The Home and Public Schooling Question

Before reading Romanowski's article, I had never given home schooling much thought. My stereotype of home schoolers was that they were white religious zealots living somewhere in the mountains far away from society; however, clearly this is not the case. NPR even recently had a blurb a week ago about an African American family choosing to home school their children because they were not satisfied with the education they were getting in the local public school.

This week's articles made me think more about the purpose of schooling. What is the aim of education? If it is to help make well-rounded individuals reach their full potential and be able to participate constructively in a democratic society, then there really is no one magical program to meet the needs of every individual child.

The Romanowski article mentioned some reasons for making the choice to home school: arguments about content; improved family relationships; religious/moral/ethic/value training,;and individualized, flexible pedagogy, and improved self-worth/concept - all good arguments. Questionable points that need to be addressed include whether home schooled children are exposed to enough diversity, whether they are being taught by someone qualified, and whether they have access to important resources and enrichment opportunities. This article also raises concerns about the parental stakeholder spoke on the wheel - what are a parent's rights?

The case study about Jane discussed the purpose of grading. Does grading encourage students to learn for the purpose of gaining knowledge? What exactly are we sayig by assigning grades to student work? Do grades motivate students to try to do better? What message are schools sending when they grade students? Are grades really constructive? I'm not sure. If I think of my own experience as a student, I want feedback that lets me know whether I am "getting" something or not. I want to know if I have understood something adequately and correctly. I much prefer dialogue (written comments or suggestion or questions) feedback on my work. I want to know what I can do to improve. I genuinely enjoy learning for learning's sake. The end-in-mind is never numeric.

It does take more time to provide this depth of constructive information to each student. Teachers are already burdened with administrative minutia; how could they take on more work in the current system? Herein lies one problem with education as an institution - it serves the masses, not the individual.

Jones piggy-backs on this issue by discussing how schools serve to prepare students for tests and conformity. I like the way he made an analogy to the movie "Pleasantville's" boring black and white world. Teaching to the test really does lack color and creativity and individuality. Public schools provide a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all structure determined by state policy not teachers, parents, or students. There's really little student or teacher ownership, or what Keefe and Jenkins call a "culture of collegiality" in education and learning.

Keefe and Jenkins also identify the importance of learners growing in knowledge and self-awareness which later "leads to wisdom, personal happiness, and collective responsibility." Their idea of "personalized instruction" is similar to some of the home schooling arguments; however, in order to implement such a strategy, class sizes would have to be dramatically decreased and the coordination or organization (small cooperative learning groups) would need some definition as to goals, strategies, and scope.

Education needs to be child-centered, meaningful, and flexible. Why does something that sounds so easy end of being so difficult? I think this leads us back to Fullan's points about culture. In that case, is home schooling just about taking control of one's own learning culture?