Draft #1

Is homeschooling a good educational alternative?

Traditional schools have always been in top of the educational system. Formal education is often referred as the only type of education that matters or has a truth and solid value at the moment of facing the world, its difficulties, and requirements to get a place in superior education or well paid jobs. Plus, formal education is commonly delivered by trained teachers but when it comes to teaching, there is more than one way of teaching and learning and not all of them are related to formal education.  Home schooling is often seen as the alternative to FE. Homeschooling is a Non-formal education way of teaching children in their own homes. It is known due to the freedom involved in the creation of a personalized curriculum, the strengthening of bond between parent and child and the decision of what the child is willing to learn. Even, when Homeschooling is still relatively new compared to the traditional systems it does not mean that it does not work at all. During many years it was thought that formal education was the only way in which children could learn about the world and get the tools to learn by their own even though it seems there are more than one path to follow to achieve a good education.

            During recent years Homeschooling has increased its popularity around the world in all five continents. In places like United States and Great Britain the number of homeschoolers has increased to almost 1.4 million (Shulammite,2015).  This result may be due to the lack of flexibility in the formal educational system. Not only from places like Europe and North America but also in Latin America in which the formal systems is highly standardized, Homeschooling may be an attractive option.

            One of the reasons to the increase interest on this educational model is related to the syllabus creation and content selection. The creation of a syllabus is usually restrained by the rules of the formal education system of the country the children are from. It is frequently requested that a specific number of topics and units are taught during the academic year and the failure of this itself may cause a delay in the academic life of the child. This compared to the Homeschooling process is not that harsh towards the child. In the Homeschooling educational process the syllabus is made often relying in the weaknesses of the children while at the same time it mix those difficult topics with activities in which they are good or have a better performance.

Although, when there are schools in which they have more flexible syllabus planned for their students and cover a wider number of necessities, this is often not enough due to the lack of time to get truly involve with every kid. However even with this more flexible institutions sometimes it is not enough and even when is frequently debated, parents are the ones who know what their children are weak at and what they need to be better in order to progress and advance in their educational process. “Homeschooling allows a child to be asynchronous, learn at their own pace, explore topics they are interested in, when they are interested in them” (Muszalski, 2018).

            Other reason that may explain why Homeschooling is becoming so popular has to do with the allowance this kind of education bring to the parents to get closer to their kids. Homeschooling allow parents to work more in the values and emotions of their kids towards their interpersonal relationships and the world. “Demonstrate to their kids that education is fun, adapt teaching methods best suiting how their children learn and create strong bonds with their children” (Loveless, 2018). As said by Loveless, these are just some of the reasons regarding a better connection with the children.

            Also homeschooling families, there is a real advantage for finding the time and opportunity to integrate EQ learning into our days. EQ stands for Emotional Intelligence as said by Gardner (2018) “Your EQ is the level of your ability to understand other people, what motivates them and how to work cooperatively with them”. Homeschooling opens to the parents the opportunity to work directly and in team with their kids to understands and enhance their emotional capacities. A kid with a high emotional intelligence is capable of (…recognize and manage emotions and be able to overcome negative ones such as fear and anxiety, enabling one to perform well in varied life situations” (“EnfagrowA”, 2014). What is more, a child with this emotional capacities will have a facility at the moment of interacting with other children, not necessarily other homeschoolers.

            In contrast, even though parents can give their kids a more intimate education about their feelings, there is a slight isolation being imposed to the children.  “All children need to learn how to have relationships with their peers, and home schoolers are sometimes at a disadvantage in this area because they do not have as many opportunities for forming friendships.” (“AllAboutParenting”, 2018).  Although, homeschoolers can arrange meetings with other homeschoolers and their parents this are not spontaneous encounters. At last the kid may not develop a good social interaction skill and that lack of this social dimension may be troublesome for him in the future when the puberty hits and the necessity of forming a group of friends or close peers becomes inevitable. But, after all of this, time if family is highly valuable and also has good outcomes such as a better comprehension of others feelings and criticism and also a higher tolerance to others opinions. All this achieved thanks to the correct application of time in family.

           

            The last two reasons for what Homeschooling should be becoming more popular is the freedom regarding time management and Homeschooling not as a single non-formal education model but as a complement to formal education. When parents teach children at home there is not a compulsory schedule of how many hours should be spend on each subject. The parents had the liberty of choosing how much time of the day they are willing to spend in certain activities or themes, allowing kids to review as many times is necessary a topic so they can assimilate it completely without pressure. However, this not-pressure systems has a problem in which if the kid is not pressure even a little or on the contrary their parent pressures him even more than normal teachers he may: Work really slowly not being worried of accomplish things in a good amount of time or directly not trying as hard as they could because they know their teachers are their parents. Or on the contrary, working too fast and having stress or anxiety even in an environment that is supposed to fight against that in first place leading to misbehavior and demotivation.

