Homeschooling: An option to choose or refuse? Essay

Schooling is considered as a major step in a child’s development towards becoming a good citizen and a good human being in this global world. Every parent wants the best for their children and they seek for the best education option available. No matter how good or disciplined a school is, the worries and anxieties respective to child’s development, remains constant for the parents. Due to increasing concerns and lack of satisfaction with public schools, new options are being sought after. Homeschooling is one such option that is rapidly emerging as a favorite amongst worried parents. Homeschooling is a way of education, wherein a child, instead of studying by traditional means of going to a public or private school, learns at home, with the help of a private tutor or the parents themselves. Homeschooling is being preferred over traditional methods in this growing world, where the number of students in class, are increasing day by day. Considering the facts, homeschooling looks like a good option for parents who can be assured of individual attention and good educational facilities, right at their homes. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, defines homeschooling as, â€Å"home schooling the practice of teaching children in the home as an alternative to attending public or private elementary or high school. In most cases, one or both of the children’s parents serve as the teachers. Like the charter school movement, home schooling usually arises from religious or other disenchantment with conventional public schools. Home schooling may also include full-time education at home by hired tutors. † The most important benefit of homeschooling is the fact that parents can themselves teach the children at their home and not worry about their children being given due attention in school or not. Homeschooling is said to be first noted in the year 1997, when Rebecca Sealfon, a thirteen year old girl, won the national spelling bee. Rebecca was being schooled in her home and this brought waves among the society (Anderson). Hettinger, in her article, â€Å"Trend to go home for school is on the rise across Indiana, nation† states that parents report dissatisfaction over not being given individual attention in public or private schools and the number of students in a class are increasing. Hettinger also states that, In the United States, an estimated 1. 5 million children were home schooled in 2007, an increase of 74 percent since 1999, according to a press release from Indiana University School of Education. The latest numbers in Indiana were 23,455 students in 2005-06, a 429 percent increase from 10 years earlier, according to the Indiana Department of Education. Lloyd from USA today reports that the number of home schooled kids have reached to 1. 5 million in the year 2007, risen up 74% from when the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36% since 2003. Lloyd states that the reasons are mostly religious for homeschooling. The traditional means of schooling does not give the liberty to the parents for being watchful. In homeschooling, even with private tutors, parents can keep an eye on the quality of education and teaching strategies given to their children. The basic positive point about homeschooling is freedom. Children have the freedom to flexible hours of study and they do not have to go by strict schedules (Shaw). Families that move constantly from one town to another, face difficulties in changing schools again and again. Homeschooling gives them full freedom in that respect. Another reason that can be studied for homeschooling being preferred over traditional teaching methods is that no matter how good the school is, parents are still worried about their child’s safety (Davis, 27). The school may be secure enough, but it is not their home. Public schools are dissatisfactory and private schools are highly expensive. Some parents prefer homeschooling because they like to pass on their moral values to their children. Many parents have religious beliefs and they like to pass on their beliefs to their children as a means of their education (Davis, 37). The disadvantages of homeschooling can be simply put by a single word, ‘Isolation’. Schools highly serve as a means of communication and socializing for children with the outer world. In homeschooling, this channel for communication is blocked. Isabel Shaw says that, â€Å"Depending on where you live, homeschoolers may or may not be welcome to participate on teams with their public-schooled peers. Several parents did mention that a few families overcame this problem by creating their own teams. † Tara Hettinger, in her article, states that socializing, though it may seem as a hindrance in homeschooling, isn’t really much of a problem. One of the parents she interviewed, states that, in her opinion, children socialize more outside the school in their play groups rather than in schools. Other disadvantage mainly seen in homeschooling is that the level of education, often provided by the parents, may not live up to high standards. Homeschooled children may not live up to high grades, just like the rest. Davis argues that all students cannot perform with good grades (Davis, 56). There could be more reasons to this argument. The parent acting as a tutor, which is mostly common in homeschooling, should be qualified and educated to tutor the child with proper standards. If the child doesn’t reach proper standards due to the lack of knowledge or efficiency on the part of the tutor, the child is not to be blamed. As a conclusion, it is seen that most parents resort to homeschooling for their children, to get freed from worries and anxieties and to impart better educational facilities to their children in front of their eyes. Even after being aware of its disadvantages, homeschooling seems to be a better resort for parents who want their children to have more than just the average, with respect to education. Homeschooling is becoming more preferred amongst parents, due to its advantages of flexibility, more individual attention, security and variable teaching methodologies over the traditional public or private schooling. Works Cited â€Å"Homeschooling† The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008 Encyclopedia. com 16 Mar 2009 Anderson, Brian C. â€Å"An A for Home Schooling† City Journal Summer 2000. < http://www. city-journal. org/html/10_3_an_a_for_home. html>. Hettinger, Tara â€Å"Trend to go home for school is on the rise across Indiana, nation† The Evening News & The Tribune 10 January 2009. Lloyd, Janice â€Å"Home schooling grows† USA Today 1 January 2009. Shaw, Isabel â€Å"The Pros and Cons of Homeschooling† FamilyEducation. com 16 March 2009 Davis, Mimi. So – Why Do You Homeschool?. Xulon Press, 2005.