Archive for the ‘Alternative education’ Category
11 August 2009
The growth of homeschooling
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Alternative education; Homeschool.
The August 8-14 issue of The Economist has an article about the growth of homeschooling. Once seen as a largely conservative movement (read ‘religious’), homeschool is fast attracting non-religious families who are just as unhappy with the state of US schools. And not just because the internet is making homeschooling easier than ever for everyone, but also because President Obama may be far too liberal for a broad swath of Americans. Hmm. Read on.
KITCHEN-CLASSROOM CONSERVATIVES
Barack Obama could hasten the spread of educating children at home
THE first thing you notice about Karen Allen’s house is that it is spotless. Even in her teenage boys’ bedrooms, not a thing is out of place. And her boys, Thomas and Taylor, are polite and engaging. Your correspondent found himself being grilled about his travels by a boy who had clearly Googled him. In this household, every chance to learn something new is eagerly seized, explains Mrs Allen.
The Allens are home-schoolers. Instead of sending their children to a public (non-fee-paying) or private school, they teach them at home. They are far from alone. A generation ago, home-schooling was rare and, in many states, illegal. Now, according to the Department of Education, there are roughly 1.5m home-schooled students in America, a number that has doubled in a decade. That is about 3% of the school-age population. The National Home Education Research Institute puts the number even higher, at between 1.8m and 2.5m.
Why do people teach their children at home? Many of the earliest were hippies who thought public schools repressive and ungroovy. Now they are far more likely to be religious conservatives. At a public school, says Mrs Allen, her boys would get neither much individual attention nor any Christian instruction. At home they get plenty of both.
In a 2007 survey by the Department of Education, 88% of home-schooling parents said that their local public schools were unsafe, drug-ridden or unwholesome in some way. Some 73% complained of shoddy academic standards. And 83% said they wanted to instil religious or moral values in their children—a number that has risen from 72% in 2003.
[Read the rest here]
11 July 2009
The politics of education
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Alternative education.
Malaysia flip-flops. Nationalists celebrate. Politicians reviled. Parents incensed. Children lose out (again).
So the Malaysian government scraps the teaching of Math and Science in English. After six years. Well, it was a half-hearted, fire-fighting effort to begin with.
A Straits Times columnist lamented what was typified as a well-intentioned policy doomed by haphazard implementation. “It is a lesson learnt that a half-hearted policy can do more damage than no policy at all,” the article concluded. I do feel for parents all over the country whose children are once again victimised by the the flip-flop. I’m afraid few lessons (if any) are learnt in the corridors of power.
Former NUTP secretary general N Sivasubramaniam said, “There should be a consistency in outlining the education policies of the country that should match the modern requirements of our society.”
“The wave-like changes in the education policies will only weaken the education system in the long run, like a rudderless ship lost in a sea of international job opportunities,” he added.
I have often felt that teaching Math and Science in English wasn’t the way to go if the government was really serious about improving English. Parents – especially urban ones – however rejoiced when it was first announced by outgoing PM Dr Mahathir (who it must be said was the man primarily responsible for banishing English from schools in the first place all those years ago).
To my mind, many parents were probably of the view that half a loaf was better than none, hence the jubilation - at least schools are teaching math and science in English, and aren’t these important subjects anyway?
Yet the better solution would be to bring English back as a compulsory subject in school and teach it the way we used to be taught. And bring back English Literature too, as Sim Kwang Yang suggested in Malaysiakini.
On the other hand, I think parents are asking too much of our government. Forgive my libertarian inclinations, but I do think that there should be separation of education and state. As you can see, my own views go beyond the contentious language debate and the attendant political wrangling.
But this is really where the problems arise: we want government to ‘educate’ our children. Then we react with horror when our kids turn out listless, unmotivated, lacking in language skills (not to mention the faculty for critical thinking), unable to articulate convictions, having no notion of independent thought or a spirit of self-reliance, and – most unfortunate of all – get their prejudices reinforced.
All these calls for government to stop ‘politicising’ education and do right by our children. You see, it’s all politics, and all social engineering all the time; governments do what governments do. It’s time to stop blaming government for responsibilities that rest on the shoulders of parents. If you care for your children, you might want to think about educating your own children yourself. Seriously.
22 October 2007
Homeschool Centres and mom’s breast milk
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Alternative education.
Just recently a learning centre asked for my permission to reproduce an article I wrote regarding our conviction to homeschool. My wife Sook Ching and I teach our own children, and our sons (now 17 and 15) know no other form of education except the one they receive at home. I was pleasantly surprised not only because the rather lengthy article came out in a Christian magazine in 2004, but also because few people actually think to ask the author or publisher permission to reprint published material.
