Homeschooling

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we're talking about a kind of education that is quite unique

actually a little bit different from the kind of education that most people get.

That's right.

So we normally go to school to learn but on this occasion we're going to talk about a

different way of obtaining your education.

We're talking about homeschooling someone.

Let's check this word out in today's vocabulary preview.

Vocabulary preview.

Alright so the word is homeschool, to homeschool someone.

It's I guess a verb.

And what does it mean if you're homeschooled?

Well you think about the word school, home, it means that you study at home.

But you don't go to school every day.

Instead you have a parent or maybe a friend of a parent who comes to your house to teach

you every day.

So it's basically like having a tutor for but not to help you with school but to actually

teach you everything that you learn at school.

That's right and some people are homeschooled with their siblings, so brothers and sisters.

Other people are homeschooled alone.

We'll talk about some of these things in a moment but let's take a listen to our dialogue.

I think we should homeschool our children when we decide to have kids.

What?

Why?

Well our public schools here are not very good and private schools are just too expensive.

I've been reading up on some homeschooling and it has a lot of advantages.

Like what?

I think that by doing something like that we would be isolating our children from social

interaction.

Well first of all I would be able to teach them everything they learn in school in a

more relaxed and fun way.

I also think that having a one-on-one class is much better since you can focus more on

his or her strengths or weaknesses.

I think neither your parents or mine would agree to such an idea.

I'll bring it up over Sunday brunch.

Good luck with that.

All right we're back so now let's take a look at some of that language on Language

Takeaway.

Language Takeaway.

So as we mentioned in the introduction to today's podcast, homeschooling is one of many

different educational options.

The most common ones are, in the beginning of the dialogue, public and private school.

So in most places you will have public schools where basically the education is paid for

by the government.

Yeah, that's right.

So public schools are schools that are available to all students.

You don't have to pay to attend them.

This is of course in America.

In Britain the system is a bit different.

But in America you have the public schools which most kids go to.

Of course if your parents don't want you to study in public school there's another option

that's called private school.

That's right.

Private school as the name says, it's not really private but what happens is that it's

not available free for everyone.

You have to actually pay to go to the school.

That's right.

The school has a tuition, kind of like a private college or university.

So you have to pay every semester or every year.

And usually these schools also have application standards.

So they interview you, they interview your parents.

So there's a lot of different things you have to do to attend these schools.

So they're a bit more exclusive.

That's right.

So these are basically some three options you have.

Homeschooling, public schools, private schools.

And well the two parents are kind of discussing the options of why it would be maybe not a

good idea to homeschool one of the kids.

And she says that it would be isolating our children from social interaction.

Alright.

So let's take a look at the word to isolate.

This is a verb.

And I like to think of island, isolate, kind of similar in a way.

Basically to isolate from is to keep away from.

So if your student or your child is being homeschooled, he or she might be isolated

from other students.

They're not near or with other students.

That's right.

So to isolate means to keep away from or to keep separately.

So like you said, maybe if you're on an island, you are isolated from the rest of the world.

That's right.

I live in the country far away from the city.

I feel isolated from other people.

So she's saying that the kid might be isolated from social interaction.

Alright.

Now, social interaction.

This is a two-word phrase.

We usually take it as a phrase.

This basically means talking to or playing with other people, other kids.

Right.

So I guess in this case, it's personal or physical social interaction because nowadays

we have social interaction via the internet.

That's right.

But in the case of a student going to school, it would be of course playing on the playground,

attending class.

But social interaction means talking to or being with other people.

That's right.

Well, and the other parent argued that there are many advantages and specifically he said

that having a one-on-one class is better for the kids.

Alright, so this word one-on-one refers to one teacher, one student.

Right.

One parent, one child.

It means when you're talking to someone and there's no one else around.

Alright, so usually tutors teach you one-on-one.

You sit at a table and your tutor helps you study.

But in the case of homeschooling, the student learns one-on-one.

So learns directly from the teacher.

Right, and that's different from public schools obviously because you have one teacher for

maybe 30 students.

That's right.

So that's one-on-one.

That's one-on-many.

Right, exactly.

But one-on-one is also a word you can use when you talk about meetings.

So you could say, hey Marco, can we have a one-on-one meeting later?

I'd like to talk to you alone.

So that means I'm not going to talk to you with other people around.

Right, okay, it's like a private meeting.

Yeah.

Very good.

So let's take a listen to the dialogue again and then we're going to come back and we're

going to take a look at some key phrases.

I think we should homeschool our children when we decide to have kids.

What?

Why?

Well, our public schools here are not very good and private schools are just too expensive.

I have been reading up on some homeschooling and it has a lot of advantages.

Like what?

I think that by doing something like that we would be isolating our children from social

interaction.

Well, first of all, I would be able to teach them everything they learn in school in a

more relaxed and fun way.

I also think that having a one-on-one class is much better since you can focus more on

his or her strengths or weaknesses.

I think neither your parents or mine would agree to such an idea.

I'll bring it up over Sunday brunch.

Good luck with that.

All right, we've picked out four key phrases for you today.

Let's take a look at those on Fluency Builder.

Fluency Builder.

So the first phrase today in Fluency Builder is the phrase to read up on.

So the sentence was, I've been reading up on homeschooling and it has a lot of advantages.

Right.

So basically if you say you have been reading up on a subject or a topic or something, it

means that you've been reading about it, you've kind of been informing yourself.

