I plan to investigate the effect of traditional schooling in opposed to home schooling on the development of one’s cultural, sexual, and intellectual identity. Home schooling provides an individualized education that can be customized according to the student’s particular interest, encouraging the discovery of one’s interest and potential. On the other hand, the traditional education follows a rigid and uniform curriculum that limits one from delving into his or her own specialty. Yet, the social environment in the traditional schooling is essential in presenting the students with diversified views, possibility of evolving and discovering oneself, finding similar identity groups and expressing the true self, while the home schooling tends to solely instill family values, cultural identities in an attempt to achieve a continuity of parental value. Thus, while more and more people question the competency of traditional education and require for an educational reform, one needs to ask these questions: how can one balance the cultural and family identities and individualized education presented in home schooling at the same time of retaining the diversified social environment and an extended journey of self discovery in traditional schooling? Which system plays a bigger role in shaping the value of the students? And is one particularly more restrictive than the other?
The research paper will begin with the discussion of limitations of both systems. Cathy Davidson criticizes the uniform educational system that prevents students from exploring their own interest, while Andrew Solomon raises question about the social norms imposed by traditional education and the restrictive family value created by home schooling. Both the societal and parental systems frame the identity of an individual through what is the considered as norms. The expression of unique feature is sometimes viewed as abnormality. “My first impulse would have been to do whatever I could to fix the abnormality,” admitted by Solomon (Solomon 371). The self expression is often limited by the innate urge of eliminating eccentricity.
The systems can also foster the “abnormality”. I will recognize the benefits by discussing Davidson’s proposal of crowdsourcing and Rozon’s remark of cultural identity. The social environment from education system fosters the development of a broad scope. And the parental education emphasizes the passing down of traditional cultures and values. Rozon discusses the home-based education of aboriginal population and how children gain a stronger value and understanding of their cultural identity. Through this process, one finds the sense of belongingness and gains a stronger faith on his own self expression.
Both home schooling and traditional schooling represent one realm of one’s education. At the same of receiving and adopting the family value and cultural identity, one is constantly evolving and developing through social interaction in schools. For the last part, I will discuss the necessity of finding the balance between the two systems. The limitation placed by the system can curb and foster the growth of self identity at the same time. Davidson’s educational reform can be viewed as an attempt to create such a balance by incorporating individualized education into the social and diverse learning environment. The psychological analysis of the individual is crucial in the evaluation of the two systems. The level of satisfaction, distress and accomplishment of the individual can be the criteria of the research analysis. From the personal, statistical and anecdotal instances, I can analyze the performance of individuals affected by traditional schooling or home schooling. Solomon, Mcallister and Rozon all touch upon the conflicts between self identity and education. The detailed description of one’s thought, belief and stance as one interacts with the societal and family values signifies process of balancing the two systems. Through the analysis, I will conclude the discussion by how can one interact with the varying societal education and specific home schooling to find and accept the self identity.
Work Cited:
Davidson, Cathy. “Project Classroom Makeover.” The New Humanities Reader. 5th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage, 2015. 47–71. Print.
McCallister, Cynthia. “Schooling the Possible Self.” Curriculum Inquiry, vol. 34, no. 4, 2004, pp.425–461.http://www.jstor.org/stable/3698495.
Solomon, Andrew. "Son." The New Humanity Reader. 5th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage, 2015.
369–390. Print
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