Homeschooling: Persuasive Speech

Written for Comm 1 class as persuasive speech after my original idea contained too much religious content.

Why Homeschooling is bad for Children

Homeschooling means, ideally, that you will be schooled at home. But how do we know if you are getting a proper education. Some states have a lot of regulations on such things. (Arkansas is seen as moderate) But ten states in this country, which is one fifth, have barely any. Such as Oklahoma which only requires that you are schooled at least three months at home. That is only one fourth of the year.

The purpose is to make sure that children in America are getting the education they need. Every state has compulsory school attendance laws, making sure that kids are in school starting a range of 5-8 depending on state and ending at 16-18 depending on state. And all states whether having heavy or light requirements have home school. Some such as Oklahoma have no curriculum and only require three months. While others such as North Dakota and New York require several courses and a full school years instruction.

The problem comes in with very lenient societies and rules. Who is to say that with no curriculum and only three months that a child can learn and become a contributing member of society? It almost certainly guarantees that the child has no chance of college or a high paying job. Even in states that require certain classes and amounts of instruction who is to say that they are being properly educated? Even in elementary sometimes but certainly by middle school level we have specialized teachers. We have a person that went to school and has a degree to teach that certain subject. You don’t have one teacher to teach you eight different subjects. So in very rare cases will a parent be able to provide you with all that knowledge.

One other problem is the lack of course selection. Unless you are in a specialized home school academy, and in this case why not be enrolled in a public school, you will not have an extensive choice of classes. Classes such as EAST lab, photography, debate, computer applications, languages, or even AP courses cannot be offered. We know that colleges want extra-curricular’s and in some cases language, home schooling can hurt your chances of getting into a college. Saying that your mom taught you everything isn’t always as impressive either.

Saying all this I think there is a very simple solution, make public schools mandatory. And if there is extenuating circumstances then make it be validated that there is a good reason for the child to be homeschooled. Once that has been established the state still needs to make sure that the mother (or whoever will be instructing the child) can give proper instruction to make him ready for college or for the real world and a job.

Once a solution such as this is implemented we won’t have to worry about the education of our nation’s children. It is true that the children are the future because one day we won’t be children anymore. We need to have a proper education that gives us equal opportunity and the ability to be a functioning, contributing member to society. It isn’t fair to the children if they aren’t taught enough or correctly. If you really want to home school your kid then do it correctly and there needs to be some sort of monitoring to make sure it is. We live in a country that allows a free education so why would you not take advantage of that.

If you believe this to be true then I urge you to speak about it. Write a letter to a congress person, talk to a principal of a home school academy. Sit down and talk with a friend or neighbor that home school’s to see if they really are getting an education correctly. Because if they aren’t then I say it violates the law of compulsory attendance. Help educate tomorrow’s future, help the children.