Introduction
In the changing education culture and trends very few are still aware of the concept of home schooling. Most of us neither know someone who has been actively involved in home schooling their children or have heard of a family member who has chosen the alternative of home schooling over traditional schooling system. Even though the trend has been slow but the trend has started to begin and fascinatingly the trend involves a diverse sample of the population across the globe. (Brian, 2014) Homeschooling was a method once only preferred by religious families who preferred keeping their children at home and mainly taught religious education at home but now this concept is receiving its attention and is in the limelight. A wide range of families has started to adopt to this concept of homeschooling their children. With all forms of education, homeschooling has its pros and cons as well but I will choose against homeschooling children
Why homeschooling is not a preferred medium of teaching children?
Homeschooling is a self-explanatory concept. It involves teaching children at home rather than sending them to school. The first argument against this approach is the issue of socialization. The concept of homeschooling means, children mostly stay at home, and they are unable to socialize regularly with children of the same age. This means children are isolated from the external world and become socially deprived. When the children are not sent to school, they are secluded from the real world and seldom get a chance to learn the social and communication skills as required. It is important that children should get a chance to interact with children of their own age on a daily basis. This transforms a child personality; he becomes more confident and learns to adapt to real-life situations of the world. (Michael, 2001)
Secondly, even though parents of children who are home schooled argue that their children recurrently receive opportunities to interact socially and practice social skills, but there are other limitations involved in this restriction as well. When children go to school they tend to meet teachers, children of same age group and many other children belonging from diversified cultures and backgrounds and children learn to deal with different ideas and concepts when they meet their peers. This is an opportunity lost for the children that are home schooled. Even though, children are made to get involved in a variety of outdoor activities such as playing with neighborhood children, field trips, trips to park with family and friends. These trips are usually very conservative as these involve participation of similar background and social class children unlike the school going children who tend to have a broader interaction with children from different backgrounds. If we consider the community activities of home school children such as participation in sports activity, it is just for few hours and it does not fulfill the real purpose. (Michael, 2001)
Third issue with home schooling is that the instructor who is teaching at home may not have enough resources to provide the home students with complete curriculum, resources, and activities provided in school. Even though lot of homeschool activities are now available in a series and well-incorporated curriculum resources but there are innumerable activities that homeschoolers cannot perform for example participation in band orchestra, music learning in chorus, and many other sports activities that cannot be performed alone or without children with different expertise and learning culture. Even the homeschoolers agree that extra-curricular activities are essential for the development of children, but they are unable to provide the equal quality of these activities as compared to schools. (Michael, 2001)
Fourth critique of homeschooling is the depth and quality of knowledge that is required for the students, as they move ahead in secondary education. For example, mathematics and other complex subjects like biology cannot be easily taught by the adults at home rather professional school teachers are required to teach them. Even though it is argued by proponents of homeschooling that tapes, CDs and other informational material is available to teach children at home but I still believe the classroom environment, brainstorming and discussion sessions cannot be provided to the children at home and proper traditional schooling is crucial for a child’s brain development. (Michael, 2001)
Lastly, the professionalism and support required for the children to prosper in their educational field cannot be provided with home schooling. When these children instigate their professional life, they will lack interpersonal skills because the confidence and determination professional teachers are able to provide, parents do not have the skills and professional resource to provide that. For example, the curriculum of home schooling is unable to teach or provide children with time management skills, study habits, intense competitive environment, or the cordial ability to work with others. (Kathi, 2012)
Conclusion
I believe homeschooling should be provided by parents but just in extra time, otherwise a regular routine should be set up for children and they should be sent to school. This way the children are able to socialize with their own age group, brainstorm and discuss issues with them, learn about different cultures and backgrounds by meeting diverse students and get involve in special sport activities that can appositely be provided in the school environment only.
References
Brian D. Ray (Jan, 2014) “Research facts on Homeschool” http://www.nheri.org/ResearchFacts.pdf
Kathi Moreau (Nov 2012) Home schooled vs. Public schooled. https://www.nmu.edu/education/sites/DrupalEducation/files/UserFiles/Moreau_Kathi_MP.pdf
Michael Romanowski (2001) “Common Arguments about the Strengths and Limitations of Home Schooling” The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, Volume 75, Issue 2, pp.4-5. http://bhssnell.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/9/8/5098492/9_3_romanowski.pdf
