reasondictates

[reasondictates]

Arguments for Homeschooling

“Education is suffering from narration sickness” (Freire 243).

A term Paulo Freire coined the “banking” concept describes a system in which students are looked upon as “receptacles” to be “filled” by a teacher; the more completely the receptacles are filled, the better the teacher (Freire 244). The students of this garbage disposal system are forever taught to receive, memorize, and repeat rather than question, process, and discuss. It was Freire who pointed out that “liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information” (249), and that the “banking” system of education promotes a lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge (244).

The fact is that our current public education system’s curriculum lies in the hands of oppressors’ interests. It relies in “changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them” (Freire 245).

Three time winner of New York City’s Teacher of the Year Award John Taylor Gatto believes that the United States’ youth are subjected to an educational system which is "deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens– all in order to render the populace “manageable” is what we are up against” (Gatto 5).

“It is in the interest of complex management (economic or political) to dumb people down, to demoralize them, to divide them from one another, and to discard them if they don’t conform” (Gatto 6).

Memorization has replaced learning, and conformity has done the same to independence. Until we abolish the system which has already been put into place we will never be able to encourage students to become more than just a dumpster for memorized facts and statistics, and they will remain unable to solve problems independent of their peers.

The above quotations and observations are just a peek into the problems that traditional schooling (especially public schooling) has led to. The current approach favored by these institutions and the indifference the leaders of said institutions have towards the livelihood of the children in their care has led to the three main reasons parents decide to pull their children out of public schools in favor of homeschooling:

1. Concern about the school environment

2. To provide religious or moral instruction

3. Dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools

Parents are increasingly becoming aware of the detriment the traditional school have become to their child’s education, and are pulling them out in droves. There were more than 2.0 million students being homeschooled in the U.S. during the spring of 2008.

In fact, USA Today says that "the number of home-schooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2007, up 74% from when the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36% since 2003. The percentage of the school-age population that was home-schooled increased from 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007” (Lloyd).

There are a lot of reasons for this. Some are discussed above, but the data available on homeschooling shows that academic results are higher for children who are homeschooled as well:

“Achievement test scores for homeschooled students are exceptionally high. Kids taught at home score across the board between the 75th-80th percentile. Public school children tested on the same material consistently produce scores at the 50th percentile” (Hebert).

“Schools across the country are lowering standards – actually dumbing down lesson plans – to avoid sanctions under the No Child Left Behind Act” (Kaye).

“First, about half of college freshmen don’t graduate, even after six years. Second, those who do graduate enter a job market in which only 20% of graduates can find a non-minimum wage job” (North).

“A new federal study shows that nearly a third of the states lowered academic standards in recent years. Fifteen states in all lowered proficiency standards in fourth and eighth-grade reading or math from 2005 to 2007. Three states – Maine, Oklahoma, and Wyoming – lowered standards in both subjects at both grade levels” (Kaye).

“Education Secretary Arne Duncan puts it this way: ‘We’re lying to our children when we tell them they’re proficient, but they’re not achieving at a level that will prepare them for success once they graduate’” (Kaye).

We can easily see that our school systems are doing nothing but warehousing children for 12 years and suppressing any creative or independent urges they may have. As we can see below, the reasons to home school your child are many and varied. From http://www.homeschool-living.com/homeschooling-statistics.html (All indented bullet points are my own comments):

Average income of the homeschooling family is $52,000. (HSLDA)

-This is slightly higher than the national average, but not significantly so. It does show that homeschooling is not simply for the elite or ultra-rich though.

Cost to homeschool varies. In 1996, a national survey found one could homeschool for $546. Michal Farris, chairman and general counsel of HSLDA, states that his family home educates for approximately $200 per year for curriculum materials. (HSLDA)

-Compared to the multiple thousands (in some cases $12,000 or more) of dollars that are spent each year on each child within the public school system, it is astonishing that parents are able to achieve statistically significant results that are much higher than students in a traditional school setting.

“No meaningful difference was found among home school students when classified by gender. Significantly, there was also no difference found according to whether or not a parent was certified to teach.” (SADC)

-Homeschooling successfully does not require you to spend years in school. There is nothing special about a teaching degree that makes you better able to communicate and share wisdom with students. In many cases, it is simply another licensing requirement that lowers competition and lets members take advantage of guild economics.

Children who are homeschooled “… may be more socially mature and have better leadership skills than other children …” - Richard G. Medlin, Ph.D. (NHERI)

-Studies are showing that far be it from homeschooling to produce socially maladapted children, homeschooling often produces children who are better adapted than those in the public school. This is probably one of the main reasons parents would be adverse to homeschooling their children (apart from laziness or inability), and is based upon nothing substantial.

