Homeschooling...bad or good?!?
Aug 09 '00
I feel that I am an unbiased source on this topic, but many of you will probably feel that I am very biased since I would never homechool my children and both of my parents have worked in the public school system for over 25 years. I hope to show you the unbiased side of myself in this epinion.
Homeschooling you say? Is it good or bad?
Well, there are many views on this. I believe that there are also many good things and many bad things about homeschooling.
First, the good things.
1. You know the teacher. When you homeschool your own children, you don't have to worry about whether or not the teacher is doing a good job (I hope). You also don’t have to worry about whether or not your child is being treated fairly or if the teacher is qualified.
2. Outside influences on your children. If you choose to homeschool your children, you will never have to worry about what your kids are learning about 'life' at school. You can teach them as you see fit about the 'birds and the bees' and things like this.
3. Typically make better grades. Well, duh. Of course they make better grades. No parent wants his/her child to fail so they won’t give them bad grades. I don’t think this is the case and this is not what I mean. Typically, children who are homeschooled have better scores on standardized tests as a whole. This is a fact whether or not you believe it or not. I don’t know why this is true, but it is. There are many differing theories as to this, but I won’t get into that here. You can read about many of them in the multitude of other epinions on this website.
Now, for the things that are bad according to my perspective.
1. Social aspects of their lives. Every person I have ever known who was homeschooled lacked some aspects socially. I don't mean they were socially retarded, but many of them (most were under 12 years old) didn't know how to be a kid. Some of you may think that your homeschooled child needs to grow up and learn about 'grown-up' things. I have to disagree with this. People are forced to grow up too fast in my opinion. Let them be kids. They will grow up soon enough. I hate to see a 6 year old acting like a 16 year old and a 16 year old acting like a 40 year old.
2. Unqualified teachers. I can't think of a single person I know that knows enough about everything to be able to teach a their child everything they would learn from 20 different teachers at a high school. Maybe there are quite a few parents who can teach their children as well as a school, but I don't think there are very many and I know I couldn't. I feel that anyone who wants to homeschool their children should have to take the teachers tests and go through all of the red tape that certified teachers must go through. I feel that this is only fair to the children in order for them to get a good education.
3. They miss out on public school. This may be something you, as a parent who homeschools your kids, are trying to avoid...public school. I understand that in many large cities, the public school system is in bad shape and you may not be able to afford to send your children to a private school. That's fine, but where I live, we have some of the best public schools in the nation. That argument doesn't work here. People move in and tell my mother, who is an elementary counselor, that they were paying for a private school that wasn't as good as our public schools.
4. More opportunities in public school. I have never heard of a homeschooling program that had classes such as photography, auto mechanics, journalism, etc. Some of these classes are ones that can build a career for some students. Homeschool students are never exposed to these type of classes and, therefore, never have a real chance to learn some of these things. I don’t personally know of any homeschooled students who have not gone on to college. For those who don’t go to college, it seems that the job market is a little smaller for them than a student of the public schools because of these specialized classes.
Now that I've said all of that, here are a few final thoughts on homeschooling.
1. To me, the best schooling for a child is to learn at school and at home. If you are involved in your children's lives, they will learn your morals and values at home and learn everything they need to learn from a book at school.
2. Public school teachers can be good or bad. Of all the experiences I had in public schools, the majority of my teachers were good people and good teachers. I learned many things from them through their past experiences that I could have never learned from my parents. And these things weren't always about the subject we were studying. Many times they were about life in general. I feel that students need to get their ideas from full range of people who have had a full range of different experiences. As a parent, you can teach your kids what is right and wrong at home after school.
3. I have known many people who homeschool their children until they get to 6th or 7th grade. To me, this is much better than trying to homeschool them for their entire academic career. I feel that I could teach a child everything they need to know to get out of the 5th grade, but there is no way I could teach then everything they would learn in High School.
If I can give you any advice on this subject, please take a close look at your children every year before you decide to continue homeschooling. Some kids can adjust socially to homeschooling, some can’t. Just make sure yours is one who can adjust before you take something away that could be very beneficial to them in their future.
I realize that many of you will not agree with me on this topic. This is strictly my opinion and I hope you will take it as just that, an opinion. I was brought up in the public school system and have found very few faults with it. My children will attend the public school system. I don’t think it failed me and I don’t believe it will fail them either.
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Member: Grant Jackson
Location: Central Arkansas, USA
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