厨房就是课堂 美国的家庭式教学

http://www.sina.com.cn 2004/05/14 19:17  视听英语Ladder AI杂志

Bill and Louise Marshall had a felling that their daughter wasn’t being Challenged intellectually in school. The Kleins were furious that their son Robert was being bullied on the playground. Ann Price’s son spent hours every night on homework that Ann considered pointless.

The solution? In the past, these parents might have switched their kids to other school, hoping for some improvement. Now they are opting out entirely. They are home schooling their children, and they are not alone.

Over 850,000 children are now home schooled in America alone. Until recently, it was largely the education solution for religious fundamentalists and extreme leftists, who disapproved of the value taught in public schools. Now, more and more, it’s middle-class parents who are teaching their children at home.

There parents all have their reasons. Some are disgusted with the shortcomings of public school and the cost of private school. Some argue that the classroom system is bad for children who are especially bright but may have some learning problems, or are, simply, different from other children. Many other parents are fed up with new testing laws that they claim merely prepare children for tests rather than educate them.

Certain social trends have also contributed to the home schooling movement. For example, middle-class women are increasingly leaving careers behind to become stay-at-home mothers. They like spending more time with their children, and they say home schooling gets better results.

“My son has piano lessons, math club, the soccer team, you name it,”says one mother.“I realized that the most wasted part of his day was spent in school. Now we do that part at home, and he learns more in half the time. Taking him out of school was the best thing I ever did.”