            Then, Homeschooling as a complement could be another use for this educational proposal. Formal education leaks things that we touched before, such as bond and EQ. Mixing Formal with non-formal could be a way in which both systems complement each other in what they lack or have difficulties achieving on students.

            To summarize, Homeschooling is a good educative proposal but just by itself may not be enough to educate a child achieving secondary level. Yet, Homeschooling should not be completely misestimate for its failures because as every other educational system is not perfect and always can be improved or mixed with other to get a better result. At last, all what matters is that children acquire the enough knowledge towards the education system chosen by parents in accordance with what they think is the best for him/ her. Education is what help us get into the world with the bases to develop ourselves as beings and giving the children the best chances is probably the most important things of all.

           

Conclusion:  Home schooling seems to have positive sides regarding personal growt and personal interests but especialized knowledge may not be taught efficiently.

References :

Shulammite, Hu. (2015). Retrieve from https://www.quora.com/Is-homeschooling-on-its-way-to-be-being-more-popular-in-the-future .

Muszalski https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-opinion-of-homeschooling

Gardner https://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-emotional-intelligence-eq/

Loveless https://www.educationcorner.com/benefits-disadvantages-of-homeschooling.html

EnfagrowA https://www.enfagrow.com.my/articles/does-your-child-have-high-eq-emotional-intelligence
https://members.classicalconversations.com/public-school-vs-homeschooling.htm
https://www.parents.com/kids/education/home-schooling/homeschooling-101-what-is-homeschooling/
http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/apaquickguide/intext

Essay outline

Question: Is homeschooling a good educational aternative?

Thesis: Looking into the homeschooling advantages and disadvantages, does this type of education really works?

Introduction:

Topic sentence: Home schooling is usually see as an the alternative to the "formal education".

Background information: It is reasonable to ask, given advances in education over the last century, what are the advantages of home schooling? - 2002 - 2018 AllAboutParenting.org

Thesis: During many years it was thought that formal education was the only way in which children could learn about the world and get the tools to learn by their own even though it seems there are more that 1 path to follow to achieve education.

Body (1):

Topic sentence: During the recent years home schooling has increased it's popularity  around the world.

Supporting sentence: Opening new alternatives related to syllabus and content creation.

Opposing opinion: Some schools have great planning to cover all the necesities of the students they take in.

 Counter-argument: althought the institutions have good study plans for their kids. It is believe that parents are the only ones who know what their children truly need.

Body (2):

Topic sentence: Homeschooling allow parents to work more in the values and emotions of their kids towards the exterior world.

Supporting sentence: As homeschooling families,there is a real advantage for finding the time and opportunity to integrate EQ learning into our days.

Opposing opinion:  Even though parents can give their kids a more intimate education about their feelings, there is a slight isolation being imposed on the children.


 Counter-argument: But, at last time in family can forge a good confidence to help children face the world without to much hesitation about the critics and opinions of others.

Body (3):

Topic sentence: Homeschooling also could be a good alternative to those families with low resources.

Supporting sentence:  More than the X% of children in Colombia are not studying or reciving any kind of education. Which, withdraw the idea of taking a book and teach by themselves to their kids the necessary to live.

Opposing opinion: There are subsidies from the govermnet to help children study in a formal school.


 Counter-argument: But, at last, There is not certance that the money given will be used in the education and not all families are chosen to receive this help.

Conclusion:  Home schooling seems to have positive sides regarding personal growt and personal interests but especialized knowledge may not be taught efficiently.

Answer to: How do you think we could empower our Colombian students to critically spot fake news?

In today's class we talked about what critical literacy was by Ira Shore. Following we read an article called "Fake news: improved critical literacy skills are key to telling fact from fiction." by Jonathan Douglas.

The first thing I will say we can do as future teachers to empower our Colombian students to critically spot fake news, is to teach through common sense. We need to spread the knowledge that they need to not believe straight away what they read or watch on internet. Also, that as they see how the social networks  behave is implicit that anyone can spread viral fake content and even if they read those fake news, they are the ones who will decide if that is true for them.

