English Speaking Community yang sering disingkat ESC ini merupakan salah satu divisi dari English Students' Association (ESA) . Sesuai dengan namanya, komunitas ini merupakan tempat untuk para mahasiswa mengeksplorasi kemampuan speaking mereka. Keanggotaan komunitas ini bersifat terbuka, tidak ada spesifikasi tertentu - selain minat terhadap bahasa Inggris tentunya.
Kegiatan ESC berkisar seputar diskusi mengenai berbagai topik yang berbeda setiap minggunya. Selain itu pada bulan mei 2010 akan diadakan Speech Contest dengan cakupan Universitas.
Untuk bergabung, Anda hanya harus datang ke Balai Bahasa UPI setiap hari Rabu pukul 16.00. Acara pertemuan mingguan ini bersifat gratis.
Butuh info lebih lanjut? silakan add akun Facebook ESC di Esc Esa atau esc_esa@yahoo.com.
As a primary need, education holds an essential role in human life. Even though it is commonly associated with the formal schools, nowadays parents have more options in educating their children. One of them is homeschooling. This newly raised education method successfully becomes an alternative in the midst of the students’ boredom on a bunch of dead lined-assignments, rigid schedules and the obligations to attend daily classes on formal schools.
Unfortunately, even though homeschooling has been implemented by many families and successfully produced brilliant graduates for years, the effectiveness of this home education method is still being debated. Controversies often raised in society on this topic, due to the misunderstanding among the people. Therefore, it is essential to look deeper on what homeschooling is, how homeschooling implemented and what benefits the students can gain from this education method.
Basically, homeschooling is a concept of education which enables the children to study freely, with no limitation in place or time. Not as the formal school students who have to attend the classes every day, a homeschooled student is flexible in the schedule and the learning subjects, because it is designed to meet the student’s needs and interests.
As an education method, homeschooling has a very long history. Lines (as cited in Romanowski, 2003) stated that in the earliest form, the contemporary homeschooling movement began sometime around mid-century as a liberal alternative to public education. At the time, the schools were so rigidly conservative that the families slowly began to enroll their children into private schools while others began homeschooling. Many parents in western countries educated their children themselves in order to pretend the children from the effects of environment with negative behaviors. They put a big concern on their children’s morality and religion.
Although there are many reasons why families opt for homeschooling, Calen (as cited in Romanowski 2006) classifies homeschoolers into two categories: ideologues and pedagogues. The ideologues emphasize on the beliefs and values that are taught to the children. They have a strong concern for the children’s moral, ethical, and spiritual development. On the other hand, pedagogues respect the intellect and creativity of the children and believe that breaking from the traditional formal teaching will lead the children to a better understanding and learning. They believe that home is the best place to study because the schools often unwilling or unable to serve children with unique learning styles or scholarly needs.
In Indonesia, even though homeschooling has been well-known for several years, the movement of this education method grows slowly. It happens mainly because of the people do not get enough information about homeschooling; so they consider that it is ineffective way of education.
Furthermore, this option raised pros and contras in the society. In the midst of significant growth of this education method, many people, including the educators are still trapped with several myths about homeschooling. Some people are worrying about the legitimacy of the homeschooled students, some are afraid about the curriculum, and many others underestimate the quality of the home educated students itself.
Considering the legitimacy, many parents in Indonesia still assume that education is only about going to formal schools. This mainstream has been developed among the society for years. Most of the parents assumed that a homeschooled student could not continue his study to university.
In fact, Indonesian government has admitted Homeschooling as an informal education through the UU Sistem Pendidikan Nasional (National Education Systems Regulations). In Indonesian education system, homeschooling is categorized as informal education and regulated in UU 20/2003 about the national education system section 27 verse (1): “..Kegiatan pendidikan informal yang dilakukan oleh keluarga dan lingkungan berbentuk kegiatan belajar secara mandiri...” (…Informal education activities conducted by the family and environments in term of independent learning activities….) (Republika 2006). Regarding the regulations, Seto (Bur 2006) stated that The students are able to continue their studies in University and get the same status as the formal schools through Ujian Persamaan Paket A (for the 6th grade kids), Ujian Persamaan Paket B (for the 9th grade), and Ujian Persamaan Paket C (for the 12nd grade). Those evaluations can be conducted in collaboration with the formal schools.
This evidence successfully breaks the assumption that a homeschooled student could not continue his education to the formal higher institution.
Those parents also concern about the curriculum and the learning materials. They consider that homeschooled students are lack of materials and skills. This assumption is one of the major causes why people avoid homeschooling.
This problem comes from their perception that education-including the teachers, the materials, curriculum, and evaluation- should be handed by formal institutions, and the more money they spend on the institutions means better education for their children.
Considering this problem, we have to look deeper on how homeschooling implemented. Basically, homeschooling curriculum is designed differently in each family, depending on the children’s interests and talents. But it does not mean that the parents ignored the standardized materials; they still give what the formal schools student learn, but sometimes the materials are given in the different ways. Whereas the formal schooled students learn a particular material on a particular lesson in a scheduled time, the homeschooled ones learn them in more thematic way, with flexibilities in duration or place. For example, Staehle (2000) teaches her children using her economic background, conveying mathematic, English and Economy in the same time. As she said:
I found my various backgrounds, including my time spent in the business world really helped foster concepts that are applicable to the real world. For example, instead of doing rows and rows of calculations, I asked each child to devise a product. They then learned about costs, including labor, raw materials, overhead and advertising. They then priced their products, wrote an effective ad campaign and designed additional products to add to their product line. They also performed consumer math using store circulars and they learned fractions through baking. Math suddenly made sense to Nicole. Her math calculation score on the Iowas rose by forty percentile points and her self-esteem soared as well. She has since moved on to algebra and geometry.
