Thesis on "In Opposition of Home Schooling"

Thesis 12 pages (3705 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Home Schooling: A Choice

Home schooling has become increasingly popular, but there are many arguments to support the position that home schooled children will be ill equipped to deal with the common problems that today's and future life poses to them. As we look at the world around us, we see that it is evolving towards a world community. As such, the skills that a young person acquires through the socialization processes they experience in the institutional school setting will be invaluable to them when they leave school and begin taking part in and contributing to society. Some of them will go from high school to college, where their interactions with people of other ethnic origins and cultural traditions will be a part of their academic experience. Those students who choose paths that do not include college will find themselves in a fast paced and culturally diverse world that is very competitive. Home schooling does not provide the social experience that is gained from the institutional setting in acclimating young students to the diversity of the world around him/her. Also, the home school environment does not afford students the opportunity to experience and benefit from the diversity in thought that comes through the institutional setting. This puts home schooled children, if not at an academic disadvantage, at a social disadvantage, which will manifest itself not just socially, but in the ways in which they apply even the best home schooled learning they have acquired.

This brief essay examines home schooling vs. institutional schooling in an effort to focus on the benefits of the institutional setting in the academic and social experiences of the student. While the reasons that parents choose home schooling may be apparent -- more focused academic training in the more intimate setting of the home -- I will argue that this is more often than not a failed goal in home schooling. Home schooling is perhaps a parent's best intention gone awry.

Home Schooling is Not New or Innovative

Jane Van Galen and Mary Anne Pitman (1991) point out that it is the institutional setting and the requirement of primary education that is new in the social order, and not home schooling (1). When we consider the history of the United States, and the world at large, we must agree with Van Galen and Pitman, because compulsory school attendance for juveniles, though found at intervals throughout history in Europe and in America, became legislated into law in America in Virginia, in 1646, and in 41 other states by 1852 (Cunningham McLaughlin and Bushnell Hart (Eds.) 636). Seven of the southern states had no such laws, but did have laws limiting child labor (636). The amount of time spent in a formalized academic setting varied, but evolved over time. It was not until 1948 that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created wherein it holds that primary education is a human right (Morsink 212).

If we consider, briefly, the history of the United States as it is known to most of us: a vast wilderness that was settled over the centuries; then, we understand why home schooling was prevalent, since much of the population was scattered across the wilderness and there were no social structures for institutionalized academic settings. In the urban settings, however, compulsory education was more prevalent, especially in Europe, where it was believed that society must guard itself against ignorance (Cunningham McLaughlin and Bushnell Hart 636).

Leaders and governments came to the conclusion that education, left to the discretion of the family in the family setting did not prevail. This is the same problem with homeschooling today. While parents who choose to homeschool their children often say that their child (ren) demonstrate improved academic achievement as a result of the individualized instruction, Van Galen and Pitman cite research conducted by Brian D. Way of the National Home Education Research Institute and Jon Wartes, of Borthell High School in Washington state as saying:

"(However) Parents who teach their children at home usually do not have formal training in pedagogy, curriculum design, or learning development, and many do not even have a college degree (43)."

This lack of preparation in academic disciplines and training by the educators (parents) in the home should be a concern for those in the institutional settings, the government, and in society in general. It would suggest the academic achievements and learning skills of those children whose parents say their academics have improved as a result of homeschooling, is, at best, an exaggeration; and at worst is self-denial about the reality and gravity of the impact homeschooling will have on their children in their lives. The latter, of course, being very difficult to overcome, if at all possible should the child be homeschooled for the entire course of his or her primary education.

Ray and Wortes also mention the academic agenda in two parts: one, the academic task, or classroom content (43-44). The second is the "hidden curriculum" of socialization through the workings of the classroom setting (43). A child can receive and process information, but that information and information processing cannot prepare the child for the social skills or provide the social experience that comes to the child through the institutionalized setting of classroom diversity. As the geographical bridge diversity connects us to the rest of the world through technology and economic endeavors, it becomes essential to the socialization of students today to have that experience so that they will not find themselves inept and socially lacking when confronted by ethnic and cultural differences. The social bonding experience that children gain from the institutional setting surpasses ethnic and cultural traditional differences. Kids form friendships and relationships that are enriched by the differences between them, because they focus first, on their commonalities that bring them closer as people, and then explore one another on the level of their diversities.

David Tyack (2003) discusses his experience with Paul Vass and Gus Barros, two immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands, colonized under the Portuguese (67). Tyack, Vass, and Barros formed friendships and bonds working alongside one another in construction (67). Their relationship became a cultural exchange, "They introduced me to their community in Roxbury, Massachusetts (67)," Tyack says. Their friendship and the experience, especially that came from the exchange of cultural traditions, is one that fifty years later Tyack says is a vivid memory and one which he clearly cherishes from his discussion on it (67). It was not just that Tyack was exposed to their cultural differences, but he was also exposed to their perceptions as immigrants having originated from a Portuguese country, which Tyack found fascinating. Tyack gained a sense of how people from distant lands perceive America and Americans from that geographical distance, and how, once having experienced America, those perceptions take on a greater breadth of analysis through the direct experience. Tyack says:

"Long before I had heard about the 'social construction of reality,' Paul and Gus taught me how arbitrary and punitive was the American conception and practice of 'race' (67)."

It is the social construction of reality that homeschooled children are lacking, and for which they are poorly prepared to live within once they leave the confines of their homes for the world at large.

Concerns about Academic Preparedness in Home Schooled Children

Every parent wants to believe their child is gifted. We can gain that sense by spending a small amount of time in any play setting where we might overhear a parent exclaim that their child, son or daughter is a genius; and then they go on to recite the evidence that they have observed as a parent that would lead them to such a conclusion. Parents are proud of their children, but often this pride tends to blind them as to the normal development of a child, which they might mistake for genius. It would not be surprising to learn that parents who are making these remarks to other parents are parents of just one child, or that they themselves are only children, and have had limited experience and exposure to young children. They are astounded by the milestones of their children, often mistaking it for genius.

The psychological preparedness of a child to meet academic challenges is periodically evaluated in formal settings (Craighead and Nemeroff (Eds.) 1455); there is no such evaluation in the home setting. This means that in order to assess the academic progress and special needs of a child, parents must not only be prepared academically and socially, but also with some level of expertise or guidance in assessing and reassessing their child's level of preparedness to meet the academic requirements of their age in progression. If, as Ray and Wortes say, parents are often not educated or familiar with academic curricula to adequately home school their children, then it would follow that these same parents are even less equipped to deal with the psychological assessment of their children to determine their children's special needs and whether or not the child… READ MORE

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