.Homeschooling Disadvantages Students
Introduction
Majority of American parents have a strong interest in the education of their children. This has led to their motivation to influence the kind of educational instruction that their children get. A traditionally marginal but increasingly popular phenomenon is homeschooling, which is parent-led and home-based private education. Since the 1970s, homeschooling has grown as an alternative form of education and today it represents 3.4% of all students in the U.S. This increase in population is attributed to the supposed benefits of homeschooling to the student. Parent who are disappointed with the quality of education at public schools see homeschooling as an avenue for providing quality education to their children. Despite the increasing acceptance of this form of educational instruction in the country, there have been misgivings about its impact on the student. Homeschooling disadvantages students by denying them access to adequate educational resources, preventing them from having a liberal worldview, promotes intolerance, and hampers their social growth and development.
A Case Against Homeschooling
Homeschooling disadvantages students by denying them access to the educational resources that the diverse teaching staff provides in public and private schools. The most dominant type of homeschooling in the U.S. involves one or both parents providing educational instructions to their children. Bergstrom reveals that parents can adopt a structured or unstructured format in educating their children and they are tasked with finding the resources to promote learning (8). Parents are required to administer the various standardized tests that students undertake. This increases the cost of education since teaching resources can be expensive. Additionally, the parents might lack the capacity to teach various subjects due to their own aptitude. A characteristic of homeschooling in the U.S. is that it is not highly regulated and the abilities of the parents to teach is not accessed. While many homeschooling parents have an above high-school education, this is not a legal requirement. Parents might therefore lack adequate educational knowledge to instruct their parents. Gaither reveals that families are allowed to educate their children at home even if the parents have no teaching certification (178). Students are at a disadvantage if their parents lack the competence to instruct them on challenging subjects such as Math and Science. They peers in the public and private schools are guaranteed that they will have an instructor who is competent to teach the specific subject and has a teaching certification to prove their proficiency.
Homeschooling limits the exposure of the child to different ways of life and ideas. Parents who homeschool their children end up having complete authority not only over their education, but also over social interactions that the children have. A major concern about homeschooling is that it provides parents with an avenue to inculcate beliefs, values and habits that might be in opposition to integration and social cohesion (Michael and Sjoer 502). Students in public and private schools are exposed to a wide range of ideas from their peers and the teachers. This is lacking in homeschooling where the parents have the power to restrict what the child learns and who they come into contact with. Michael and Sjoer observe that for students to become free, they must “be exposed to the vibrant diversity of a democratic society so that they possess the liberty to live a life of their own design” (507). The homeschooled children lack any such exposure since they are not given the chance to interact with other children from a diverse background. Proponents of homeschooling assert that parents make the effort to increase the social interaction of their children by enrolling them in activities such as dance and music. Additionally, the children are involved in bands and charge groups, which increases their social interaction (Bergstrom 11). While it is true that homeschoolers are allowed to interact with others through activities and group membership, the people they interact with are often from the same ideological background. The religious conservative parents will restrict their children to socializing only with children who share their beliefs and values.
Additionally, homeschooling is likely to create intolerant students who have prejudiced views about other members of the society. Parental choice to homeschool children is largely influenced by their religious concerns. Kunzman acknowledges that while homeschoolers are an increasingly diverse group, the largest subset of homeschoolers in the United States is still religious conservatives (18). These parents opt for homeschooling as it enables them to create an educational environment that mirrors their values and religious views. A report by Redford et al. reveals that while concern about school environment was an important reason for homeschooling, most parents ranked a desire to provide religious and moral instruction higher (11). This environment is ideal for reinforcing fundamentalist principles in the children, therefore increasing the likelihood that they will grow up to be religious conservatives. The lack of external influence from children of other religious or from a secular background means that the student does not get a chance to interact with people of diverse beliefs and therefore learn how to be accommodative. Thomas documents that for parents who viewed religion as greatly important, the academic decisions about their children were aimed at raising children that would honor God (2081).
