I had to do a research paper for my English Comp II class online just recently, and I have completed it, at least for now. I figured that since I had done it some of you might enjoy reading it. It is MLA proper, and the subject is homeschooling, so I figure I will have a good audience. I will both attach (to preserve formatting) and post (for ease of reading).
Attachment:
***name removed***
***instructor name removed***
English Composition II
February 24, 2011
Homeschooling and Much More
People are screaming. Online, people are using multiple exclamation points. In many cases rational argument has descended into random and unreasoned attacks. They all feel very deeply about one increasingly important subject. Homeschooling continues to be a point of great disagreement among both scholars and lay people, and while homeschoolers are no longer so often thrown in jail or sued for child abuse, they continue to be marginalized in society as outsiders and oddballs. Many who argue against homeschooling though, are not familiar with all the facts surrounding it, or even how it is practiced. It is time that homeschooling was investigated from every angle at once to determine its value for society. Upon investigation, one finds that homeschooling is an excellent form of education, having many advantages over its counterparts, especially public schools, producing excellent citizens.
Without a doubt, homeschooling does produce sufficient results in the academic field. Many recent studies have confirmed that homeschoolers not only match their traditional schooled peers, but often outdo them in terms of academic achievement. For instance, in 1998 homeschoolers obtained an average score 1.8 points higher on the ACT than the national average, 22.8 over 21.0. (Groberg). A study by Lawrence Rudner, with the University of Maryland, noted that in the first through fourth grades, homeschool students typically score one grade level above public and private school students of the same age on achievement tests. From the fifth grade and beyond, the difference becomes more pronounced. Simply put, if the grades were relative to reading, it would mean that, for example, a third grade homeschool student can read third grade level material as well as a fourth grade public school student can read third grade level material (Rudner). The same study revealed that about one-quarter of home schooled students are enrolled one grade level above the typical for their age (Rudner). Cloud and Morse point out that in 2000 the average homeschool SAT score was 1100, compared with 1019 for the national average (Cloud and Morse). Thus, on two of the most widely-recognized achievement tests, the ACT and the SAT, homeschoolers do remarkably well. According to Meyers, Mitchell, and Thomas, of Juniata College, this trend continues into the freshman year of college, with homeschool graduates scoring higher GPA’s than both public school and private school students.
Home schools also tend to not suffer from the same academic problems as public schools. Brian Ray conducted a study for the Homeschool Legal Defense Association which said that minorities tend to score the same, or nearly so, to whites, while in public schools there is a severe disparity, minorities on the lower side. The same study also showed that the education level of the parents of the children was nearly irrelevant to academic achievement for homeschoolers, while there was a definite slope for public school students. The less advanced in education the parents of a public school student were, the lower the scores on the tests used (Ray, “Home Education”). The only comparable trend noticeable in homeschool results was that home schooled children whose parents had graduated college were a few points ahead of the other categories. While one typical question leveled against homeschooling is that there is no regulation on teacher certification, that parents may not be qualified to teach their children some subjects, Ray’s study finds to the contrary, that when either of a homeschool student’s parents were certified, the point difference on the test used was only three points, both values being well above the national average noted. Ray’s study also found that homeschoolers spend considerable less time watching television than do public school students, which may indicate that they spend more time doing more physical activities. Perhaps the best argument for the value of homeschooling and its ability to help society was made by Harold McCurdy, in a report commissioned by the Smithsonian Institute:
the typical development pattern [to produce a genius] includes these important aspects: (1) a high degree of attention focused upon the child by parents and other adults, expressed in intensive educational measures and usually, abundant love; (2) isolation from other children, especially outside the family; (3) a rich efflorescence of fantasy as a reaction to the preceding conditions . . The mass education of our public school system is, in its way, a vast experiment on reducing . . . all three factors to a minimum; accordingly, it should tend to suppress the occurrence of genius. (quoted in Dobson, 206 and Minsky)
A researcher, not directly attached or affiliated with the homeschooling cause himself, decided that the three aspects most crucial to producing geniuses – a term meant to include not only those intellectual achievement – were three aspects most encouraged by homeschooling and discouraged by the public school system.