ACT: (2002 and 2003) homeschool average was 22.5, national average was 20.8.

SAT: (2002) homeschool average was 1092, national average, 1020. (HSLDA)

-These are not that much larger, but two points can often mean the difference in thousands of dollars of scholarship money when applying to colleges.

On average, homeschool students, grades 1–4, perform one grade level above their public and private school counterparts. The achievement gap grows in grade 5; by 8th grade the average home school student performs four grades higher than the national average. (SADC)

-This is where the numbers become astonishing. In eight years of schooling, home schooled children perform four grades higher than their public school counterparts. That means they are learning twice as fast. Anyone who doesn’t want that for their own child must be mad.

Students who have been home schooled their entire academic lives have the highest scholastic achievement. The difference is more pronounced during the higher grades; students who home school throughout high school continue to flourish while in that environment. (SADC)

-See the point before. These are the statistics and facts advocates of homeschooling should be using to educate the public.

Kate Grossman, Chicago Sun-Times reported noted, “The number of homeschoolers receiving National Merit Scholarships has increased more than 500 percent: from 21 in 1995 to 129 in 2003.” (HSLDA)

-This award is highly coveted and is invaluable to those pursuing college scholarships. If homeschooling your child pushes him over the edge to earn one of these awards, any amount of money you would have spent homeschooling would be repaid many times over just from the scholarships awarded alone.

Dr. Michael Donahue, Director of Admissions for Indiana University - Purdue University, has spent the last several years researching home-schooled students.

“The home school group has about a 3.0 GPA their freshman year,” Donahue said. “In the entire freshman class, the GPA is between a 2.3 and a 2.4. They are well prepared. They’re self starters. Faculty, in general, enjoy having them in class because they know how to do things independently.” (Answers)

-In accordance with the facts above, this is why those who are home schooled will have an advantage their entire lives.

More than 74% of home schooled adults 18-24 years-old have taken college classes as opposed to 46% of the general population. (HSLDA)

Dr. Gary Knowles, the University of Michigan, studied home educated adults.

“None were unemployed and none were on welfare, 94% said home education prepared them to be independent persons, 79% said it helped them interact with individuals from different levels of society, and they strongly supported the home education method.” (NHERI)

Homeschooling statistics show 71% of home taught adults participate in at least one ongoing community service/37% of similar general population. (HSLDA)

95% said they were glad they were home educated. 82% planned to homeschool their children. (HSLDA)

As you can see, taking your child’s education into your own hands can drastically improve their lives in a variety of ways, even long after they have started their own lives and entered the workforce. Our public school system is broken, and those in charge always cry they haven’t been given enough money and more money will always solve the problems. However, they have always gotten their wish, and they have always thumbed their noses at us, raised their salaries, and provided ever declining education to our children. Socialism loves Robin Hood. Steal from the rich, give to the poor, yadda, yadda, yadda. Our current education system is failing children at an alarming rate and we have nothing but broken dreams and a undereducated populace to show for it. Government spending is rife with malinvestment and perverse incentives. Within our own education system, we suffer from many of the same comparative disadvantages. Money given to the public school system seldom goes to anything which provides actual academic benefit. How can you justify the eight million dollars that was spent on putting in a swimming pool? I know I wouldn’t pay for that if given the option. Fortunately, we still have the option of choosing to pay or not pay for an alternate education which better suits our desires and needs; however, only time can tell if this will last.

It is up to us whether or not people see the issues, the future lies in our hands. Legitimate authority rests in the consent of the governed. It really is up to our generation to decide the correct course of action. Pick your battles wisely, be informed, and make conscious and rational decisions; above all, take action. Whether it is homeschooling your child or marching in Washington, make sure your voice is heard. Don’t take no for an answer.

No matter how much our independence, rights, or voices are abrogated we must find a way to transcend the limitations imposed upon us.

If this isn’t enough to convince yourself to at least consider homeschooling your own child, please let me know what would be.

Email mckeating.nicole@yahoo.com for suggestions!

Works Cited:

Freire, Paulo. “The “Banking” Concept of Education.” Bartholomae, David and Petrosky, Anthony.Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2008. 242-254.

Gatto, John Taylor. “Against School.” Harper’s Magazine Sep. 2003: 1-7. Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

Hebert, Kristi. “Homeschooling 101:What Are The Statistics?” Examiner(2009): 1.Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

Kaye, Randi. “C-A-T spells Cat.” CNN (2009): 1. Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

Lloyd, Janice. “Home Schooling Grows.” USA Today(2009): 1. Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

North, Gary. “M.I.T. Calls Academia’s Bluff.” Lew Rockwell(2009): 1. Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

[reasondictates]

Arguments for Homeschooling

"Education is suffering from narration sickness” (Freire 243).

