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Homework Help: Social Studies: World Issues: Advantages and Disadvantages of Homeschooling
by Halimah El-Husari
Hi Mona, I heard that you are doing homeschooling is it fun. "Not that fun I
don't see my friends that mush and when my mom teaches me I don't have more then
one idea but before I had many ideas for the girls in my class I sure miss it."
In looking at the advantages and disadvantages homeschooling, my investigation
begins with summarizing the advantageous aspects of homeschooling. After
surveying the advantages, I will then explore the disadvantages of this topic.
Included in this research will be a public opinion poll on the American view
concerning this issue.
Since the 1920's America has provided public education, so the investigation
brings us to the question, "Why do parents want to turn back the clock and
reinstate homeschooling?" By analyzing this question, I find that there are a
number of advantages along with the various reasons. "For the majority, their
primary reason to homeschool is to teach their children Christian principles and
give them a thorough education in reaction to the steady academic and moral
decline in the public schools." Many of these Populist Christian Conservatives
have gone to court to try win to the right to homeschool." Supreme Court upheld
certification requirements against established religious beliefs of parents who
chose to home school because the government regulations were not "unreasonable.
The Christian conservatives are seditious when it comes to their beliefs about
homeschooling and will go to any extreme to try and prove their case for the
right to practice the process.
The book Home Schools an Alternative by Cheryl Gorder contends that "eighty-six
percent of American Homeschooling parents have chosen this alternative because
of religious preference and religious values." We can conclude from this that
many of these Neo-conservative, right wing radicals will conduct personal
homeschooling for their children, so their children will not have to associate
with anyone who might have a different religious belief.
Many of these conservatives do not want any association with people that conduct
their lives in a different religious or moral vain. People for the American way
state in their Internet article Attacks on Freedom to Learn'96, an overview of
the Populist Conservative Christian agenda on education. Religious conservatives
homeschool because they insist upon non- separation of church and state in the
public schools, however at the same time they want separation of church and
state for homeschooling. This seems to be a contradiction in itself. The facts
show these Neo- conservatives and Populist Conservative Christian groups expect
the government to regulate the religious and moral views of all Americans. The
Christian Coalition continually lobbies to put prayer back in the public school
system. This group also demands that any teacher having a different sexual
preference is fired regardless of whether or not the teacher is qualified and
they continue asking for sex education to be eliminated from the public school
system. (People for the American way, November 2, 1996,1-3).
To sum up this form of thinking "Christian education-whether in a private
school or at home. Bible classes, Christian teachers, and prayer in school are
all necessary for true Christian education" (Wilson, 1991, 98).
Although it is found that Christians practice the preponderance of
homeschooling, research shows that homeschoolers also include Muslims. The
Muslims point of view about teaching their children about their religious views
is much the same as the Christian viewpoint on the religious aspect. The
Internet article Returning Childrento an Allah Centered Environment state,
"Muslims have a desire to set a school schedule more friendly to the demands of
an Islamic life." Children also learn many ideas in the class.
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