Mikiko Senga

English 107

Dr. Ransdell

November 1, 1998

Changing Views on Home Schooling----Is It Good Or Bad?

            Home schooling is becoming more and more popular in today's world. It has been a controversial matter for a long time because people are concerned about giving and/or receiving the best quality education. Although there are many reasons behind a child's home schooling, home schooling can be questionable as was reported in a recent Newsweek magazine. Although home schooling was criticized in the past, such negative viewpoints  are beginning to change drastically. An article found in Newsweek entitled "Learning at Home: Does It Pass the Test?" by Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert discusses how the views on home schooling are changing and why home schooling can have advantages over normal schooling. The article is impressive as the writers draw the audience's curiosity to gain support to their discussion. The authors do this by using ethos, pathos and logos effectively to illustrate some positive views on home schooling.        

            The authors begin their essay in an interesting way to attract the audience. They state that there were some parents who said, "NO," to their children's attending school. They probably used this style to begin their essay in order to catch the reader's attention to why some parents would want to do that. Many people would be curious with this saying, "No," to school because majority of people believe that children's attending school is the best form of education. After the surprising, shocking first sentence, the authors immediately introduce one's positive experiences in home schooling to support their introductory sentence. Here, the authors gather the audience's interest because the readers are curious to find out more about what factors are unique and favorable in home schooling. Thus, this attention gathering is one example of the authors' good use of pathos.

            The authors demonstrate effective appeal to logos by clarifying their purpose and by addressing the article to an appropriate audience. The authors' purpose is to let their target audience know that home schooling can be respected as much as normal, typical schooling. They address their article toward parents and students, especially those who are or will be thinking about home schooling and/or those who are already home schooled. Their article may be attractive to those who completed home schooling as well.

            What adds strength to the authors' logos is their ability to show sufficient examples of positive home schooling experiences of many people. They give the parents' opinion that home schooling can provide more attention and care to the children than normal schooling can give. There are other parents who want to give their kids the chance to follow their interests rather than a text book. (Page 64). Some other parents consider home schooling as a good way for their children to get educated as there are no fears of going to school. Some students choose home schooling as they did not fit in with other children at school while some other students were bullied at school.

            Because the authors discuss their purpose and support it with intensive research and evidence to their main audience, they are successful at using the logos appeal. They mention that  many famous celebrities, like Queen Elizabeth II, Thomas Edison and pop music group Hanson, have been educated through home schooling. Here, the authors are trying to tell the audience that these home schoolers are/were successful. By presenting the facts, the authors gain credit for their good logos. At the same time, they are able to influence the audiences' positive feeling toward home schooling just by mentioning some famous and successful people who grew up in home schooling system.

            The authors continue to perfect their logos by being very logical, yet reasonable, throughout the essay. They discuss many advantages to home schooling. However, they do not brag about it; therefore, they are being reasonable. For example, they state the fact that home schoolers, on average, have scored higher on standardized tests than those who do normal schooling. (Page 66 and 68). The authors also stress an important fact, (which everyone wants to know when it comes to home schooling): Home schoolers can get into some of the most prestigious colleges in the nation. The majority of this article cover the authors' positive logical aspects on home schooling, mostly supported by facts and information they got from other sources. Despite all the positive sides of home schooling, the writers mention some negative sides to home schooling, such as large expenses spent on home schooling education. Because they do not constantly discuss too many good things about home schooling, their analysis is presented in a fair, balanced, reasonable form. This is one of the keys to their excellent use of logos.                                       Pathos is another huge factor that plays an important role in the writers' strategies. They create feeling of confidence in their audience due to their positiveness of home schooling. Because the article discusses good characteristics of home schooling education, the authors encourage the readers that home schooling is not bad after all. As discussed earlier in this essay, the authors give examples of some famous people who have completed home schooling and are now successful. Also, remember that some home schoolers have been accepted to the nation's most elite colleges due to their special talents and better test scores than those of non-home schoolers. These factors create pleasant, confident feelings in home schoolers and make them feel valuable and special.

