Homeschooling- Not The Better Choice

Home Schooling: Not the Better Option

Many have argued that homeschooling is the better option when raising children, yet evidence has proven it's not. Homeschooling takes a toll on a family's finances, a child's social skills, and overall children are not getting a well rounded education like they would receive in public schools.

In an average home where the matriarch would make forty thousand to sixty thousand dollars a year, they loose about one million dollars in twenty years. To homeschool one child it costs on average two thousand, five hundred dollars. Because a family chooses to homeschool their children it can cost around forty-two thousand, five hundred dollars per year minimum. Public schools spend on average eight thousand dollars per student, when homeschooled student's parents on average spend two thousand, five hundred dollars on them. There is an obvious financial difference between the public school systems and the homeschooling families.

Another problem that has arisen with homeschooled children is the level of their social skills. Recent studies have shone that students in public schools have a higher level of social skills when interacting with different people. Homeschooled children are exposed to a definite lower number of people than children in the public school systems. The children who are in the homeschooled environment are not exposed to many authoritative figures such as numerous teachers, principals, etc. Because they are not exposed to these figures, they have a less respect for authority in the future. One of the popular reasons why parents homeschool their children is that they don't want them exposed to the secular world. If their children are not exposed to the secular world while in elementary through high school, what are they going to do when they go to college? It is going to be one rude awakening for these children. If they don't develop fine social skills during the early elementary years, which are impressionable years for when a child learns new things, how are they going to suddenly develop social skills for large groups of people when they go to college or get a job?

The many children in our country that are homeschooled have not received the best education that they could have. It's not fair to the homeschooled child if their parent is not qualified to teach high level classes such as trigonometry, chemistry, or American history to name a few. These students that are homeschooled are not able to participate in advanced placement classes to prepare them for college, like students who attend public school get the chance to take. The students who are homeschooled also do not have the chance to use nice facilities like science labs or art studios. When it comes to the student's physical education, they are not able to do the same activities as the students at Yankton High School get to participate in during their physical education class. There is a definite disadvantage to the homeschooled population there. When the homeschooled student then "graduates" from high school, they only receive a GED. (A GED is a General Educational Development test.) Not all colleges accept a GED, now is that fair to the student?

When talking about the protection of a student public or private school is by far the better answer. In public or private school there is always a teacher, principal, counselor,