Homeschooling Is An Adequate Form Of Schooling For College

Imagine what it would be like to not get to have your first day of school as a child. For a child that is home schooled, they never get to walk through the doors on their first day with a new backpack, new school supplies, and new clothes. As little as this issue may seem, is it important for people to understand the effects that homeschooling can have on the cognitive development of elementary age children because by not being exposed to the resources and relationships children can get out of public school, they lack the benefits that come along with the system. Children cannot develop their emotions and problem solving skills, which could result in them being less successful in the future. The next generation is meaningful to society because they are the ones that will help American progress, so people need to ensure that they are getting the best education for their children. Although many parents believe homeschooling can be beneficial to their children because of the convenience and closeness to home, thoroughly examining the negative effects it has including a lack in the cognitive development, limited exposure to problems associated with the public as well as not having the benefits of a relationship with teachers and other students can prove that homeschooling are harmful to the cognitive development of elementary aged children.

Thesis: Homeschooling environment is an effective approach in education due to evidence of higher achievement on placement tests, success through college, engaged socially with activities outside homes, and students becoming active members of society.

All homeschoolers aren’t always necessarily smarter than public schoolers, but because they are very good at self-motivating themselves and they work very hard and set high expectations they normally do well on standardized tests. When it comes to college graduation, homeschoolers graduated at a rate of 66.7% and public schoolers graduated at a rate of 57.5% at a doctoral college. Homeschooled students also normally score fifteen to thirty percent higher on standardized testing and graduate with a consistently higher GPA than the average public schooler. Colleges, such as Harvard, have been looking for homeschoolers in particular because they are often the most prepared for college. It has been made clear that because of the homeschooler’s superior form of education, they score quite high on standardized tests and turn out to be more intelligent than the students of other schools. The fact that this type of education benefits the student should be an influential factor in the decision about homeschooling.

Before the development of the United States education system it was necessary for children to homeschool, but that time has passed. Today students have the option to attend the school that best fits them due to the process of open enrollment. The United States educational system now offers students options such as religious schools, charter schools, private schools, and public schools. Therefore, no reason exists that they can not find a decent school that meets their academic expectations. Families that homeschooled have a distinct disadvantage to families that attend public or private schools.

In 1980, homeschooling was illegal in 30 states. Later on, it was recognized as a parent's right across the country in the year 1993 (Martin, 2014). A survey was made to the respondents. They were asked if homeschooling was an acceptable means of education. As the results of Phi Delta Kappan Gallup survey, Americans have become more receptive to the idea of homeschooling. They think that homeschooling has become an alternative option to public schools because it is more socially acceptable (Moreau, 2012). In the previous related study, it was mentioned that the increase of homeschooled students had been consistent. It only shows that the acceptance of homeschooling has been broad as the years passed

Not long ago, my parents received an endless amount of criticism, similar to the Walls’ family, for their decision to homeschool my siblings and me. Many “feared” for us, because according to them, there was no way we were going to learn effectively at home, what we could in a formal school. My mom tells me stories of how people she’d known expressed genuine concern over the idea of educating children in a different way than what is deemed “normal.” I do not blame these people for their concern, as they were raised in a society that emphasizes a single approach to learning. Although there were definitely times growing up when I wished to attend a brick and mortar school like “normal” people, after a certain age I genuinely appreciated my parent’s decision. Being home-schooled has taught me so much more than just the basic principles of education. I grew up being highly self-reliant due to my online school requiring students to be almost entirely responsible for keeping up with their work. Similar to college, I had a syllabus provided to me, and had no one other than myself to make sure I was on top of everything. This helped me to become a responsible and well-organized individual. I also gained a quality education, despite all of the fear and concern of those around me. I still have to answer the questions, “Why were you homeschooled?” and, “Didn’t you want to go to regular school?” more

One of the greatest effects of college to a homeschooler is the teacher specialization. This is something that the student might not have received during their homeschooling experience. The student no longer has one-on-one interaction to learn, but is in a classroom setting which is very different than what the student is used to. Every teacher is now a specialist and formally trained in every field that they teach. Whereas now, the homeschooler is subject to multiple teachers a semester, each wanting the student’s full attention on their class, each with a different teaching style and vision for the student to accomplish. The average homeschooler did not have to face this as they generally had only one teacher.

