Home School versus Public school - Assignment Example

Home school vs. Public school Thesis ment Home schooling is a very effective method ofeducating a child. There are many arguments to counter this statement. Many believe a child being home-schooled would come to lack social skills and to fear association with others. Another belief would be the idea that a parent’s ability to educate a child would be inferior to the public education system because a parent usually do not have a license to teach. Although there are several other arguments to go against home schooling, there are a lot more others to fight for the idea of it. The popularity of home schooling had escalated over the last decade. According to the “National Home Education Research Institute” (NHERI), a staggering 1.5 million people in America are home-schooled ever since it was first legalized during 1900s. (Moitozo, 7) A child would not lack social skills nor would the child be afraid to associate themselves with others. Home schooling does not mean a child would be contained in a house and isolated from the world. As a matter of fact, every child needs to be educated physically, such as participating in sports. The parents would provide a form of physical education by enrolling the student to a basketball team or even a dance studio. During this time, the student would have time to associate themselves with other children. A lot of individuals believe that because of lack of deadlines and pressure in the home school setting, learners become habitual of taking less amount of pressure. Which cause individuals to be more attracted towards doing business. Because of lack of interface with their peers, students at home have fewer amounts of social skills and a smaller amount of practice in working as a team that makes them unable to work collectively. A lot also believe that home-schooled learners usually have more amount of spare time, but they do not seem to engage in as many activities to utilize their spare time effectively. Due to this, they become unable to manage their time and cannot practice to work in pressure in terms of deadlines. Moreover, they do not get a chance to have a life out, they become unable to experience a lot, which makes it more difficult for them to survive actively in the society. A large population believes that Home schooling deprives individuals of acknowledging all the various types of choices and opinions that others can offer. They get in-touched with their parents only; hence they get a limited amount of awareness and understanding. Eventually they turn out to be clones of their own parents. However, ideally, one generation is supposed to be more intelligent than their forefathers. Undoubtedly, home-schooled students get a lot of advantage from a lot of education and they can concentrate more on their own self, but at the same time, their extracurricular activities may get too limited. Due to lack of peer interaction, they may become isolated from pluralistic civilization. They may experience difficulty in to cope with reset of the society. They are less prepared to face a racially diverse society; consequently, at higher level of education when they come across with people of various nationalities, they become amazed to see that all the people are not like him. Home schooling has large number of advantages. It has proved to be more beneficial way of teaching and assists more efficiently to a student to develop educationally. It provides a chance to have a balance in one’s social and educational life. Individual tends to spend more time at home with parents; hence they become immunized from outside dangers and peer pressure. It helps an individual to groom himself socially and personally both. They do not seem to face many problems when they reach their adult lives. They are more socially acceptable as they spend more time with their parents and learn from their experiences too that how to survive in the society. Public schooling doesnt let individuals to become as ready as home schoolers to face the stresses of everyday life. Hence it will not effectively prepare students for a prosperous future. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute explains "90% of [home schooled] learners play with individuals of other families.” (2005) Home-educated children are happier, better adjusted and more sociable that those at institutional schools. As stated in Brian Ray’s reports, the average child educated at home participates in a range of activities with other children outside the family and ninety-eight percent are involved in two or more extracurricular activities such as field trips, music lessons, and sports per week. Being in a classroom with other students is not necessarily a good thing either. When a student is in a classroom, the attention of the instructor or teacher is divided amongst the other twenty to thirty other students. Therefore there are seldom any one-on-one relationship between the student and the teacher. In an age-segregated classroom, a child would not be working on his/her own pace but rather someone else’s pace. This environment would never be present in any time during our adult life. In a work environment, co-workers would be of all different ages and possesses knowledge in various areas. (Blumenfeld, 90) The assertion, “Home-schooling is inferior to the public education system”, is an opinion that can easily be