The second thing I will write about is related to what I.Shore said "When they lose touch with purpose in speaking or writing, they struggle to mobilize their inherent language competencies." Here we can read that if students do not take advantage of the tools they have around them to enhance their literacy skills and judge by themselves, they will be easily poisoned by the ignorance towards really and fiction in the words. Most students think that if something is written in a book or article on a newspaper it has to be a solid true. Which, in most of the cases can be a double blade sword.  

"...It helps children accurately understand and interpret information by making connections between what they read and what they already know, working out what is important, and spotting the difference between fact and fiction." (J.Douglas. 2017.) Relate to this I will write that probably due to the connections with social media students may be more used to be critical with what they encounter navigating the web. Sadly, most of them decide to start spreading intentionally or not this fake news which just hinders even more students critical thinking process.

Lastly, to say that a really good way to encourage students to spot fake news is to play with what they already know. Games such as true or false or even doing an exercise in class with a news realte to something they are interested in may be a great start. 

A critical commentary of: "Where is the Outrage? Critical Pedagogy in Dark Times" by Henry Giroux

First of all, I want to say that I am not really good doing critical commentaries, principally because I think I get really involved in what I think I agree or disagree with so, I will request feedback after posting this.

In the video, during the first minutes, I will say that I feel that thought Mr. Giroux has some reason while talking about the path education is following these days I also disagree a certain level with his romantic view of how education must be.

"There is a need to use education to mobilize students to critically engage agents, attentive to addressing important social issues..." I agree with what he says here because it is not possible to ignore the importance of telling the younger ones that things do not change just because you want it. The world is not that easy and without a real interaction with these problematics things like low quality of education and few spots in high-level education will keep going until everything is owned by the hands of the powerful ones.

But I also think that the way in which he talks about this is also quite uncomfortable because it reminds me of someone that wants to convince to lead, not to just inform and give courage. This is just my impression of hearing his tone. And, coming back to what I said about his idealized view of the education, I do really think that he truly believes that most people care about the future of our school and universities. But, at the same time is quite naive to think that something like that can be changed just by pointing out all the bad sides of the problematics.

"The worst dimension of power is when it makes itself invisible." This quote is also really interesting. He puts in a spotlight how education and people with good ideas and thoughts are easily put aside by the words and actions of others with more influence. Most of the time because the ignorance implicated in sharing and making strong relationships with people how really care about a change are lacking something.

Lastly to say that in this quote  "Young black men...are guilty of criminal behavior not because of crimes the might commit but because they are the product of a collective imagination paralyzed by the racism of a white supremacist culture that can only view them as a dangerous nightmare." I think he stands out a really good point regarding social division because of skin color or ethnic. Showing that color does not reduce your ability to question and criticize the events in the world and the problematics of our environments.

Finally, I want to point out that I enjoyed most of the talk of Mr.Giroux, the only problem for me was that sometimes he talked too much and become redundant or very intense about a specific topic. But at last, He made think about how I see the education and what I am going to do to give something to others to see things differents from me too.

Stereotypes time

In today class we watch some videos about stereotypes and thoughts about other cultures. Stereotypes are ideas or just things that are said from mouth to mouth. But, as life is, some stereotypes are based on reality and even though sometimes they are rude and change the appearance of other countries, they cannot simply disappear.

Maybe some of the most harmful stereotypes are the ones that try to ridicule your culture. An example of this is the opinion many people outside Colombia have about us. We are naturally aggressive, drug dealers and thieves. But, obviously, we know that this is not true at all.

Since we started thinking rationally, our species develop different systems to create relationships with other humans and our environment. Stereotypes, tags or denominations are some of them. We as individuals most of the times are conscious of what kind of person you are. Funny, enthusiastic, temperamental, sensitive, practical, arrogant, there are hundreds of adjectives that we can use to describe ourselves and even this process of self-assessment is a kind of stereotype because we are trying to define ourselves to fit into a group.

Though this may sound strange and even hypocritical because probably we do not like to be etiquette with an adjective we do not considerate that define us. We should consider stereotypes and etiquettes as "trues". I consider after watching all these videos that stereotypes, as I write before, are create based on reality but obviously they can also be wrong. This is why I think stereotypes are more a kind of guide. This guide as a whole has it's based in general things, as our nationality, our age, our gender,  our economic status, our education. This is just the tip of the iceberg a person truly is, sure you can be a little temperamental if you are from a specific part of the world because that is the way you were raised but I do not mean that you are also funny and certain situations do not bother you at all. 

