Every day, homeschooling continues gaining popularity as compared to state schooling. The statistics show that the growth rate ranges between seven and 15 percent annually. There are close to two million learners under this learning process in their homes. It is observed that homeschooled kids perform better in the standardized tests and are welcomes in colleges and universities. As adults, they have reputations for self-directed learners as well as reliable employees (Hughs, 2014). Close to a decade ago, the perception of homeschooling was fought by many policy makers with the question of its impact on developing reliable students. In helping people in the consideration of homeschooling, the state schools are a benchmark for decision-making. The students going through these two systems are essentially different in terms of their performance and their experiences of dozens of learning events and engagements.
One of the benefits of homeschooling against state schooling is the element of educational freedom. Many of the homeschooled learners embrace the option of studying and reading what when they want, they want and, as they want. This does not mean that it covers all the basics. However, the basics in this case are covered as the child progresses in age. In addition, due to the difference in the rates of learning and absorbing content among the students, the learner in the home schooling program can postpone various topics for later. It majorly depends on the levels of ability, interest, and maturity. On the other hand, several states have restrictive legal requirements that are unnecessary across the states while such educational freedom becomes (Cooper, 2005). The other benefit of home schooling is that of physical freedom. Immediately after the shock of having to leave the school system passes, parents under homeschooling hold that they encounter real senses of freedom. Having that their lives do not revolve around school homework, calendar, and the school hours, the families are able to plan for off-season vacations, visit museums and parks during weekdays while living their lives based on what best works for them.
This advantage brings in the concept of emotional freedom. Unfortunately, peer pressure, boredom, bullies, and competition form part of typical state schooling days. It is particularly a problem to the girls. From past research, the element of self-esteem plummets across many girls in middle school (Angelis, 2008). On the other hand, related research on homeschooled girls indicates that the self-esteem engagements remain rather intact while the girls focus on thriving. Homeschooled children dress and act as well as think in a manner they find best suitable, without possibility of ridicule as well as the need of "fitting in". They live in places where lives do not have a dictation of trends in adolescence and the dangerous urge of experimentation.
Home schooling presents a thorough scope of religious freedom. Most families develop a feeling that their spiritual and religious beliefs form important parts of their being. Homeschooling avails the necessary opportunities for the parents to incorporate fully their respective views in their day-to-day lives. There are stronger family relationships generated through schooling. Close to all family stress the importance in the role of homeschooling in facilitating them, find more time in fostering loving ties across all the members of the family (Goode, 2009). Teens appear to benefit from the interaction enormously while rebellious and destructive behavior diminishes almost immediately after the beginning of homeschooling. There is more stability in times of difficulty. In the case, there are occasions of a new baby, illnesses, death in the family, or any other transition or obstacle, homeschooling allows more families to cope within these challenging periods. Homeschooling also helps families adjust to moves from other parts of the world, followed by others across the host country. It offers great comfort, as the students are homeschooled across all these moves. It is a stabilizing factor to the otherwise mixed-up lifestyles.
Home schooling also transpires well-rested students. While more research illustrates that sleep remains a vital component in the physical and emotional well-being of the kids, mostly the teens and pre-teens, home schooling is an integral approach. The impacts of the early morning classes are devastating to most children in the state schools. It especially influences the ones who are not necessarily morning people. Once parents realize that it is a lack of sleep as well as plenty of busywork hours often leaving the children in zombie-like states, they try homeschooling (Angelis, 2008). Homeschooling does not have busywork. In a few hours, the homeschooled children are in the position of accomplishing what could take typical classroom students more than a week to cover. In most of the classrooms, teachers spend more than one hour of all the school days for "on task" learning. The approach translates into more homework for the state schoolchildren. That brings the point on the point of homeschooling having no more homework. All the set schedules in home schooling are flexible meaning that the student has control on the study time and content. It also allows customization of the system into suiting one’s needs and preferences (Hughs, 2014).