refuted. No one is able to state this as a fact due to the research that had already been done. Former director of “Education Resources Information Center” Dr. Lawrence M. Rudner, had done research to disprove the idea that home schooling is inferior. He found that on average a home-educated student scores within the 80 percentile on a standardized test when the national average is within the 50 percentile. (Rudner, Lawrence, 1) In addition, the home-schooled student population only made up less than three percent of the student population In America, but ten percent of top contestants for the nation’s top scholarships, such as the “Presidential Scholarship”, is home-schooled. In consideration of such outstanding records, it’s safe to say that the parents are effective teachers despite their lack of a teaching license. This is also due to the vast resources supplied to both parents and students alike by their environment if any material was not understood. Parents are not the only tools or resource home-based educators get information from. In many cases, parents get the assistance of other friends, or any interested person in the family. (McCusker, 47) For example, if an uncle in the family who is particularly skilled in computer graphics, he would be pleased to take part in the home schooling system for that subject. Additionally, parents can quest for on-line education web sites that provide plenty of information and methods used to teach children. Barbara Kantrowitz together with Pat Wingert stated that latest educational software provides assistance in educational gaps for home learners. However, in case more amount of inspiration is needed, one may also find good books or newsletters and a number of magazines. Moreover, highly effective videos can be seen, seminars can be attended and software can be purchased from a CD shop. An individual gets more information via satellites and global channels than the information they get from grandparents. Home-school education allows students to be more eager to learn and to love learning. They work at their own pace and on their own interests. If a child discovers that he/she have a huge interest in a certain field, they are now allowed to explore these areas at a younger age. If they start young, there would be extremely little competition once they reach adulthood. Mark Twain once said, “Never let formal education get in the way of your learning.” (2007) I would like to further establish this quote by another quote from a Greek philosopher Plato asserting, “All learning has an emotional base.” As home-school student themselves, they’ve learned to pursue their own interests rather than a huge range of subjects that would’ve never helped them. Additionally, with home schooling, parents are now more involved in which academic field their child is most likely to pursue. In addition, this method of teaching would create a stronger bond between the child and the parent. Noticeably today, the traditional family values have gradually declined since the 1920s, during the industrial boom. The introduction of cinema and automobile since then had taken away quality family time. Having parents educate their child would bring back these values. Because they are more active in their child’s activity, the possibility of their child succumbing to the influence of peer pressure and drugs would decrease as well. It is apparent now that home-educated people are improved educated than those who obtain their education from a public school. They soar higher and their grades reflect it. Home schooling provides a unique learning experience for each student. They are now able to work at the pace the student prefers and created a closer family bond. Many great minds, leaders, and other intellectuals in history have been educated at home as well. Aside from Twain and Plato, others on this list would include Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, Florence Nightingale. Home education is the utmost process for a child to obtain his/her education. Works Cited Aiex, Nola Kortner.(2003) "Home Schooling and Socialization of Children." ERIC Digest. Eric Digests. < http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed372460.html> Kantrowitz, Barbara and Pat Wingert. (2007) "Learning at Home: Does it pass the Test?" Newsweek.. Rudner, Lawrence M. (2006) "The Scholastic Achievement of Home School Students." P1 Mark Twain. (2007) “Quotations and Famous Quotes on Learning”. P8. Proverbia. Proverbia.net. Plato. “Quotations and Famous Quotes on Learning” Proverbia. Proverbia.net. < http://en.proverbia.net/citastema.asp?tematica=698> Blumenfeld, S. (2005). A Parents Guide to Teaching Children. Philadelphia, PA. Kara Ministries Press. P90 Dobson, J. (2004) Socialization not a problem for home-schooled children. http://www.gr-press.com/main/readership/readership.html McCusker, C. (2006). "Homeschoolers Arrive on Campus" [Electronic version]. Insight on the News. Vol. 18 Issue 33, p47. Moitozo, S. (2007). The 4 Advantages of Home Schooling. At Home in America. P7 Pratt, D. (2009). Advantages of Home Schooling. Introduction to Home Schooling. http://www.gospelway.com/familytimes/ftadvant.thm Ray, Brian. PhD. (2005) "Home Schooling Achievement" . http://www.hslda.org./research/faq.asp?htm.. Richman, H. (2007) The Three Rs at Home. Kittanning, PA. Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Press. P 101 Read More