A state education official says she's concerned about the growing popularity of homeschooling in Mississippi.Peggy Peterson, director of compulsory school attendance enforcement with the Mississippi Department of Education, said she fears that some children may not be receiving top quality education instruction from their parents.
Mississippi Department of Education statistics show that the number of families homeschooling in the state has increased since 1999, when officials began monitoring enrollment.A total of 11,063 Mississippi children were homeschooled last year, up from 8,768 in May 1999. Lauderdale County alone had 281 families homeschooling their children in May of this year.
Peterson said some parents have done a good job of educating their children, "but I am concerned about the ones who are not qualified to teach their children."
I may sound a bit like a broken record here, but since the issue just keeps coming up, I'm going to have to keep addressing it. Who are these people who feel that they are qualified to judge whether or not I'm capable of teaching my children? The truth is, I'm not qualified to be a Public School teacher. But I'm quite capable of teaching my own kids.
The article goes on to point out that homeschooled children do very well on college entrance exams. Do the statistics that continue to play out year after year mean nothing to some of these educational professionals? Perhaps it's the one-on-one instruction that kids receive when they're homeschooled. Or, maybe it's the ability to tailor the education to the child. Or maybe it's that homeschooled children have more freedom and flexibility to explore education as something exciting. I think it's all of these things.
I also think that instead of lamenting the number of homeschooled children, they should rejoice that so many parents are taking such an active role in raising the next generation.
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