A student’s ability to succeed should be held in the highest regard when deciding which type of education is best for them, but how is anyone supposed to determine the “best” way for a student to succeed? Many people think that homeschooling will bring children a better chance for success, because it creates an education that’s tailored for the specific child. In a study of over 20,000 homeschoolers, Dr. Lawrence M. Rudner found that, “though homeschoolers tend not to use prepackaged curriculum programs, they nevertheless score ‘exceptionally high’ on standardized tests,” (Source C). While I agree that education tailored specifically for a child can result in better scores than relying on prepackaged curriculum, I do not feel that a full picture of a student’s success can be based off of a test score. I believe that a student who is motivated in a conventional school will have a high quality base education from their academics and will then have the ability to bring about their own success by furthering their education themselves. Students still have a great chance of success in a public school, but at least if they don’t end up succeeding in their goals, they will always have a very rock solid base education they can use to further themselves with.
The quality of a student’s education is also a key issue to consider when examining homeschooling. There is no way for one parent to know every field of study and be able to effectively teach those subjects to their child in an effective way. This is why in a normal school setting you have teachers who dedicate their lives to one specific subject and have training on how to teach said subject. This means that teachers are able to provide a more in depth educational experience based on the field they are devoted to teaching. Some people argue that because a student is taught at home, they will be able to pick up the information from books more quickly. While this may be true for more simple elementary subjects, when the more challenging information comes into play in high school level subjects, home school students have to rely on books to learn this difficult information. Consider this selection discussing the learning of higher level information with homeschooled children, “getting it down means really hitting the books. But the fact is, most homeschooled kids have no problem,” (Source F). This illustrates how the only really way for homeschooled children to learn higher level information is through books. It also shows they are good at it, but if the children are just learning this information from a textbook, the idea of homeschooling becomes kind of contradictory, the children just end up going right back to learning in an non-interactive way, strait from a book, when they could be learning in an interactive classroom.
The final, and arguably most important, piece of information to consider when examining homeschooling is a student’s social behavior. If a child cannot collaborate with their peers, then their education and morals are severely altered. Many people argue that homeschoolers do get socialization through various clubs and activities, but the problem is that homeschooled students don’t have socialization with their peers on a day to day basis. This means that they cannot share their ideas with their peers, they cannot learn how to work with their peers, and they cannot question information with their similarly minded peers. Some people argue that it is better for the students to learn socialization from their parents rather than their peers. Consider these sentences, “Parents give their kids the skills they need to interact with other people and have a chance to protect their children,” (Homeschool.com). This shows some people’s view that parents can socialize with their kids and keep them safe, but what it doesn’t show is how students don’t get a chance to actually collaborate with their peers in group projects, a vital skill. Also, children need to learn how to deal with any real life situations, not just those presented by their parents in a child proofed way. Even though homeschooled children may still go out and socialize with their friends, they cannot get a full picture of what the real world is like unless they actually have the opportunity to collaborate with their peers, whether it be with school work or just socialization.
Homeschooling often seems like the ultimate alternative to a standard education for students and parents. It allows students to get an individualized education, it helps a child understand how to learn things easier, and it provides flexibility to teaching and learning style. The problem is that if you look at the underlying ideas in homeschooling, including sub par success in the future, poor quality education, or a poor understanding of real life social behavior, you can see that this learning style is deeply flawed. However, maybe our society should have considered the problems with our conventional education system that are pushing so many people to seek a homeschooled education in the first place.