You're doing research about a topic.

So in this case, one parent is researching the homeschooling option.

So here she is reading maybe articles in a magazine or books or looking on the internet.

But you don't actually just have to read up on education.

You can read up on anything, right?

Right.

Exactly.

So you can read up on anything that interests you or you can do research on anything.

So you can read up on dinosaurs, for example.

I've been reading up on dinosaurs lately.

And did you know that the brontosaurus is not a real dinosaur anymore?

That's right.

Okay, so we've been reading up on the advantages of homeschooling and he starts by, well, defending

his position on what the advantages are with the phrase.

Well, first of all.

All right.

This is an important little phrase.

This is something you can use, like you say, Marco, when you're going to have an argument

or maybe a discussion about something and you want to tell your points, your side of

the argument.

And so first of all means I have a list, but this is my first point.

Right.

So it's a nice little phrase to open up this list of things that you're going to say, right?

That's right.

So you should drink orange juice, Marco, because first of all, it tastes good, but second of

all, or, but also it's very good for your body.

Right.

So first of all is the first main point.

So you can say second of all.

Can you go like third of all, fourth of all?

Not really, right?

You don't really say it.

I guess you could, but.

So you go first of all, second of all, and then maybe just go and also.

Or lastly.

And then lastly to end it.

Okay.

Very good.

Now, one of the other points that he talked about, well, apart from the one-on-one class

was that the reason why a one-on-one class was better is because he could focus on his

or her strengths and or weaknesses.

All right.

So strengths or weaknesses or strengths and weaknesses.

This is a set phrase.

And it's important to remember that these two words are opposites.

So strengths, that's the things you're good at.

And weaknesses.

Things you're bad at.

Things you're bad at.

And so, especially when you're studying in a school or you're homeschooling, it's important

that the teacher understands the strengths and weaknesses of the student.

Because something that you're really good at, maybe you should encourage and something

you're bad at, you should work harder at improving.

That's right.

So it's usually fixed phrase.

You'll even get it in job interviews.

Somebody will say, well, what do you think are your strengths and weaknesses?

Right.

So remember that phrase, strengths and weaknesses.

Okay.

And lastly, he said that, well, even though the idea is interesting, it might be difficult

to make the parents or the grandparents agree with him.

So he said he will bring it up over Sunday brunch.

Okay.

I will bring it up.

Bring it up.

Well, you're not actually holding something.

This means that you will mention it in conversation.

Mention the topic, right?

That's right.

So maybe grandma and grandpa don't think homeschooling is a good idea, but you will discuss it or

you will suggest it during Sunday brunch.

Right.

So if you want to discuss a topic, you usually say, I will bring it up with the president,

for example.

That's right.

You will talk about it with the president.

You can also say, please don't bring it up.

Right.

So maybe you told a secret and you don't want the other person to know and you say, okay,

please Marco, don't bring it up.

Okay.

Very good.

All right.

Let's listen to our dialogue one last time.

I think we should homeschool our children when we decide to have kids.

What?

Why?

Well, our public schools here are not very good and private schools are just too expensive.

I have been reading up on some homeschooling and it has a lot of advantages.

Like what?

I think that by doing something like that, we would be isolating our children from social

interaction.

Well, first of all, I would be able to teach them everything they learn in school in a

more relaxed and fun way.

I also think that having a one-on-one class is much better since you can focus more on

his or her strengths or weaknesses.

I think neither your parents or mine would agree to such an idea.

I'll bring it up over Sunday brunch.

Good luck with that.

Okay.

So homeschooling is a very interesting option.

I think it's very common, more common nowadays in Britain and North America.

But how do people that are homeschooled go to college if they didn't go to a high school?

Well, I believe that most people when they finish homeschooling will take some tests

to prove that they've actually learned the material that is required by the state.

Because, you know, in America, each state sets the educational standards.

And so it's important that you learn certain science and math skills.

And then once you take those tests, you would get your GED, your graduate diploma.

And that means that you've learned everything that a high school student should know.

Right.

So it's interesting because it would seem a little bit strange to not want your kid

to go to school.

But at the same time, there are many reasons why parents don't want their kids to go to

school.

Like in this dialogue, maybe the schools are not really good or too expensive.

What do you think about homeschooling?

Would you send your kids to homeschool?

I don't think I would do homeschooling because I think it's really important for students

to or for children to learn how to get along with others and to learn to negotiate and

to learn to play and to also learn to respect their teachers because you have a different

relationship with your parents than you do your teachers.

And I think there's a lot of valuable social lessons you can learn at school.

But I do understand why a lot of people choose this option, especially if the schools in

their area are poor performing schools so that the students aren't learning enough.

Or if maybe they're not safe because some schools there's some bullying or there's some

violence.

And so for those reasons, I definitely understand the motivation to do homeschooling.

But then again, you can't.

I mean, you can get homeschooled from kindergarten all the way through high school, right?

But there is no homeschooling for university unless you do like an online degree or something

like that.

You can't really be homeschooled for college.

No, there's distance courses so you could use the internet and learn online.

But no, you can't homeschool for university.

It's a very debatable topic.

A lot of people defend it saying it's good.

It brings parents closer together to their kids, that kids enjoy learning, that they

learn better, etc.

Other people don't really agree with it.

So what is your opinion?

Do you agree with homeschooling?

Our website is EnglishPod.com.

We hope to hear your arguments there.

Okay, we'll see you there.

Bye.

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