Homeschooling Versus Public Schooling Essays

Homeschooling Versus Public Schooling Essays Homeschooling Versus Public Schooling Essay Homeschooling Versus Public Schooling Essay Essay Topic: Fun Home 3 March 2010 Public Schooling and Home Schooling There are many differences and similarities between home schooling and public schooling. There are flaws to both sides and many positive things also. Home schooling has come a long way, from being illegal to becoming more and more popular. Numbers have gone down in public schools. There is not one answer to why public schools are becoming less popular. In reality, neither is bad. There are many advantages and disadvantages of both home schooling and public schooling. Home schooling was illegal a couple decades ago. Parents would be arrested or faced jail time for trying to home school their child for any reason. Many early reasons for home schooling would be that the parents didn’t believe that the public schools were doing a good enough job teaching their children and also they would home school their child because of religious beliefs. Schools have been around for many, many years. Home schooling on the other hand hasn’t been around for nearly as long. Public schooling started in the early 1800’s. Home schooling became legalized around 1993. Home schooling varied between states. Some states made laws like parents being certified teachers, state required curriculum and conduct home visits periodically. Today, home schooling is still illegal in Germany, Greece, Hong Kong and Brazil. It is generally illegal in the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden (Ans10) Home schooling has been around for centuries. It was wide spread until 1870’s in North America. The development of professional educators and school attendance laws came together to create education which came to be recognized in the early 2000’s as schooling. Many presidents and historical figures, such as Booker T. Washington, George Washington, Mark Twain, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, were home schooled (Ans10). There are many advantages from home schooling. First off, it is free of peer pressure. At public schools, you are around other students who are trying to get you to do things you don’t really want to do, but they make it seem like it’s not a big deal. Public schooled students show less self confidence. Some students are too afraid to answer questions in schools because of the reply the teacher might give them. Home schooled students do not encounter bullies like public schooled students do, resulting in more confidence. Students in public schools also have to work within a time frame. They only have a certain amounted time to get their work done. Home schooled students make their own schedules, taking time for what they need to do. Home schooled students also get one-on-one attention; therefore, can get the attention they need to learn, how they need to learn. If a public schooled student doesn’t understand what they are learning, most of them can’t get the help they need to understand it. Home schooled students tend to do better on standardized testing (see fig. 1). If a parent is teaching the student at home, the parent gets more time together with his or her child(ren). In most cases one or both parents stay at home during the day. In recent times, a house is like a hotel, families never doing activities together. Home schooled students don’t have busy work, or something you can be doing until they start the next lesson. Home schooled students can learn at their own pace, and can change subjects whenever they are ready, whereas public schooled students might have to wait for other students. Home schooled students are able to spend more time outside learning, hands-on with nature. Public schools have lost their funding for field trips, leaving students to learn from a book. Home schooled students can go on a variety of field trips. Many businesses will give tours and information about their business to home schooled students. There are a lot of cheap or even free field trips for home schooled students. Most home school students have good role models. They are around their parents, and public schooled students are around everyone, good and bad role models. Students have to choose which role models to try to model, and some students choose the wrong role model (Advantages). There are also some disadvantages for home schooling. Many students don’t have the amount of social interaction that public schooled students do. Home schooled students are either sitting front of a computer working on school work, or sitting with their parents while doing school work. They don’t know as many people because they don’t interact with other students all day like public schooled students do. There are clubs, activities and athletics for home schooled students to participate in, but not all do. Another disadvantage of home schooling is on the parents. It is generally harder for parents to home school than to send them to a public school. There is a heavier weight on the parents’ shoulders if they are teaching their children. They have to know how to teach their students and get them involved with other groups of people. Parents have guilt, fear and anxiety. Many people will criticize them for taking their children out of the public schools. It is hard for the first couple months to get used to home schooling their children (Advantages). There are many reasons for children to be home schooled. One of the biggest reasons for home schooling is for religious reasons. Students who are home schooled can still go through school while they have the freedom to be as religious as they believe they should. They do not need to sit in class and be taught by a teacher who doesn’t understand their religious beliefs. There are also many other reasons for becoming home schooled. Some students can’t wake up in the mornings for school. When they wake up, if they stay awake long enough to get to school, it is possible that they fall asleep during class and do not learn what they are being taught. Being home schooled means being able to do their school work whenever