why I homeschool - part 2

For me, academics is an important reason for homeschooling.

I observed my friends with older children, and it seems to me that academic achievement is jut not emphasized in US schools. Only select few take advanced courses in math and science, and what's considered 'advanced' here is a requirement for all students elsewhere! There is a lot of talk of micromanaging the learning with tests and sich (as per No Child Left Behind). However, from what both parents and students talk about, it seems that everyone is only preoccupied with social aspects of school life and extracurricular activities, mostly sports. And how to get into a college, as if this just happens on its own.

As an outsider, I get an impression that public school education is firmly rooted in attitude adjustment and social conditioning. A lot of private schools are no better. The friend's daughter goes to a Catholic school, and her blunders (which she would utter in perfect confidence) made my hair stand on end. And she is a straight A, model student!

For what forms social conditioning often takes, see "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence" by Rosalind Wiseman. The title pretty much says it all, you can find out more at Amazon. I skimmed through another book by this author, "Odd Girl Out", and plan to get this one soon. My daughter is not even in kinedrgarten, but it's never too early to start getting ready! Because, even though we homeschool, she is bound to encounter some of that - I can't shield her from everything, and this isn't the point anyway.

Another thing that comes to mind when I think of education in US, is that the majority of people in academia and R&D in the States, and especially in lower-level positions (i.e. those who actually do the work), are foreign born and educated.

Consider the following statistics :

"This (the newly imposed visa restrictions - thelegalalien) is a matter of grave concern to us," says David Daniels, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. "Roughly half of the students in engineering graduate programs nationwide are from foreign countries."

and here :

"As per figures compiled by NSF researchers Jean Johnson and Mark Regets in 1993 and reported by Gwynne (1999), 431,000 of the total 2,685,000 scientists and engineers with degrees and 101,000 out of 345, 000 with Ph.D.s in the US were born abroad. As stated by Paul Bartlett, president of Hall, Kinion & Associates, US born Caucasians form a minority in most Silicon Valley companies today"

and, mind you, that's engineering, there is a lot more foreigners employed in science depts in US schools. More importantly, the numbers quoted in the article represent faculty. The lower-tire specialists (grad students, postdocs, technicians) are overwhelmingly foreign-born and educated, as my personal experience and that of many others show

I went to graduate school in the US in late 90s and graduated in 2000. In my incoming class in my department (biology), out of 15 students, there wasn't a single US-born person. About one half of the labs in my dept were led by US-born professors, the rest were foreigners. And in all labs, you'd have may be one American born postdoc, and the rest (average I'd say about 7) were foreigners. Same goes for the students.

The only science department that didn't have any foreign students was medical biology, because of the funding restrictions. Engineering has slightly less foreign students than science, then economics, and humanities / liberal arts would have few foreigners (I don't know whether this is because of language barrier or less job opportunities).

Part of the reason for this picture is that the career in research was considered one of the most prestigious at my home country (back when I was little things have changed since), and other around the world. Here, smart young people choose medicine, law, and business: these jobs pay well and provide a measure of independence.

Yet, imagine if all the foreign students, scholars and researchers were to dissapear by magic - there would be no one to continue spinning the wheels, simply because the population in general doesn't have the required educational background, and I mean not in terms of qualification, but in terms of its scope and intensity.

The following article expands this point with some facts and numbers:


Educational complacency will make U.S. feel the pain

By Craig R. Barrett

" When will we wake up and smell the competition? U.S. corporations are begging for talent, as foreignscientists and engineers increasingly find well-payingjobs on their own doorsteps.The balance of innovation has begun to tilt eastward,as China and India start taking their own products to market. For the first time, other nations are about toproduce more U.S. patents per year than the UnitedStates.China and India are expanding their university-levelmath, science and engineering programs at a pacecomparable to the United States after World War II.Asian colleges now produce six times the number ofengineering degrees produced here. "

"one simple reason we're lagging behind:We've institutionalized low performance through lowexpectations. High schools expect only a small numberof students to take the advanced math and sciencecourses young people need.Moreover, all signs suggest that future requirementsfor high school completion may be even less rigorous. Several states, concerned about achievement rates, areconsidering easing their graduation standards, eventhough their exit exams are pegged below the 10th-grade level." *****
Mind you, I don't believe that education in Russia was fundamentally much better. I believe that all insitutionalized learning has flaws that can not be remedied. I fell like I am charting our course on mostly unknown land; but it is better than going down the trail I walked in the past, the one that I know is going nowhere. So, onward!