A term Paulo Freire coined the “banking” concept describes a system in which students are looked upon as “receptacles” to be “filled” by a teacher; the more completely the receptacles are filled, the better the teacher (Freire 244). The students of this garbage disposal system are forever taught to receive, memorize, and repeat rather than question, process, and discuss. It was Freire who pointed out that “liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information” (249), and that the “banking” system of education promotes a lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge (244).

The fact is that our current public education system's curriculum lies in the hands of oppressors’ interests. It relies in “changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them” (Freire 245).

Three time winner of New York City's Teacher of the Year Award John Taylor Gatto believes that the United States' youth are subjected to an educational system which is "deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens– all in order to render the populace “manageable” is what we are up against” (Gatto 5).

“It is in the interest of complex management (economic or political) to dumb people down, to demoralize them, to divide them from one another, and to discard them if they don’t conform” (Gatto 6).

Memorization has replaced learning, and conformity has done the same to independence. Until we abolish the system which has already been put into place we will never be able to encourage students to become more than just a dumpster for memorized facts and statistics, and they will remain unable to solve problems independent of their peers.

The above quotations and observations are just a peek into the problems that traditional schooling (especially public schooling) has led to. The current approach favored by these institutions and the indifference the leaders of said institutions have towards the livelihood of the children in their care has led to the three main reasons parents decide to pull their children out of public schools in favor of homeschooling:

1. Concern about the school environment

2. To provide religious or moral instruction

3. Dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools

Parents are increasingly becoming aware of the detriment the traditional school have become to their child's education, and are pulling them out in droves. There were more than 2.0 million students being homeschooled in the U.S. during the spring of 2008.

In fact, USA Today says that "the number of home-schooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2007, up 74% from when the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36% since 2003. The percentage of the school-age population that was home-schooled increased from 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007" (Lloyd).

There are a lot of reasons for this. Some are discussed above, but the data available on homeschooling shows that academic results are higher for children who are homeschooled as well:

"Achievement test scores for homeschooled students are exceptionally high. Kids taught at home score across the board between the 75th-80th percentile. Public school children tested on the same material consistently produce scores at the 50th percentile" (Hebert).

“Schools across the country are lowering standards – actually dumbing down lesson plans – to avoid sanctions under the No Child Left Behind Act” (Kaye).

“First, about half of college freshmen don’t graduate, even after six years. Second, those who do graduate enter a job market in which only 20% of graduates can find a non-minimum wage job” (North).

“A new federal study shows that nearly a third of the states lowered academic standards in recent years. Fifteen states in all lowered proficiency standards in fourth and eighth-grade reading or math from 2005 to 2007. Three states – Maine, Oklahoma, and Wyoming – lowered standards in both subjects at both grade levels” (Kaye).

“Education Secretary Arne Duncan puts it this way: ‘We’re lying to our children when we tell them they’re proficient, but they’re not achieving at a level that will prepare them for success once they graduate’” (Kaye).

We can easily see that our school systems are doing nothing but warehousing children for 12 years and suppressing any creative or independent urges they may have. As we can see below, the reasons to home school your child are many and varied. From http://www.homeschool-living.com/homeschooling-statistics.html (All indented bullet points are my own comments):

Average income of the homeschooling family is $52,000. (HSLDA)

-This is slightly higher than the national average, but not significantly so. It does show that homeschooling is not simply for the elite or ultra-rich though.

Cost to homeschool varies. In 1996, a national survey found one could homeschool for $546. Michal Farris, chairman and general counsel of HSLDA, states that his family home educates for approximately $200 per year for curriculum materials. (HSLDA)

-Compared to the multiple thousands (in some cases $12,000 or more) of dollars that are spent each year on each child within the public school system, it is astonishing that parents are able to achieve statistically significant results that are much higher than students in a traditional school setting.

"No meaningful difference was found among home school students when classified by gender. Significantly, there was also no difference found according to whether or not a parent was certified to teach." (SADC)

-Homeschooling successfully does not require you to spend years in school. There is nothing special about a teaching degree that makes you better able to communicate and share wisdom with students. In many cases, it is simply another licensing requirement that lowers competition and lets members take advantage of guild economics.

Children who are homeschooled "... may be more socially mature and have better leadership skills than other children ..." - Richard G. Medlin, Ph.D. (NHERI)

-Studies are showing that far be it from homeschooling to produce socially maladapted children, homeschooling often produces children who are better adapted than those in the public school. This is probably one of the main reasons parents would be adverse to homeschooling their children (apart from laziness or inability), and is based upon nothing substantial.

