Home is no place for school - Homeschool Alert

USA Today Op Ed ^ | September 3, 2003 | Dennis Evans

[Damocles]

Home is no place for school
Wed Sep 3, 6:49 AM ET


By Dennis L. Evans 

The popularity of home schooling, while not significant in terms of the number of children involved, is attracting growing attention from the media, which create the impression that a "movement" is underway. Movement or not, there are compelling reasons to oppose home teaching both for the sake of the children involved and for society.

Home schooling is an extension of the misguided notion that "anyone can teach." That notion is simply wrong. Recently, some of our best and brightest college graduates, responding to the altruistic call to "Teach for America," failed as teachers because they lacked training. Good teaching is a complex act that involves more than simply loving children. Research on student achievement overwhelmingly supports the "common-sense" logic that the most important factor affecting student learning is teacher competency. While some parents may be competent to teach very young children, that competence will wane in more advanced grades as the content and complexity increases. 

But schools serve important functions far beyond academic learning. Attending school is an important element in the development of the "whole child." 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? Such virtues and values cannot be accessed on the Internet. 

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.

One of the strengths of our educational system is the wide range of legitimate forms of public, private or parochial schooling available for parental choice.

With that in mind, those contemplating home teaching might heed the words of the Roman educator, Quintilian (A.D. 95). In opposing home schooling, he wrote, "It is one thing to shun schools entirely, another to choose from them."

Dennis L. Evans directs doctoral programs in education leadership at the University of California, Irvine.

[goodseedhomeschool (returned)]

Exactly!

[mhking]

One of the strengths of our educational system is the wide range of legitimate forms of public, private or parochial schooling available for parental choice.

And home schooling is not legitimate? Then how do you explain the level of excellence that home schooled children provide on standardized tests as compared to public school children. How do you explain that the winners of the national spelling bee for the past umpteen years having been home-schooled?

Dennis L. Evans directs doctoral programs in education leadership at the University of California, Irvine.

Ah. You have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. I understand now. No wonder.

[Jonx6]

That article is the opposing view point.
Here is a link with both USA Today's view and this one already posted.

Here is USA Today's position.

Support for home-schoolers can pay off for all students

As 47 million children return to public schools, some 2 million are staying home to get their instruction. In nearly every state, the number of children being educated in their homes is rising about 10% a year.

The growth reflects a vast broadening in the types of families that embrace home schooling. The stereotype of home-schoolers as religious separatists or the offspring of New Age seekers has not been true for years. Now, though, local home-schooling organizations report that about 10% of their families are black or Hispanic.

The growing diversity among families that teach their children themselves is linked to the spreading popularity of the school choice movement. Parents like having the power to choose the educational setting that best serves their children's needs.

Yet instead of accepting — even welcoming — the valuable role home-school supporters can play in increasing choices, too many traditional educators are setting up roadblocks. Some states impose excessive paperwork demands on home-schooling parents, even when their children appear to be flourishing academically. Many school districts deny home-schooled children the opportunity to participate in music and sports activities at local schools.

Such moves can needlessly deprive public schools of valuable alliances with taxpayers and advocates of quality education.

Several proven ways can help more states and school districts reach out to home-schooling parents. Among them:

•Funding online teaching. The Florida Virtual School is a public school that conducts classes over the Internet. Students include not only home-schoolers but also students looking for courses their local schools don't offer or more flexible class schedules.

• Reducing burdensome paperwork. Maine did so in May as one of several states that acceded to home-schooling parents' requests to be treated more like families in private schools. In recent years, Oregon, Arkansas and Arizona have loosened onerous rules aimed at home-schoolers.

•Letting home-schoolers join school activities. In July, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the state's 501 school districts to open sports teams and other extracurricular activities to home-schoolers. The measure, which goes to the state senate this fall, reflects a national trend granting home-schooled students use of some public-school services.

Those critical of home schooling argue that parents often fall short as competent teachers. To date, though, no evidence demonstrates a significant problem of home-schooled children receiving poor educations. In fact, research suggests home schooling can be very effective.

Families choosing home schooling provide the close parental involvement that students need to succeed academically. Supporting that choice benefits children, their parents and local school districts.

Home-schoolers rate states States that home-schooling advocates say are the most and least supportive of instruction in the home:

Home-school friendly laws:

Arkansas
Michigan
Idaho
Oklahoma
Texas

Laws that discourage home schooling:

Massachusetts
New York
North Dakota
Pennsylvania
Vermont

Source: Home School Legal Defense Association.

[FourPeas]

While some parents may be competent to teach very young children, that competence will wane in more advanced grades as the content and complexity increases.

Hmmmm. So, we should probably have mandatory preschool for children as soon as they can leave their mother's arms. Afterall, how will children learn to sit up, speak or feed themselves with such dolts as their parents in charge of such important education. The government should also provide the instruction necessary for such tasks as learning to ride a two wheeler. This task is much too complicated for parents who are competent to teach only the very young.

When I was a junior in high school, I took Chemistry classes at a local state university. When I enrolled in my second semester, my high school Chemistry teacher remarked to me that after I finished my current college courses I'd have as much formal schooling in Chemistry as he did. He was an excellent Chemistry teacher. I was flabbergasted that I, at 16, would soon have the same amount of schooling in the subject as he. It was, at that very moment, that I realized just how little a teacher has to know about a subject to teach a high school level course. My high school Chemistry teacher was passionate, enthusiastic and communicated very well. THAT was what made him a good teacher, not that he was an Officially Government Certified Teacher. Saying that a parent's "competence will wane in more advanced grades as the content and complexity increases" is simply foolish.

[Tax-chick]

Schools, particularly public schools, are the one place where "all of the children of all of the people come together."

