Homeschooling – An Emerging Trend (brief on Pros and Cons). 

 

 

How I came to know about homeschooling, let me share a story. It was a summer morning while I was having breakfast with my wife and daughters (both under 3 years). Like several topics we discuss over the table, I asked my wife that the time has come for our elder daughter to get ready for school like we used to be. My wife’s response shocked me because she doesn’t want to send our children to school. For the moment I thought she was joking but her expressions were serious. My wife told me that without doubt, children are our most precious asset of life but she has some alternate plans for them. The next moment, I heard some words that sounded naive, like a new thing immediately came to me when she said that she wanted to “home-school” our children.

Introduction

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. Children are the future generations that cultivate the world with the realization of their dreams. Being parents, the sole purpose is to provide an environment for children where they can nurture, sharpen their abilities, understand their interests, and get prepared to materialize their dreams. This all starts with an institution, a school where children are educated and trained to move forward in their lives as required by societies. For this purpose, schools are always existing however at present homeschooling is the emerging trend.  

Over time, the dynamics of the world have changed, and accordingly, the institutes are required to match those requirements. The focus has to be made not on the selection of institute but understanding children’s abilities which can only be done by parents. The need is for an institute where each child can be attended in person and grow with his capacity while developing his interests and fulfilling his dreams. As a result of successive studies and progressive reforms, a concept known as “Homeschooling” has emerged, an institution that allows parents to be involved in the most important part of a child’s education. C. S. Lewis has beautifully said that children are not a distraction from more important work, they are the most important work.  

A lot can be discussed but the main purpose is to brief the basic concept of homeschooling as explained below:

• What is Homeschooling?
• Requirement of Homeschooling.
• Methods of Homeschooling.
• Pros and Cons of Homeschooling.
• Strategies to overcome disadvantages.
• Performance outcome of Homeschooling.

1. What is Homeschooling?

Homeschooling is also called home education where children are not required to attend regular classes in schools. The home becomes the epicenter of child education, rather than public or private schools. In homeschooling, parents take responsibility for the mental, emotional, and physical development of their children. At first, the parents educate their children at home, but at a later stage, tutors are hired to help with more specialized needs. Parents determine how long their children should be homeschooled, which can be a few years or until they graduate.

2. Requirement of Homeschooling:

The requirement of homeschooling was always existing however it started emerging in 1960 and 1970. The need evolved after the involvement of educational reformists due to their dissatisfaction with traditional education.

With time, parents started getting more inclined towards raising their children and became dissatisfied with the local schools. They started understanding the needs of children while enjoying their company, energy, and foolishness. Keeping children protected while ensuring their physical, mental, and spiritual development are the main reasons parents choose homeschooling. John Holt was a famous educator who contributed a lot in promoting home education with his several publications naming his famous books Growing without Schooling and Teach Your Own. Holt said “I want to make it clear that I don’t see homeschooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools. I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were.”

Practical implementation of homeschooling starts with understanding and selecting the suitable method based on individual circumstances. Parents have to develop and implement a proper programme or curriculum when their child reaches school-going age. The daily schedule can be maintained based on the parent’s routine and the child’s interest.

3. Methods of Homeschooling:

As traditional schooling has different methods, similarly there are different methods for homeschooling evolved with time. Each method of homeschooling has its pros and cons but provides a different mode of instruction. Parents have to select the teaching method based on their child’s interests, learning ability, and learning style preferences. Further information on Methods of Homeschooling will be available in my upcoming post.

4. Pros (advantages) and Cons (Disadvantages) of Homeschooling:

Any system implemented throughout the world will have advantages and disadvantages. Like the traditional school system, homeschooling has its pros and cons which are essential to know, briefly listed as follows:

Pros (Advantages) of Homeschooling:

Following are the main Pros (Advantages) gathered from various sources to provide you a better understanding:

