What is the best schooling option for your child?
Credit: gregobagel | ©gregobagel
The Viewpoint of a Public School Parent
With the recent rash of articles being written on the glories of home schooling, I decided to chime in with an opposing viewpoint. I know that there are many, many people who will disagree with what I have to say, yet I feel compelled to point out that there are plenty of us wandering the Earth who actually do not think that home schooling is the ideal educational system for children.Certainly there are some situations where home schooling may be best for a child; perhaps with a child who has special needs or other considerations that make public or private schools an unattractive option.
There are many reasons I would never home school my children, the most glaring of these being the fact that I am not a teacher. Teachers are college educated and trained to work with children and assist them with learning. I am not. I am not unintelligent, nor am I uneducated, but I have not been trained as a teacher. People will argue that many teachers are not fit to teach in a classroom. I agree, but I also know how to approach my school administrators and ask for a teacher I feel would be a better fit for my child.
If you have been trained as a teacher and want to home school your child then that is great. If you are intelligent and educated and feel you can do a better job than a school, then by all means, give it a try. My concern is with the parents who are uneducated and ill suited to be teaching their children at home. Is it fair to let those children slip through the educational cracks?
Socialization is a huge buzzword in the home schooling debate. I think you can take your children to all the gymnastics and dance classes, music lessons, and sporting events in the world and they are still not going to be as well socialized as the child who attends a school. Here is my reasoning for that. The children who are taken to such classes and lessons are very likely to be on exactly the same socioeconomic level as your own child simply because those are the parents who can afford the lessons.
Comments
Private
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/09/2010
My husband's grandchildren are all 3 homeschooled. I cannot believe how behind they are. The mother actually says she has school once a week and does 5 lessons. She says she sometimes does not have school for 3-4 weeks at a time-like when they moved. Her children also are not allowed to participate in team sports. They do not go to church because they do not agree with any church in their area (Chicago). The 12 year old can barely write. The 8 year old has a severe speach impediment-which they say is ok since they can understand him. I could go on and on. If children are to be homeschooled they should also be tested in a public school at least once a year to make sure they are actually being taught.
Ashley
(Guest)
(Guest)
12/12/2009
Just like Kate, I am 18 and have been in public school my whole life. While I can understand that public school can be harmful, why wouldn't a parent let their child at least try it? If they have a hard time you could always change your mind and have them homeschooled. I have never done drugs, drank, or even had sex and I'm an 18 year old in a public high school. So while you are saying that this article is full of stereotypes, so are many articles that are for homeschooling. I have learned so much about others and have learned how to stand up for myself.
Lauren
(Guest)
(Guest)
10/15/2009
Amen! For many of the same reasons, I also would not have put my children in private school. My children are now out of the nest, but one of the best gifts I gave them was encouragement to be part of the real world in public school. They learned how to learn because no one was holding their hands through every assignment. They learned how to get along with people from a wide variety of home situations which included different family make-up and different socio-economic backgrounds. They also learned that home was not the only place they could be comfortable and "at home". They are bright, happy young adults who have learned how to make a place in the world for themselves. I am also delighted that they enjoy sharing their world with me!
Bethany
(Guest)
(Guest)
06/10/2009
I too am a Christian AND a public school teacher. I know many homeschooled children who can communicate well with adults but aren't able to have a basic conversation with children their own age.
Jeff
(Guest)
(Guest)
03/27/2009
You said it yourself. Children will fall through the cracks, but not in a good quality home learning environment. That is the very reason we are homeschooling. Think about it - 20 children with one teacher and perhaps a helper or two in a state-run government public school vs. two children in our personal household with one loving parent teaching them. Where is the propensity for a child falling through the cracks and from where do you obtain your blinkered notion that the child will fall through the cracks at home? My guess is from public school propaganda, because their system is failing our Nation's most treasured resources - our children! Our children came from orphanages where neglect pushed them so far back in their maturity, social prowess and trust that they could barely function. Then they came to us to live in America and have sailed around the world, so to speak, with loving parents, who have our children's best interests at heart - not a punch-the-clock mentality. Public sc
(cont)Do you think that home schoolers live in a flipping bubble? That they are completely shut out from the world at large? WHen my children see a homeless man on the corner, rather than sitting on the seat of the school bus with other 12 year-olds who would point, tease and snicker at the man's misfortune with their infinite maturity (nice social lesson, yes?) they will learn why the man is homeless, what lead to that situation and how he can be helped or help himself out of it. The socialization argument is tired and regurgitated. Really.
Wow, that is a very large set of assumptions your are making about home schooling families. As Shelly Reed below points out, what makes your brand of narrow-mindedness any different from the ones you refer to? Not all home schooling families are religious...in fact I come from an even smaller minority - secular home school! I have 3 children, one in public schools doing very well, one home schooled pre-schooler and a cyber schooled son who is also at the top of his class. All are very well adjusted, perhaps even moreso for the diversity that exists right within the same house, let alone the outside activities they are each engaged in. If you feel that public schooled children are receiving a superior "social education" by being age-segregated, consider exactly how much time is given for them to truly socialize...that long trip to the bathroom and locker can really be engaging!
Shelly Reed
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/28/2009
(cont)time jobs (at fourteen); and, in the case of one child, she has been rejected by eleven dance programs but is determined to keep trying.
*"The children who are taken to such classes and lessons are very likely to be on exactly the same socioeconomic level as your own child simply because those are the parents who can afford the lessons." My daughter attends her current dance school on an economic scholarship. We are the poorest in the school. We are the wealthiest family in our Girl Scout troop and the Fish and Game Club. There is a combination of homeschoolers and public schoolers in each group.
I doubt this author would appreciate an article stating that all public schoolers are ignorant, promiscuous, lazy, drug-using narcissists; the feeling that would invoke is the same as this article is for homeschoolers. As this author is so concerned with passing narrow-minded thinking onto children, it is probably for the best that hers are educated by someone else.
Shelly Reed
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/28/2009
(cont)it for religious reasons. Unfortunately, they were fairly radical and extreme in their beliefs and were raising a generation of children to be narrow minded and bigoted, just as their parents are." Ah, this is why the author believes children are "boxed into a world." Yes, I know those types of homeschoolers, too. We, and many other homeschoolers in our community, avoid them. However, the author is happy to lump ALL homeschoolers into behaving the same way. Very sad.
*"A home schooled child is the center of their parent's world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." How does the author know this? How does the author know the parent does not have a part-time job, or has friends with whom he/she socializes away from the children, or has hobbies, or...?
*"What happens when they go out in the real world to find out that no one else cares that much?" This argument assumes that homeschoolers do not let their children venture out into the real world. Mine have internships, part-time jo
Shelly Reed
(Guest)
(Guest)
01/28/2009
This argument is based on a lack of knowledge about what homeschooling actually is; if the arguments presented actually existed as the author states, then, yes, these arguments would be all quite valid. Sadly, it is an argument based on misinformation.
*"Where is your child going to learn about those who are not just like them?" In situations other than the ones you mentioned. Only one example for us is our family's hockey fan group, consisting of two janitors, a public school teacher, a construction worker, a hardware design engineer, and a vice-president of a local large company. Talk about economic and social diversity!
*"They will never know the teacher who has a physical disability..." My children were taught archery by a BLIND woman.
*"Home schooled children are missing out on an education in diversity by being boxed into a world of people who are just like they are" Only in certain circumstances, such as...
*"...many of the home schoolers I have known were doin
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