Lastly, to say that stereotypes just give us an idea of how most people see us based on the things mentioned early but this adjectives or ideas are just not enough to describe how wonderful everyone is, how different, how variable, how imaginative and how capable. Every person is a completely new world and such as all planets have a spherical shape it does not mean that we all have the same atmosphere and material inside us. At last, it depends upon us to show to others who we really are and what truly can be defined as "us".

Stephen Brookfield - Creative and critical thinking

(Sorry for the late upload, I left this post in the edition mode without knowing. It was mean to be post on August the 16th)

In the video is highly implied that is incredibly relevant to help students to develop or improve their critical and creative thinking skills. All students need this skill to defend their ideas and question others' thoughts. Without this, students and younger people will be conformist with what they are learning and will not stop to think on their own what the topics and new information means to them.

Professor Brookfield  explains that critical thinking is a process in which an individual becomes aware of the assumptions that affect the way they think and then they try to find if what they know is truly viable and accurate. He also mentions that a person that is aware of what he is learning and that thinks creatively  is able to see things different from others, from various and original perspectives and try to avoid using the same reasoning over and over again. What is more, this individual is also capable of express their ideas in original ways, being resourceful and innovative.

Then he talked , making some joke in between about the critically and creatively informed actions and in which things each one is based: 

> Evidence or experience that can be justifiable.

> Assumptions known and checked by experts or facts.

> And lastly the one that stands a chance of achieving its intended consequence viewed from multiple perspectives.

What is more is that Professor Brookfield also talked about the different kind of assumptions human beings create such as the causal in which we explain a sequence of events. Also, the prescriptive that allow us to guess how things will or may happen and finally the paradigmatic that is the one we call common sense or reasoning that let us take things from granted and feel secure about some events in our lives.

To conclude he talked about the four key intellectual traditions: 

> Analytic Philosophy: logical fallacies, argument analysis, deductive, analogical and interferential reasoning.

> Natural Science: Hypothetical/deductive method, a principle of falsifiability. This one was really appealing for me.

> Critical Theory: Uncovering power dynamics and ideological manipulation.

> Pragmatism: an experimental and creative pursuit of beautiful consequences. For example democracy, inclusion, connection. 

At last, I enjoyed the video, I liked the few jokes he made and the examples he propose during his talk. Finally, I think that the Professor Brookfield has so much more to share with us in the future.

A different...person?

After reading, "Should chimpazees be considered "Persons""? by Jeff Sebo I was asked to make an analysis.

This paragraph is a description

"You might be aware that chimpanzees can recognize themselves in a mirror, communicate through sign language, pursue goals creatively and form long-lasting friendships. You might also think that these are the kinds of things that a person can do. However, you might not think of chimpanzees as persons."

This paragraph is an explanation

"The problem is that under current United States law, one is either a “person” or a “thing.” There is no third option. If you are a person, you have the capacity for rights, including the right to habeas corpus relief, which protects you from unlawful confinement. If you are a thing, you do not have the capacity for rights. And unfortunately, even though they are sensitive, intelligent, social beings, Kiko and Tommy are considered things under the law."

 This paragraph is a agreement

"In response, the Nonhuman Rights Project is taking a bold position: It is arguing that if every being must be either a person or a thing, then Kiko and Tommy are persons, not things. I agree, and many other philosophers do, too."

This is an disagreement
However, this view of personhood is unacceptably exclusionary. We all lack the ability to use language and reason in abstract and sophisticated ways early in life, some of us lose these abilities later in life, and some of us never develop them. 

This is a summary

But now suppose we accept a more inclusive view of personhood, according to which humans are persons because we have some or all of the features mentioned before: conscious experience, emotionality, a sense of self or bonds of care or interdependence. 

Reflection about barriers

There are many types of barriers which affect our critical thinking. Misunderstandings of what is meant by criticism, lack of practice, reluctance to criticise those with more expertise and more.

But, I think that most of them are not a problem for me. I am the kind of person how gives their opinions and shares their thoughts without any censorship... most of the times. I am not perfect.

Probably the two reasons that most affect my thoughts are being afraid of experts and my own affective reasons towards the topics. I am a person how feels emotionally attack when being criticized thought I have improved while receiving critics there are people who do not. There are people which you cannot give your opinions or thoughts freely because maybe they are your friends or your teachers or even your parents and due to the respect you have towards them you do not want to make them feel that you attack their knowledge. 

Then the fear towards experts, well is the same as up here. But, this tie is you how will feel attack and feel that you do not know anything at all which will remove all the motivations you had to know more.