This flexibility enables the students to elaborate their understanding on the materials better.
Considering the materials, nowadays parents can get them easily through the internet. Many websites provide free e-books to download. Some homeschooling sites even give special reviews on these e-books. Also, many homeschooling trainings and seminars are held to help the parents with their problems. These events can be an effective medium of sharing between the parents to improve their home education methods.
Those things can answer the parents’ questions on homeschooling curriculum and materials.
Another crucial myth of homeschooling is about the students’ achievements and behavior in society. They still consider that the homeschooled students are lack of social interactions and skills for life, also withdraw themselves from the society they belong to. This happens due to the misunderstanding of what homeschooling is really like and the assumption that school is the only mean to educate and to socialize children. In this old stereotype, it seems like homeschooling is all about the children wake up in the morning and study until the afternoon in their homes, without any interactions with the outside world. In fact, the homeschooled students also involve in many society activities, attend some group discussion, and join events in their environments (Romanowski 2006).
Furthermore, through one of the researches conducted in America by Lay (as cited in Romanowski 2006) considering the relation of homeschooling and the students’ citizenship shows that homeschooled graduates are actively involved in the political process and are more engaged as citizens compared to general U.S. populations. This proof dispels the myth that homeschoolers withdraw from society and civic responsibility.
In addition, a research by Knowles in 1991 on the homeschooled adults provided evidence that homeschooling develops an individual’s self-reliance and independence. The research showed that none of them are unemployed or welfare, even nearly two-thirds were self employed because the home education prepared them to be independent persons (Romanowski 2006). These evidences show that homeschooling does not only give the students learning materials, but also successfully develops the students’ skills and behavior.
Moreover, homeschooling gives more benefits instead of disadvantages for both the children and the parents. Miranti (as cited in The Jakarta Post 2006) claimed that homeschooling gives families the opportunity to become closer. In addition, homeschooled siblings have a tendency to be more kind and respectful to each other. Staehle (2000), telling her experience in home educating her children, stated that the sibling fights between her children, Nicole and Evan, were replaced by appreciation of the other’s abilities during the process of homeschooling.
She also found some interesting facts that her children have special talents. This is evidence that homeschooling enables the parents to control their children’s development and they really get to know them. This home education method enables the parents to supervise the content and the progress of lessons in a more satisfactory way regarding to the children’s interests and talents.
Academically, homeschooled students get a better education than the formal schooled students. This due to the methods used in homeschooling itself. People in general might think that in homeschooling the parents play a crucial role as the teacher for the children, so that they have to master all subjects and preparing for it must be hard especially for those who are busy with their works. This classical thinking is definitely wrong, since homeschooling doesn’t mean that the parents have to educate the children themselves. As Sheehan (2002) experienced, the homeschooled students have more independence in learning. They not only learn from their parents, but also from some other people, including their peers.
One of the unexpected benefits of this home education method is that most of the homeschooled students have a very satisfactory achievement. Romanowski (2006) found that homeschooled children generally score at or above the national averages on standardized tests such as SAT and ACT. Even, on 1997, 1,926 homeschooled students scored higher than the national average in English, reading and the overall composite of the ACT. Besides, they are more ready to face the university environment. Calloway and Sutton (as cited in Romanowski 2006) found that homeschooled students perform satisfactorily in college level academic settings.
To conclude, from the early rising of this home education method, homeschooling has gained controversies, mainly on its effectiveness. However, some evidences presented, including several research successfully dispel this mainstream. These evidences even show that the students gain many benefits through homeschooling. Therefore, we have to consider this home education method as a beneficial one.
SOURCES
Bur. (2006, 06 August). Lebih Jauh tentang Homeschooling. Republika [online]. Available at: http://www.infoanda.com/linksfollow.php?lh=VgYCX1UGWlwG [10 December 2009]
Miranti, M. (2006, 23 April). Why Parents Opt for Homeschooling. The Jakarta Post [online] available at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2006/09/23/why-parents-opt-homeschooling.html. [10 December 2009]
Romanowski, Michael H. "Revisiting the common myths about homeschooling." The Clearing House 79.3 (2006): 125+. InfoTrac Humanities & Education Collection. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://find.galegroup.com/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS&userGroupName=ptn071
Sheehan, Michele. "Dancing with Monica: personal perceptions of a home-school mom. (Home Schooling)." Roeper Review 24.4 (2002): 191+. InfoTrac Humanities & Education Collection. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .
Staehle, Dori. "Taking a Different Path: A Mother's Reflections on Homeschooling." Roeper Review 22.4 (2000): 270. InfoTrac Humanities & Education Collection. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .
Wichers, Michelle. "Homeschooling: adventitious or detrimental for proficiency in higher education." Education 122.1 (2001): 145+. InfoTrac Humanities & Education Collection. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .
Unbreakable, enthusiastic man with many love to give
I have some things to share with you all guys,
I know that I am not a perfect one, but I believe that Imperfection is what makes man perfect
