Blog #3

Why Urban, Educated Parents Are Turning to DIY Education
By: Linda Perlstein

In summary, this article is about the increasing number of parents (mostly Moms) that have started homeschooling their children in urban areas. The author states that it is growing increasingly popular for Mom's to not want to let their kids go off to pre-school/kindergarten after having had them so close for the first 4 years of their life. Another reason for homeschooling is that the parents can control what their child learns and doesn't learn vice leaving it up to the educational system. The author goes on to share that home schooled kids seem to be better off in family relationships, college bound, and most of all - within themselves.

1. Description: The author used this to display that even home schooled kids have the normal 'things' of a normal 'not home schooled' Seattle family.
"Their large green Craftsman is typical Seattle. There are kayaks in the garage, squash in the slow cooker, and the usual paraphernalia of girlhood: board games, dolls, craft kits"

2. Imagery: This helped envision a typical school day in the home of the Schreiber family.
"Tera sits down to eat a bowl of salmon salad while helping Ginger with her reading workbook. Daisy is reading a fantasy book about wild cats. Violet is playing with a big clock."

3. Setting: The title has the word Urban in it and that immediately clues the reader in as to where this is happening. This article touches on urban areas in Philadelphia, Detroit, and mainly Seattle.

4. Tone: The author's tone is balanced but with an underlying persuasive hint as to hopefully persuade some readers to home schooling their children. In one paragraph, she is stating how some people think it is unhealthy and the damaging effects that home schooling has on the kids, and then in the next paragraph, the author states all the benefits of home schooling.

5. Ethos: Home schooling is often viewed with images of the countryside and back in the day, where there were no electronic gadgets. However, it is becoming more and more popular, and more so the fact that it is happening in Urban areas, which catches people off guard - because most folks think of the country olden days when thinking of home schooled.

I chose this article because I think it's super interesting that home schooling is becoming more and more popular. I'm from a small country side town and while everyone knew everyone and our school system was great, we still had some kids that were home schooled up until high school. When they joined their classmates freshman year, each home schooled kid was way ahead of all the others as far as knowledge and skill. I think that because this is becoming more popular in urban areas, then there surely must be something wrong with the school systems in the major cities. I admire the parents who home school, who put their entire life or career on hold to teach their children and guide them and teach them what is truly important in this world. If we had more parents who could spend quality time with their kids, maybe there wouldn't be nearly as many problems as there are today.