Hogwash. The majority of public schools are significantly segregated both by income and by race. Hasn't this yutz read all the "How can we keep the people from self-sorting?" articles?

[WOSG]

Here's where the indoctrination of the indocrinators is:


http://www.gse.uci.edu/csu-uci-edd/Orientation/Kim.html


And you can get in, as long as you are *diverse* and barely competent (aka 50% level GRE score recommended but *NOT* required!):

In the past UC Irvine has not had a GRE eligibility score and will not for this program. However, a GRE score considerably below the 50th percentile, especially in the Verbal Subset or the writing portion, often is predictive that the individual will struggle with the writing entailed in the doctoral program. Applicants are encouraged to prepare for the GRE by reviewing one of the test preparation books or by logging on to the GRE website (www.gre.org) and using their on-line preparation. Both GRE preparation books (available in most book stores) and the GRE web site include practice tests that will enable you to become familiar with computer-based test-taking. The GRE is offered only in the computer version.

[nonsporting]

re: Quintilian (M. Fabius Quintilianus, c.35-100)

Hardly the man to quote to condemn homeschooling. His chief work, Institutio Oratoria, was chiefly concerned with the technique of rhetorical training (all the rage among homeschooling adherents today!). He believed that good oratory and good literature could only be produced by a cultivated and well-informed mind, the chief aim of all homeschooling curricula. The study of the Greek and Roman classics he considered absolutely essential.

My homeschooled daughter has read (excerpts) from Homer, Virgil, Cicero. She has studied St. Augustine, Dante, Milton, et al. She and many of her other homeschooling peers have several years of Latin (they are only 15). They are now studying Greek.

And this is not to say that they have neglected modern subjects: Algebra, Geometry, Physical Science, Chemistry, Physics, Government, US History, US Constitution. Many are preparing to take Consitutional Law via distance learning (or on campus at Patrick Henry College).

As to that tired old point of condemnation "socialization," "private schooling(including homeschooling) is not privatizing" (see First Things, this very title). Homeschoolers have considerably more opportunities to develop and practice social skills. The next time you are out and about the notice yound people actively engaging all age groups, and not just their peers, you may discover that they are homeschooled.

In the late 1st and 2nd centuries AD, the chief Christian apologists were men who had received the standard rhetorical training and were in no regard inferior in point of polemical technique to their pagan antagonists. We homeschoolers are training up a similar generation and this TERRIFIES the left.

[LiteKeeper]

It is a rejection of community and makes the home-schooler the captive of the orthodoxies of the parents.

He got that much right!

[ladylib]

I guess this guy never heard of taking on-line courses, tutoring, home school co-op arrangements, or college courses for home schoolers.

[WOSG]

Here's where the indoctrination of the indocrinators is:


http://www.gse.uci.edu/csu-uci-edd/Orientation/Kim.html


And you can get in, as long as you are *diverse* and barely competent (aka 50% level GRE score recommended but *NOT* required!):

In the past UC Irvine has not had a GRE eligibility score and will not for this program. However, a GRE score considerably below the 50th percentile, especially in the Verbal Subset or the writing portion, often is predictive that the individual will struggle with the writing entailed in the doctoral program. Applicants are encouraged to prepare for the GRE by reviewing one of the test preparation books or by logging on to the GRE website (www.gre.org) and using their on-line preparation. Both GRE preparation books (available in most book stores) and the GRE web site include practice tests that will enable you to become familiar with computer-based test-taking. The GRE is offered only in the computer version.

[ladylib]

They forgot NJ. It's very easy to homeschool here.

[montag813]

"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.

[B Knotts]

He has a ZOT code.

ROFL

[Kuksool]

***Laws that discourage home schooling: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont***

The Northeast has the worst homeschooling laws.

[codder too]

Odd--A VERY similar letter appeared in our local paper in Harrisburg PA last week. Much the same tone and even some of the same terms. It was written by a recently retired teacher.

Could the NEA have sent a recommended outline???????

[knuthom]

If you son is excited by science, he can have a science-based curriculum and still learn other subjects. He can read and write about scientific topics. He can do experiments and write reports on them. A large part of scientific research is recording the data and analyzing it.

Math is also a huge part of science. He needs some experiments that require taking measurements and then using those numbers. Find averages. Find the largest or smallest. Find fractions of things.

Do you know anyone who works in science? A chemist, medical professional, etc? Maybe they can help. If he is interested in biology, try the local conservation center. Ours is great, even if it is run by the state. They are very homeschool friendly and let us check out the kits used in schools.

[reed_inthe_wind]

What arrogance. Can you imagine how pumped up this fool would be if all the evidence wasn't against him.

Based on student tests, public schools in the U.S.A. can't educate as well as public schools in other countries. Private schools educate many of our countries Presidents and national leaders.

Paraochial schools populated with kids from from lower middle class families outperform public schools therby eliminating the class aware defenders of public school who want to claim that private school success is all about privelege. - it's about virtue and moral teaching. We need to thank the parents that sacrifice to send their children to good schools. Thanks to their heavy lifting, the public school leftest propoganda artists are left naked.

Top colleges recruit home schooled kids because they want real diversity in the Freshman class. These kids are aware of the bible and thus the foundation of our culture and literature.

Finally, virtue is not found in the inability to discriminate. A lack of moral teaching in a young persons life sets up that person for catostrophic failure. Morality comes from God's precepts. They can not be replaced except through this vague notion of tolerance.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Is, "You Idiot!" polite?

[Kuksool]

***home-schooler....captive of the orthodoxies of the parents***

This arrogant fool actually thinks that the NEA has ownership over other people's children. What a blundering imbecile!

[hemogoblin]

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?

ROFLMAO -- I am trying to picture this happening in public schools