Why Parents Choose a Home School Education
An increasing number of children today are receiving a home school education. The reasons for making the choice to home school their kids varies from family to family but there are three main reasons why parents are removing their children from the public school system and giving them a home school education.
The first reason is that the public education system in the United States is struggling to provide a proper education for the nation’s children with out of date text books, run down school buildings and inadequate equipment. Provision of a home school education enables the parents to have control over the quality of the educational materials used by their children and the general conditions in which they are educated.
The second reason is that parents wish to assume more control over the influences their children will be exposed to. This is often on the basis of religious grounds but, very often, it is simply because a home school education will ensure the child learns the values upheld by the family and is taught from an early age what behavior is appropriate. Unfortunately, many public schools have a poor reputation for instilling good discipline in students. This often results in badly behaved children disrupting lessons and preventing their peers from getting the full benefit of classes. Discipline and the upholding of proper standards of behavior is an important part of a home school education.
The third reason many parents choose to give their children a home school education is fear for their safety. Violence is on the increase everywhere and the public school system has not escaped this trend. Violence in the public education system is getting worse and the individual acts of violence are more serious. Since the shocking events at Columbine High School there have been further tragedies involving firearms where teachers and students have been injured or killed. A home school education ensures the safety of children who would otherwise be seriously at risk of harm.
The Disadvantages of Opting For Homeschooling
Providing a home school education is not simply a matter of parental choice. In most cases the state education board of the state in which the family resides will have to approve a decision to give a child a home school education. The person taking on the responsibility of homeschooling must be certified to be a home teacher, the curriculum must follow the state curriculum, and the text books and other educational materials to be used must be approved by the state. Although this might seen like undue interference in what is a matter of personal choice, the state has a responsibility to ensure that all children receive an adequate standard of education and checks will be made to ensure that any child being kept away from public school is being properly educated.
A home school education might mean that a child is deprived of certain opportunities which would have been available within the public school system. There could be difficulties in providing facilities for athletic children to realize their potential. Musically talented children could be similarly disadvantaged. In some states there is provision for children receiving a home school education to take part in amenities such as being able to attend sports lessons and join after-school clubs. However, the level of assistance provided to homeschooling parents is not uniform and varies a lot from state to state.
The final potential disadvantage to affect children receiving a home school education is that they will not develop the social skills which will be important as they grow up. Social interaction with their peers and with adults outside the family is essential if a child is going to grow up with a properly balance personality and a reasonable level of social skills. These developmental issues can be fairly easily overcome if the child lives in a state where homeschooling parents are given support and the child receiving a home school education is accepted into classes and extra-curricular activities.
The decision to keep a child out of the public education system is not one any parent would make lightly and any weighing up of the pros and cons must take into account the level of support the state will provide. However, if the public school system continues to deteriorate, the number of children receiving a home school education is bound to increase.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas stands as one of the most influential cases of the twentieth century in the United States legal system. Brought to the Supreme Court via a conglomeration of lawsuits by the NAACP in 1953, Brown v. Board of Education drastically changed the social climate of the United States, specifically in the southern states. As decided by the Warren Court, Brown v. Board of Education is a landmark case in not only United States law, but in the Civil Rights Movement of the twentieth century as well. Chief Justice Warren used a variety of argument in order to overrule the previously decided Supreme Court Case of Plessey v. Ferguson, but none more important than the claim that “separate but equal” educational facilities are inherently unequal and therefore contrary to the Constitution of the United States. Warren also cited the case of Sweatt v. Painter as a distinct legal precedent for the decision, observing that the concept of separate but equal facilities had already been deemed unconstitutional. In implementing the landmark decision, the Supreme Court requested swift action from the localities in compliance with the new legal precedent. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas was not the only legal case regarding segregation, nor was it the only successful one, but the victories it won for the Civil Rights Movement will forever place it among the most important Supreme Court Cases of all time.
Chief Justice Warren used a variety of rationale to support the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in favor of Brown in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. However, the most important of all these reasons is undoubtedly the claim by Warren that the separate but equal facilities maintained by many southern states as a requirement were inherently unequal by the fact that they separated students by an unquantifiable difference, and thus the doctrine itself was completely unconstitutional. Warren claimed that the separate but equal doctrine, although upheld in the previous case of Plessey v. Ferguson, was completely unconstitutional due to the legal precedents of the time. Most influential of these legal precedents was the case of Sweatt v. Painter, in which a man sued the state of Texas for barring him from law school under the condition that he was black. Though the defense argued that the state of Texas provided a more than adequate black law school, the Supreme Court ruled that since the equality of two graduate facilities could not be accurately measured, it was impossible to determine whether the educational facilities were, in fact, equal, under the eyes of the law. This vague concept of educational equality was the very concept upon which Chief Justice Warren rested his entire verdict. Since no determination could be made to an educational facility, as preceded in Sweatt v. Painter, Warren reasoned that Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas was clearly a case to overturn Plessey v. Ferguson entirely. Through the ideology that one cannot determine the equality of an educational facility, whether graduate, as confronted in Sweatt v. Painter, or elementary, as addressed in the case Brown v. Board of Education, the case of Plessey v. Ferguson, which has allowed segregation in schools for over half a century, was overturned, and with it, an entire way of life in many of the southern states.
