Passage Three
The estimates of the number of home-schooled children vary widely. The U.S. Department of Education estimates there are 250,000 to 350,000 home-schooled children in the country. Home-school advocates put the number much higher at about a million.
Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herdlike approach to teach children.
Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population, and as home schoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schools and home schoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.
John Marshall, an education official, says, “We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers.” The idea is, “Let’s give the kids access to public school so they’ll see it’s not as terrible as they’ve been told, and they’ll want to come back.”
Perhaps, but don’t count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education-whether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child’s interests and natural pace—is best.
“The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone,” says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center for Home Education. She says，“Home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.”
Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also “strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn-both intellectually and emotionally-that the family is the most important institution in society.”
Other home schoolers contend “not so much that the schools teach heresy(异端邪说), but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately,” Van Galen writes.“These parents are highly independent and strive to take responsibility for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient.”
Questions 11-15 are based on Passage Three.
11. According to the passage, home schoolers are ______.
A. those who advocate combining public education with home schooling
B. those who are educated at home by their parents instead of going to school
C. those who educate their children at home instead of sending them to school
D. those who engage private teachers to provide additional education for their children
12. Public schools are softening their position on home schooling because ______.
A. there isn’t much they can do to change the present situation
B.public schools cannot offer proper education for all children
C. they want to show their tolerance of different teaching systems
D.home schooling provides a new variety of education for children
13. Home-school advocates are of the opinion that ______.
A. things in public schools are not so bad as has often been said
B. their cooperation with public schools will improve public education
C. home schooling is superior and, therefore, they will not easily give in
D. their tolerance of public education will attract more kids to public schools
14. Most home schoolers’ opposition to public education stems from their ______.
A. devotion to religion
B.concern with the cost involved
C. respect for the interests of individuals
D. worry about the inefficiency of public schools
15. According to Van Galen, some home schoolers believe that ______.
A. public schools take a herdlike approach to teach children
B.teachers in public schools are not as responsible as they should be
C. public schools are the source of bureaucracy and inefficiency in modem society
D. public schools cannot provide an education that is good enough for their children
