Parents, Educators Divided Over Benefits of Home-Schooling

Deidre Dee and Russ Rhine with daughter Aleah Rhine, 4, and Ben Rhine, 8, who is chronologically of Third Grade age, but is accomplishing Fourth or Fifth Grade tasks
ST. MARY’S TODAY photo by Ahmar Khan

By Ahmar Khan
ST. MARY’S TODAY

RIDGE-- Cari Morrison insists home-schooling advantages outweigh the drawbacks, though school board chair Dr. Sal Raspa insists peer contact is a must for the total development of a child. (Continued from November 5, 2006 Edition)
“For instance, if we finish our work early, he doesn’t have to wait for school to be over or buses to come, he’s just done! My eight-year-old says she just likes it!” Morrison told ST. MARY’S TODAY.
Home-schooling is already showing positive results. “Another interesting thing to note is that many colleges are recognizing the benefits of home-schooling, and many are actually seeking home-school students,” she said.
Manfred Smith, president, said the Maryland Home Education Association was formed in 1980. “We started the home-schooling in this state,” he said from is office in Cumberland. Smith said there were 23,000 to 25,000 children in home-schooling all over the state now.
He thought the key benefit of home-schooling from the pedagogue’s standpoint is one could individualize the educational program for each child. “Obviously each child could learn when, where and how it’s best to learn. Children are free from lots of distractions and sometimes the negative things that go on in schools,” Smith, who had himself been a public school teacher, said.
As he taught other people’s kids, his wife was at home home-schooling their three children K through 12. “My daughter is a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, my oldest son is a computer scientist working for a local computer firm and my youngest son is in second year and planning for a law degree,” Smith said.
Some parents vaguely think sending their ward to the school would turn them into Einstein, home educators warn. “It’s fallacy to think that when you have dropped your child at the school gate you are done. This is a big mistake,” Smith said.
Home-schooling is at best an individual, personal and family thing, in the words of Raspa. “I am a firm believer of public school. You got to grow up in life dealing with people from all over the world,” said Raspa, who has been an educator in St. Mary’s for 46 years.
“How can your kids get a well-rounded education when you don’t send them to school with other people’s kids who are from a different background? How can he grow to understand them?” Raspa asks.
He said education at home can best be limited. He said public schools offer a vast curriculum, sports and socialization avenues, while home-schooling has severe limitations.
A second mom who is home-schooling in St. Mary’s said she and her husband made the decision after weighing the pros and cons.
“Personally, my husband and I chose home-schooling because we felt the public school system cannot individualize their lesson plans for each student, allowing the student to learn at their own pace,” said Deidre “Dee” Rhine.
She admitted the local Bay Montessori was a lovely school, with a wonderful program, but not many parents can afford the fees.
Rhine said most people understand that we all learn at different rates. “However, one teacher instructing 20-30 students is not able to meet all the needs of each child. Some students may excel in math and learn it rather quick, others may need more time to absorb the material. It just doesn’t add up that a child will learn well in such an environment,” she insists
Rhine said she and her husband feel a lot of time is wasted in school learning things that are rather insignificant. “I know in my son Ben ‘s elementary school they spent six weeks teaching the children the rules of the school.”
She said her son spent about six hours a day, five days a week at school but wasn’t learning much of anything new and was not being challenged. “I don’t think he’s a genius or even special intellectually. He’s a smart, curious kid that was not having his needs met in the public system,” she said.
Rhine described Ben’s teacher as wonderful, but added that she had a very tough job.Rhine said letting Ben fall behind at such a tender age would have been a disservice to the child. “We wanted to take Ben where he was intellectually and lift him further while allowing his interests to fuel his curiosity,” she said.
“We didn’t want to let him stagnate. There was no enrichment program or advanced programs available to keep him learning. He was left to read extra books that bored him,” the mother said.
She said she notices her friends’ children bringing more work home than ever before, at younger ages than ever before. “Yet scholastically our children are not measuring up to the rest of the world,” she lamented.
Rhine was delighted at Ben plans on taking violin lessons this fall which he himself asked for , without either parent mentioning it to him. “He is in the Cub Scouts and plays daily with children his age next door,” Rhine said.
She said they are always asked questions about Ben’s socialization? “First, we have to decipher what the person means by socialization. Being with peers or working well with others in society?” Rhine asked.
Rhine said it wasn’t until WWII that children began having a culture separate from their parents and adults. She said it was during this time that children and teens began dressing differently than their parents, and listening to different music than their parents. Since that time, this trend of looking toward your peers for identification has increased. “Before WWII, children defined themselves via their parents,” she said.
Most parents think the socialization aspect has been blown out of context. Some parents think treating socializing as how children to interact with their peers are too narrow a description.
Rhine said, “When we’re asked, what about socialization, I think what most people mean is, is your child playing with other children? Yes, he is. But school is for learning, not for socializing.” She pointed out most classrooms frown upon socializing.
“You get penalized for talking in class, sent to detention if you goof off in class. So when are our children supposed to socialize during school? Lunchtime? That’s maybe 30 minutes to an hour a day. Ben gets that and maybe more or less depending on his mood,” the home-school advocate argued.
“I can tell you firsthand that children don’t always interact appropriately together. They usually have to have adults intervene to guide them onto a more productive path. Name-calling, bullying, fighting, teasing, to mention a few of the negative behavior,” she said.
She said if someone asks her how Ben was learning to interact with others his age, she would say he’s learning how to interact with people of any age. Rhine said her son is as comfortable playing with other eight, nine, or ten year olds as he is having a conversation with the president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland or his grandfather.
“I would want my kids and grandkids to go to public schools to deal and be around other children on a daily basis. This will help make them better citizens of the world,” Raspa said