Regrettably, I had to say no after finding out what it would be used for. I could not see how our experiences as parents who teach our own children at home could be used to promote institutions where children are taught by strangers. Particularly the type that is mushrooming in Malaysia, which is really nothing more than private schools, without glamourous facilities and faculty to boast about (and therefore very affordable).
More perplexing was this learning centre’s misquoting Christopher Klicka’s Homeschooling, The Right Choice as saying that schooling in a centre/institution and homeschool are the ‘same.’
Let me say at the outset that I did not turn the request down on the relative merits of one or the other form of education. I fervently subscribe to education in all its modes traditional and alternative, whether it takes place at home or elsewhere in learning centres. In fact I also believe that when either mode of education is done well, our children benefit. What is necessary however is to help the public distinguish one from the other.
Homeschooling is the education of children usually by their own parents in their own home. When a child is primarily educated by tutors who are not her own parents in an institution that is not her own home, that is NOT homeschool. Whether “homeschool” or “international” curricula is used is beside the point.
At an education forum I participated in early this year, an executive from the Ministry of Education spoke up to say they were not ‘against’ homeschool in principle; what upset tthem were learning centres that passed themselves as homeschool. Well. Nice that the MOE has people who know more than we give them credit for.
Put bluntly, the current mix-up is akin to equating mom’s breast milk at home with powdered milk in a nursery. Not-Mom’s Mom’s Breast Milk Center, anyone? I feel compelled to say this because there has been so much confusion over the concept of homeschool with the proliferation of learning centres all over the country, most of which have been touted as “homeschooling centres.”
It does not help that arguments in favour of learning centers sometimes go like this:
“Public schools are seriously flawed. The merits of homeschool where parents teach their own children at home are well-supported by research. Our homeschool curricula from the US are also excellent in every way compared to the ones used in Malaysian public schools. Since you are unable to homeschool at home, we can homeschool your child at our “homeschool centre” using homeschool curriculum. It’s a good alternative, offering the same if not better benefits.”
Notice how ‘homeschool’ has been inexplicably expropriated midstream? There’s probably no ill-intent but can we NOT say or suggest that a learning centre is homeschool or a version of homeschool, or even its alternative? To my mind a learning center is better described as an alternative to traditional public schools and tuition centres. Since these learning centers are presently almost always church-based it is all the more reason to be careful with definitions.
Perhaps I’m a stick-in-the-mud pedant, but I do believe it matters what we say and what we really mean. There are learning centres and there are homeschools. They are both legitimate modes of education, but different in form and function. I must admit my little objection isn’t going to make a dent in the “homeschool centre” boom but there’s my stand. Words have meaning, and everyone benefits when we make ourselves clear.
7 March 2001
Which is better?
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Alternative education.
A few days ago a lady called about our upcoming homeschool convention. Well, that was rather curious as neither poster nor registration form was out yet. But what was curiouser was her asking if the convention had anything to do with a certain ‘homeschool center’. “What’s the difference, and which is better?” she asked. Now, that’s a loaded question! I replied that we were not part of any learning center, as parents who actually homeschool and educate their children themselves at home.
The misappropriation of the term ‘homeschool’ is unfortunate. Short of getting involved in a semantic dispute, I explained that parents who teach their children at home are convinced that’s what God’s wants them to do. There is a place for learning centers I’m sure: parents who are uncomfortable with regular schools, or are not ready to do the job themselves may send their children there.
So which one is better, learning centers or homeschool?
To begin with, I think that’s probably the wrong question to ask. The right one is, what does God want me to do? It’s a personal conviction. As a homeschooling parent I think the Old Testament provides sufficient discourse on the importance of educating one’s own children while the New Testament supplies urgent reasons for it.
For instance, 2 Timothy 3:4-7 warns against behaviour to avoid in the last days. Notice how these words mirror our present godless times? Perched on the slippery slopes of the 21st century, faced with the dangers of compromise and corruption, how should we then live? What kind of children do we want to raise? I take comfort in v14 –15 where Paul commends Timothy who “from infancy” learned Scripture which is able to equip a person for righteousness – as long as he or she continues in it. Timothy also enjoyed godly familial nurture that undoubtedly prepared him for the Lord’s service.
In our day, an environment that gives families a better chance at instilling Biblical values intentionally and systematically can be realised through homeschool. If there is a better way, I don’t know it. What’s ‘better’ is never the last word. Contenders abound and tomorrow brings more and better offerings. So as for my family, we’ll stick with homeschool. It’s done us a world of good.