The estimates of the numbers of home-schooled children vary widely. The U.S. Department of
Education estimates there are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country. Home-
school advocates put the number much higher-at about a million.
Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home scholars, perceiving their
actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and a damaging move for the children.
Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from
lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herd like approach to teaching children.
Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-
school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these
hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schools and home schoolers have moved closer to
tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.
Says John Marshall, an education official, “We are becoming relatively tolerant of home
schoolers.” The idea is, ‘Let’s give the kids access to public school so they’ll see it’s not so terrible
as they’ve been told, and they’ll want to come back.
Perhaps, but don’t count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the system
because they have strong convictions that their approach to education-whether fueled by religious
enthusiasm or the individual child’s interests and natural pace-is best.
“The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone,” says Enge Cannon, associate director
of the National Center for Home Education. She says home schoolers choose that path for a variety
of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.
Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their
children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also “strict religious doctrine and a conservative
political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn-both
intellectually and emotionally-that the family is the most important institution in society.”
Other home schoolers contend “not so much that the schools teach heresy（异端邪说）, but
that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately,” Van Galen writes. “These parents are
highly independent and strive to ‘take responsibility’ for their own lives within a society that t
hey define as bureaucratic and inefficient.”
1. According to the passage, home schoolers are ______.
A. those who engage private teachers to provide additional education for their children
B. those who educate their children at home instead of sending them to school
C. those who advocate combining public education with home schooling
D. those who don’t go to school but are educated at home by their parents
2. Public schools are softening their position on home schooling because ______.
A. there isn’t much they can go to change the present situation
B. they want to show their tolerance for different teaching systems
C. home schooling provides a new variety of education for children
D. public schools have so many problems that they cannot offer proper education for all children
3. Home-school advocates are of the opinion that ______.
A. things in public schools are not so bad as has often been said
B. their tolerance of public education will attract more kids to public schools
C. home schooling is superior and, therefore, they will not easily give in
D. their increased cooperation with public school will bring about the improvement of public
education
4. Most home schoolers’ opposition to public education stems from their ______.
A. respect for the interests of individuals
B. worry about the inefficiency of public schools
C. concern with the cost involved
D. devotion to religion
5. According to Van Galen some home schoolers believe that ______.
A. public schools take up a herblike approach to teaching children
B. teachers in public school are not as responsible as they should be
C. public schools cannot provide an education that is good enough for their children
D. public schools are the source of bureaucracy and inefficiency in modern society
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