Homeschooling

Lee, M., & McMahon, M. (2015). Counterpoint: Home Schooling is an Educational Option that Short-Changes Students. //Points Of View: Home Schooling//, 3. Retrived November 30, 2015 from [|http://web.b.ebscohost.com.uri.idm.oclc.org/pov/detail/detail?sid=292c5c1d-4e24-4cd5-a098-241f25bdff3b%40sessionmgr198&vid=2&hid=115&bdata=JnNpdGU9cG92LWxpdmU%3d#AN=26618764&db=pwh]
 * Why are Students Homeschooled and how has it increased over the years?**
 * __Journals__**
 * Article 1: **

This article talks about how homeschooling has expanded greatly over the years because of many factors. Parents nowadays want more control over what their child is learning When the article talks about the rapid growth of homeschooling, the article states that the Department of Education estimates 850,000 students are being homeschooled across the country. Every year the number seems to keep increasing. Some of the factors stated in the article of why parents are choosing to homeschool are for reasons such as under-funded, over-crowded public schools, increasing school violence, and desire for more curricular control. While many parents are for this method, there can be flaws within this method. For example, a regulation that influences the home schooling system is the end of the year state-mandatory test. It is supposed to be given by a testing proxy not a parent. The controversy of parents as teachers is that if parents lack knowledge in a certain subject they are not helping their child. On the other hand, regular teachers have to go through training to make sure they are giving the students a fair education. This article has a lot of detail about the pros and cons of homeschooling. In my personal opinion as well as stated in the article, I do believe one of the primary reasons parents choose to homeschool is for religious beliefs/values and wanted to protect their children from outside influences. I also think that some children don’t have a say in whether they want to be or not. I think it’s crucial for state and federal authorities to make sure they monitor the home-schooled students that way everyone is getting a fair education.

**Article 2:** Thomson, H. (2015). Homeschool It Is. //Education Canada//, //55//(2), 54. Retrieved from, []

The article opens up giving an example of how this girl Mara is rushing to be on time for school. Her parents say that the traditional educational system does not meet Mara’s needs and wants. Her mom wants to do what’s best for her to make her happy. Although this now makes the mom’s days much busier with providing education to her 3rd grade student and doing her own work on the weekends, she thinks it’s what needed to be done. Her brother however wants to start school now. He is not necessarily distracted by the same things and less bothered by his sensations. Overall, this article goes into detail on how homeschooling is more suitable and flexible for their child. After reading the mother’s point of view in this article, I don’t think she did a good job of arguing that homeschooling only because her main points were that her kid couldn’t get ready in time and was stressed about what to wear and didn’t have enough sleep. However, I do agree that in this article the parents are doing what’s best for there kid and their son is going to school, so in this case homeschooling is more suitable for the daughter and that’s the way it should be.

**Article 3:** Home Schooling in the United States - Population Division Working Paper 53. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from []
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This article focuses on the Impact of Home Schooling. This article explains how homeschooling has had little attention, however, homeschooling could have a larger impact on the educational system. Homeschooling involves a larger population then charter and voucher schools as well. Some argue that if the homeschooling population keeps growing then the school education curriculum will have to change because the main reason for parents to keep there kids home is for them to pick and choose wha they learn. The school will have to revamp so certain areas of learning are optional. After thoroughly reading the article and coming upon the discussion and conclusion section, I don’t necessarily agree with everything the author has said because I don’t think that certain races get homeschooled. I think many races get homeschooled and not just one. I think this article showed a lot of data and support and showed both sides of homeschooling.

__**Magazine**__ **Article 4:** Our Kids Don't Belong in School. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from []

This article is about a specific person, Milva McDonalds daughter’s school experience. Bridget Samburg, the author who wrote this article said Milva said, “The kids were being tracked, even at a young age. And then there were the endless hours the small children spent sitting at their desks. It felt unnatural.” She felt that when they eventually get into the real world they are going to be exposed to many different people of different age, and not necessarily taught by one person. She strongly believed her daughter could do better on her own with her being homeschooled. She wanted her child to guide their learning at the pace she feels comfortable in. Freddie Fuentes, the executive director of educational options for Boston Public Schools says, “A lot of them are looking at innovative ays of learning. We as a school system need to think about innovation and cutting the edge.” This means that homeschooling is starting to take place in Boston because it’s said to be aspirational, intellectual, entrepreneurial, and innovative, and more and more people are catching onto this. I liked how this article gave a specific example of someone transitioning from a public school to homeschooling because I got to see what her and her mother thought. Although I do understand everything this article was saying, I still am debating whether I think homeschooling is that beneficial. I do think having a child work at their own pace is helpful, however, in the real world you are going to be face with problems and working with other people and I think you can only experience that in a school.

__**Editorial**__ **Article 5:** Number of home-schooled students increases in the District. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2015, from []

In this article, it also is a personal story by Michael Alison Chandler about Lisa Cain’s second-grade son. Lisa was searching for a school for her son to go to after he was not pleased with his charter school in his district. After searching at both public and private schools she realized there was really none she liked. That is mainly because she said, “The more I learned about education, the more I found that kids learn by being excited about the subject and taking it upon themselves to learn. Not, ‘Okay, now were doing this.’” Many can agree with her in a ense that private schools are very expensive and she was too concerned about a large class so she decided to take part in homeschooling. In 2013-2014 the number of registered home-schooling families was about 290 and now this fall it’s up to 400. After Lisa contemplated if this was the right thing to do, her children are learning at their own pace and pursuing their interests. She also said that she is seeing a change in her son as well as a decrease in the stress levels due to the commute to school and homework. In my opinion, I agree with what Lisa is saying when she said it’s much easier to be natural learnings and learning just doesn’t happen at school. However, I think certain skills can be developed at school and not at home. I really liked the quotes she said during this article as you can see I stated above. I thought they were true genuine statements and she now has a passion about homeschooling and wants to encourage it. I think there is a lot of controversy with homeschooling so it is hard to pick a side when there are both positive and negatives that come with it. Overall, I think this was a good, well-put together article with a lot of quotes and detail.