One of the observed benefits of home schooling is the one-to-one child-teacher ratio. The child’s needs always come first in decision-making. The parenting styles also fit the teaching and learning style for the child. The curriculum is tailored into current interests of the child. Children with particular interests in the aspects that they learn are able to maintain more of the material. The concepts are covered while the child becomes ready to handle them as compared to when the state schools want to avail those (Deneen & Catanese, 2011). In other jurisdictions, the parents receive such funding as a way of offsetting the various costs for sports, music, arts, toys, supplies, lessons and activities. The self-confidence levels are protected while the children are late-reader or have learning disabilities. Home schooling avails friends of all gender, ages, and ethnic and religion background (Lawrence, 2007).
The system also becomes efficient in time usage as it provides a proper balance across play, downtime, sports, bookwork, and activities. Children have more breaks, active times, and snacks, as they need them. It provides for more choices in the manner in which the work is done. The topic's scope undergoes customization while one can deeply delve or scratch the topic surface about their interests. The environments of home schooling offer minimal levels of negative peer pressure (Lawrence, 2007). There is more time spending with the members of family and siblings which children of under the age of 12 need the most. Parents become more aware of the curriculum’s content and are in apposition of applying the concepts into daily activities both within and without the home scenarios. There is more focus on time to home schooling as it provides needed attention to having the children busy themselves across all times leaving parents free to do their work. While learning translates into an important part of life, it is loved for its sake. Learning in the home settings does not confine activities to 9-3pm from Monday to Friday. Self-motivated, real, and internalized learning will continue taking place across all times in the day and night (Lawrence, 2007). Most children will be learning to work in cooperation with the siblings as compared to competitively with their classmates. It is a skill of more value within the places of working.
On the contrary, there are many benefits accrued from state schooling home schooling. First, the public schools have a broad scope of children hailing from a wide gamut for socioeconomic classes as well as a detailed backgrounds variety. Such kinds of communities where more people are involved as adults allows the state schools to provide opportunities for meeting and learning how to negotiate with other people’s points of view while understanding people even with their different values backgrounds and. Unlike home schooling, state schooling has students with broader abilities and disabilities range (Goode, 2009). As for the cultural, socioeconomic, and ethnic backgrounds, the levels of diversity come in handy in the introduction of students into the relevant forms of communication and interpersonal issues rubbing elbows with individuals from different backgrounds from one. The high numbers of students located in the public school classrooms avail the necessary opportunities which are not in existence in many home schooling settings across large-scale projects and the team sports. The groupings of students and their respective funding provide sufficient facilities for public schools (including skating rinks and pools).
They can purchase equipment like laboratory equipment as well as technology that is prohibitive for the home schooling families. The large pools of students allow state schools, mostly in their high school levels, to provide a comprehensive array for the advanced classes of arts, the sciences, and technology research as well as all others that might be difficult to carry out among the homeschooling parents (Deneen & Catanese, 2011). They cannot have specialized training. State schools proceed to expose the students to many of teachers. Even in a situation with a single classroom teacher, the students have more instructors addressing foreign language, shop, home economics, drama, physical education, and art. It avails them with opportunities of learning with more and different pedagogies. State schools usually provide broader varieties of extracurricular activities. They can range from intramural sports onto joining clubs among many opportunities.
In conclusion, most children get into their communities and the real world on a daily basis. They are able to explore the environments world through field trips any time they feel like. It allows them come into contact with their integral interests and realizes their particular talents. Through homeschooling, children go through the learning process in whatever speed they wish. They breeze across ideas that they understand while taking time to appreciate and internalize concepts of more difficulty. Home schooling allows the parent and the child to custom-make the material as presented with the aim of maximizing the learning style of the child. Technology also enables eases in acquiring possible resources within the environment through enhanced learning approached of videos, unit studies, email, and internet.
References
Angelis, K. L. (2008) Home Schooling: Are Partnerships Possible? New York: ProQuest
Cooper, B. S. (2005) Homeschooling in Full View: A Reader. New York: IAP
Deneen, J., Catanese, C., (2011) Urban Schools: Crisis and Revolution. New York: R&L Education
Goode, K. J. (2009) Transitioning Home-school Children Into the Public School Classroom. New York: ProQuest
Hughs, J., (2014) Become a Home Schooling Professor. New York: Bookpubber
Lawrence, F. M. (2007) Home Schooling: Status and Bibliography. New York: Nova Publishers
