Public vs. private? Home vs. school? When it comes to educational choices, celebrity parents face the same decisions we do — picking the system that makes the best sense for our families. With the recent news that Katie Holmes has decided to enroll Suri Cruise in an NYC Catholic girls school this Fall, we're taking a look at the educational choices other celeb parents have made for their tots.
As frustration with the nation's educational system grows — with concerns over class size, funding curriculum and budget cuts — many families have turned to homeschooling for their lil one's education. According to the US Department of Education, approximately 1.5 million tots were taught at home last year.
While homeschooling may reduce tuition costs and exposure to outside influences, the decision to do so is not an easy one. Homeschooling requires an intense time commitment from the parent who will serve as the educator, a possible income reduction if that parent was working out of the home, greater effort for socializing your children with others and a child that is willing to view her parent as a teacher.
Would you consider leaving traditional education for home-learning?
Like many Europeans before them, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike have left the mother country for America under a cloud of religious persecution. That's what the husband and wife are telling US immigration authorities, anyway. The couple says they were persecuted in Germany for their evangelical Christian beliefs and for homeschooling their children. They now seek US asylum so they can stay in Tennessee where they homeschool their children.
In Germany, families cannot homeschool. German police even took the Romeike children from their home to school. Parents can face prison or fines for teaching their children at home, instead of sending them to school. In America, homeschooling is legal and gaining popularity.
The case will go before an immigration judge this Thursday. How do you think the judge should decide? Should the Romeikes swallow their pride and follow the German rules, or should the US offer them refuge?
This week, a California appeals court reaffirmed the state's compulsory education statute — which requires parents to send children to an accredited full-time day school, or have their children instructed at home by a credentialed tutor. The panel of three judges, rejected the notion that parents have a constitutional right to educate their children at home.
The parents in the lawsuit also argued that the state's law violated their freedom of religion. But the court rejected a parallel to US Supreme Court allowing for Amish families to withdraw their children from schools at age 13. The judges reasoned that the present case missed various common factors, including deep religious beliefs held by an organized group. Simply asserting a religious objection, would be too easy a loophole.
Do you think parents have a right to teach their children at home, or a legal duty to make sure they are being taught by accredited teachers?