The social growth and development of the student is greatly hampered by the lack of interaction opportunities with other children. Human beings are social creatures and much of their early learning and development relies on their interaction with others. The contact with age level peers is especially significant for the social growth and development of children. Michael and Sjoer observe that schools are the ideal place for the promotion of social interaction that fosters healthy social development (507) Murphy echoes this view by suggesting that schools are "a critical caldron in which important social skills are formed and social norms are learned" (256). Homeschooled students lack the opportunity to interact with their peers since they are mostly confined to their homes where they primary interaction is with their parents. Lack of contact with peers of their age levels leads to poor social development. Kunzman reveals that among some religiously conservative families, girls experience major social isolation due to homeschooling (26). Children who grow up with limited socializing opportunities are likely to have lower social skills and suffer from anxiety when interacting with others. Drenovsky and Cohen observe that these children are likely to suffer from lower self-esteem than their traditionally schooled peers (30). Proponents of homeschooling argue that homeschooled children still get to interact with other people including their siblings and parents (Guterman and Neuman 2782). However, this type of contact does not promote the necessary social development that children only get from playing with their peers.
Refutation and Rebuttal
Arguably the most significant argument made by proponents of homeschooling is that it results in better academic achievements by the students. A core goal of all educational efforts is to equip students with the necessary knowledge and skills. Standardized academic achievement tests are the tool used to determine the level of success the academic efforts have. Ray reveals that on the area of academic performance, the average home-educated student outscores the public-schooled student by between 15 and 30 percentile points (2). Further demonstrating the superior academic performance of homeschooled students, they score higher on their SAT and ACT tests and are therefore likely to enjoy higher college admission. Given this significant positive outcomes, supporters of homeschooling assert that it is a positive educational instruction form. While it is true that homeschooling can result in impressive academic outcomes, the statistics supporting this claim are misleading. To begin with, the claims ignore the fact that learning outcomes are influenced by the socioeconomic status of the parents. Redford, Battle and Bielick document that most homeschooled students come from relatively well to do families with college-educated parents (8). Higher parent socio-economic and educational level correlates to better academic outcomes for students and vice-versa. In addition to this, there is a lack of adequate data on homeschooled students to enable accurate statistical analysis. Kunzman reveals that data on homeschooling is not easily available with about 25% of States not even knowing the number of homeschoolers in the State (19). The situation is made worse by the fact that most states do not require homeschooling parents to submit standardized test scores for their children (1). It is highly likely that parents whose children are performing poorly will fail to report their test results. The claim that homeschooled students outperform their peers in public and private schools can therefore not be backed by credible empirical data.
Proponents of homeschooling assert that it benefits the student since instructions are individualized. A major reason why parents opt to home school their children is so that they can customize the educational experience to meet the unique needs of the child. Thomas explains that many parents are motivated to discover and use the child’s unique learning style due to the individualized nature of homeschooling (2079). This type of individualized learning is impossible to achieve in public or private schools where teachers are expected to serve many students at the same time. Even the best teacher has to adopt to one teaching style, which cannot suit every student. The homeschooled student is likely to have better academic performance due to the individualized attention and the use of his/her preferred learning style when giving instructions. While it is true that homeschooling provides the opportunity for individualized instructions, the ability for the student to benefit from this depends on the teaching abilities of the parent. As has been noted, the lack of regulation means that parents who lack teaching proficiency can still teach their children. The homeschooled students will therefore not benefit from the individualized attention due to the lack of competent educators.
Conclusion
The United States has been witnessing a steady increase in the number of homeschooled students over the past two decades. This increase has been based on the dissatisfaction many parents have with the public-school system combined with the alleged superiority of homeschooling. This paper has demonstrated that homeschooling places students at a significant disadvantage. They are denied access to qualified teachers and educational resources. Their worldview is restricted since they can only learn what their parents approve of and interact with people that their choose. Additionally, the social development of the student is hampered since they do not get the chance to interact with their same age peers. The paper has shown that the statistics that suggest that homeschooled students perform better ignore the socioeconomic factors influencing student performance and also do not consider that homeschooling parents are not compelled to provide reports of their children’s performances. Considering the major disadvantages of homeschooling, it should be discouraged so all students can benefit from the educational resources, diversity, and peer interaction present in public and private schools.