Is Homeschooling Better than Public School

Homeschooling is constantly ridiculed due to the belief that homeschoolers aren’t getting the social experience they need to take on the real world. In contrast, homeschooling can be a way for children to avoid the hardships and drama that public and even private schools have to offer. Homeschoolers avoid the bullies and are set up for success with more individualized learning, opportunities to have new experiences, and personalized scheduling. Although homeschooled students do not receive some of the traditional high school experiences, they are academically dominant; still involved in social activities and have more personal freedoms.

Homeschooling has never been that popular of a schooling method until now. In recent years, the number of homeschooled children has become more rapid and is continuing its growth with great strides. Now, more than 3% of school-aged children are being homeschooled. Early in the 2000s, parents believed that Christian activists were the only people who were homeschooling their children because they were the ones creating the helpful websites. According to an article in the New York Magazine, choosing to homeschool your child is rarely a religious decision anymore. Parents are now realizing that the positives of homeschooling your children outweigh the negative impact that public and private schools have on their children.

Homeschoolers are academically dominant compared to public school and private school students. According to the Practical Homeschooling magazine, homeschooler’s national average percentile scores are over thirty percent higher in every subject over public school kid’s scores. Homeschoolers have a higher rate of graduation for both high school and college. The College Board that administers the SAT stated that homeschoolers score and average of 7% higher than the national average. When homeschoolers get to college, they have an average of a 3.41 their freshman year while other students have an average of 3.12 and by their senior year homeschoolers have a 3.46 average GPA while other students have a 3.16. The most common professions for homeschoolers, post-college, are account, engineer, doctor, lawyer, professor, and small-business owner. Homeschoolers lead in all aspects of education whether it’s the ACT, SAT, or GPA.

A lot of people question why parents choose to homeschool. Are the parents being overprotective and restrictive? Are the parents of homeschoolers setting their children up for failure? Most parents of homeschooled children want their child to receive the best education and make it more individualized, so their child will want to learn. Homeschool parents normally stray away from standardized testing and focus their curriculum more on creative and engaging material and activities. Parents believe that their children shouldn’t be locked away for hours inside a school with a negative atmosphere. According to the New York Magazine, 88% of U.S. homeschool parents have concerns about negative peer pressure, the schools environment, and the safety of their child at school. The article also interviewed parents of children who attended public school in New York City. One of the mothers expressed concerns on her children’s bad attitudes, the loss of family connection, and she could feel the stress her children were bring home with them after school. Homeschoolers may become stressed with school work and getting things done but they don’t feel lost or disconnected with their family because they are always working together in a positive environment.

Even though homeschoolers are academically dominant and have more freedoms, their parents do have some struggles. Parents of homeschoolers spend a great deal of time planning and creating lesson plans for their children. Due to the amount of time spent on teaching and planning, most parents do not have time to have a job outside of the home classroom. Most homes that homeschool have a one parent income. School books, supplies, tutors, and updated technology aren’t cheap either. There might be online resources to use but parents still have to pay for a lot of their mechanisms of teaching. Money is a huge problem for parents of homeschoolers.

Just because school is at home doesn’t mean there is no structure. The Department of Education may not require parents to be certified or have credentials but they do require that the parents state their intentions for homeschooling, the curriculum goals, and that they will abide by the corresponding requirements of the public school. Homeschoolers don’t get off that easy. Their parents still give them homework, tests, and report cards. As students get older, parents tend to lean on homeschool online networks and tutors to make sure their children are receiving the best education possible. To make sure that homeschoolers are up to date on their learning, certified teachers or another qualified person administer a school district test to their progress. If the child does not pass, the parent is put on probation and would have to put their child into a public school.

Homeschoolers are still luckier than most children because they get the opportunity to go on awesome field trips. Business Insider states that traditional schooling isn’t placed in the real world. Homeschooler have the advantage to mature quickly because a decent amount of their learning is done in community colleges, libraries, or at museums. They get to develop a more open-mind then most children.

Homeschoolers still struggle with their socialization skills. School is where you learn to cooperate with others and make friends. Calvert Education, an online resource for non-traditional students, Pre-K to High School, says that some kids have more interaction with adults then they do peers and normally only interact with a small group of friends their own age. They also state that homeschoolers cans still participate in recreational leagues and homeschool formed teams, but most school districts don’t allow them to play on public school sports teams. Homeschoolers are more involved in the community and are more likely to participate in service projects. Homeschoolers are involved in different, non-traditional activities.

In some cases, homeschoolers can struggle with their socialization skills and lose quality time with their peers when growing up and developing. Homeschooling comes at a cost, but the successes of homeschooled children proves its worth. Homeschoolers have academic dominance, have more personal freedoms, and are still involved in the community even though they don’t receive traditional schooling.

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