The most verbalized argument surrounding homeschooling, though, is not its academic success. Such statistics as those referenced above have existed for over ten years, and many have recognized home schooling’s successes in that regard. The most discussed front, today, is one generally labeled as, “the socialization issue.” The main thrust of this accusation is that home schooled students do not learn how to socialize, or more specifically, lack the skills to communicate with those of the same age group. Parallel with this thrust is the idea that home schooled children will end up weird, strange, and as oddballs. This is perfectly true, though usually not to the extent assumed. TIME.com contributors John Cloud and Jodie Morse refer to a study conducted by psychotherapist Larry Shayers, stating that homeschoolers tended to be more patient, got into less fights, and more often exchanged addresses and phone numbers. As Cloud and Morse say, “They behaved like miniature adults.” (Cloud and Morse). Some challenge that this is a good development. They would rather see children enjoy childhood as a time apart from adult concerns and adult ways-of-life. The questions one must ask, though, is whether or not the public school childhood is truly critical, or even enjoyable or commendable. Is attending homecoming or prom critical to developing as a person and a citizen? Is it enjoyable for young children to spend their days in direct competition with their peers, under constant peer pressure to conform to what some other, more popular, child their age thinks? Is it commendable for high school students to have days off school for bomb-threats, see police officers keeping watch in their hallways, and attending so-called “health” classes which tell them how to get away with things they should not be doing? Opponents of homeschooling also suggest that homeschool students do not learn to appreciate ethnic diversity. One homeschooler refutes this claim, “I have played soccer with orphans in Zambia, talked about cell phones and internet speed in Izmir, Turkey, listened to dive and horse-riding instructors with an accent in the Cayman Islands, toured the ruins of Greece, visited with children of Guatemala, and told stories to kids in the Dominican Republic via a translator. I learned to appreciate ethnic diversity from peers who could scarcely, if at all, speak my language.” (Hartung) Surely this student does not need to walk school hallways to understand diversity.
The fact of the matter remains that those against homeschooling do have a valid point. Homeschoolers will often end up different, maybe even strange. They may not date and through the teenage years they may not relate to their peers very well (Cloud and Morse). However, it is exceedingly ironic that those who launch this argument are the same that argue that diversity must be respected. If exposure to ethnic and cultural adversity, and the tolerance thereof, is something to be learned at public school, why should not homeschoolers’ own culture and way of life be respected and equally tolerated? Those that argue against homeschooling because of the differences it produces in its students are arguing based on a double-standard. While homeschoolers may feel awkward around their traditional schooled counterparts, the difference between them is most likely a matter of degree, that is, both groups feel awkward, just the home schooled more so. In matter of fact, most teenagers do feel awkward around those of their own age with whom they are not already personal friends, so this experience is not limited to homeschoolers, though, admittedly, it may be accentuated to some degree. The best argument in homeschoolers’ favor is that this problem is temporary, limited to the teen and college age years at the most. Once a student has grown and enters the workplace, they will no longer be around only those of similar age. McDowell, author of But What About Socialization? points out that homeschoolers do exceptionally well with those outside their age range (33) and McKee, author of Homeschooling Our Children…notes likewise (37). Thus, for the majority of one’s life life, he or she will be living and working with those outside of the narrow age range to which public school students are confined, and instead socializing and spending time around those considerably older or younger than them, at which home school children excel.
The amount of other benefits to homeschooling that do not fall neatly into either academic or social categories is staggering. Isabel Shaw makes several points in her online article, “The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling.” She notes that homeschoolers have many unique opportunities to travel and engage in special activities because of the time freedom they obtain by looser scheduling. Some students have opportunities to travel around the United States and the world, and every trip has an opportunity to be educational, whether it is visiting grandparents or visiting the pyramids. One advantage of the adaptable schedule is taking vacations off season, being able to go places when most other children are in school, thus avoiding huge crowds which can ruin a vacation or fieldtrip. She also says that research indicates teenagers especially also need more rest than the public school system affords them, an opportunity which homeschooling provides (Shaw). Homeschooling also has major financial advantages over traditional schooling options, even public school. Public school will incur costs on clothing and transportation, despite the fact that the government pays for the education. Homeschooling will often cost less than even those incidental expenses as a result of public education (HomeschoolingInfo.org). This same site makes an excellent point in its concluding remarks, “One thing for sure, I think you will find in the long run that ignorance is far more expensive than home schooling when everything is said and done.” (HomeschoolingInfo.org).
