Listening audioscript

WRITING EXERCISE 2 
 
Number 1, Page 334
[ mp3 151]
 
 
Listen to the passage. Take notes on the topic and main points of the listening 
passage. 
(Professor)
OK you’ve all read the chapter on homeschooling, right? OK, so today 
I’d like to discuss a few of the ideas presented in that chapter. I think 
some claims that are made are not completely true. Here’s the thing: I’ve 
been a part of a state panel on homeschooling for the last ten years, so 
I’m pretty familiar with the issues surrounding homeschooling. And I can 
tell you that a lot of people who are involved in homeschooling would 
disagree with the ideas in the chapter. So let me make a couple of points 
about that. 
First of all, it has not been proven at all true that children with a 
homeschool education learn less than children in traditional schools. In 
fact, study after study has shown that children in homeschools learn far 
more
than typical students in traditional schools. 
And another point I’d like to make is that homeschooled children can 
have lots of opportunities for social interaction with other children. 
Parents who homeschool their children can arrange situations that 
involve social interaction with other homeschooled children. For example, 
uh they can arrange to get together for field trips to museums or parks or 
maybe even spelling competitions. Thus, children who are 
homeschooled can have even more social interaction with other children 
than children in traditional schools because they can interact with other 
children at any time of the day if their parents arrange this. 
The final point I’d like to make is about variety in the curriculum in 
homeschools. Homeschool children can be provided with the broadest 
possible curriculum. This is because parents are not limited by the school 
boards that decide on the curriculum in traditional schools. Parents are 
free to decide to teach whatever they want—astronomy, or medicine, or 
Chinese language—even if these subjects are not part of the curriculum 
in traditional schools. So, surely the even broader curriculum potentially 
offered by homeschooling, along with expanded opportunities for social 
interaction, will allow the children involved to be professionally 
competitive in their future jobs.