it works for them. Some students are home schooled because they have had problems with their school. Students have had problems with teachers and other staff that make it hard for them to go to school every day and have to deal with their troubles. Home schooling seems like a better option for them. It is easier with home schooling to start college at a branch someplace because you don’t have to worry about getting to your high school class(es) and fitting everything into your schedule. Students can take your college classes then work on your home schooling work whenever you have time, you are on your own schedule. Generally, students have more time to do much more stuff. Students have time for working, college classes and more free time (Advantages). There are probably many reasons why the number of home schooled students is on the rise. One reason is because it is so much simpler to be home schooled. Today, students can enroll in online classes. There are a number of organizations online that will help a student graduate high school. You have a guidance counselor that you talk to so you can schedule your classes. You do your work online, and then e-mail them to your teachers. You have to do school work every day, or you will be considered absent and will become truant if you miss too many days, just like as in a public school. For example, ECOT, Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, is based in Columbus, Ohio. ECOT started for the year 2000-2001. It is Ohio’s first and most popular tuition free online public school. Over four thousand students have graduated so far, and over nine thousand students are enrolled this year from Kindergarten hrough 12th grade. You work one-on-one with certified teachers. ECOT has the highest grades on state report cards compared to other online schools (ECOT). Another reason is that public schools can be a dangerous place. There is so much in the news about the bad things happening at public schools. Home schooling children can get them away from the violence from public schools. Parents want to be involved with their child’s education. There are many problems in the school districts and parents feel better being involved in what their child is learning. Students are usually very distracted in class. Their friends are in the same room was them, and they want to talk and gossip with them, and not pay attention to their school work. Some parents choose to home school their child so they don’t have the distractions (Why10). Many public schools have lost a lot of their funding. They are no longer able to support field trips for the students. Many schools don’t have the money to support athletics. They will charge the participants money to play a sport. Some places it’s as little as $25 and can be called a transportation fee or something like that, just for the buses and bus drivers. In other places, it can be up to $500. There are athletes who obviously can’t afford that. Funding is a big problem for public schools. Some areas have even had to close schools and cut teachers to make ends meet. Many gifted children are home schooled. Many public schools do not reach out to these students to keep them interested. Parents take time to home school their child so they can have the ability to choose what to teach their child. Gifted children don’t usually have the advantage of learning at their level in a public school. With parents teaching them at home they can learn at their own rate, at their ability level. Gifted students like to be able to learn without time restraints. Being home schooled lets the students spend as much or as little time on something as they need to spend. It is also possible for students to be home schooled for a short period of time, for example a year or two, and then re-enter a public school and skip a grade when they return to the public schools. You can accomplish much more while you are home schooled versus if you were in a public school setting and not being challenged (Butler). A big question about home schooling is if home schooled students can get into college. For most students, this is not a problem. Many colleges accept applications from home schooled students, and many accept them. Even colleges such as Harvard, accept home schooled students. The Wall Street Journal confirms that many colleges are adjusting their admissions policies to homeschoolers: Many colleges now routinely accept homeschooled students, who typically present â€Å"portfolios† of their work instead of transcripts. Each year Harvard University takes up to 10 applicants who have had some homeschooling. In general, those kids do just fine,† says David Illingsworth, senior admissions officer. He adds that the number of applications and inquiries from homeschoolers is â€Å"definitely increasing. †(Klicka) Home schooled students usually do quite well in college. Home schooled students are very distinctive because of the personalized instruction they have received. Se veral colleges have even tried to recruit home schooled students. They go to book fairs and home schooling conferences to talk to the parents and students (Klicka). There are positives and negatives for both home schooling and public schooling. Neither is a bad choice in general. Certain things are good for some people and bad for others. Many people think home schooling is bad, but they simply don’t know the details of it or is an opinion, and home schooled parents think public schools are bad, which is another opinion. There are always going to be disputes over which is better, but both have good and bad points, and we will never agree that one is better than the other. ? The Advantages of Homeschooling Discussed in Detail. Homeschooling-paradise. com, 2008. Web. 2 Feb 2010. Butler, Shery. â€Å"The â€Å"H† Word: Home Schooling. † Gifted Child Today 23. 5 (2000): 44-50. ERIC. Web. 2 Feb 2010 Home school. Answers. com, 2010. Web. 2Feb 2010. Klicka, Christopher J. Homeschooled Students Excel in College. Home School Legal Defense Association, 20 September 2006. Web. 2 Feb 2010. What is ECOT?. ECOT. Web. 2 Feb 2010. Why is Home Schooling So Popular?. The Labor of Love. Wed. 2 Feb 2010.

