Home schooling becoming more viable
Posted by BrianFrom the Washington Times:
More and more colleges are actively recruiting home-schooled students, each year there are an estimated 50,000-plus home-school high school graduates who find work or go to college and thousands of new curriculum products have become available over the past five years. Meanwhile, the number of home-schoolers continues to grow by 7 percent to 15 percent each year, more states are reforming their laws to remove the burdens from parents who want to home educate, and home-schoolers continue to excel in national competitions as well as on standardized tests. In short, home-schooling is a major success story.
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While the Home School Legal Defense Association agrees with the ruling in this specific case, it is a reminder to all families that when your child enters the public school, you have virtually ceded your parental rights to the public school.
The clearest explanation of this view was expressed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Fields v. Palmdale, when it said, “While parents may have a fundamental right to decide whether to send their child to a public school, they do not have a fundamental right generally to direct how a public school teaches their child.”
This is the reason many parents have chosen to home-school, especially those parents who have a religious worldview, because they know their children will be taught secular values by the public system.
In Morse v. Frederick, however, Justice Clarence Thomas said, “If parents do not like the rules imposed by those schools, they can seek redress in school boards or legislatures; they can send their children to private schools or home school them; or they can simply move.”
My personal philosophy is that parents should be solely responsible for instilling religious and moral values in their children. That is why I oppose prayer in schools and religious classes in mandatory attendance government schools. The government is doing a poor job teaching our kids things like math and science, why would I expect them to be able to teach them religion any better? Plus, what if the brand of religion they choose to teach - and remember according to the 9th circuit you have no right to direct how they instruct - doesn’t agree with you philosophy? Do it at home.
Personally, I think the biggest impetus to home school is to enable gifted children to receive an outstanding education. I like to call our federal government’s No Child Left Behind program No Child Gets Ahead. The government is trying to homogenize the education of all students. They are trying to get each kid to the same education level, so if your kid is smart they won’t invest their efforts to advance her farther because they have to use their scarce educational resources to bring the laggards up to speed. If you educate you children at home then you can craft a curriculum that pushes them to their fullest extent.
Obviously home schooling isn’t for everyone. It requires time as well as innate and learned skills. We’re probably not going to home school, but we’ve talked about it and I think we would be well prepared if we chose to. I’m an engineer skilled in math and science. My wife, who stays home these days, is a degreed history teacher. We may begin to consider it more seriously as our children get to the age where we have to choose between sending them to a government school or private school. If private school is not in the budget then I imagine we’ll give home schooling some serious thought.
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July 13th, 2007 at 9:55 am
In my experience, children who are home-schooled most of their lives miss out on a great deal of socializing that’s fundamental for succeeding in “the real world.” Of course, that point may become moot if these home school groups grow so large they practically become a kind of private school.
God forbid I should ever procreate, but if I found myself responsible for the education of a child, I still think I’d send him or her to public school. Then I could just correct all their mistakes over dinner.
July 13th, 2007 at 9:58 am
Most of the people I know of in the River Region area (the area around Montgomery) who home school their children cite two compelling reasons for doing so. They’re convinced they can provide them with a better education than the local public schools would, and the lack of discipline in public schools leads to unsafe situations for their children.
July 13th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Mike, I share your concern about socializing.
There are more ways for home schoolers to interact with others today than even a decade ago. When we first moved to Huntsville my wife worked a few hours at a home school “center” as a guest lecturer. It was a group that brought together home schooled children for topical lectures on certain subject matter. It was just too long of a drive for my wife to keep that up.
The local YMCA also has special home school PE classes that not only get the kids to exercise, but also enables them to meet others.
July 14th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I agree with you on the “no child gets ahead” aspect of NCLB.
I also believe that all kids are gifted in one way or another. All people are. Homeschooling allows each child to bring out their own uniqueness and gifts, no matter what they are.
There’s a lot more to it of course. But that’s definitely one of the wonderful benefits. Homeschooling puts a lot more kids in the “gifted” category, without the baggage that comes with the label.
July 16th, 2007 at 11:24 am
“In my experience, children who are home-schooled most of their lives miss out on a great deal of socializing that’s fundamental for succeeding in ‘the real world.’”
I disagree with Mike. Public schools provide bad socialization. Children are exposed to smoking, drinking and drugs before they are ready to make an informed decision. They are bullied and taught to run in gangs. They learn how to get along rather than do what is right. Like trapped rats in a cage they attack each other socially and physically. This is NOT good socialization.
Good socialization is about teaching children social behavior. Homeschooling does a much better job. Typically homeschooling provides an environment where children are exposed to a wide range of ages. How many adults work with people exactly their own age??? When children misbehave parents correct them and teach them appropriate behavior. Studies have shown that homeschooled children are better socialized than children who grow up in the Lord of the Flies public schools we have today.