• Better upbringing including physical and mental health development as individualized attention is provided.
• Less burden than traditional schooling due to flexible schedule and education freedom.
• Freedom for promoting religious values and is recognized as the most important reason to opt homeschooling approach. Based on one of the surveys 36% of overall homeschooling is opted with a purpose to provide religious moral instruction.
• Results in strong family bonding due to frequent interaction between parents and children.
• Parents consider homeschooling safer for their children as it provides shelter from the negative impact of other students’ behavior.
• More opportunities on daily basis to promote life skills including reasoning and analyzing abilities.
• It provides an environment to explore a child’s potential, capabilities, and interests.
• Each child is different and accordingly treated while identifying and overcoming weaknesses.
• More opportunities to interact with children of different ages.
• Promotes more traveling and fun by visiting different places frequently.
• Parents can discuss controversial topics easily which are necessary to be known by children at a specific time.
• Provides stability in difficult circumstances and schedules can be accommodated e.g. in times of child or parent’s illness.
• Children are groomed into well-rounded personalities while enjoying each moment of their learning.
• Learn at an individual pace as there is no completion or race between smart and weaker students.
• Education is the experience of learning and following the same, homeschooling develops an interest to learn in children.

Cons (Disadvantages) of Homeschooling:

Following are the main Cons (Disadvantages) to be known before taking any decision:

• Lack of possibility to make friends may have a social impact on a child.
• The school environment is not available which may result in less focus on education while being in the home.
• Lack of learning environment due to the flexibility of routine.
• Parents to be educated to a certain extent so they must be able to study, learn, and teach.

• Extra effort is required from parents, after all, they are not experts in all subjects.
• At some time homeschooling may get expensive due to different factors including traveling, the need to arrange tutors or online classes.
• Parents have less time for themselves as homeschooling demands continuous effort, involvement, and significant time.
• Certain school facilities may not be available like a science lab, gymnastics, and sports.
• In traditional schooling, frequent ceremonies have been made to recognize the achievement of students who may lack at homeschooling.
• Children may have difficulty adjusting to the social environment in college at a later stage.
• Parents should be ready to face negative feedback and questioning from people, which may discourage them.

Strategies to overcome Disadvantages:

There is always room available for development. Following are some strategies to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of homeschooling:

• Connect with home school communities to overcome any social impact and isolation phobia.
• Get-togethers can be arranged which provides opportunities for children to make friends of their own.
• The school environment can be developed while dedicating a fixed part of a home as a school.

• Parents to establish a learning environment where they need to be self-disciplined and cultivate the ability to segregate home and learning.
• For specialized subjects, tutors and online learning arrangements can be made.
• Special arrangements to be made to acknowledge children’s efforts either through gifts or arranging a get-together for celebrating the achievement.
• Parents have to be dedicated and self-motivated where they should not worry about people’s remarks or questioning, after all this matter of their child.

5. Performance outcome of Homeschooling:

Homeschooling is an emerging trend however with time certain studies have been carried out to assess the performance outcome. Some are referred to as below:

The concept of homeschooling has been implemented aggressively mainly in the United States and is now spreading globally. According to a study conducted in the USA (released in 2018), home-schooled students have increased significantly to millions.

Referring to the empirical study as released in 2010 by Widener Law Review and referred by Michael Maloney in his article “What Does the Research Say about Homeschooling”. Based on a study, home school children’s overall performance has been observed higher or similar to the children of traditional school.

Karthi Moreau has carried out a study as part of the research for the requirement of degree “Specific differences in the educational outcomes of those students who are homeschooled vs. students in a traditional school setting”. Based on the sample studied, out of total homeschooled students 75 percent of students have a success rate equal to or better than the students of traditional schools. 

Referring to an article published by Marc Synder in a Journal of Inquiry and Practice “An evaluative study of the academic achievement of homeschooled students versus traditionally schooled students attending a Catholic University”. In the article, it was concluded that home-schooled students performed better than traditional school students on standardized tests (SAT, ACT) and as overall GPA scores.

Conclusion:

Homeschooling is an emerging trend that is appearing more effective in comparison to the traditional schooling system. Both systems are different approaches having their advantages and disadvantages. The selection of method is purely dependent on parents considering their routine and child requirements.

In order to overcome all the associated challenges, parents must be disciplined, determined, and motivated. The entire focus should be on the better upbringing of children. A family may choose to homeschool for a couple of years or until graduation, depending on their circumstances. Parents must weigh the pros and cons associated with homeschooling before making their selection. While concluding, I would suggest that homeschooling should be carried out for the very few first years. This will not only lessen the burden of conventional schooling but also provides the environment to explore child interests. Additionally, this will facilitate strong bonds, create a love for learning, and lay strong foundations for the future.