Home Schooling Essay

Public schooling establishes a diverse atmosphere and stimulation for students to succeed. Student’s need more stimulation than any one parent can provide for their child. “Home schooling does not encourage and facilitate children to make peer relationships. In both public and private schools, children have the benefit of being grouped together in classes and activities, and in turn, they have an opportunity to get to know one another. Home school lacks this type of environment and can retard a child’s social growth” (Home Schooling – The Benefits of Learning at

Home schooling is becoming an increasingly popular choice of education for parents in the United States of America. “Homeschooling refers to the practice of parents educating a child at home, rather than in a conventional public or private school setting” (Hess and Okun). This can take the form of individual instruction by a single teacher at home or in a small group setting with combined resources of teachers and materials. It was estimated in a 1999 report by the U.S. Department of Education that more than 850,000 students were being educated at home. This number was increasing at rate of 7 to 15 percent annually (Hess and Okun). The numbers are increasing because of the advantages for home school students. In order to promote individualized learning, creativity, and self-confidence, home schooling should be considered for more students.

Many, Parents have an opinion of what’s taught in their child’s classroom. Some parents want total control over what their child is exposed to. According to Michael’s Haverluck CBN news article Socialization: Homeschooling vs. Schools, he states “Parents feel that they can provide a better education at home, religious reasons, there is a poor learning environment at home, family reasons, and they feel that their children will develop character and morality.” (Haverluck). Parents have the chance to teach their children the values that they want. Children have the opportunity to choose when and where they want to study. The child does not have to be limited to a specific time schedule like public schools being six hours a day. The child can make his/her own

Summary: Michael Romanowski wrote an article called "Common Arguments about the Strengths and Limitations of Home schooling." Home schooling is continuing to grow rapidly in many places. He explains that home schooling serves children equally well as public schools. Romanowski supports the main idea by giving claims that home schooling helps a child improve their social skills, children who are homeschooled are more likely to become academically successful, a student is not put on time limit and they are not told to put everything up and focus on a new topic. Home schooling allows children to learn to socialize with older people and stills allows them to socialize outside of their home with community activities. When the parents are closely involved in the student's academic work

While the American public school system educates the majority of students today, a fast growing population is beginning to accept homeschooling as an adequate alternative. Anyone with kids desires only the best education and experiences for them. Those who face this decision have to take in the plentiful list of differences and decide which will suit their family best. For years, most people saw homeschooling as an ineffiecent replacement to the government-provided schools already in existence. However, in the last ten years, studies have proved that homeschooling well equipps a student for college and beyond, changing the minds of many(http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/06/01/home-schooled-teens-ripe-for-college?page=2). In order to make this crutial decision between public or home school, one must account for the social and extracurricular opportunites, the educational aspect, and what role the family plays in education.

An article from 2015 about homeschooling and public school stated that “it’s estimated that as many as 2 million American students are being educated at home.” There are several families that would prefer homeschooling over public school for several reasons, which will be discussed in this essay. The two topics that will be discussed are homeschooling and public school. There will be multiple topics discussed in this essay, such as pros and cons of homeschooling and public schooling, and which option would be the best option for certain types of families and students. These two topics will be contrasted by explaining which topic would be the better option for specific groups of people, and certain families. The purpose of this essay is to describe the advantages and disadvantages of home and public schooling. Also, the purpose of this essay to show statistics about which system of education would be best for certain families, specifically those who are low-income families, and want the best option for their children. Whereas public schooling is inexpensive and gives children a chance to make friends, homeschooling is the best option because it gives children a safe, and more compatible learning environment.

Homeschooling is on the rise in America. According to a 2007 NHES study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education there are an estimated 1.5 million students actively being homeschooled up from the 850,000 estimated in previous study conducted in 1999 (NCES, 1). Once seen as a fringe activity usually associated with the religious right, homeschooling now encompasses many mainstream families looking for educational alternatives in the face of such issues as violence, peer pressure, and poor academic quality in many public schools. Detractors on the other hand claim that homeschooling is a less effective method of educating America’s youth citing academic and social issues. Despite critics’ claims to the contrary, homeschooling is an effective and viable method of education as its participants not only do well academically; they are well socialized and are successful in college and later life.

