English: Research Paper
Homeschooling is a progressive and enlightened program around the world. In this program, parents opt to educate their children at home and do not send them to traditional schools, public or private. There are reasons with the families for choosing the homeschooling that include the discontent with the learning options offered, diverse religious philosophies or scholastic philosophies, and the very belief that children are not doing well in a traditional school. Homeschooling seems to have a bright future, and it has certain benefits as compared to the traditional schooling.
The homeschooling trend began increasing in the 1970s as a result of educational reforms proposed by some popular authors and researchers, like John Holt and Dorothy and Raymond Moore. Reforms suggested homeschooling as an alternative educational option available to parents. As per the estimate of National Home Education Research Institute, more than two million children are undergoing homeschooling in the United States with a rapid increase in the number from seven to fifteen percent. Homeschooling is declared as legal in all the states of America and many other countries of the world. However, the legal requirement of homeschooling are different in different states. In some states, only few pre-requisites are required to put the children under homeschooling while, in other states, rules demand the review of portfolios and standard testing after regular intervals. Parents opting for homeschooling should have the resolve to do the homeschooling. It can be done by having a liking for the children, their company, their physical presence, their foolishness, energy and passion. They should enjoy the talks, should have the patience to listen to the questions and answer these with logic and rationale. Above all parents must have adequate time available for their children and homeschooling is to be taken as a fulltime job and not merely as an opportunity teaching. Most of the parents who opt for home schooling has the only desire to do the homeschooling and make their children better person as compared to what they would become in traditional schools.
Homeschooling has become a necessity for parent who considers the public school system are no more doing their part in imparting the education to the children. Growth of social media and networking and the rise of classical education as a defining goal, aim at taking the homeschooling beyond its present scope. Classical Christian education uses the educational training that has proved effective to infuse Christianity in the minds of students. Schools impart the classic education in three stages of grammar, rhetoric and dialectic. After the classic education training children are in a position to comprehend the ideas contained in bigger books about the cultural history. By the time they are over with this second phase of education, they become ready to apply their knowledge to theological judgment of contemporary culture. The three stages of education if approached logically, can help in homeschooling of children.
Future of homeschooling seems bright as more parents are being convinced with the passage of time to teach their children in the safe, and comfortable environment of their home. It will give them relief from so many related tension like pick n drop from the school, saving money from tuition fee and saving children from school environment. Homeschooling is also helping in bringing back the culture of education in the daily routine of children and thus facilitates the children’s education. It is difficult for parents to achieve mastery on many subjects that they try to teach at home especially when it comes to high school level. School teachers have the advantage of making the education on one particular subject as his full time pursuit, however, homeschool parents do not have that flexibility. If the parents want to teach their children well, they will have to master many subjects and broaden their mental outlook as per the requirement of the present time. Subjects with sufficient complexity need an instructor with complete knowledge of the subject. Pre-recorded videos, and live streaming of certain videos and video conferencing have widened the scope of help available to the home students. Many good teachers record their lectures and make them available to the students through teaching companies. The teaching companies have recruited the best teachers from Ivy League colleges for recording the lectures, and provide them online for instruction at home. It has reduced the gap between the student and the qualified teacher. Videoconferencing provide the interactivity earlier found lacking in pre-recorded videos. For the last few years, video conferencing have helped a great deal in home schooling of students. It helps the teacher also as at one time he can be delivering lecture to so many houses that multiplies his income. Technology is one aspect in homeschooling that bodes well for the future. The homeschooling is also spiraling to the traditional understanding of education. Modern technology will help in the expansion of traditional education. In the future, a combination of ancient schooling and modern technology will increase the number of students of homeschooling and depth of students undergoing homeschooling.
There are good things and benefits related to homeschooling that make it as one of the best available options for caring parents. It includes:-
- Better teacher-to-student ratio. It is extremely important in educating a child effectively is to have a better teacher-to-student ratio; the number of students per teacher. Presence of association between teacher and student and the amount of dedication a teacher has to a specific child, is an important facet of homeschooling. One-on-one education is the basis of homeschooling which makes the best available teacher-to-student ratio. In both the areas which are critical to a child education, homeschooling is the best option.
- Combined and regular education. Homeschooling needs to be consistent in order to make it a successful form of imparting education. As the education of a child undergoing homeschooling is managed by the same person over a prolonged period, long term plan can help in provision of consistent education. Teaching of each topic and going through the topics gives the experience in a sequence. As the parents are fully involved with the student, and they understand the experience and background of the child, and they can well design the future educational activities of their children.
- Exceptional education. The dominant objective of homeschooling is to tutor children at home and homeschool excels in achievement of this objective. Due to the numbers of advantages accrued through homeschooling, it is considered the best way for children education. There are several ways to establish that homeschooling is the best way to educate a child. Many of these benefits of homeschooling are understandable and have a positive impact on children. Homeschooled children produce better results on standardized tests. Homeschoolers are increasingly becoming wanted for higher education. Many colleges and universities have modified the admission practices in order to encourage the students who are part of homeschoolers to apply for admission.
- Best teaching materials. Best teaching material is available to the children undergoing homeschools through multifarious means of video recording, video conferencing and recorded form of lectures by the top lecturers of Ivy Leagues Universities. Parents have the option of selecting the best teaching material available as per the learning capability of their children that helps in better understanding of the student and improves on capability of students to comprehend the subject easily.
- Education tailored as per child's personality and capabilities. In homeschools, focus of education is the children as individuals and his education can be tailored as per the capabilities and personality of the student. Excellency in one identified area can be used to accelerate the education in that particular area. Lack of interest in some subjects can be taken care of by inserting interesting things to make the subject understandable. For difficult subjects, additional help by the teacher can be ensured through homeschooling. There exists the flexibility to alter the procedure of teaching as per the requirement of how best the student can learn. If a student is quick in learning through visuals, more visual training aids can be used for that particular child. Homeschooling helps in designing the education as per the requirements of the child, and that is the best thing which can happen to a student; things tailor-made as per the capability of the student.
Homeschooling has many benefits but does have the disadvantages related to the grooming of the children and personality development. A child taught at home may not have the confidence of a child going to traditional schools. Interacting with other children is an important part of personality development of a child. Fighting the own battle and resolving the own issues by the child himself gives him the confidence in his personality and removes his shyness about the people. Homeschooled children will lack the confidence and many desired personality traits. A traditional thing is always superior to the new thing as tradition has developed over a period of centuries and cannot be wrong. Traditional systems improve with the passage of time that makes it a perfect system.
Works Cited
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