ACT: (2002 and 2003) homeschool average was 22.5, national average was 20.8.

SAT: (2002) homeschool average was 1092, national average, 1020. (HSLDA)

-These are not that much larger, but two points can often mean the difference in thousands of dollars of scholarship money when applying to colleges.

On average, homeschool students, grades 1–4, perform one grade level above their public and private school counterparts. The achievement gap grows in grade 5; by 8th grade the average home school student performs four grades higher than the national average. (SADC)

-This is where the numbers become astonishing. In eight years of schooling, home schooled children perform four grades higher than their public school counterparts. That means they are learning twice as fast. Anyone who doesn't want that for their own child must be mad.

Students who have been home schooled their entire academic lives have the highest scholastic achievement. The difference is more pronounced during the higher grades; students who home school throughout high school continue to flourish while in that environment. (SADC)

-See the point before. These are the statistics and facts advocates of homeschooling should be using to educate the public.

Kate Grossman, Chicago Sun-Times reported noted, "The number of homeschoolers receiving National Merit Scholarships has increased more than 500 percent: from 21 in 1995 to 129 in 2003." (HSLDA)

-This award is highly coveted and is invaluable to those pursuing college scholarships. If homeschooling your child pushes him over the edge to earn one of these awards, any amount of money you would have spent homeschooling would be repaid many times over just from the scholarships awarded alone.

Dr. Michael Donahue, Director of Admissions for Indiana University - Purdue University, has spent the last several years researching home-schooled students.

"The home school group has about a 3.0 GPA their freshman year," Donahue said. "In the entire freshman class, the GPA is between a 2.3 and a 2.4. They are well prepared. They're self starters. Faculty, in general, enjoy having them in class because they know how to do things independently." (Answers)

-In accordance with the facts above, this is why those who are home schooled will have an advantage their entire lives.

More than 74% of home schooled adults 18-24 years-old have taken college classes as opposed to 46% of the general population. (HSLDA)

Dr. Gary Knowles, the University of Michigan, studied home educated adults.

"None were unemployed and none were on welfare, 94% said home education prepared them to be independent persons, 79% said it helped them interact with individuals from different levels of society, and they strongly supported the home education method." (NHERI)

Homeschooling statistics show 71% of home taught adults participate in at least one ongoing community service/37% of similar general population. (HSLDA)

95% said they were glad they were home educated. 82% planned to homeschool their children. (HSLDA)

As you can see, taking your child's education into your own hands can drastically improve their lives in a variety of ways, even long after they have started their own lives and entered the workforce. Our public school system is broken, and those in charge always cry they haven't been given enough money and more money will always solve the problems. However, they have always gotten their wish, and they have always thumbed their noses at us, raised their salaries, and provided ever declining education to our children. Socialism loves Robin Hood. Steal from the rich, give to the poor, yadda, yadda, yadda. Our current education system is failing children at an alarming rate and we have nothing but broken dreams and a undereducated populace to show for it. Government spending is rife with malinvestment and perverse incentives. Within our own education system, we suffer from many of the same comparative disadvantages. Money given to the public school system seldom goes to anything which provides actual academic benefit. How can you justify the eight million dollars that was spent on putting in a swimming pool? I know I wouldn’t pay for that if given the option. Fortunately, we still have the option of choosing to pay or not pay for an alternate education which better suits our desires and needs; however, only time can tell if this will last.

It is up to us whether or not people see the issues, the future lies in our hands. Legitimate authority rests in the consent of the governed. It really is up to our generation to decide the correct course of action. Pick your battles wisely, be informed, and make conscious and rational decisions; above all, take action. Whether it is homeschooling your child or marching in Washington, make sure your voice is heard. Don’t take no for an answer.

No matter how much our independence, rights, or voices are abrogated we must find a way to transcend the limitations imposed upon us.

If this isn't enough to convince yourself to at least consider homeschooling your own child, please let me know what would be.

Email mckeating.nicole@yahoo.com for suggestions!

Works Cited:

Freire, Paulo. “The “Banking” Concept of Education.” Bartholomae, David and Petrosky, Anthony.Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2008. 242-254.

Gatto, John Taylor. “Against School.” Harper’s Magazine Sep. 2003: 1-7. Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

Hebert, Kristi. "Homeschooling 101:What Are The Statistics?" Examiner(2009): 1.Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

Kaye, Randi. “C-A-T spells Cat.” CNN (2009): 1. Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

Lloyd, Janice. "Home Schooling Grows." USA Today(2009): 1. Web. 25 Nov 2009. .

North, Gary. “M.I.T. Calls Academia’s Bluff.” Lew Rockwell(2009): 1. Web. 25 Nov 2009. .