FREE ESSAY ON PUBLIC SCHOOLS VS. HOME SCHOOLING

PUBLIC SCHOOLS VS. HOME SCHOOLING

When American's think of education, they almost automatically think of public education.
Through the years it 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. Education in our public schools has been on the down
slope for over twenty years now. Public schools have lost all values and biblical
morality. This was what our country was founded on and it has been replaced with
humanism. One example of humanism in our schools is that they teach evolution, not
creationism. Some people believe that this problem is happening because of the removal of
God and prayer in public schools; the U.S. Supreme Court did this in 1962. Beginning in
1962, SAT scores plummeted. Teen pregnancies, teen sexual diseases, teen suicides, teen
alcohol, drug abuse, pornography, and illiteracy rates abruptly increased 200 to 300
percent. 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 on of the reasons 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. The Seattle
Times once said, 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. 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. 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 some of 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. 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. In
public school textbooks, marriage is never mentioned as the foundation of the family, and
yet these books are supposed to be the textbooks that introduce the child to an
understanding of American society. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Children that are taught at home tend to have stronger relationships with his or her
family. This is because first, the children only usually spend, on the average, two to
three hours per day receiving instructions. 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 4-H 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.