Home schooling

Exercise 1. Read the passage and then underline the information that answers these questions.

a) How many children study at home in the United States?

b) Why do some parents prefer to teach their own children?

c) How do the Gutersons choose what to teach their children?

d) What are two criticisms of home schooling?

Although education is compulsory in the United States, it is not compulsory for all children to get their education at school. A number of parents believe that they can provide a better education for their chil­dren at home. Children who are educated at home are known as " home-schoolers." There are about 300, 000 home-schoolers in the United States today. Some parents prefer teaching their children at home because they do not believe that public schools teach the correct religious values; oth­ers believe they can provide a better educational experience for their children themselves. Interestingly, results show that home-schooled children tend to do better than average on national tests in reading and math.

David Guterson is an American writer. He and his wife teach their three children themselves. Guterson says that his children learn very differently from children in a regular school. Learning starts with the children's interests and questions. For example, when there is heavy snowfall on a winter day, it may start a discussion or reading about cli­mate, snow removal equipment, Alaska, polar bears, and winter tourism. Or a spring evening, when the family is watching the stars, is a good time for setting up a telescope and asking questions about satellites, comets, meteors, and the space program. At dinner, if the Brazilian rain forests are on the news, it could be a perfect time to get out the atlas and ency­clopedia. Then there might be two hours or more of eating, asking ques­tions, looking up answers, discovering how rain forests influence the cli­mate, what the " greenhouse effect" is, how deserts are formed, and how the polar ice caps affect ocean levels.

Although home schooling offers an experience that is often more interesting than regular schools, critics point out that home-schoolers miss out on many important things. The home-schooler is an outsider who, because he or she never attended school, might be uncomfortable mixing with other people in adult life. Critics also say that most parents are not well qualified to teach their children and may pass on their own narrow views to their children.

Vocabulary:

compulsory education — обязательное обучение

snow removal equipment — оборудование для уборки снега

to provide — дать, обеспечить

an outsider — не посещающий школу; посторонний наблюда­тель

Exercise 2. Discussion. Express your own point of view. What do you think about home schooling? Would you be a home-schooler?

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