Homeschooling and Jehadi Madrasas

Home Schooling is becoming more and more popular in the United States. The numbers increased by 29% in 2003 from that of 1999. Here is a very informative byte from Yahoo Answers.

Overall, roughly 2.2% of American students are homeschooled. According to the National Center for Education Statistics(NCES), “the weighted estimate of the number of students being homeschooled in the United States in the spring of 2003 was 1,096,000.” That’s a 29% increase from 1999.

Like anything else, homeschooling has its positives and negatives. On the plus side, students aren’t exposed to peer pressure and get 1:1 instruction. On the other hand, homeschooled kids miss out on many of the social aspects of school like dances and yummy cafeteria food.

The NCES asked parents who homeschooled their children for reasons why they chose the route. The most common response was a concern about the environment of schools. Other concerns included a desire “to provide religious or moral instruction” and caring for a child with special needs.

While homeschooled kids have a reputation for being a bit socially awkward, their test scores are typically above average. On 1999’s SAT, “homeschoolers scored an average 1,083 (verbal 548, math 535), 67 points above the national average of 1,016.” That’s gotta make their teachers proud.

Personally, I have found the homeschooling in the US to be a very “republican” cum conservative Christian phenomenon. Like the important reasons cited by parents confirms. Parents are aghast that their kids are not taught the religious aspect and somehow the secular education becomes a “bad thing”. It is the same crowd that objected to the Darwin theory of evolution and has been fighting to introduce the Bible version of earth was created in 7 days folk-lore!

Sometimes I think.. were the same concerns and reactions in the mind of conservation Muslims that brought down the Persia of the Science and Mathematics brilliance era to what it is today? It might look far-fetched but the direction looks unmistakably on very similar territory! It may take centuries, but there could be a time in the generations to come when a Christian “crusader” in a down-trodden Christian “madrasa-equivalent” blows himself up in China in 2303 and the world newspaper editors will be left wondering – what the heck happened to the great Western civilization? Indeed what?

Technorati : Homeschooling