Home Schooling
Many people believe that their children must go to the classroom and learn together with the other students for them to perform well in their education. The myth that the classroom gives the students an ultimate preparation that fosters success stands as the main point of defence for the people in support of the move. However, this is not necessarily the case because classroom environment is often not conducive for study. Studies have indicated that children learn from home and manage to outshine those learning in classrooms (Patrik 155). The social factor at school does not guarantee success as individuals may often assume. It is apparent that the classroom environment may matter less because learning depends on one’s personal traits and abilities. In the contemporary society, most students and their parents are opting for the home schooling, as opposed to the physical classrooms. The paper presents an argument that explains the situation that prompt the change in this trend by analysing the subject of home schooling from diverse perspectives.
The support for the choice home schooling is motivated by various factors. Initially, home schooling provides parents with the opportunity of controlling the content that their children learning. Home schooling outweighs the classroom strategy in this context because parents feel uncomfortable letting their children into the hands of other people. This is especially relevant in the modern world in which the emerging moral trends makes the young people vulnerable to bad habits. In this context, parents want to have ultimate control of their children to ensure that they do not fall prey to the moral hazard surrounding them. Particularly, parents opt to get children to the home schooling programmes following the ethical technicality behind the morals of the children. Most parents also believe that home schooling enables them to build ultimate strong relationships with their children, which fosters constructive co-existence (Patrik 158). Apart from developing strong relationships with their children, most of the parents would want to see their children develop a good attitude towards education so that they can take it to the next levels without fear of negative attitudes. This because home schooling offers parents with the opportunity of explaining and emphasizing to their children the interesting part of education. Furthermore, children learn at the comfort of their homes in home schooling model, a factor that makes them love education at their young ages (Jillian 7).
The concept of classroom learning is also challenged by the idea that the systems and methods used mainly target the median and average students. This essentially means that classroom learning does not provide an approach capable of accounting for each student’s special needs. Most of the children have different personalities that take time for a foreign person to understand. However, parents understand their children on personal grounds and they can tailor learning to suit the personalities and the characters of the children, which the facilitators could not understand in the social classroom. Home schooling helps the parents to tailor the education and learning process to suit the unique needs of the children. At the same time, understanding of the students differs from one subject to the other depending on a number of factors that vary among the learners. However, due to the number of students that the teachers handle n the schools, teachers do not have time to analyze the students specifically in their areas of weakness. Home schooling provides the chance for the parents to ensure that the lessons and the revisions focus on the areas where the child has weaknesses that need urgent solutions (Isenberg 540).
Most parents want their children to adapt some unique social and cultural values based on the beliefs that the parents possess. However, in the school models, facilitators mainly fail to concentrate on the compliance that the parents long for in the young children. In most cases, the children encounter peer influence that leads them to adopt some behaviour that the parents dread to fight. Accordingly, home schooling becomes the ideal strategy as it allows parents check closely on the beliefs and cultural inclinations of the children. In situations where students are learning under a single instructor, parents can hardly explain to the instructor the values that they need their children to assume (Jillian 7). The increased need among the parents for their children to master the specific aspects about their cultures and beliefs makes the parent opt for the home schooling decisions, as opposed to the famous social schools.
Personal interaction is an effective strategy of modelling children towards one’s perspective. At the same time, the current generation comprise of children who do not prefer learning concept that they do not have passion and love for them. The first objective of the home schooling program promotes the need of understanding the likes and dislikes of the individual children. When the mentor understands what the child’s interest, they can offer an experience that encourages students to pursue their dreams and visions. Home schooling ensures that facilitators can get such information with utmost ease because they can talk to the children on personal ground and offer personalised attention to the young people.
Houston (925) supports the home schooling strategy by noting that when the parents understand what the children stand to achieve in their long term careers, they can control the activities that revolve around their children’s lives. This ensures that children are not challenged by any encounter that may deviate them from their ultimate life goals. Children experience various issues relating to their growth and maturity. Arguments assert that in classroom schooling, children do not get ideal environment under which they can overcome these challenges. Diverse issues arise among the children as they grow and they need ultimate assistance to face them. According to Isenberg (541), home schooling enables parents to identify sensitive issues that arise in the lives of the young children immediately so that the children do not feel the solitude of growth and maturity. Under home schooling model, parents can help their children through the tough times while enjoying the good times with their children.
Although critical arguments explains that home schooling helps the children attain good education and assume constructive habits, scholars have present relevant accusation against the model. Strategic arguments highlight that children may assume bad behaviour due under the home schooling programs especially in situations where their parents have antisocial habit or believes in irrational ideologies (Patrik 157). Sometimes parents may nurture their children into believing in biased perspectives or may fail to offer diverse learning experience. Learning in classrooms enables students to interact with individuals of diverse personalities that enrich the learning experience. In this context, children are able to learn critical concepts of socialization such as diversity, tolerance and inclusiveness. This empowers their interaction skills resulting to highly skilled and all-round individuals. This is not the case in home schooling model that entirely limit students learning to the experience provide by the parents.
The strategy of home schooling is also ineffective because it delegates the duty teaching to the parents. Parents feel that the model gives them a lot of work of orienting their children to the lives that they should develop. Some of the parents do not have the level of education to nurture the children so that they develop strong personalities (Houston 931). Particularly, parents are essentially not trained professionals with important skills for ensuring that children are attaining the required education. This means that children may often obtain poor quality education under home schooling model. Furthermore, the fear of the workload that the children bring along makes most of the parents oppose the view that home schooling works best for the child.
Home schooling convert homes into typical schools. This means that the family’s house and compound gets more “wear and tear” because children are there during much of the school day, playing and moving around. Most of the parents oppose home schooling for the reason that the model keeps children at home, which prompts severe disturbances. In this context, classroom learning strategy becomes effective because it withdraws children from home offering parents an opportunity of concentrating on other important aspects while educators who are professionally trained to handle children nurtures them through education.
Home schooling presets the best solution for the children in most places and institutions. As much as some of the people do not support the idea that home schooling is a strategic education approach, the model is characterized with various advantages that promote it popularity. Capitalizing on the benefits of this model while containing its weakness would lead to establishing of an ideal education system. Particularly, diversification of the syllabus to fit the children in the homes can help to improve the quality of home schooling instead of resisting the model on grounds of its weaknesses.
Works Cited
Allen, Debra. "Home Schooling made Palatable." Link - up Jan (2000): 16. ProQuest. Web. 18 July 2013 .
Houston, Robert G., Jr, and Eugenia Toma. "Home Schooling: An Alternative School Choice." Southern Economic Journal 69.4 (2003): 920-35. ProQuest. Web. 18 July 2013.
Isenberg, Eric. "Home Schooling: Household Production and School Choice." Order No. 3095525 Washington University, 2003. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 18 July 2013.
Jillian, Lloyd. "Home Schooling's Latest Appeal: Safety Colorado Shootings Contribute to a Surge of Inquiries about Teaching at." The Christian Science Monitor: 3. Jun 04 2009. ProQuest. Web. 18 July 2013 .
Patrik, Jonsson. "The New Face of Home Schooling; More and More, African-American Families Redefine 'Homeroom'." The Christian Science Monitor: 01. Apr 29 2003. ProQuest. Web. 18 July 2013 .