Probably I will try though, I am already trying to do not lose my motivation to learn about the topics of my interest. Lately, I can see that asking my teachers is not that difficult and most of them are really kind thought their intonations while talking to me are kind of scary. But, at the end I guess is important to know that asking to know more is not bad and critic others are not the end of the world. We all want to know what is the truth about any topic and asking and comparing is one way of doing it.

What student I am?

Bodner (1988) states that students " are unable to apply their knowledge outside the narrow domain in which they learned". Which means that they just read and memorize instead of criticising what they learn every day which generates students that do not really keep anything for their personal growth.

I probably identify myself partially in Bodner's description of students. Which obviously is not good... But, I must say that It depends on what I am studying. All my life I have been the kind of student that learns something and then if the topic or information was interesting  I would look for even more information at home. Nowadays I will say that this has not changed at all. If I did not find appealing a topic I will keep what I was taught and that is it, then if someone corrects me then I will change the way I see that topic but not before. Maybe is a little sad but sometimes you cannot go deeper into some knowledge because most of them are not useful for your context or the kind of person you are, they are just information that you know but you do never apply. Like maths.

Maybe now that I read Bodner I will try to be a little more conscious of what my teachers are trying to transmit to me but I cannot promise anything for sure. Either way, I am gonna try and see if I get too stuffed with information and ended up forgetting everything. 

Challenging opinions

I think that the most difficult about challenging opinions of other people are the strong arguments that can come out of a simple talk. 

Many times before I had lost contact with people or even they stop talking to me totally because I did not agree with their point of views. I am not afraid of disagreeing because of the content of my opinion or the others but the consequences in my interpersonal relationship with those people. 

One of the things that hurts me the most is to lose a good friend because we can reach a point in our debate in which both of us are in agreement, on good terms. Maybe due to this age is also difficult, no one wants to feel that they know less than others, all of us want to have the reason. 

I usually try to deal with this...

because obviously, it not always work, by listening to their complete opinion about the topic before giving my point of view. Doing this I feel that I show how truly interested I am in hearing their thoughts. Often, people get mad because they think that you are not truly paying attention to their opinions, that they are just words and not a true part of their beliefs.

So, I think that is a good way of facing this. Normal talks can become strong arguments in a few words. When both of you lose your patience there is not coming back.

Influences on my thinking

For me, the influences on my own thinking that I need to be most aware of so they don't prejudice my thinking are probably the topics related... opinions about religion and politics.

Religion because is a really subjective topic. Everyone has their own beliefs and honestly wherever you say may be taken as an offense. There is always someone that is not possible to talk properly without arguing.

I do not talk about politics because I directly avoid it. Is a topic in which my opinion has no weight and anyone may say that I am wrong and I will be obligated to give them the reason.

But if I cannot avoid getting into a conversation about these particular topics I try to deal with this using internet, asking friends about the topics so I can build my own opinion about it though politics are kind of boring in my opinion.

Reflection: emotional self-management

Talking personaly: 

I was ask to shared with you what emotions are the most difficult to managed when others disagree with me and I must say that this is quite difficult to admitt.

1.  Doubt: When someone disagrees with I inmediately think that probably I was wrong all along. Is a bad habit to tend to give others the reason without being a 100% sure about the arguments that others are exposing to me. Which makes me vulnerable while exposing my own arguments because I lost total confidence in what I think I know.
2. Anger: Though is not that strong, the feeling I get when someone disagrees with me is like a really heavy feeling of anger. I take too personal when this happen towards topics I feel completely sure about and  I feel that people in general always want to humilliate you in some way. Maybe I took it too personal but is something I cannot avoid most of the time and I admit that is really childish but I do not really know how to fix that yet.
3. Anxiety: I just lost it sometimes and disagreements just create internal debates in my mind. Often,this thoughts lead me to the path of throwing away all I believe about the topic exposed and giving the reason to the other person. Even if that other person is wrong I confine myself that I am the one who do not know anything at all.

Then, I try to deal with these by:

1. Thinking about other topics that I am sure I know about, so I do not restrain myself just feeling like an ignorant.
2. Shutting my mouth and bitting my tongue. Sometimes is best to not talk and ended up totally destroyed by others arguments. So, I can just by hearing, learn about what I did not knew or what I had wrong information about and redeem myself.
3. Breathing slowly so I can calm the negative physical reactions of an argument. This is, particulary difficult for me because I have always had a bad physical condition due to stress.