Research Paper about Homeschooling
Homeschooling is a topic that is talked about a lot, especially right now with virtual schools. The main points throughout this essay that help show all sides of homeschooling: Pros to homeschooling, cons to homeschooling, and the regulations that should be made to homeschool. Homeschooling has changed so much over the years and has gone up, especially since Covid has hit. During the years 1999-12, the percentage of people homeschooled was around 3.3%, but since Covid has hit it has been reported that 5.4% of households are homeschooling.
There is a ton of pros and cons to homeschooling, and one of the main concerns of homeschooled kids is the lack of social interaction and skills. But being homeschooled doesn’t mean that since they don’t go to a traditional school they can still have interaction with other kids their age. Parents can enroll their children in a community or town little league sports or things like that. This allows the child to acquire social skills with kids their age and still be homeschooled. This gives the children a chance to learn proper social skills and the people that would be in their class if they did go to school.
There are some things that public schools cannot teach: such as religion, moral beliefs, and other topics about religion or beliefs that could offend people. One of the main reasons that parents choose to homeschool their children is their religion. Teachers could receive a large punishment if they taught children religion being that it might not be what they believe and the teacher cannot reinforce it.
There could be a lot of disadvantages to homeschooled children or homeschooling your children. According to Ashleigh Ricardo, “Although parents of homeschooled children may want their children to avoid dating, children in traditional school environments may not begin dating, but they are exposed to good and bad relationships and what are good and bad traits to look for once they do begin dating”(Ricardo). This could be a very possible reason why parents choose this form of schooling for their children. When the child does not experience dating, as well as other relationships in high school this could affect their first relationships and their friendships with their peers and other people they are around. They might not have dealt with some of the issues that could happen with their friends and may not know how to react to them. Children that are homeschooled may not learn how a relationship should be and what a healthy one looks like, they have only seen their parents' relationships. Not only with dating, but their friends’ relationships, bosses, and colleges might have an impact as well. They might have never dealt with certain situations that some other people have.
Ricardo goes on to say, “As a child is exposed to bullies and peer pressure, children learn how to interact with peers and problem solve, which is similar to the experiences they may encounter in the “real world”.” This is a statement that emphasizes the importance of being put in tough situations that they will face and know how to deal with once they come by a job and into more confrontation with people that they do not know. While homeschooling you do receive human interaction but you may not always have to deal with all the real-world situations. If the child does not do a speech class where they have to stand up in front of a class or room full of people they will never experience that unless they go to a college somewhere.
In school today there is a big issue with bullying and peer pressure which leads a lot of parents to lean towards homeschooling. Ricardo states that “Furthermore, parents speak strongly against the negative socialization children receive in traditional school environments.” If a child does not experience negative socialization during their younger years how will they know how to say no when they are put into that environment or situation without their parents or parent there? Drugs along with peer pressure are another key thing that makes parents lean more towards homeschooling their children. But they won’t know what to do if they are asked to do something that they don’t know a lot about. Especially if they are going to college, knowing how to say no to certain things could affect their safety.
In the last couple of years with Covid going on a lot of families have been struggling due to not being able to have internet. In small towns, a lot of families live in the country where intent access to the internet is very limited. Rebecca Jaycox talks about how the internet plays a huge role in homeschooling, “Although rural areas may lack such homeschooling resources as museums, Internet communications, and expansive libraries, other assets abound, as these school-based examples illustrate”(Jaycox) This makes me going against homeschooling especially the location of where some people live. Being in school and seeing people come to school and telling teachers, “Sorry I didn’t do it because I don’t have access to the internet at my house.” This could depend on where you are from and what town you are around. Not being able to have access to certain things that people in the cities have. Living in the country, you may not have access to the internet and things like that so it does limit your use of the internet and deepen your knowledge of certain things.
Being in elementary school you work on certain problem solving, being homeschooled. While growing up going to school, everyday problems arise that need to be solved fast, when homeschooled you might not earn that skill. Jaycox says, “One concern surrounding the homeschooling movement is that personal independence and self-sufficiency will take precedence over what is best for society at large. Critical observers of homeschooling argue that those who practice this form of education are giving up on solving common problems and that social stratification is a consequence of their actions” This is a disadvantage of homeschooling considering when you go out on your own you need to know how to get yourself through things without the help of others and your parents. Being put in a place where there needs to be a decision made fast you just need to act on it, and won’t need to think.
“About 40% of U.S. states (n21) mandate the use of standardized achievement tests in specific content domains, usually reading and mathematics in lower grade levels and expanding to include language, science, and social studies in higher grade levels. In the majority of these states, parents submit scores to the local school district. Among the states that require testing, 13 calls for annual assessment or evaluation, and 8 require periodic assessment or evaluation.” This is a great regulation since this is an easy and equal form of testing. The parents of the homeschooled child have to report the scores to their school district which makes sure they are still doing testing and can see where the child needs to continue to improve.
In certain states, different regulations take place. Janet Carlson talks about how there is, “no testing required”(Carlson). There should at least be some testing requirements. Even though some tests aren’t worth it and don’t calculate what you know, I feel like there should be some sort of testing that needs to be done in that child's schooling career. This lets the teacher know where their child is at in their learning process and know what they need to work on. In college, you are going to have tests that will be very challenging to children that don’t take tests they may not know the proper way to study effectively.
Buffy Campbell writes about the different ways there is to homeschool, this is what she says, “Part-time homeschool with part-time enrollment in a school district (Competent Private instruction)”(Campbell). This form of schooling is the best form of homeschooling for children or high schoolers. Some parents are incapable of teaching certain subjects to their children. This is a great regulation, you could do both if necessary. Some parents can’t teach them things like bad, agriculture, choir, and others. Coming to school helps them be a part of a team, class, and know-how things work in classrooms for the future. This as well, allows them to meet new people that they could have a bond with and become friends with outside of school.
Homeschooling has a lot of advantages, disadvantages, and regulations that need to be followed. But after looking more into homeschooling there seem to be more disadvantages to homeschooling. One of the main reasons is the social aspect, but there are ways around getting more social. Overall, there was a lot of information that was found about homeschooled children. There are a lot of regulations that should be more strict with kids that are homeschooled.
