Homeschooling is becoming more and more of a popular educational model as time goes on. In an Education Week report, the number of children homeschooled in the United States in 2007 rose to 1.5 million from 850,000 in 1999. There have been numerous reasons given for this increase, including the parents' views on public education and/or other beliefs. In my opinion, whether or not a child is educated in the home or in a school building the parents are responsible for his/her education. Even if children attend a "traditional" public or private school it is vital for their parents to be involved in what the children are learning and working with them at home, especially in the younger grades.
There are so many variables that go into the homeschooling model. I believe that if students are homeschooled there needs to be some way to monitor what is being taught and how they are learning. In her presentation, Jenn told us that in a majority of states all that a parent has to do is provide information that tells the local schools what the child is going to learn and then show that they learned it (using a portfolio or other assessment tool). In choosing that material, hopefully the parent would take many factors into account, including what the public schools are teaching. I think that if parents are completely involved in their child's learning and not just giving him or her videos to watch or worksheets to complete (I guess the term to use would be "unschooling") then it can be a positive environment and have a lot of benefits, but there needs to be some sort of accountability that learning is actually taking place. This may be in the form of the public schools "evaluating" the learning of the homeschooled child by testing or possibly even an interview.
Honestly, I have mixed feelings about homeschooling. I think that it can be done well, and have known some kids who were taught at home that ended up being very successful in college and beyond. But I definitely think that children who are homeschooled have to have some outside form of social interaction. True, there are groups of families that get together to take their kids on field trips and also do a lot of other activities together, but I believe that kids need to have interaction with their peers in both educational and more social settings. Whether they join a community sports league or take other lessons/classes, there needs to be some outside of the home contact with people their own age. Parents that choose to educate their children from home need to be able to provide not only the content that is important for their child to learn, but also the experiences that they may be missing if not in the "traditional" classroom.
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I agree with you that there needs to be some form of accountability to make sure that learning is actually taking place. The ability to custom-tailor an education for their children is often the motivation for parents to homeschool(Rob Reich). It's hard to tell if the students are learning everything they should be learning when they each have their own individualized education.
ReplyDeleteI too have mixed feelings regarding homeschooling. What really hit me was when Jenn said that you only need a high school diploma or GED to homeschool. I never really thought about the requirements for the "teacher" but as a student learning the skills it takes to be a teacher, are these parents who have little or no education background being fair to their children? Sure, having lessons already prepared for you is pretty cool, but what really happens when those children don't get the material and the "teacher" doesn't really get it either? Is it skipped? Do we get to skip it when we teach in the schools? I do think that if the person teaching is capable, then I think it's a good choice in certain situations. I think it would be interesting to poll at home teachers and find out some of these answers...
ReplyDeleteDid you read the article in Education Week about the requirement that parents that chose to homeschool their children in California need to have a teaching degree? I thought that was very interesting, but it does make sense. Just because a person knows a lot about something does not mean that they are able to teach someone else about it. Do you think this should be a requirement? Should they have to have some sort of certification to homeschool their children?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if they should have a certificate, it would make sense but probably not a popular idea. Maybe a couple classes on pedagogy or skills in content areas? I'll check out the California article, I'd be interested to see how that passed in that state.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that they shouldn't have to have a teacher license to teach at home. I do believe maybe that there should be some crash course, which they would have to take and pass maybe giving them a different type of license in a way. Maybe a mini course can instruct their different tools they can obtain, how to use them most effectively and why. Also, maybe it can show what the state standards are and explain this is what they would be learning in school and explain the importance that trying to stick to these so the child will not fall behind others at the same age. I do not believe they need a license but some guidance would not be bad either.
ReplyDeleteThat was a bit of a surprise to me also as far as parents not having to have some form of higher education or certification. I did try to contact my neighbor to ask her if the children still have to take any of the required State tests, such as Iowa basics or the new OGT, but haven't been able to get her.She herself has a Masters of Education and has always worked in some type of educational setting.
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