Essay/Term paper: Public schools

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Education

When Americans' think of education, they almost automatically think of
public education. Through the years the idea home schooling is slowly
changing. Many parents today are deciding to home school their children.
Although most people think that a public education is better, most
statistics and facts tend to show that home schooling is beneficial in more
ways. It is estimated that parents are now teaching over two million
children at home, rather than in public or even private schools. The idea of
public education has been debated for years. Students are being faced with
so much violence and crime in today's public school systems, that parents
are forced to find a suitable alternative. In the past few years, home
schooling has had a tremendous rise and has proved to be very successful in
providing effective education. In the following paper, I intend to argue
that home schooling is a successful educational reform when the child and
parent work together to achieve academic excellence.
Education in public schools has been on the criticized for many years.
Parents now feel that their kids are in danger because of the crime, peer
pressure, and violence at school. Teen pregnancies, teen sexual diseases,
teen suicides, teen alcohol, drug abuse, pornography, and illiteracy rates
abruptly increased 200 to 300 percent (Klicka 48). Violence is one of the
main factors effecting are schools today. Rape is a growing problem among
juveniles. A juvenile commits one out of every five rapes that occur in the
United States. There is also a higher use of drugs and alcohol among kids
in public schools. Over 80 percent of public high school students drink
alcohol and 45.7 percent have used marijuana. Drugs and alcohol make most
people extremely violent. That is also why our violence and crime rates are
so high.
Over hundreds of millions of dollars are spend on the security of our
nation's public schools. In The Right Choice Home Schooling, Christopher
Klicka says, "In Washington, D.C., drugs and violence were such a problem in
one Elementary school, that the principal banned regular recess, and the
children are only allowed to play outside in a pit enclosed by eight-foot
concrete walls, or on a small section of playground monitored by the police
(Klicka 51)." The disciplinary problems of children usually start even
before they reach public school. In the last ten years, research shows that
infants raised in daycare "are more prone to behavioral problems as young
children than their home-reared cousins (Klicka 124)." If you keep your
child at home from the start, you will be able to discipline and raise your
children with the right morals. Because so much time is spend trying to
clean up and keep our schools safe, we are more or less falling behind in
our education. American's are farther behind in educational status than
countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and China. The teachers spend too much time
on the little things and forget the real reason why the children are there.
Not only that, but the textbooks hold inaccurate information and do not
contain the whole story. Some textbooks stated that the atomic bomb ended
the Korean War (instead of World War II) and that only 53,000, rather than
126,000 Americans, were killed in World War I (Klicka 24 25). One book
summarizes Abraham Lincoln's and George Washington's life in approximately
six lines each. Not only are the wrong things written in the textbooks,
they teach the children wrong values.
On the other hand, when adults think about educating their children, they
often forget the option of home school. The idea of home schooling started
many years ago, but it really began to flourish in the 1970's. For many
people this was the only option, because either public schools lacked or the
schools were too far away for them to attend. In the present day, there are
over two million children being home schooled by their mothers and fathers,
over a fifteen percent rise in home school students each year (Kennedy 1).
A majority of home school students are white middle class families, but
minorities are finding that this option is also better for their children
rather than the public schools. Some of the main factors parents find from
home schooling are: the children often become more independent and more
responsible with their behavior, the influence of peer pressure is reduced,
vacations and trips can be planned at the families convenience, families can
spend more time together, and there is usually less stress because the
children don't have to rush out of the house every morning. Dana Hawkins,
author of "Home School Battles,"says that some of the main advantages
parents find from home schooling are that the children become more
independent and more responsible with their behavior, peer pressure is
reduced, and parents are able to meet the needs of the child
(Hawkins,par.7). These factors and many more, are why parents of today's
society are choosing this method.
"Critics of home schooling attack it on many fronts, arguing that children
are not taught by qualified professionals, homes often do not possess the
resources of schools, home-schooled children tend to be isolated from their
peers, and systematic evaluation of children's learning rarely occurs in the
home (Simmons par.5)." Yet, research does show that home schooled children
are equal, if not better than, those students in public school environment
are. Almost all reports have shown that home schooled students score above
average on standard achievement tests. This could be because children have
more one-on-one experience. Being above average in their curriculum, home
schooled students also have little difficulty being accepted into colleges
and universities. Boston University says, "We believe students educated at
home possess the passion for knowledge, the independence, and the
self-reliance that enable them to excel in our intellectually challenging
programs of study ("Eric,"par.9)." More colleges are even having their own
admissions policy's for children that are taught at home.
Children that are taught at home tend to have stronger relationships with
his or her father or mother. This is because first, the children only
usually spend, on the average, two to three hours per day receiving
instruction. The typical student at a public school spends 367 hours (more
than two hours a day) in activities such as lunch, recess, and class
changing. There is a lot of time wasted each day that a child could be
learning something else. At home also, the curriculum can be geared to fit
the individuals need. The child can spend more time on what they need help
in the most and this leaves more time for "hands-on" activities for the
children to learn by. All in all, the children have more time to spend at
home building relationships with their family.
Many people are concerned about the social factor of home schooled
children. It's a common belief that home schooled children will not develop
the proper social skills to enable them to interact with others later in
life. Many children that are home schooled today have formed their own
social clubs. There are things ranging from their own basketball teams to
Clubs. Some children even get together and go on field trips together
almost once a week. Social skills are no longer a problem for home schooled
children.
The idea of public education has been debated for years. Students are
being faced with so much violence and crime in today's public school system
that parents are forced to find a suitable alternative. In the past few
years, home schooling has had a tremendous rise and has proved to be very
successful in providing effective education. Home schooling is just an
option that parents have to get their children away from corrupted public
education system. Though this is not always the case for all students and
all public school systems, it has shown true many times.