Home-Public-Private Schooling

1. IntroductionThe TaskThe ProcessResourcesEvaluationConclusionTeacher Guide Home-Public-Private Schooling

2. Introduction Education remains one of the single most important aspects of life. It is directly related to the possibilities of how many opportunities the student will encounter. We all want what is best for our children and ourselves, so investigating educational options may lead us to a conclusion we can live with. Can exploring the following offer a clearer picture of what is best for the educational experience? Home Schooling: Keeping your child at home and teaching them yourself. Public Schooling: Using whatever school district you are in and paying taxes to. Private Schooling: Paying to go to a non-public school. Let us see if this exploration can help us make this decision….

3. The Task You are to take on the guardian role of an 8th grader. You just moved to a new community, and you have two months left of the summer to find out all you can about your new schooling options. Write down your answers/thoughts or further questions as you read through what you will be trying to decide on. What are some of the questions you might conjure up when you consider home, public, or private schools? What have your experiences been when you were in school? -Would you change them? -What might have made it better? What do you consider to be a good education? Make a list. Before embarking on this Webquest, see if you can discern what Plato means in this quote and which method of schooling do you think he would suggest? "You must train the children to their studies in a playful manner, and without any air of constraint, with the further object of discerning more readily the natural bent of their respective characters" (Plato).

4. The Process You will be working alone in this project, so make these decisions personal.Research home, private, and public schooling information. Tally what you think is the most important aspects of education if you were: Home, Public, and Private Schooling your 8th grader. Grades: Do good grades equal a smart student? How important are they? Test Scores: Are test scores important to you? What should good test scores show? What do good grades but low test scores indicate; or vise-versa? Social Aspects: Is there a place for social learning in school? How important is this to you? Costs: What can you afford? Is there a price tag on a good education? Cultural Education: How important is it that your child be exposed to different ethnicities, races, cultures? What might they get from these experiences?

5. Resources • From Home Education magazine, some FAQ’s on home schooling: • http://www.homeedmag.com/INF/STRT/strt_faq.html • http://www.bartlesville.lib.ok.us/referenceresearch/pathfinders/homeschooling.hm • http://www.pilotshack.com/Education/home-schooling-vs-public-education.php • Home Pages from home schooled: • Students:http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/HomePages.students.html • Graduates: http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/HomePages.graduates.html • Parents: http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/HomePages.parents.html

6. Resources • Do Public Schools outperform private schools?http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0510/p11s01-legn.htm • http://www.ruralnorthwest.com/artman/publish/article_4634.shtml • http://www.associatedcontent.com/content.cfm?content_type=article&content_type_id=752 • Public versus Private performances:http://www.oakbaynews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=23&cat=43&id=423195&more= • What polls say about funding of private over public:http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kp9809-1a.htm • http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kpoll282.htm • Public education versus private or home schooling:http://www.ruralnorthwest.com/artman/publish/article_4634.shtml

7. Evaluation: Valuing Educational Aspects

8. Evaluation • Upon gathering all information you feel is required to help you make your decision on whether to home, public, or privately school your child; take your hard copy of the evaluation graph and color in the strength of each issue you investigated. • Example: If you found grades to be important in public and private schooling, but not in home schooling, color higher up the scale in the two categories you found it important. Repeat this process in all five categories for home, public, and private schooling.

9. Conclusion • Your concluding answer was hopefully gathered with care and interest. Completing of research often times leads to more inquiry, so be thinking about and be able to discuss what else came into focus during your research. • If you were in a different economic class than you are now, would this have effected your outcome? • Were you able to investigate independent of your personal views going into the research? Did this weigh too heavily into your decision? • What might you include in this Webquest to further assist the next user of it? • One of the resources you used came up with this quote about schooling: "It depends more on the kid," he said. "If he or she is strong-minded and reasonably studious, they will do as well in public schools as in private."(Oak Bay News, May 11, 2005) Would you agree with this?

10. Teacher Guide • Introduction • Many students blindly report to whatever school they are told to attend. They may not have a choice, but knowing about options may open their minds to inequalities they never knew existed. Education as a whole is about teaching the students all aspects. Exploring the differences in home, public, and private schooling can give the student an overview at the bigger picture toward education; resulting in students who can evaluate the world around them and involve them more directly in the decision making process. • Aim • To show students there are substantial differences in these three educational sites. • Rationale • To have students weigh in on what they consider important facets of their complete education. • Goals and Objectives • To have the students sort through polls, people’s experiences, and statistics; to be able to argue one way or another for what they believe in.

11. Teacher Guide • Audience • Middle School students; preferably 8th graders. • Subject Matter • My Social Science Class • Instructional Plan • First, students think about what they think home, public, and private schooling is. They are to evaluate their educational experiences and assess what they consider a ‘good education’. • Materials • Computers with internet access. • Assessment • After completing the Webquest, students are to fill out the graph in the Evaluation section. They will then prepare themselves to argue for their decision they decided upon with other who chose differently.