Homeschooling Argumentative Paper free essay sample

Many parents have often poundered on which type of educational setting would be best for their children. The most common way for children to receive their basic K-12 education is by attending a public school. However, there is one very different option, home schooling. The advantages of home schooling are starting to be realized by more and more parents every year, by the growing # of children being home schooled. So, are there advantages to home schooling? With today’s society, this seems to be growing truer all the time. Of course, there seems to be many more advantages to teaching children from home, versus sending them to a public school. The home schooling process seems to be much more efficient than that of public schools. Lawrence Hardy of American School board Journal asked Yvonne Bunn, a home schooling mom, to comment on her thoughs of how home schooling matched up with that of a public school, academically. We will write a custom essay sample on Homeschooling Argumentative Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Ms. Bunn replied saying, â€Å"Acadmeically, homeschooling is like a tutorial, one-one relationship. That is every teacher’s dream. (18). She went on to comment about how she thinks home schooling is â€Å"quickest, most comprehensive way of covering a subject†. (18). Home schooling seems to be best way to speed up the learning process because of the lack of the students. Ms. Bunn told of how one of her daughters was able to complete the entire her Kindergarten curriculm before Xmas, and this was in just two hours of school a day. She described how this is possible by saying, â€Å"We accomplish the curriculum in two hours a day because we are not lining up, we are not dealing with troublemakers in the classroom† (18). Many people feel as if the sheltered environment of learning in the home will often hurt a child when he or she decides to hurt when he or she decides to leave home to purse a college education. However, this might not necessarily be true. Betty Hanson has recently sent her home schooling son off to college, and he is now doing very well in the college setting. She said she believed that â€Å"he is at an advantage cuz he learned to study independly and not reply on others so much, which is similar to how you learn in college†. Lawrence Hardy also discusses this issue. He indicates that they (home schooled children) â€Å"are naturals for post secondary work cuz of their experience with the kind of independent study that college requires† (19) There is another advantage to home schooling, although, this is an advantage that is often debated for moral reasons. Since most parents who home schooling don’t keep their student’s grades, when asked by a college to assign a grade for such things as dual-enrollment college classes, the parents often assign the highest grade possible. Rebecca Talluto, dean of educational services at Brevard Community College discusses this topic. She tells how when a home schooling student wants to part of dual-enrolled college classes, he or she do not go to principal or guidance counselor to get proper documents signed. â€Å"Instead they must submit a notarized affidavit that says they are at least sophomores. Their parent, in lieu of a HS guidance counselor and principal, sign a form from them stating that the students meets minimum†. GPA requirements. And this is where the problem shows up, when we explain this form to the parents, they usually reply that the parents, they usually reply on that they do not keep grades. Then they go ahead and sign the form, assigned their child a 4. 0 GPA† (20) Unfair? Yes, but it is definitely an advantage for home schooled students. Due to this, homeschooling children have tended to excel on academic achievement tests; the gateways to academic success and educational opportunities in our world today. But another distinct counterargument against homeschooling is that the parents are not accredited teachers or capable of performing the duties of an accredited teacher. â€Å"Home School Legal Defense Association, HSLDA, in collaboration with Brian D. Ray of the National Home Education Research Institution, NHERI, refutes this argument in an article released in the Homeschool Progress Report of 2009. The figures showed homeschool students placed 34-39 percentile points higher than norm on Standardized test achievements† (Ray, Brian D. ) (About NHERI). The study also discovered that parents, whether teacher-cerified or not, had no effect on the test scores. A key factor in these statistics is the plain fact that the flexibility that homeschooling provides allows students to continue pursuing what they love, and if they need be, take their time working out concepts that they don’t quite understand. Just about every critic of the home schooling process will use the â€Å"lack of socialization† point when debating why home schooling is a bad choice. Yvonne Bunn was asked about whether she was worried about socialization. Ms Bunn had a very interesting reply, almost flip- flopping the question. She stated, â€Å"We had better be concerned with socialization, cuz socialization is one of the best reasons to home school. Just look at society today† (18). She went on to say that â€Å"home schooled children kids have lots of opportunities for socialization—from church groups, scouting, 4-H, community organizations, to name few† (18). Ms Bunn feels like her kids don’t necessarily need school in order to gain the basic, essential socialization skills needed for life. However, Bob Chase, president of the National Education Association, feel differently. He feels as if the socialization skills picked up from interaction with kids of your own age while in public schooling is essential. He says, â€Å"Public education represents a slice of reality that goes beyond participate in ballet classes, and church socials† (qtd. Hardy 15) Many parents feel as if they should be more concerned about what kind of socialization their kids is receiving, rather than how much. By knowing just what activities a child is involved in, for instance, a church youth group, there is a better understanding of just who they are interacting with, as well as a little control over whom they socialize with. In a public school setting there just isn’t this type of knowledge or control. Ms. Bunn agrees with this type of philosophy stating, â€Å"Parents should be concerned about the quality of social contracts, rather than quatity†. (qtd. in Hardy 18). Before really looking into the issue, most people turn their nose up at the idea of home schooling their kids because of the negative remarks often ade about this alternative to public schools and the common myths that developed over time such as, the loss of socialization an poor success in post-secondary schooling. However, if one takes the time to really sit and evalvate which choice would be better for their kids, receiving an education in a public school or at home, home schooling has a lot of strong adv antages that cannot be ignored. A small percentage of people who home school their kids give the practice up, and either start their kids in a public school for the first time or send them back to the public schooling system. The education that home schooled kids are receiving today is better than that of a public education, and is now starting to show up in society more and more. Richard Hardy discusses this by saying, â€Å"It is hard to argue with the advantages of one-one tutor, or parent involvement, and of a curriculm tailored to every child’s needs. Home schooled kids are winning spelling and geography bees and going on to top-notch colleges† (19). It’s obvious those are definite advantages to home schooled.