Once a parent has child that is old enough to start school, the parent has to think about if they want to enroll their child in public school or homeschool them. Today, many parents are homeschooling their children. A U.S. Department of Education’s report shows that approximately 1.5 million children were being homeschooled in 2007 (Lips & Feinberg, 2008). This is almost 3 percent of all school age children (Lips & Feinberg, 2008). A private researcher, the National Home Education Research Institute, estimates 2.5 million children were being homeschooled in the 2007 – 2008 academic years (Lips & Feinberg, 2008). By either count, homeschooling is growing exponentially.

The term homeschooling refers to the practice of parents educating a child at home, rather than in a conventional public or private school setting. These children would otherwise be enrolled in elementary or secondary school. Homeschooling is seen in the United States today as a viable alternative to public school education. According to widely-repeated estimates, as many as two million American children are schooled at home, with the number growing at 15 to 20 percent per year (McDowell & Ray 2000, Lines 2000). Despite the rising prevalence of the subject, we are left without basic information on the nature of homeschooling in the United States. What motivations do parents have for choosing homeschooling — religion, concerns about school quality, or other motivations? What are the limitations that these families face? Lastly, what strengths do these children exhibit with homeschooling? The common argument in limitations of homeschooling is the issue of socialization in homeschoolers development. The counter-argument from homeschooling advocates is that homeschooling does not mean a hermit like existence for the children. The idea is that social skills do not have to be developed only with people who are the exact same age but experience of forming meaningful relationships social skills will get solidified. Some families feel judged by making the choice to homeschool even when it meets their child 's needs, although today they are becoming more mainstream ( Collom,

"Parents of 136 homeschooled elementary children completed questionnaires assessing constructs derived from the parental involvement literature and personal beliefs identified in the homeschooling literature as important to parents’ decisions to home school. Results suggest that home-schooling parents appear to be motivated by an active role construction, strong sense of efficacy for helping the child learn, and positive perceptions of life context"(1). This shows that parents who choose to home school are very motivated to allow their children to succeed as best they can, also that they would want their children to learn every

The popularity of home school began rising in the 1970s and growth continues to increase. (Murphy 336). The National Center for Education Statistics estimated in 2007 that 1.5 million students were homeschooled in the United States (Drenovsky and Cohen 20). This number is now reported at around two million, and Murphy states, “ . . . it [homeschooling] remains the fastest growing form of education in the United States” (342). This information proves that parents are searching for an alternative to traditional public-school education. Many wish to educate their children due to their own experiences, beliefs, and values. While other people argue that home school provides students with no social skills and complications when applying for college; however, these are misconceptions. Home school is an appropriate option to provide an education to children, and it does not leave them incompetent to survive in the “real world”.

Times have drastically changed in the twenty-first century, one of them being education. Many aspects are considered when parents choose how they would like to educate their child. Aspects such as academics, sports, learning accommodations, finances, student performance, and social life may all be factors in the final decision. Over the past ten years, homeschooling has become increasingly popular among Americans. According to Brian D. Ray from National Home Education Research Institute, there are over 2.2 million homeschooled students in the United States. Although public schooling can have its benefits, homeschooling is more beneficial for a student in today’s society.

Parents are typically held accountable for making decisions on how their child is raised, what rules will be implemented, curfews, punishments, and nevertheless, their education. When it comes to education, parents are responsible in deciding where their children will be educated and this decision includes some enticing options. The topic of homeschooling has indisputably been up for debate in many eras, cultures, and locations. Ari Neuman and Oz Guterman (2016) state that the question relics, which educational strategy is more effective, which is better? Since every child benefits from being educated, the way in which their education is delivered is under substantial examination since every individual

Surprisingly, there are a variety of people that do homeschooling. Both people from high-income to low-income families. There are parents that even have doctorates or even a diploma in a general subject. Families with either one or two parents and differing ethnics and religious or secular inducement choose to homeschool (Ray 2002). Researchers come to the conclusion that homeschoolers, for the most part, have free reign when it comes to their homework and school pace that they feel that suits them the best.

¨Homeschooling is a middle ground for parents who do not want their children in public school, but do not want to or cannot pay the price of private or charter schools¨ (The City Writes). There are approximately 2.2 million students in the U.S. that are being homeschooled, of that number only a handful of them go to college. Homeschooling was originally for students with disabilities, but is no longer used solely for that purpose. Although homeschooling may be central to a busy child's life, it should be eliminated because it minimizes the range of information in daily lessons, strains relationships between students and teachers, and eradicates social skills.