Sociological theories - functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionism
Home schooling is a potentially popular option to other education systems. Home schooling is an education system where the children or students do not have to attend classes in school. They will undergo the teaching at their residents guided by their guardians, parents or tutors. In home schooling, there are no formal settings for education. This option of educating children is legally acceptable in most countries. It provides children with a different learning environment to that of private or public schools while still offering quality education.
Home schooling can be widely accepted as an alternative to other forms of education because of several reasons. Parents may opt for a home schooling system of education for their children because of their concern on school environments. School environments are always put under perspective because they also result into more negative influence than the positive influence. These parents fear that children learn more from their peers, whom they spend a lot of time together than from the things they would be taught in class. These parents base their argument on the theory of social interactionism. Based on the theory, children learn from the older people around them to master things like language and knowledge. The parents believe that their children can gain more knowledge, improve their cognitive ability and information processing if they are schooled at home.
Parents could decide to school their children at home based on the belief that their children would gain more from home than from school. This is based on the conflict theory where there is the belief that children have to compete for economic and social resources. Therefore, only strong children would benefit from a school environment while the weak would just suffer. Therefore, parents decide to educate the children at home since they are sure this would fully benefit the child.
Parents may resort to home schooling because they want their children to gain morals, religion or knowledge. In public and private schools, the children are exposed to knowledge, religion and morals of different types. Therefore, parents decide to school their kids at home to enable them specialize or learn about the particular things that their parents desire.
The movement to home schooling in U.S will not eventually become viable; home schooling may not be as popular as thought because of the way society operates. Society is aligned to the functionalism theory where things are believed to be dependent on one another. For instance, parents rely on schools to educate their children, who will then support their parents in the future. The functionalist approach in society discourages home schooling because it breaks the order of dependency. However, home schooling will remain an option to public and private school education since it has many benefits and helps children grow in certain aspects of character, moral and personality.
I would not consider schooling my children from home because it is limiting and has many negative impacts. Children who are educated at home do not get a chance to interact with other children. Interacting with peers help children learn how to work as a team, self expression and be socially viable. Furthermore, in public schools, children get exposed to many situations where they learn how to handle themselves, make decisions and self reliant. Home schooling will not help these children become all round, responsible and knowledgeable people in future.
References
Clements, A. D. (2004). Homeschooling: A Research-Based How-To Manual (illustrated ed.). New York: R&L Education.
Galen, J. V., & Pitman, M. A. (1991). Home Schooling: Political, Historical, and Pedagogical Perspectives. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Wyatt, G. (2008). Family Ties: Relationships, Socialization, and Home Schooling. New York: University Press of America.
