Why Americans choose home schooling

Фото: Depositphotos

One of the brightest impressions is the American education system. For me, as a representative of a teaching dynasty, it was a great shock to see with my own eyes how subjects were taught in an American school. Something vaguely resembling school began only in mid-October... Ask - what did the children do before that? I answer - we prepared for the beginning of active studies and studied the dragonfly (!).

Let me make a reservation right away - my son is in 7th grade and the phenomenon of “preparing for the school year” at this age in a Belarusian school takes one day - the first of September. The second of September is a regular school day.

As it turned out during a conversation with American parents, many of them are also dissatisfied with the quality of education. The question arose - what to do if it is not possible to send your child to a private school? The answer was found in a family in the neighborhood - home schooling, or home school, as an alternative to a regular school. This topic interested me, and I began to ask questions.

But a bit of history.

Homeschooling, as an option for education, appeared in the American system for a long time. It became popular in those families where parents had a good education, pedagogical abilities and, undoubtedly, a decent income, which allows them to acquire all the necessary textbooks and manuals. Gradually, this form of education gained legality in all 50 states, although with formal reservations specific to each state - in some places it is enough just to notify local educational authorities about this desire of parents, and in others parents who want to teach their children at home must pass special tests to check the level of their teaching qualifications .

Homeschooling has been part of the American heritage since the founding of the country. The first immigrants, as well as the pioneers who moved to the West, in the following years taught their children at home, until community schools were built.

14 of the more than 40 Presidents of the United States were educated at home, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Inventors Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, generals Douglas MacArthur and George Patton, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and composer Irving Berlin also homeschooled for at least part of their educational careers.

The American education system of the 1970th century limited the ability (or completely prohibited) to educate children at home. But in the late 1980s and early 50s, a new homeschooling movement began, primarily among Christians who wanted to keep their children's education biblical throughout their education. They were very angry about the disappearance of religious content from school curricula and wanted to make sure their children were learning to live up to their personal beliefs, worrying that secular public educational institutions were not helping to achieve this goal. Despite all the prohibitions, homeschooling has become increasingly popular, and this has led to the fact that the authorities of all states have legalized this alternative - all XNUMX states have passed laws allowing parents to educate their children, thereby providing more freedom and flexibility for home educators.

Фото: Depositphotos

For an explanation, I turned to the Department of Education.

Yes, indeed, every parent has the right to educate their child at home. But for this you need to meet the following conditions:

• report annually to the State Department of Education about the intention to continue this type of study;
• Provide information on immunizing homeschool children;
• get tested, create a performance curve and report on the results once a year.

However, as the experience of my neighbors has shown, not everything is so simple, since full-fledged training requires not only the entire set of textbooks but also, perhaps most importantly, a teacher! If it is not difficult to purchase textbooks, then there may be problems with a universal teacher. However, the problem was solved this way: 2 families joined forces, and the parents studied different subjects with a group of children of 3 people.

Now about that - why is this necessary?

My neighbors' children play sports, so constant travel prevents them from going to regular school regularly. The “homeschool” option has become, in a sense, a lifesaver.

But there are other reasons, for example, in the first place is the religious component. Wishing to raise their children in accordance with the religious belief system of the family, parents adapt and adjust the education of their children to specific learning styles, thereby pursuing their own interests.

The second reason for home schooling is that parents believe that the individual attention that their children receive at home helps them learn more successfully.

The third reason is social negativity: school violence, peer pressure, drug and alcohol use.

Fourth is lifestyle mobility. A family that is constantly on the move faces the challenge of providing a stable education for their children. Constantly changing educational institutions does not contribute to the stability of knowledge. That is why homeschooling is a very good option for solving this problem.

Фото: Depositphotos

Some statistics: in 2001, 10 children studying at home were among the 4 winners of the national Geography Olympiad. In 1998, a similar study was conducted by the University of Maryland. As shown by tests in basic subjects administered to 20 thousand school-age children, the results of schoolchildren turned out to be significantly lower than the results demonstrated by “home children.” Agree, an impressive result.

Being a little interested in psychology and periodically studying specialized literature in this area, in one of the books I read the following opinion of psychologist Larry Shaers: “The reason for success is that “home” children have before their eyes better models of behavior than their peers in schools. “Homeschooled” children copy the behavior of their parents (as a rule, highly educated people decide to homeschool their children), and schoolchildren copy their peers, who do not always demonstrate good behavior patterns.”

However, as it turned out, there are also opponents of this type of education, who motivate their opinion by the fact that many “graduates” of home schools cannot obtain decent comprehensive knowledge and social experience, which significantly affects their future lives. Let's not argue with them - everyone has their own opinion.

While communicating with people from various fields (including business), I learned an interesting position for myself - some companies in the United States prefer to hire employees who studied at home part of their time. Top managers believe that people who were educated at home have more fundamental knowledge.

Whatever the reason for homeschooling, my little research shows that homeschooling is becoming increasingly popular, and I think for good reason.

See also:

How in New York to arrange a child for free in the Pre-K

How to get an education in the USA and how much it costs

Interesting facts about American schools

How to get a higher education in the US is almost free

How are kindergartens in America

How to find a babysitter in the USA

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