Re: Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling, NYT article?
It's not my opinion......it's the opinion and analysis of social experts and educationists. Just talk to any teacher in UK and USA and watch them complaining about changing of curriculums by politicians every year only to gain good grades and marks, the aim should be to teach children for the sake of education not to gain higher marks otherwise the pupils would be becoming dumber and dumber.
Just compare the difference between Harry Potter and writings of Mrs. Potter and Kipling before ranting.
I don't know about how these things work in the UK, but I will tell you how it works here in my county in the USA.Actually I am pretty well involved in our school board as well as some township committees. So I will go one better than talking to some teachers, I actually know and deal with the politicians.
The first thing I will tell you is that politicians have very little influence on the curriculum. There are specialized committees of educators and experts in various fields that determine that. School boards implement that. Teachers are the ones that make the proposals and suggestions to this process, though anyone can.
The breadth and depth of what an interested student can take up and accomplish in the US high school is quite amazing. (are you in the US? just ask in the school board). Depending upon your child's interest, beyond the basic core subjects, you have lot more choice. Within that breadth, for many subjects, depending upon your child's level, there is regular, accelerated, advanced etc levels. Even though I consider my high school in India to be good and challenging, the ones I know here are a lot better that way.
I also know it is not the same quality in all districts. A high school located in a down-trodden neighborhood will devote more resources to their core subjects (which are taken for granted in the affluent areas) and offer fewer additional subjects. I know these things somewhat first hand too since I am a unpaid consultant for one such 'sister' school boards we are helping.
But even there, by definition, they offer more choice of breadth and depth than any normal home schooling can.
But I don't object to home schooling as long as it is done for the right reasons and most importantly, done correctly. For example, keeping a girl at home because the parent is worried about boy troubles is a wrong reason - because it shows lack of trust and also deprives the girl of learning to deal with situations.