 Formal
education in a classroom setting has been the most common means of education
throughout the world, especially in developed countries, since the early and mid
19th century. Native Americans, who traditionally used home education and
apprenticeship, strenuously resisted compulsory education in the United States.
In 1964, John Caldwell Holt, published a book entitled "How Children Fail" which
criticized traditional schools. The book was based on a theory he had developed
as a teacher – that the academic failure of school children was caused by
pressure placed on children in schools. Holt began making appearances on major
TV talk shows and writing book reviews for Life magazine. In his follow-up work,
"How Children Learn", 1967, he tried to demonstrate the learning process of
children and why he believed school short circuits this process.
In 1980, Holt said, "I think that the home is the proper base for the
exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the
best base no matter how good the schools were."
Criticism of traditional school methods
Many home educators agree with John Holt when he says that "...the anxiety
children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and
disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember, and
drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling
teachers into thinking they know what they really don't know." Proponents of
home education assert that individualized, child-led learning is more efficient
and respectful of children's time, takes advantage of their interests, and
allows deeper exploration of subjects than what is possible in conventional
education.
During this time, the American educational professionals Raymond and Dorothy
Moore began to research the academic validity of the rapidly growing Early
Childhood Education movement. This research included independent studies by
other researchers and a review of over 8,000 studies bearing on Early Childhood
Education and the physical and mental development of children.
They asserted that formal schooling before ages 8–12 not only lacked the
anticipated effectiveness, but was actually harmful to children. The Moores
began to publish their view that formal schooling was damaging young children
academically, socially, mentally, and even physiologically. They presented
evidence that childhood problems such as juvenile delinquency, nearsightedness,
increased enrollment of students in special education classes, and behavioral
problems were the result of increasingly earlier enrollment of students.
Their primary assertion was that the bonds and emotional development made at
home with parents during these years produced critical long term results that
were cut short by enrollment in schools, and could neither be replaced nor
afterward corrected in an institutional setting.
In 2003, the National Home Education Research Institute conducted a survey of
7,300 U.S. adults who had been homeschooled (5,000 for more than seven years).
Their findings included:
Homeschool graduates are active and involved in their communities. 71%
participate in an ongoing community service activity, like coaching a sports
team, volunteering at a school, or working with a church or neighborhood
association, compared with 37% of U.S. adults of similar ages from a traditional
education background.
Homeschool graduates are more involved in civic affairs and vote in much higher
percentages than their peers. 76% of those surveyed between the ages of 18 and
24 voted within the last five years, compared with only 29% of the corresponding
U.S. populace. The numbers are even greater in older age groups, with voting
levels not falling below 95%, compared with a high of 53% for the corresponding
U.S. populace.
58.9% report that they are "very happy" with life, compared with 27.6% for the
general U.S. population. 73.2% find life "exciting", compared with 47.3%.
Test results
Numerous studies have found that home educated students on average outperform
their peers on standardized tests. Home Schooling Achievement, a study conducted
by National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), supported the academic
integrity of home education. Among the home educated students who took the tests,
the average home education student outperformed his public school peers by 30 to
37 percentile points across all subjects. The study also indicates that public
school performance gaps between minorities and genders were virtually
non-existent among the home education students who took the tests.
New evidence has been found that home educated children are learning more and
are getting higher scores on the ACT and SAT tests. A study at Wheaton College
in Illinois showed that the freshmen that were home educated for high school
scored fifty-eight points higher on their SAT scores than those of kids that
went to a normal school. Most colleges look at the ACT and SAT scores of home
educated children when considering them for acceptance to a college. On average,
home educated children score eighty-one points higher than the national average
on the SAT scores.
Criticisms
The following are common opinions and concerns of people who are critical of
home education. |
- Most children lack the foresight to learn the things
they will need to know in their adult lives
- There may be gaps in a child's education unless an
educational professional controls what material is covered
- Because schools provide a ready-made source of peers, it
may be more difficult for children who are not in school to make friends and
develop social skills than it is for their schooled peers
- Because schools may provide a diverse group of both
adults and students, it might be more difficult for children who are not in
school to be directly exposed to different cultures, socio-economic groups
and worldviews
- Some children are not motivated to learn anything, and
will spend all of their time in un-educational endeavors if not coerced into
doing otherwise
- Not all parents may be able to provide the stimulating
environment or have the skills and patience required to encourage the
student's curiosity
- Because they often lack a diploma from an accredited
school, it may be more difficult for unschooled students to get into college
or get a job
- Children who direct their own educations may not develop
the ability to take direction from others
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Information source: “Homeschooling.” wikipedia.org. Article date: 20 March 2009.
Retrieved: Wikipedia. 22 March 2009 <Homeschooling>.
Information source: “Unschooling.” wikipedia.org. Article date: 19 March 2009.
Retrieved: Wikipedia. 22 March 2009 <Unschooling>. |
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