Public Schools Essay, Research Paper

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.