Exploring Homeschooling as an Alternative to Public Education

Homeschooling is an ongoing controversial subject in this century as a society has always had a natural perception toward homeschooled children, terms such as ‘anti-social’ and ‘religious’ are usually affiliated with homeschooling. In spite of the controversy surrounding homeschooling, it remains an alternative route to the traditional public school setting and is no stranger to the education system. But, does a child really have to go to school? And why homeschooling is bad? In the last two decades, the number of homeschooled students in the United States, one of the leading countries in education, drastically skyrocketed from 850,000 to more than a million which was based on a report by the United States Department of Education. However, does this practice provide all the necessities needed for children in this modern society? According to Neuman and Guterman, the academic accomplishments of homeschooled children are proven through numerous studies to be superior compared to their peers of traditional schools. Although homeschooling may affect children’s social skills, homeschooling should be encouraged because of its flexibility, minor exposure to legal stimulants, and negative influences.

Firstly, homeschooling should be encouraged because children are granted access to flexibility. According to Doo, a significant factor that contributes to a student’s ability to learn is manageable and flexible curriculum schedules. Homeschooling provides students with flexibility which can compensate for students’ slow learning pace unlike standard public schools with strict schedules that intervene learning experience as the students are expected to perform and learn at a certain pace set by educators, schools, or even the government. In particular, parents can readjust their children’s academic schedule to concentrate more on improving weaknesses, simultaneously maintaining a tempo they can keep up with. Moreover, flexibility in schedule allows homeschooled children to not only maximize learning but also polish their interests or hobbies: sports, arts, and music. According to Martin, the homeschooling environment is not limited to the natural home setting, but anywhere that suits the learning setting. Take, for example, public libraries allow children to acquire a variety of information from different sources that classrooms do not provide. Besides that, homeschooled students will also be able to experience the learning experience visually, they can learn how historical places look like firsthand unlike students from conventional schools who can only see it through their textbooks.

Additionally, homeschooling should be encouraged because children will have minimum exposure to legal stimulants and negative influences. Peer influences are major contributors to shaping students’ behavior and attitude; misconducts are outcomes of negative influences. Issues such as this can be resolved through homeschooling, parents can help their children distinguish between qualities of good friends to negative influencers that the conventional schools do not provide as none knows better than their parents. Parents are also able to prevent bullying which has recently become a global issue in the last decade, where victims have been connected to several cases of decline in academic performance. Drug abuse, gambling, alcoholism, and suicidal thoughts are behaviors that homeschooled students will unlikely be accustomed to compared to their peers. Due to conventional schools being publicly open to society of all kinds, it is inevitable and only a matter of time until children are exposed to society’s negativity: drugs, violence, adultery. However, homeschooled children are effectively shielded from all these influences through the regular monitoring of their activities and isolation from negative influencers, while major actions taken by school authority is still to be done.

Most of society believes that homeschooling may affect children’s ability to socially interact with other people. This is because the stereotype that is typically associated with homeschooling is that the children are isolated from society, and them having a small social circle. Due to the limited social circle, socialization with people within the same age group on a daily routine is not available. However, this argument is irrelevant as homeschooled students are encouraged to socialize and make as many friends as possible, rather than being isolated from society. According to Medlin, homeschooled students are sufficiently provided with socialization experiences, which might prove to be beneficial compared to experiences conventional schools offer. In short, the assumption of homeschooled students having a small social circle is rather arrogant because socializing with peers is not merely limited to public schools and unlike their peers, they socialize with a range of people from distinct age groups. Thus, encouraging homeschooled students to have a predilection to socialize with whomever, despite age differences. The general misconception of homeschooling regarding socialization highly contributes to the reason why most of society turns a blind eye to homeschooling, rather than acknowledging the many virtues it provides.

Conclusion

In brief, children’s abnormal socialization may be the result of homeschooling; however, due to the adaptability, and safeguard from legalized substances and immoral influencers, society should encourage homeschooling. If the exponential growth of homeschooling continues, criminal activities and crime rates in the future will decline gradually due to the decrease in children being involved with social problems. In the future, it will no longer be an exaggeration to say more parents will acknowledge the qualities of homeschooling or might even have their children transition into homeschooling because of the immense increase in homeschooled students. Besides that, the academic achievements of homeschooled students will far surpass conventional school students in terms of academic performance, due to the adaptability of homeschool teaching that meets students’ preferences and the immense increase in the creativity of future generations.

Works Cited

1. Doo, M. Y. (2017). Homeschooling: A Comprehensive Survey of the Research. IAP.
2. Martin, B. (2018). The Way They Learn: A Parent's Guide to Homeschooling. Baker Books.
3. Medlin, R. G. (2013). Homeschooling and the question of socialization revisited. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 284-297.
4. Neuman, S. B., & Guterman, E. (2016). Understanding Homeschooling: A Comprehensive Guide to the Education of Children in the Home. Corwin Press.
5. United States Department of Education. (2022). Homeschooling in the United States: 2021. National Center for Education Statistics.
6. APA. (2022). Socialization. American Psychological Association.
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