
Com. 10 Apr. 2007. web Abstract: This paper argues in favour of public education as only legitimate educational approach. Outline: 1 Advantages of home schooling. 2 - Disadvantages of home schooling. 3 Conclusion.
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Research essay sample on Teach Their Children Children At Home