            Their main points are supported by true life experiences; therefore, the article itself is believable. For example, the authors glance at a special case to remind the readers that home schooling can have advantages and produce astonishing results. One amazing experience include a boy's tremendous talent in Math. His mother explains that she recognized her son's gifted ability in Math. This ten year-old is so talented that he was bored in his Math class when his mother decided to switch him to home schooling. He is now moving ahead of everyone and is currently studying college calculus at home. This and some similar examples contribute to good pathos because the audience can believe and feel more positively about current home schooling although it did not have a good reputation a decade ago. Overall, the writers are able to create encouraging, satisfying, pleasant feelings in readers because they mention  so many advantages of this type of education that the readers feel that they are not mistaken regarding their decision of home schooling.

            Although the audience, other than the writers' target audience, may feel vexed and disagree with home schooling, the authors make their pathos effective by trying to change people's minds. Some non-home schoolers might have too much pride in their normal schooling system. To put it this way, these people may not be able to accept some positive characteristics in home schooling because they strongly believe that their system is superior. However, the writers of this article are trying to give these people another perspective. The writers do this by presenting actual facts and true experiences of individuals as discussed earlier. With such evidence to support their essay, they can probably change how non- or anti-home schoolers feel. The authors may be able to get these people think differently about home schooling from now on. For these reasons, emotional appeals in this essay are effective.

            Ethos is the third effective appeal that is used in "Learning at Home: Does It Pass the Test?" by Kantrowitz and Wingert. The authors gain credit for ethical appeals in a variety of ways. Since they are very knowledgeable in this subject, they are able to show familiarity. These factors allow the writers to gain trust and credibility from the audience as they discuss different qualities in home schooling. For example, they provide logical criteria of  becoming a good home schooling candidate. (page 67). They tell their audience that a good home schooling candidate as a parent has qualities such as organization, patience, resourcefulness and enjoyment being with kids. A good home schooling candidate as a student should respect his or her parents as teachers and still love them as parents. By mentioning and showing these factors and many more criterias of home schooling, the authors gain credibility from the audience.

            The writers' effective ethos also comes from their showing confidence. Their confidence in this topic is very obvious throughout the essay. They show self-understanding which assures the audience that they know what they are talking about. Also, because the authors feel comfortable discussing the topic, the audience could , in return, understand the context of the essay and easily see the authors' main points. Such confidence comes from the authors' constant showing of examples, facts, statistics and interviews. Because they have done incredible job at researching and gathering up-dated information as discussed earlier, they are confident to say that home schooling cannot be criticized any more.

            The writers' style and voice as they discuss their analysis create better ethos as well. As a reader, it was very interesting to read their essay because the authors themselves sound interested in discussing the topic. They show eagerness when they talk about positive aspects on home schooling. An example of this can be seen when they mention, "Today almost everyone knows a home schooler, so it's more socially acceptable." (Page 66). When they say this, they assume that many people in today's world have some connection to a home schooler; therefore, they should start understanding home schoolers. Their intensive interview allows them to write the essay in the most appropriate tone because the voices of many people are involved. They combine the facts and statistics with personal experiences of different individuals very well. This is an excellent writing style because they make their essay most interesting. While at the same time, they strengthen their ethical strategy due to using the right tone and style.

            As discussed in this essay, the authors were successful in using three appeals. The logos was effective due to the writers' fair, logical, reasonable analysis. They presented the essay with sufficient facts and examples to give the audience better ideas in home schooling. These also helped in clarifying their purpose of their analysis to their readers. Their emotional appeal was also effective because the writers gave their target audience more confidence in home schooling despite the fact that home schooling had a negative reputation in the past. To other audiences, the writers were able to make clear that those negative views on home schooling are changing in today's world. The ethical strategy was also effective in the article as the authors have confidence in their analysis with their being knowledgeable and familiar in this topic. The appropriate voice and tone were used to create better style. All of these factors made their essay attractive and interesting to the audience, therefore, the authors should receive full credit for their outstanding work.

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