Education: the Key to Success - Research Paper Example

Professor Name Institution, course number Date Education: the Key to Success The process of education plays an important role in our life. Since the childhood, we begin to study in order to develop our skills and achieve the life advantages, which are the results of hard learning process. The education on the country level predetermines its significance among other states and determines its world recognition. Due to these issues, the governments of different countries often refer to the problems of education and constantly participate in their resolution. The aim of this work is to analyze education, particularly homeschooling in terms of its effectiveness and reveal the basic features, which are important in studying process for gaining success. Education is one of the most valuable experiences, which person can achieve in his life. Throughout human history education has always been highly valued. Progress is mainly dependent on highly educated people. Self-education is also very important for the development of the talents of the person. Only with the application of his own efforts, a person can become a harmoniously developed individual. Man becomes a highly qualified specialist after receiving particular knowledge. Professionalism can only be achieved by the long process of work and study. Even the highly skilled professionals update their knowledge by attending different courses from time to time. With education we receive knowledge about the world and life. Many famous discoveries and inventions would have been impossible if people were not interested in learning anything. Education develops various aspects of human personality. In addition, it helps people to understand themselves, to choose their own way in life. John F. Kennedy said that the progress of the nation completely depends on the progress of education. However, it does not apply only to one particular nation. Science and art belong to the whole world. Thus, education brings people together, helping them to understand each other better. Homeschooling is a method of education, which involves the study of general subjects outside school. Each year, homeschoolers must pass the compulsory certification at school. Homeschooling is the oldest form of education, which appeared long before the first schools. For many centuries, homeschooling was the only way to get an education. Initially, this form was available only for affluent families who had the time to teach their children or funds to hire a teacher. Nowadays, this form of study is mostly applied to the children who have problems with health, psychological deviations and other reasons which prevent them from attending school. Some people see in homeschooling a religious background “The Home School Legal Defense Association was founded in 1983, just as homeschooling was catching on among an ascendant Christian right. Many in the movement believed that public schools indoctrinated children in godless secularism and saw homeschooling as a way to give their kids an education steeped in biblical values” (Goldberg, M., 2013). The students of home education usually have a special program of study, developed in accordance with their abilities. In this case, it is important to refer to the legislation, which accepts the process of homeschooling differently. This issue is widely discussed in the article of Rachana Bhatt “Home is Where the School Is: The Impact of Home school Legislation on School Choice”. “Bhatt begins with a contextual orientation explaining her concept of “home school rights,” by which she means laws explicitly granting homeschooling parents the right to do it.  She recognizes that states that do not have explicit homeschooling statutes nevertheless also grant parents this right implicitly through private school equivalence, but she nevertheless thinks that there is something important about these explicit laws” (2014). Rachana Bhatt relies on the data accepted from the National Education Survey. However, in her report she criticizes the system of laws, which concern homeschooling too strictly. Modern legislation is very attentive to the requirements of those, who study individually. Homeschooling, as any other type of education, has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are the negative features of homeschooling. The most effective assimilation program. Individual programs take into account the level of the childs abilities and opportunities. Such approach allows to adjust the process of study to the individual peculiarities of the child, namely to regulate the duration of sessions, the schedule and so forth. It also provides the teachers with the opportunity to choose a variety of approaches of learning (game form, use of the PC, excursions and so on). Such methods of education lead to the better quality of knowledge and higher rate of marks. The development of the individual childs way of thinking, without the influence of stereotypes. The years of education practice allowed the members of this process create a standard system, which strengthened its positions and rarely underwent various changes. This system does not take into consideration the process of social modernization and evolution, but works with the particular scheme, recognized and approved as the governmental standard. In this case the individuality of child is not revealed, as these standards are related to the group of people. Homeschooling helps to develop the individual skills of the child, taking into consideration the peculiarities of his character. Active cognitive activity, thirst for new knowledge and satisfaction from study. Children are usually fond of studying at home, because there they achieve more attention. If the group work is dedicated to many people, which creates the image of competition, at home all activities are related only to one child. The development of personal skills and increased responsibility promote earlier maturation of the individual. Education according to the individual regime, taking into account the childs biological clock, which helps to avoid exhaustion. Homeschooled children rarely get ill, because they study in the suitable for them period of time. Higher quality of communication with parents, trusting relationships, strong family ties. In the process of homeschooling, parents have an opportunity to watch the successes of their children, appreciating them or notice their mistakes and work on their prevention. The absence of bad influence of the unwanted company. The absence of conflicts with teachers and classmates. Education in the usual family tradition, which is especially important if the child belongs to an ethnic minority or religious community. In this case homeschooling can save the child from being abused and oppressed by the classmates. The positive features of homeschooling makes thousands of parents think over the perspective of individual study every year. “Advocates often strongly suggest a causal connection between homeschooling and academic success, postsecondary attainment, and even enjoyment of life. Seemingly, these benefits are experienced all at a reduced cost per student. It is through such claims that homeschooling advocates have expanded the practice of homeschooling and have pressed for fewer state regulations and less oversight” (Lubienski, C., 2013). Thus, we can see that the perspective of homeschooling is very attractive. However, it contains negative features as well. The first one is the lack of communication with peers. This can cause the childs lack of socialization, shyness, reticence, unwillingness to participate in the teamwork. These skills are important for further study and work of the child. Then we have lack of discipline. An important skill for the further study of the child is the maintenance of a certain schedule, which helps him to adapt to external conditions. In homeschooling this assimilation does not take place and the schedule depends only on the requirements of the parents to the child. Then goes the level of education of parents. For parents, the childs learning at home, is not so much the level of their training curriculum as a desire to grow with the child, love and pay attention to him. It explains that parents are not always able to provide their children with the appropriate education level because of the prepossession. The high cost of home schooling. A service of private teachers and tutors is a quite expansive pleasure. Teaching aids at the expense of schools are not always available for the pupils, studying at home. The additional costs for the purchase of the most important of them are inevitable. This indicates the financial disadvantage of homeschooling.   “Some of the most important questions of homeschooling are not being asked by researchers, who often seem more interested in seeing if students score a little better on standardized tests than on the values and outcomes most parents who home school actually care about.  Most parents of course want their children to score well on tests, but they hold home school more for moral, familial, and pedagogical reasons than use it as a strategy for success on bubble sheets” (Geither, R., 2014). Thus, the aims of parents and governments as for the homeschooling are quite different. Parents care mostly about the needs of their children, their emotional and physical comfort, while the authorities look at the indicators, trying to catch the best way to increase the education level of the state. It cannot be considered as inattentiveness to the needs of children, it is only the implementation into the organization process. In 2007 “the Association of the legal protection of home education" authorized Dr. Brian D. Ray (the member of the National Research Institute) to conduct a national study of homeschooling in America. The aim of the study was to check on the results of the education process of homeschooling students. Dr. Ray has prepared all the information for the study in the spring of 2008. He organized the interview of 11 739 family home students from all 50 states, as well as the islands of Guam and Puerto Rico. The results were inspiring. Homeschoolers had much better results than their peers from public schools, despite their family background and socio-economic level. In this study homeschoolers received 34-39 points above the norm on standardized tests. The study also indicated that the grade of parents of homeschoolers do not influence the test results of the last ones. Critics of homeschooling have long insisted on the fact that parents, who want to teach their children, must first become the certified teachers. However, this study demonstrated that students from those families where neither of parents has a teacher’s diploma showed even slightly higher results than the families with at least one certified teacher. “With federal and state education policy placing ever-greater emphasis on core standards and standardized tests, many parents want to give their kids something more creative, flexible, and engaging than a school day they see as factory-made. The one-size-fits-all model is especially unappealing to parents of children who are “special” in some way: unevenly intelligent, intensely shy, immature, or in need of a flexible schedule to accommodate their professional acting or dancing or musical careers. In New York, even parents in the best districts complain about overcrowding and about teachers, who, however motivated and skilled, have their hands full managing the unruly few who can reign in some classrooms” (Miller, L., 2012). Initially the inconspicuous movement for homeschooling for the 40 years of its existence has become a full-fledged alternative to both public and private schools. Homeschooling is not an ordinary education form. Many researchers see the homeschooling as the prototype of the necessary school reform. Despite the constant increase in spending on public education, the results are less satisfied for the parents. In America each state has different requirements for parents who want to teach their children at home. In the states with a high degree of governmental regulation, homeschoolers are required to create the curricula approved by the officials and take standardized tests. The places with a moderate degree of control usually require from parents a written notice about their wish to teach the child at home. In the states with the lowest degree of control parents generally are not required to contact the education authorities. “Though parents and tutors have been teaching children in the home for centuries, in the late 1960s and 1970s there emerged for the first time in the United States a political movement that adopted this practice as a radical, countercultural critique of the public education system” (Gaither, M., 2009). This movement provoked contradictions between the supporters and opponents of home study process. However, the idea of home schooling acquired much support from the population. The increase in the number of homeschoolers and their success in education changed the public opinion in the favor of this system of study. Close cooperation of students and teachers, high motivation, individual approach to learning becomes the unattainable ideal of not only the state but also the elite and private schools. The most valuable and important thing in home schooling is the place of holding lessons and the fact that it is not a school. The house is not an artificial place as educational institutions, where everything is invented for training and where nothing happens except the abstract learning process. Unlike school, home is a natural, organic, central and fundamental human institution which is the basis for the comfortable moral atmosphere. Education at home is a great alternative to the traditional style of study. The most important thing is that the decision for homeschooling was realized and accepted not only by parents, but also by the children. Concluding this article, it is important to mention that the essence and effectiveness of homeschooling was approved by the number of scientific studies and researches. The results of these studies made homeschooling a popular style of education process, which attracts more students every year and provides them with an opportunity to achieve better results in study. Works Cited Bhatt, Rachana. Home is where the school is: The impact of homeschool legislation on school choice. Journal of School Choice, 2014. Gaither, M., 2009. Home schooling goes mainstream. Retrieved from: http://educationnext.org/home-schooling-goes-mainstream/ Gaither, M., 2014. Social and educational outcomes: a review of the literature. Retrieved from: http://icher.org/blog/?p=1311 Goldberg, M., 2013. The sinister side of homeschooling. Retrieved from: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/20/the-sinister-side-of-home-schooling.html Lubienski, C., Puckett, T., Brewer, T. J. Does homeschooling work? A critique of the empirical claims and agenda of advocacy organizations. Peabody Journal of Education, 2014. Miller, L., 2013. Homeschooling, city-style. Retrieved from: http://nymag.com/guides/everything/urban-homeschooling-2012-10/ Murphy, Joseph. The social and educational outcomes of homeschooling. Sociological Spectrum, 2014. Read More