Home schooling has been growing considerably according to Jenn’s presentation with over 2 million home schoolers nationwide. Jenn and “Home Schooling Grows” stated that the primary reason given for parents to choose to home school was for moral or religious reasons. Parents want to assure that their children are raised with the values and beliefs that the parents believe are crucial to the well-being of their children. “The Civic Perils of Home Schooling” states “parents view the education of their children as a matter properly under their control and no one else’s.” They want to be able to choose what their children learn and how they learn it. The author of “The Civic Perils…” has the view that this “dilutes active democratic citizenship”. I do not understand how home schooling is a component of the demise of democratic citizenship. Isn’t it just the opposite? Are not home schooling parents exercising their democratic right to choose what is best for their family?
Our question was “How should we apportion responsibility between families and public schools?” The responsibility for our children lies solely in the laps of the parents. It is only by our parental choice that we give over control for the education of our children to the public school. When you really think about it, most of us send our children to public school, because it is the norm, without really even considering anything else, except maybe a religious private school. We give control to the school for the curriculum that our children will learn and how it is taught. How many parents have actually gone to the ODE website and looked at the state standards? Most of us just blindly accept that the school knows best and say “Here are my children.” I have never had a parent question me over curriculum or teaching methods, except on how they can help their child study.
I applaud parents who have taken back their God-given rights to raise their children as they see fit. Oftentimes, home schooling parents are seen as radical and extremist. Bring up the topic in a public school teachers’ lounge and watch the disgust and even some anger come out. Maybe we are threatened. Maybe we do not understand how a family’s biblical world view may cause them to choose home schooling. Somehow we always remember that one family that home schooled and what a disaster it turned out to be. If the majority of home schooling experiences were disasters, why is it growing so rapidly? Personally, I would have loved to home school, and my daughter actually begged to be home schooled. However, my husband and I chose to have our children attend our public school, because we exercised our rights to choose that option as the best for our family. As parents, we should put as much thought into our child’s K-12 education options, as we did for their pre-school experience or will when it’s time to choose a college.
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I think that the reason there is this "anger" or "disgust" towards the home schooling methodology, is the way that it is presented to society. Yes it is the parents' God-given choice, but make your choice and move on. Others have made different choices or perhaps financially don't have a choice to use the home schooling option. I think the backlash ensues when home schoolers repeatedly point out what they deem to be the short comings of the public school system. They at times present their methodology as being the superior method, and bad mouth public schools. They have a right to choose, but just as they don't want to be judged for their choice don't condem or belittle others for theirs.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with you when you said that many people may choose to send their child to school because it is the norm. Parents should have the choice to educate their students however they want without be condemned. When reading the article Amid Hard Times Families Persist I thought it was interesting that despite economical hard times there is still growth in the amount of parents who are choosing to homeschool. Chris Glicka says hard times enhance homeschooling's appeal as private school tuition becomes unaffordable and some public schools contemplate cutbacks. I believe that every parent should have the right to choose how they want to educate their children.
ReplyDelete"It is only by our parental choice that we give over control for the education of our children to the public school." Exactly--albeit collectively, or often--as you point out--by "default." I think you have shared a really important insight, Jenny: we as parents-and citizens-often complain about the growing role of schools and/or government, but in many cases we have abdicated our responsibility and just accept the status quo. (I wonder if the growth of the homeschooling movement that both you and Jessica note is a sign of a growing shift in our perception of citizenship in this country...?)
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