Report on HS in Economist

[TIMB...@aol.com]

An article about the HS movement in America appears in the recent issue of the
international publication, "The Economist." There are two articles. I
present a summary of the article: "Alternative Education" "Learning Round the
Kitchen Table"
"Americans in record numbers are removing their children from public
schools to educate them at home...The number of Americans teaching their own
children has more than tripled since the beginning of the decade... [E]xperts
reckon that the number of families teaching their children at home has
exploded over the past decade and is growing by at least 15% a year... In the
mid-1980s, home schooling was embraced by Christian fundamentalists as a means
of providing family-based religious and moral education. Recently, there has
been a boom in secular home schoolers who are dissatisfied with public
schools."
The Florida Department of Education has run a home school survey asking
why homeschoolers withdrew their children from public school. "Two years ago,
for the first time, dissatisfaction with the public schools was a more common
answer than religious preference... [O]ne fast-growing group of home
schoolers is black professionals, worried by the lack of safe, effective
public schools..."
"Not surprisingly, the busiest opponents of all this are school
administrators, particularly superintendents. They can be expected to have a
belief in public schools, of course, but not all their concerns are so well-
intentioned... schools are financed according to the number of pupils
attending... The teachers' unions are not fond of home schooling either. The
[NEA] handbook declares that 'home schooling programs cannot provide the
student with a comprehensive education experience,' " State laws have changed
dramatically and so has public opinion. A 1985 Gallop poll found 73% of those
surveyed said it was a bad thing. Only 16% approved. A 1997 Gallop poll
found that only 57% objected and supporters more than doubled to 36%.. What
happens to the children?
"On average, homeschooled students outperform their public school peers
by more than 30 percent points in all subjects... The longer a child is
schooled at home the larger the test gap grows...Harvard has seen fit to
accept ...these children over the past two decades,"
"...Most home-school parents choose to teach their children at home at
great cost to themselves beause they reckon the public schools are missing the
mark; and, in many cases, they are right. A surge of defections may finally
send wake-up call to the whole public system. Rather than merely talking of
change, it is time to bring some about."
Tim B.