Narwhal Animal Facts - Unicorn of the Sea

Narwhal Animal Facts - Unicorn of the Sea The narwhal or narwhale (Monodon monocerus) is a medium-sized toothed whale or odontocete, best known for its long spiral tusk that many people associate with the unicorn myth. The tusk is not a horn, but a protruding canine tooth. The narwhal and the only other living member of the Monodontidae family, the beluga whale, live in the worlds arctic waters. Carl Linnaeus described the narwhal in his 1758 catalog Systema Naturae. The name narwhal comes from the Norse word nar, which means corpse, combined with whal, for whale. This common name refers to the mottled gray-over-white color of the whale, which causes it to somewhat resemble a drowned corpse. The scientific name Monodon monocerus comes from the Greek phrase meaning one tooth one horn. Fast Facts: Narwhal Scientific Name: Monodon moncerusOther Names: Narwhal, narwhale, unicorn of the seaDistinguishing Features: Medium-sized what with a single large protruding tuskDiet: CarnivorousLifespan: Up to 50 yearsHabitat: Arctic circleConservation Status: Near ThreatenedKingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: ChordataClass: MammaliaOrder: ArtiodactylaInfraorder: CetaceaFamily: MonodontidaeFun Fact: The narwhals tusk is on its left side. Males have the horn, but only 15% of females have one. The Unicorn Horn A male narwhal has a single long tusk. The tusk is a hollow left-handed spiral helix that grows from the left side of the upper jaw and through the whales lip. The tusk grows throughout the whales life, reaching a length from 1.5 to 3.1 m (4.9 to 10.2 ft) and weight of approximately 10 kg (22 lb). About 1 in 500 males has two tusks, with the other tusk formed from the right canine tooth. Around 15% of females have a tusk. Female tusks are smaller than those of males and not as spiralized. There is one recorded case of a female having two tusks. Initially, scientists speculated the male tusk might be involved in male sparring behavior, but the current hypothesis is that tusks are rubbed together to communicate information about the ocean environment. The tusk is rich with patent nerve endings, allowing the whale to perceive information about the seawater. The whales other teeth are vestigial, making the whale essentially toothless. It is considered a toothed whale because it does not have baleen plates. Description The narwhal and beluga are the white whales. Both are medium-size, with a length from 3.9 to 5.5 m (13 to 18 ft), not counting the males tusk. Males are typically slightly larger than females. Body weight ranges from 800 to 1600 kg (1760 to 3530 lb). Females become sexually mature between 5 and 8 years of age, while males mature at around 11 to 13 years of age. The whale has mottled gray or brown-black pigmentation over white. Whales are dark when born, becoming lighter with age. Old adult males may be almost entirely white. Narwhals lack a dorsal fin, possibly to aid in swimming under ice. Unlike most whales, the neck vertebrae of narwhals are jointed like those of terrestrial mammals. Female narwhals have swept-back tail fluke edges. The tail flukes of males are not swept back, possibly to compensate for the drag of the tusk. Behavior Narwhals are found in pods of five to ten whales. The groups may consist of mixed ages and sexes, only adult males (bulls), only females and young, or only juveniles. In the summer, large groups form with 500 to 1000 whales. The whales are found in the Arctic ocean. Narwhals migrate seasonally. In the summer, they frequent coastal waters, while in the winter, they move to deeper water under pack ice. They can dive to extreme depths up to 1500 m (4920 ft) and stay under water about 25 minutes. Adult narwhals mate in April or May offshore. Calves are born in June or August of the following year (14 months gestation). A female bears a single calf, which is about 1.6 m (5.2) feet in length. Calves start out life with a thin blubber layer that thickens during lactation of the mothers fat-rich milk. Calves nurse for about 20 months, during which time they remain very close to their mothers. Narwhals are predators that eat cuttlefish, cod, Greenland halibut, shrimp, and armhook squid. Occasionally, other fish are eaten, as are rocks. It is believed rocks are ingested by accident when whales feed near the bottom of the ocean. Narwhals and most other toothed whales navigate and hunt using clicks, knocks, and whistles. Click trains are used for echo location. The whales sometimes trumpet or make squeaking sounds. Lifespan and Conservation Status Narwhals can live up to 50 years. They may die from hunting, starvation, or suffocation under frozen sea ice. While most predation is by humans, narwhals are also hunted by polar bears, walruses, killer whales, and Greenland sharks. Narwhals hide under ice or stay submerged for long periods of time to escape predators, rather than flee. At present, about 75,000 narwhals exist worldwide. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies them as Near Threatened. Legal subsistence hunting continues in Greenland and by the Inuit people in Canada. References Linnaeus, C (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Holmiae. (Laurentii Salvii). p. 824. Nweeia, Martin T.; Eichmiller, Frederick C.; Hauschka, Peter V.; Tyler, Ethan; Mead, James G.; Potter, Charles W.; Angnatsiak, David P.; Richard, Pierre R.; et al. (2012). Vestigial tooth anatomy and tusk nomenclature for Monodon monoceros. The Anatomical Record. 295 (6): 1006–16. Nweeia MT, et al. (2014). Sensory ability in the narwhal tooth organ system. The Anatomical Record. 297 (4): 599–617.