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Homeschooling: A positive or negative?

Destiny Bell

          An increasing number of parents are beginning to take their students out of school and transitioning them into homeschooling.  Homeschooling has come a long way from how it used to be, some parents may teach students themselves or they will have them learn their curriculum from the computer. In 2010, there was an estimate of about 2.3 million students that were homeschooled in the United States and it is growing around 2 to 8 percent every year (Ray). There are some positive effects of homeschooling students but there are more negatives than positives. Homeschooling students can be a burden because it requires many responsibilities from the parent. Also, there’s a lack of socialization and extra-curricular activities.  

          When a parent decides to homeschool their student, they are responsible for all the expenses such as the curriculum textbooks, and possibly field trips. Parents are also expected to provide the usual school supplies like notebooks, pens, and pencils. The annual cost of homeschooling one student could range from 300 to 2,500 dollars (Ray). It is more expense to homeschool a student compared to how much it costs to enroll your child in a public school where all you have to pay for is school fees and supplies for the classes. The cost of homeschooling depends on the curriculum the parent chose for their student. The parents could contact the local public school system and request their curriculum to teach their student or they could purchase an online curriculum from academies such as K12 International Academy or Englightium Academy (Mohr). The downside of purchasing a curriculum like K12 is that it is very expensive, for example, there is an online homeschool that costs over a hundred dollars a week. The many expenses needed to homeschool a student are not only monetary, it also requires a lot of time and effort from the parents. They may need tutoring for the subjects that a parent cannot help their student with, which will cost more money but also time. Parents who homeschool their students are usually not certified teachers, so they can’t help their student with subject such as, algebra and chemistry, so they would have to spend even more money to hire a tutor so the student can understand the material. For a parent to effectively homeschool their student they need to be a stay home parent or work from home because at least one parent must stay home and teach the student the material. Even if the student was to be on an online curriculum they would still need a parent to help them if they didn’t understand the subject and to make sure their student is actually doing the work and not just playing on the computer. It is much easier to send a student to traditional school rather than homeschooling because it will be a lot less financial stress and responsibility on parents and the children will still receive a quality education.

          Other than the huge responsibility parents must take on for homeschooling, the students biggest disadvantage is a lack of socialization. Although the main reason for sending students to school is to get them an education, students also need to socialize with one another. Developing close relationships with the students that they attend school with is a vital part of a child’s development of their social skills and emotional health (Blau). Some parents that homeschool their child and isolate them from other children their age. By depriving a child from interacting with other children, parents are severely hurting their social and emotional development. By sending a student to traditional school, they learn social skills such as working with others, following directions, and learning their interests. Most students that are homeschooled are usually only around their parent or tutor, so they will have limited exposure to a variety of teachers which hinders them the ability to interact with different kinds of adults that they may meet during their life. It is important for children to learn how to interact with a variety of adults because when they enter the real world there will be many different people that they will work with and they will need to know how to deal them. Also, children that are homeschooled will not be exposed to any other types of culture and ethnicities (Blau). They are sheltered from people who are not like them, so when they finally interact with people from different backgrounds they may experience culture shock. When students are at school they hear other students’ opinions and viewpoints on different subjects and they will eventually learn to respect other students’ opinions. If a student never has the chance to hear other people’s outlooks on situations, they won’t learn how to take other people’s opinions into consideration. The only way a homeschooled child can develop their crucial social skills is for them to participate in programs such as the YMCA or any community center where they can interact with children their age and form friendships. Putting children into a program would be a good solution, but the parents probably wouldn’t have time to take them due to them having to work and educate their child.

          Other than students being able to socialize with other students, home schooled students also don’t have access to extra-curricular such as, drama, art, and music classes (Khilawala). Some homeschool curriculums may not require student to take arts and humanities classes. By depriving students from these classes, it takes away their chances to be creative with their school work. For instance, there could be a student that could become a very talented in musician, but they would never know unless their parents paid for them to get music lessons, which their parents must pay for when they could have gotten a free music education at a traditional school. Also, homeschooled don’t have the opportunity to participate in school clubs or sports such as Spanish club, track and field or basketball. In these type of clubs, students will interact with other students that share the same interests as them. Student usually form bonds with other students when they are involved in the organization together. In an academic view, students will not be able to do projects in their science classes such as, chemistry or biology. It may be possible for parent to purchase utilities for a science experiment, but they are very expense to purchase not in a class set.  The science classes are some of the more difficult class in school, being able to do interesting experiment or dissections in class is the only fun part of the class.    

          Supporters of homeschool says that it is a better way to get an education because it gives them more academic freedom. A study showed that homeschooled students scored fifteen to thirty percent higher than public school students, but this data was only taken form students that were taught by parents with a formal education (“Homeschool”). Some students with learning disabilities may prefer homeschooling because they don’t have to worry about getting too far behind in their classwork if they could keep up with the teacher and the other students. Also, students would be able to focus better on their school work because they won’t have their friends there to distract them from doing their work.  Homeschooling gives students freedom from peer pressure from their friends and an escape from bullies. There are some students whose academic performance declines due to being constantly being bullied in class. In some cases, a student has been bullied to the point where they feel like they have no other choice but to be homeschool to escape the bullies. Fifty percent of homeschooled students are females, this most likely true because females are more likely to be negatively affected by bullies and would be pushed to being homeschooled (“Homeschool”). Even though there are a lot of positives to a student being homeschooled, going to a traditional school helps students get ready for real life situations. People with learning disabilities may not get any more accommodations than their coworkers when they enter the work place. If a student is having problems with their learning disabilities, their parents can get them an after-school tutor. Also, in the real world there will always be distractions that will tempt people away from doing their responsibilities and they need to learn how to focus on what needs to get done. Students, that are bullied in school may become more confident because they didn’t run away from them and dealt with them, although there are more options rather than leaving traditional school.

          Transitioning students to home schooling is becoming more popular. Some parents may prefer to educate their children themselves. Sticking to the traditional way of learn is the best way to get educated. Overall, it will help them when they enter the real world and become successful adults.

 

Works Cited

Blau, Lisa. “Social Disadvantages of Home Schooling.” Our Everyday Life, 14 Sept. 2013,

oureverydaylife.com/social-disadvantages-home-schooling-26526.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.

"Homeschool Statistics." Time4Learning. N.p., 21 Mar. 2017. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

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Khilawala, Rashida. “Homeschooling Vs. Public School.” Buzzle, Buzzle.com, 4 Aug. 2016,

buzzle.com/articles/homeschooling-vs-public-school.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.

Mohr, Angie. “How To Start Homeschooling Your Kids.” Investopedia, 15 Aug. 2012,

investopedia.com/financial-edge/0812/how-to-start-homeschooling-your-kids.aspx. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.

Ray, Brian. “National Home Education Research Institute.” Research Facts on Homeschooling |

Research, 23 Mar. 2016, nheri.org/research/research-facts-on-homeschooling.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.

“The Negative Effects and Aspects of Homeschooling.” Middle School Resources,

middleschool.net/negative-homeschooling.htm. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.