Home Education: Legal and Beneficial Essay -- essays research papers

ARGUMENT PAPER Home Education: Legal and Beneficial Formal Outline Thesis: As parents, we not only have the right to educate our own children, but it is also our responsibility. I. Introduction II. Legality of homeschooling 1. Amendments a. 1st b. 14th c. 9th 2. Cases heard in court 3. State regulations a. teacher certification b. public school equivalency c. compelling state interest d. least restrictive means III. Benefits 1. Emotional 2. Spiritual 3. Educational IV. SOCIALIZATION – the main opposing argument 1. Opportunities for in homeschooling 2. Negative in public (or private) schools 3. Results of testing conducted V. Not a new fad, back to the way we were 1. Notables who were homeschooled 2. History of current homeschool movement VI. Conclusion Home Education: Legal and Beneficial While the idea of schooling children at home is not new to our country, it is new to our generation. Most parents today, including myself, are a product of the school system and rarely explore all of the options for schooling our children. Due to a lack of knowledge, we place our children in a preschool, then a kindergarten, eight years of elementary, and four years of secondary school. Fourteen or fifteen years (preschool is now beginning at age three) of our children’s lives are being spent away from us, and we’re wondering why we’ve lost touch with them. Psychologists now say that it’s not just quality time that we need with our kids, but quality and quantity time. How are we to give them a large amount of our time when they are away from us the majority of their waking hours? Homeschooling is the solution to this dilemma. Because of the lack of knowledge about schooling options, parents have many questions about homeschooling. Some of the major questions include the following: Is it legal?; Can it provide the same breadth of education?; and, most frequently, What about socialization? The responses to these questions make it clear that we have not only the right, but also the responsibility to school our children at home. Forty years ago, homeschooling was illegal in some places, so it is reasonable to question the legality of the homeschool. â€Å"Early homeschooling parents were legally threatened, arrested, and often brought to trial as abettors of truancy, sometimes even as child abusers†(Koetzsch 134).... ...nments were formed, and therefore families are quite capable of managing their affairs, including education, without the help of the government† (Blumenfeld 9).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Recently, an overwhelming lack of trust in public schools has arisen. Not only is the educational rigor disappearing, but there is now also a concern for the safety of our children. Studies have even shown that many high school graduates are not prepared for life after school. Some graduates have found a way to escape notice that they cannot even read, write adequately, or perform simple mathematical functions. A study by John Goodlad â€Å"sent note takers into a thousand classrooms, and they found that less than two percent of instructional time was spent on discussions requiring students to offer an opinion about something† (Guterson 42). A child whose intellect is not developed to the point of creating opinions and discussing them cannot fully participate in the adult world. The only way to make sure that our children do not fall through the cracks is to take them by hand and lead them one by one down the path of knowledge. School your children at home; it’s your right and responsibility.