Comparing Options for
Whole-Person Education
Teaching and learning occur in many contexts
in different types of schools.
This area looks at four types of schools:
Informal Education
• Home Schools
• Private Schools
• Public Schools
• Charter Schools
plus Higher Education
The characteristics of schools will be described and compared
(for similarities & differences, advantages & disadvantages)
regarding their educational quality and religious worldviews,
to help you make wise decisions about whole-person education.
Informal
Education
Education is more than what happens
in school. Much of our learning occurs in the context of culture,
which includes, but is not limited to, a variety of media such as music
and magazines, movies and marketing, books and websites, discussions
and lectures, radio and television.
The religious implications
of informal
education are
discussed
in WORLDVIEW EDUCATION; and
the personal benefits of lifelong learning are
in LEARNING SKILLS.
This area, School
Options, will
focus on the formal education in schools, especially
in the United States, home of the American Scientific Affiliation. Although
this area will look at some educational content, especially regarding religious
worldviews, EFFECTIVE TEACHING is
the main area for exploring the process of teaching and learning.
There are four basic types of schools. Ranked in order
of student attendance, they are public, private, home, and charter. But
to avoid an implication that public schools should be the default choice and
other schools are alternatives, the order of description below will match the
chronological order of appearance in American history:
Initially, almost all education
was in the home. Outside the home, private schools developed
first, followed by public schools, which gradually increased in prominence
beginning in the 1840s, with major federal involvement since 1958; public
school systems began a more widespread use of charter schools in the
1990s: A
Timeline of Public Education in America.
Great Schools has an
overview
(plus viewer comments) of evaluating
school options and comparing
private & public schools and
Later, hopefully by November 2010, there will be a links-page devoted to evaluating and weighing criteria and Making a Wise Choice.
Home
Schools
In early America, home schools
were the foundation for education. They can work
very well, and in many situations they provide the best of all possible
educations
(when all
things
are considered) but
they are not for everyone. The homepage for HOME
SCHOOLS has many
ideas to explore, asking WHETHER you should do it, and HOW it
can be done more effectively.
Private
Schools
Later, hopefully by
November 2010, this
section will have a brief introduction to PRIVATE
SCHOOLS: Christian and Secular.
Public
Schools
Public concerns about public
schools — which
are regulated by government (at the local, state, and federal levels)
and attended by the majority of American students — include questions
about educational quality and religious
neutrality. Strategies for improving educational quality (for
helping students learn more effectively in a comfortable, motivating
environment) are examined in EFFECTIVE
TEACHING. Strategies
for improving religious neutrality are examined in Worldviews
& Religion in PUBLIC
EDUCATION.
Charter
Schools
Recently, public school
systems began using new types of schools that are hybrids — that
have some features of both public and private schools — and calling
them CHARTER SCHOOLS.
Higher
Education (after High School)
I.O.U. —
Later, hopefully by
November 2010, there will be information about colleges
(private and public) and other educational options after high school. Until
then, GoCollege provides
basic information for comparing
educational options: public,
private, online, community, vocational.
There is more about this topic in
WORLDVIEW
EDUCATION
and ORIGINS
EDUCATION.
All links were checked and fixed on June
29,
2006.
This home-page for School-Options, written by Craig Rusbult, is
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/options/index.html