Though the second Brown case demanded that all schools comply with the court’s decision “with all deliberate speed”, many localities chose to ignore this mandate for many years following the verdict. Many argue that the Supreme Court was entirely too vague in its language as it demanded desegregation of all schools in the United States, and that the phrase, “with all deliberate speed” failed to set a manageable timetable for desegregation. In short, the desegregation decided in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, was not strongly implemented following the verdict, but rather, it appeared as if the Supreme Court lazily attempted to enforce its earlier landmark decision. Adding to these claims is the fact that many school districts, mostly in the southern states, refused to integrate their schools at all following the verdict, as was the case with the school district of Prince Edward County, Virginia, which the U.S. District Court ruled did not have to segregate immediately due to the language used in the second case of Brown. Since the Supreme Court was incredibly vague regarding the way in which it demanded integration, many school districts used this language as a justification for resisting the original ruling which demanded integration. The implementation of the Brown case was slower than previously imagined, and made desegregation an ongoing process, rather than an immediate mandate, and essentially allowed the southern states to maintain the status quo in society for many years after the decision while presenting the illusion of progress with a handful of desegregated schools.
The Supreme Courts ultimate method of implementation of the Brown decision was incredibly inappropriate for the magnitude of the original case. Rather than mandating that schools desegregate immediately, the Supreme Court chose rather to allow its language to remain vague, allowing many of the southern states to resist integration for many years after the official ruling. Through this implementation, many school districts used this vague language as a legal excuse for resisting the original ruling for longer than necessary, and the fact that the Supreme Court left such an important decision up to such liberal interpretation is rather shocking when the importance of the case in United States legal history is considered. The implementation had far reaching consequences on the southern states and its society. Rather than drastically changing the southern way of life immediately, the Supreme Court allowed many of the southern states to maintain the status quo long after the official ruling of the Supreme Court officially prevented them from doing so. The fact that the Supreme Court used such vague language was an incredible miscalculation on the part of the Justices, and allowed their important ruling to go ignored and unabided for many years after its verdict.
The importance of the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas cannot be lost on any student of the American legal system. It was one of only approximately two hundred times in which the Supreme Court has deemed a previous ruling of the court to be incorrect, and in doing so, it changed an entire way of life in the United States. The concept that “separate but equal” facilities were inherently unequal in the eyes of the Constitution allowed Chief Justice Warren to rule in favor of Brown, and in doing so, overturned the political policy of segregation in the south. Warren also cited a variety of legal precedents, including the case of Sweatt v. Painter, which addressed the issue of segregation in graduate education, and deemed that the unquantifiable nature of equal facilities rendered the policy unconstitutional. The implementation of the ruling, however, was much less revolutionary than the ruling itself, and the vague language it contained allowed many school districts to resist the ruling for years after it was created. This was one of the key errors of the Warren court in the case of Brown. Through an analysis of this case, one can easily see its influential nature on not only American society at the time, but American history for all times.
Indian education system is considered as one of the best education systems in the world. The education board which sets up a foundation for the entire education system in India is called Central Board of Secondary Education or CBSE. Schools affiliated to CBSE get a special recognition from other schools and colleges. The article talks about certain key features about the board.
In 1952 the Board was given its current name ‘Central Board of Secondary Education’. The key objectives were those of: helping the educational institutions more efficiently, to be responsive to the educational needs of those students whose parents were employed in the Central Government and had frequently transferable jobs.
The authority of the Board is extensive and stretches beyond the national geographical boundaries.
The main focus of the Board is on improving and innovating teaching methodologies.
The CBSE has more than 10000 schools affiliated in India and in various other countries. The Board functions under the overall supervision of the Controlling Authority which is vested with the Secretary Education, Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Board has various statutory committees which are advisory in nature. The Governing Body of the Board is constituted as per its rules and regulations. The recommendations of all the committees are placed for approval before the Governing Body of the Board.
The board conducts final examinations each spring for All India Senior School Certificate Examination (AISSCE) for Class 10 and 12.The board as well annually conducts the AIEEE exam for admission to undergraduate courses in engineering and architecture in many colleges spread over India. It also conducts AIPMT All India Pre medical Test for admission to main medical colleges in India.
CBSE also prepares syllabus for the schools affiliated to it. It has earned a distinguished credit for providing common education to the Indian land and overseas without compromising on the quality of education. The most admired feature of the CBSE has been to introduce the courses that are relevant and go in sync with the advancement of the time. CBSE is one of the extensively recognized boards of school education, spreading common education in this diversified world. Many of the Indian schools abroad has adopted the CBSE pattern of education. The most recognized board across the country it supports students in case they have to move to a different country without interrupting their studies. Imparting education through common subjects and common books enable the students to carry their studies without much hassle.
With the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) officially announcing for its decision to introduce grading for Class X from 2008, Board examinations will finally come without the pass or fail tag for students.
A new nine point scale system has been introduced by CBSE recently popularly known as CCE. The nine-point scale grading system will need students to get qualifying grades in four of the five subjects to get promoted to the next level. It had been determined not to carry pass or fail on the mark-sheets of students, who will have four options to improve on their grades within a period of two years from their exam. The grading system will adopt a five-point scale, which means awarding students grades from A to E. This will get rid of the need of schools to show raw scores on the evaluation report of each student.
The board has been making changes in the education system continuously to adapt itself to the every changing world. The board has undoubtedly contributed immensely to the education system of India.