Public schooling in the United States fails in providing a quality education for student in K-12. In 2015 the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures reading ability and math and science literacy among 15-year-olds in dozens of developed and developing countries, found that the United States is ranked 35th in math and 27th in science Desilver, D. (2016). The number one thing every parent wants for their children is for them to have access to the best possible education available. As a result of a low quality public education, parents are progressively looking for alternative ways of schooling. In particular, some parents have decided that homeschooling would better prepare their children in life. This paper will analyze both the pros and cons of homeschooling.

Education in our society is a very important factor in shaping our future. One’s future is depended on the education they receive and everyone is somehow affected by this. Children from the ages of kindergarteners to seniors in high school, college graduates, and stay at home mothers, are all shaped by the education the government provides us. There are many different ways to acquire an education some through private schools, public, charter, and being homeschooled. However, homeschooling is growing more in popularity than it has ever been.

Haven’t parents for the most part acted in the best interest of their children? Collectively, the best interest of all parents is to have their children become successful in life, and parents would take whatever steps necessary to ensure they are capable of developing socialization and interpersonal skills, in order to relate with members of their community. The opinion that homeschoolers are uncivilized and incapable to socialize is a prevalent idea even in the 21st Century. According to Moore, S. and Moore, M. (1990) the mention of reviewing literature about homeschoolers, generates strong opposition from college students citing “shyness” and “unsociable ” traits as reasons why not to study the material (p. 62, para. 3). Subsequently, with the advent of the internet and cellphones, many gaps are being bridged, and the socialization argument is becoming a non-issue for homeschoolers. Yet many still believe homeschoolers are incapable of living in the “real world”.

B. Preview – Traditional homeschooling can be problematic to a student’s life skills and overall development. The social learning aspect of school, which is lacking in homeschool, directly transfers into college and the workplace. Most teenagers and kids need to be supervised at every moment or else they will not do their work and, while at home, it is hard to find the motivation to do schoolwork.

People think that because these children have never been in a real class room before that after they graduate their twelve grades in the homeschooled setting they couldn’t possibly get used to the idea of a community college or even worse a university. Joan Bress states that “Colleges that have accepted homeschooled students appreciate the maturity and self-direction these students demonstrate. They believe that because homeschooled students have been involved in shaping their own education, they tend to be motivated learners and are comfortable assuming positions of leadership, both in class and in social situations” (17). It is a fact that homeschooled children actually score higher on test scores than children from public schools. This is due to the fact that the one-to-one learning time really helps a student and these kids are smarter because of

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 an approach to the education of children and youth in which parents commit to personally taking decisive and significant role in raising , educating , socializing and training their children”( “THE MODERN” 405 ). Parent who choose to home educated their children have always been confronted with controversy. However, historically homeschooling was common placed in colonial time until 1918 when compulsory school law was enacted in all states (Cohen and Drenovsky 19). As a result, home based education almost became extinct by 1975 in the United States. However, the practice of homeschooling made a comeback in America and other countries during the 1980s. For instance, in 1978 there was an estimated 12,500 children that were schooled at home in the United States, subsequently by 1983 there an estimated 93, 00; in 1995 1.1million and by 2000 1.5 to 1.9 million ( “THE MODERN” 406).

Historically homeschool as been around for a while but, “Since the 1980s, the US has experienced an increase in the number of homeschooling families. It is estimated that the number of homeschooled children has grown 15–20% annually (Bauman, 2001) and now totals about two million students (Murphy, 2012)”