Better off at home?Consider two examples of American youth. Daniel is becoming knowledgeable about the metric system metric system, system of weights and measures planned in France and adopted there in 1799; it has since been adopted by most of the technologically developed countries of the world. , has read the Esther Forbes Esther Forbes (June 28 1891 - August 12, 1968) was an American novelist and children's writer who received both a Pulitzer Prize and a Newbery Medal. Forbes was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, the fifth of six children born to Harriette Merrifield and William Trowbridge classic Johnny Tremain Johnny Tremain, a 1943 children's novel by Esther Forbes, retells in narrative form the final years in Boston, Massachusetts prior to the outbreak of the American Revolution. , easily identifies the four states that border Mexico, can confidently define "recluse" and "esoteric," and still has time to tend goal for his ice-hockey team. Daniel is eight. Charlotte, an equestrian with awards in dressage dressage (French; “training”) Equestrian sport involving the execution of precision movements by a trained horse in response to barely perceptible signals from its rider. , doubles as a Taubman piano instructor in training. She was recently awarded a generous financial-aid package to attend Mt. Holyoke College. At 17, Charlotte was the youngest non-college student in a math course at the University of Massachusetts The system includes UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth (affiliated with Cape Cod Community College), UMass Lowell, and the UMass Medical School. It also has an online school called UMassOnline. , and one of the few enrolled who earned an A. What these two young people have in common is that they are members of a growing popular movement known as "homeschooling home·school or home-school v. home·schooled, home·school·ing, home·schools v.tr. To instruct (a pupil, for example) in an educational program outside of established schools, especially in the home. ." According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report Weekly newsmagazine published in Washington, D.C. U.S. News was founded in 1933 by David Lawrence (1888–1973) to cover important domestic events; he founded World Report in 1945 to treat world news. The two magazines were merged in 1948. , the number of students taught at home grew from 10,000 in 1970 to 350,000 in 1991. The Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Fund has estimated the number at over 400,000. While politicos regularly campaign on a "quality day care for all working Americans" boiler-plate platform to woo busy, overtaxed constituents, homeschoolers have politely turned their backs on the idea of "professionals" teaching their offspring. Instead, they have opted for what critics, such as Thomas A. Shannon of the National School Boards Association, call "a giant step backward into the seventeenth century." The modern homeschooling movement had its roots, appropriately, in the 1960s. Unbeknown to one another, two educators - one a humanist, the other a former Christian missionary - were reaching the same conclusion: conventional schooling has largely failed at its task of educating and nurturing children. John Holt John Holt can be any one of:
At about the same time, Dr. Raymond Moore
Raymond Moore (1920-1987) was an important post-war British art photographer. was conducting an aggressive inquiry into previously unstudied areas. One of the questions he set out to answer was: Is the institutionalizing of young children a sound educational policy? Amazingly, he discovered that the findings of a hundred noted researchers (including eminent family psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner Urie Bronfenbrenner (April 29, 1917–September 25, 2005) was a renowned psychologist, known for developing his Ecological Systems Theory, and as a co-founder of the Head Start program in the United States for disadvantaged pre-school children. ) recommended "a cautious approach to subjecting the developing nervous system and mind [of children] to formal constraints." Dr. Moore's data led him and his wife, Dorothy (a reading specialist), to pioneer a renewed and enthusiastic interest in homeschooling through their research institute, the Moore Foundation Moore Foundation: see Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. . The Moores' firm, gentle, and ecumenical approach to homeschooling (balance study, work, and service with a child's developmental needs) have earned them a following that started with fundamentalist Christians but has since spread widely. Balancing the Ledger Following one of these alternatives has been neither cheap nor easy for potential homeschoolers. As recently as 1982, only two states had laws guaranteeing their rights. Legislative and court battles fought throughout the 1980s now make homeschooling legal in all fifty states, although homeschoolers' legal status varies from state to state. For example, Oregon requires that homeschooled children periodically take standardized tests; Texas homeschoolers can simply declare their home a private school; Massachusetts homeschoolers have to obtain permission from local authorities. To be sure, homeschoolers do get some help. Teaching supplies, computer software, cassettes, videos, etc. are proliferating. An October 1991 U.S. Department of Education Working Paper, by Patricia M. Lines, explains that "there are approximately 25 suppliers supplying a complete, year-long package, and with at least one-hundred students enrolled." Unlike families in earlier days whose children were "privately educated," the average homeschooler today is far from rich. A 1990 survey of Maine home-schoolers by the David C. Cook Publishing Company, for example, revealed that 70 per cent of respondents had an annual pre-tax household income of less than $35,000. Why would these parents undertake such a burden? Homeschooling is far more flexible than conventional schooling. Homeschoolers can supplement their children's educations with private lessons, apprenticeships, correspondence courses, and hobbies. And it seems effective. In fact, the National Home Education Institution (yes, a homeschool home·school or home-school v. home·schooled, home·school·ing, home·schools v.tr. To instruct (a pupil, for example) in an educational program outside of established schools, especially in the home. think tank), in a recent nationwide study, "found achievement on standardized tests was at or above the eightieth percentile." Even more important, homeschooling protects children from condom distribution, multicultural mumbo jumbo, new-age relaxation techniques, knife-wielding sophomores, etc. While smaller, religious schools are often a significant improvement over the public schools, there is no guarantee that students will be spared the difficulties that occur when X number of students are warehoused together on a daily basis. In addition, homeschooling helps children avoid the negative social aspects of school life by promoting a strong family bond. The trump card the educational establishment used to play against homeschooling is socialization socialization /so·cial·iza·tion/ (so?shal-i-za´shun) the process by which society integrates the individual and the individual learns to behave in socially acceptable ways. so·cial·i·za·tion n. , but the notion that homeschoolers are misfits has been struck a death blow by a young man named Larry Shyers. Dr. Shyers recently completed a doctoral dissertation in which he challenged the myth that youngsters schooled at home "lag" in social development. In his study, eight-to-ten-year-old children were videotaped at play. Their behavior was observed by trained counselors who did not know which children went to regular schools and which were homeschooled. Their conclusion: "The study found no big difference between the two groups of children in self-concept or assertiveness, which was measured by their social development tests. But the videotapes showed that youngsters who were taught at home by their parents had consistently fewer behavioral problems." While not a panacea for all the educational ills of our age, homeschooling clearly deserves to be supported as generously as choice in fighting the cultural and moral relativism The philosophized notion that right and wrong are not absolute values, but are personalized according to the individual and his or her circumstances or cultural orientation. It can be used positively to effect change in the law (e.g. of the ever-fading Western civilization. Homeschooling families could use some help in their lonely battles against the foes of liberty, individual responsibility, and learning. |
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