Assignment-Specific Requirements: Length: This assignment should be at least 750
Assignment-Specific Requirements: Length: This assignment should be at least 750 words. Thesis: Underline your thesis statement or the main claim of your essay. Sources Needed: Two reliable and credible sources are required for this assignment. Be sure to use MLA guidelines for all in-text and Works Cited citations. While we encourage you to acquire sources from Gale’s Opposing Viewpoints, you may access credible, scholarly sources from other resources. Tertiary sources, such as online encyclopedias, dictionaries and Wikipedia, are not scholarly sources, and should not be cited within your work; however, they may offer helpful foundational information as you develop your understanding of an issue. (For more information, please review Berkley University’s resource on scholarly and popular sources: “Evaluating Resources.”) Page Formatting: See Appendix C – Formatting and Submitting Your Work MLA Requirements: See Formatting your Essay: MLA 8th Edition First Name Last Name English Composition 1 Compare and Contrast Essay 28 April 2020 [SS1] Public School vs. Homeschool Having children brings many difficult challenges and decisions to any parent’s life, from deciding whether to breast feed or formula feed in the beginning stages of their life to determining if one form of discipline is better than the other.[SS2] One of the biggest decisions a parent will make is deciding how a child will learn. Essentially, parents have two choices— public school or homeschool—and each of those environments has a variety of learning methods available. For example, public school students can also incorporate distance learning, and homeschool students might join a cohort of other homeschool students. In either instance, students have plenty of opportunities to receive quality educations. Although, each learning platform differs in peer interactions, curriculum, and safety.[SS3] First, students in public school or homeschool will experience different types of peer interactions.[SS4] In public school, students are in a big class size, sometimes, not always, with over thirty children to one teacher. Bigger class sizes may mean less individual learning time but more interaction with kids their age; making social connections and learning how to communicate, students learn valuable lessons. Though,[SS5] they may also experience peer pressure. Children in public school are sometimes so caught up in what their peers think of them or trying to fit in to certain cliques that their grades may suffer. They might hang out with the wrong crowd and be introduced to drugs, alcohol, or bullying, but they can also learn how to say no to these risks and build their confidence around peers. Whereas with homeschooling,[SS6] students may only share a class with siblings, which can limit peer interactions; although, a cohort of homeschool children could present some of these socializing opportunities, potentially to less often and to a lesser degree. To offer homeschool students more interactions with peers outside of their homeschool environment, parents or instructors can implement field trips and social gatherings, both of which can help raise awareness for others that public school students benefit from. Yes, more peer interactions for homeschool students can open the door to the same peer pressures of students in public schools, but overall, homeschool students likely have less social opportunities than their public school counterparts. Therefore, either learning environment has plenty of social and peer interaction opportunities; one—homeschool—is simply more conscious in integrating these experiences into the learning environment.[SS7] Another area parents might think about is the curriculum that their child will follow, which varies across both learning environments. For example, public school teachers must follow state standards when it comes to their curriculum. Sometimes they may move rather quickly to cover everything that will be on standardized state tests, which determine what the average student knows and also brings attention to the high and low performers so each child can get the help he or she needs or be able to advance in certain subjects (“Pros & Cons of Standardized Tests”).[SS8] Because the curriculum is mostly full and must align with state mandates, it has very little room for other students or those that cannot be taught in a public school forum, such as religious studies. If parents want their children to participate in religious studies, homeschool is a suitable choice because the curriculum is much more flexible. In addition, many homeschool students do not have to participate in statewide standardized testing, which can offer further curriculum flexibility (“Assessment & Intervention”). Therefore, parents who homeschool have more flexibility when it comes to what their children learn. As a result, students are often receiving well-rounded education curriculum-wise in either a public school or homeschool; it is simply learning based on state requirements or parental preferences. Finally, a major deciding factor for parents is the different safety considerations between public school or homeschool. School shootings are very real and concerning. It might be the sole reason a parent decides to homeschool. With the number of school shootings increasing in just the last ten years, parents have every right to be concerned. According to Christina Walker, CNN’s school safety expert,[SS9] “114 people were killed and 242 injured at public K-12 schools between 2009 and 2018.” School shootings are not the only safety concerns parents have when it comes to public school. Another example would be bullying. These are two valid reasons both students and parents might fear public school. However, safety concerns are not just present in physical capacities. In other words, while school shootings would not pose concern for homeschool students, bullying can occur by way of cyber bullying. In fact, 35% of children have experienced cyber threats, and over 42% have been bullied while online (“Cyber Bullying”). Safety raises a lot of concern with a parent when it comes to their children, and so they must consider both sides carefully. In conclusion, both public school and homeschool are great options for children to get their education, and while they have similarities, differences such as environment, curriculum, and safety are important considerations. Parents who want full control over their child’s education should consider homeschool, while parents who prefer their children experience more peer interaction should select public school. As the nature of a learning environment continues to change and evolve, presenting parents and students with more and more learning platforms, students may find that there are scenarios where they can get the best of both worlds.[SS10]