Homeschooling: The Better Choice

Shantel Durham

Professor Grushenka Engelbrecht-Castanon

Introduction to Composition

November 30, 2015

Homeschooling: The Better Choice

        What do Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Carnegie have in common? Give up yet? The answer is they were both homeschooled. Other names in history such as George Washington, John Quincy Adams, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, General Robert E. Lee, and Mark Twain, were all homeschooled (Wilhelm and Firmin 307). According to The U.S. Department of Education, approximately 1.8 million students are staying home for class today. That is 3.4% of all school-aged children in the U.S. who are beginning class in the comfort of their own homes. This is roughly 120 times more students than 45 years ago. This upward trend leads to a lot of questions. Does homeschooling work? Are homeschooled students learning the skills needed for a complete education? How does a homeschooled child’s education compare with that of a public school child’s education? Do homeschooled children become socially isolated from society? Parents and educators alike are concerned about the quality of education students are receiving, whether it be from public school or from homeschooling. But what exactly is home school?

        Homeschooling is not a new concept, but in fact one of the first systems of schooling our founders used. Eugenia Hepworth Berger, the Department Editor for Early Childhood Education Journal wrote that parents only option as the first settlers of America was to teach their children at home because there were no public school systems set up. She stated that the public school movement really did not begin until the 1830s and 1840s. Even when schools were formed children usually only attended a few months out of the year and often for only 3 to 4 years. The public school system resulted in one room schoolhouses that were church run and religiously based. By the early 1900s schooling children at home was discouraged and public schooling became the norm. Individual states took charge of their own education requirements and the regulations varied from state to state.

         It was not until the early 1960s that home schooling was endorsed as a viable alternative to public education. This movement was promoted by the late teacher and humanist John Holt. “Holt provided the leadership in advocating a radical movement that stressed educational decentralization and greater parental autonomy.” (Wilhelm and Firmin 307) Between 1975 and 1993 state standards were established for homeschooling. Homeschooling has only been legal in all 50 states since 1993. This same era of history experienced a rejection of the Bible and Christianity in public schools. This resulted in a high number of parents pulling their children from public school systems and teaching them in the comfort of their own homes.

        While the homeschooling movement originally took off because of parents religious beliefs, it has since grown for many different reasons. Dave Bohon writes that American parents are fed up with the violence, sex, drugs, peer pressure, and rebellious and unruly children that define the public school system. Other reasons parents choose to home school include a desire to build a stronger family connection, safety, and some choose homeschooling because their children have special needs or special talents.

        There are many advantages to giving a student a home school education, such as a parent planned curriculum that revolves around their family’s beliefs. The education level of the parent supervising and administering the curriculum has little or no effect on the quality of education received by a student. According to Brian Ray “home-educated students whose parents did not have college degrees scored equally high on tests compared to students whose parents had college degrees.” Parents who home school can give their children the one-on-one attention that many children need to understand different concepts. Martha Pool, a previously homeschooled student and now a freshmen in college wrote that the one-on-one instruction kept her from ever squirming in class while waiting for slower students. The quality of education homeschooled students get has proven to be just as good if not better than students in public school. Test scores for home educated students average 15 to 30 percent higher than their public school counterparts (Ray 50).

         Many people who oppose home school programs claim that home school students are not properly socialized, but according to home schooled students like Martha Pool, “contrary to many myths surrounding homeschooling, I never lacked social interaction.” There are programs set up among the different states public school systems that allow homeschoolers to participate in extracurricular activities like sports and music. Also homeschooled students still have the opportunity to join any activity through the community which helps them socialize with people their own age. “Cub Scouts, Camp Fire, and Brownies offer social groups for children to join. (Berger 207) Many parents who home school their children come together once a week or so and take field trips, participate in activities, and do volunteer projects together to let their children socialize with other students. In order for home school education to work, the parents must be willing to sacrifice time and patience above and beyond the average parents. Not all children can be successful home school students just like not all public school students are a success. Each individual case tells a new story.

The school system our founding fathers established has, for centuries, been considered the basis for providing children and young adults with a solid educational foundation. This traditional way of schooling, however, has changed so severely that it now has an increasing number of drawbacks. In traditional schools, children are faced with social pressures including but not limited to bullying and partying, they are taught based on a standardized system of learning and comprehension, they receive very minimal amounts of one-on-one instruction, and their values and beliefs must be checked at the door. More and more parents are beginning to home school their children in an effort to avoid many of these major issues they see plaguing the public school systems in our country. Homeschooling has arguably become a better choice for many families than public schooling because it can better accommodate for individual learning styles, it provides more one-on-one attention for students, there is more flexibility to choose a curriculum that is based on the family’s own beliefs and values, and parents are able to better protect their children from unnecessary social pressures.