The issues of academics and socialization are really just root issues of the question as to what kind of adults homeschooling will create. Academics and socialization are only the means intended to produce good citizens, not ends in themselves. So if the most common question addressed to homeschoolers is about socialization perhaps the better question is about citizenship. Although there is some room for debate over what qualities make a good citizen, there are some standards to which nearly everyone would agree. For instance, studies, again by Brain Ray, show that 76% of adults aged eighteen through twenty-four who were home schooled in the past voted in a state or national election in the past five years, compared to only 29% for the general population. Likewise, for the same age group, 14% of homeschool graduates had worked for a political cause, corresponding to only 1% of the general population. The same study asked general questions about other subjects, revealing that while 35% of American adults think that politics is to complicated to understand, only 4.2% of homeschool graduates agree. In refutation of the idea that homeschooling produces religious radicals or so-called religious freaks, 98% of homeschool graduates agreed that people should be allowed to speak out against religion or churches, compared to only 88% of the general populace (Ray, “Homeschooling Grows Up” 3-4). These and other statistics from the same study indicate that homeschoolers make elite citizens, the kind that politicians and philosophers of the past would have praised highly. Homeschoolers also have a very impressive track record of important figures in world history, as Dobson points out. Seven United States presidents were homeschooled, including Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Many famous artists have been homeschooled, from painters like Leonardo da Vinci and Claude Monet, to authors such as C.S. Lewis and Benjamin Franklin, as well as American general Douglas MacArthur and George Patton (Dobson, 236).
All of these facts, though, do not mean that homeschooling is the singular best form of education, or that the public school system should be scrapped. Not all students or families are fit for homeschooling. Each system produces different kinds of people, and just as home schoolers should not be considered deficient neither should public schooling. One of the most important doctrines of public schooling is appreciation of diversity, so this must be applied to both the home schooled and the public schooled. However, toleration of diversity must have its limit when people start getting hurt. Linda Dobson says that 700,000 kids complete school, annually, unable to read their diplomas (205). These students are effectively crippled, and will certainly never make-up the ideal educated and intelligent population needed to run a democratic government. Of course, the same is true against home schoolers; some home schools do not genuinely equip their children with sufficient knowledge, many do not have enough structure to evaluate correctly, and some practice controversial “unschooling” in which there is no formal education and the child’s interests guide what is studied. Flukes will occur in both directions in both systems; some will learn poorly, others may graduate at age sixteen (Farris, 23).
The point is that there will never be any definitive statement of which type of schooling is better, only what kinds of results each kind often produces. Like any education system, homeschooling is not perfect. It will, just as all other kind of schools, occasionally fail and produce poorly educated or poorly developed children. However, its academic success must not be overrated, nor should the differences between its children and that of the public school be construed to say that homeschoolers are lacking anything. There is no "one-size-fits-all" education system, but certainly homeschooling sits among its competition as a perfectly viable and academically successful system. The above studies and discussion demonstrate that homeschooling will generally produce knowledgeable, capable, adept, and politically active citizens.
Works Cited
Cloud, John and Jodie Morse. Home Sweet School. TIME.com, August 27, 2001. Web. February 28, 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010827/cover.html>
Dobson, Linda. The Art of Education: Reclaiming Your Family, Community, and Self. Tonasket: Home Education Press, 1995. Print.
Farris, Michael. The Future of Homeschooling: A New Direction for Home Education. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc, 1997. Print.
Groberg, Troy. Homeschool vs. Public School. ConservativeFront.com, Decmber 3, 2004. Web. Feb 28, 2011. <http://www.conservativefront.com/2004/12/03/homeschool-vs-public-school/>
Hartung, David. Personal interview. 16 February 2011.
HomeschoolingInfo.org. Cons of Homeschooling. HomeschoolingInfo.org, 2011. Web. February 14, 2011. <http://www.homeschoolinfo.org/consofhomeschooling.htm>
McDowell, Susan. But What About Socialization?. Nashville: Philodeus Press, 2004. Print.
McKee, Alison. Homeschooling Our Children, Unschooling Oursevles. Madison: Bittersweet House, 2002. Print.
Meyers, Valerie, Janelle Mitchell, and Kristin Thomas. Should Parents Be Encouraged to Homeschool Their Children?. Juniata College, n.d. Web. February 10, 2011. <www.juniata.edu/faculty/rkm/social/homeschooling.ppt>
Rudner, Lawrence M.. Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998. Eric.ed.gov, March 23, 1999. Web. February 28, 2011. <http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED424309.pdf>
Shaw, Isabel. The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling. FamilyEducation, n.d. Web. February 14, 2011. <http://school.familyeducation.com/home-schooling/parenting/29861.html>
. Flowed well, as Calen said, and I really enjoyed reading through it, though I had time to do so but quickly. One of the things I've heard said often in favour of homeschooling is that it is not just a different way of education, its a lifestyle. Mum and Dad, who both attended school, say it is an infinitely preferable one. 
