What are the Pros and Cons of Public School VS Homeschooling?

Question

Pros and Cons for both

Answer 1

This depends on the public school you are zoned for, your child and you. A family in our neighborhood homeschools their three children and it seems to work great for them, I believe the kids are getting a good education. I know in this community there is a group for homeschooling families that comes together weekly for support and for group activities such as athletics or art.

That said, my son has thrived in our local public school because it suits his personality and we're blessed with a good school...personally I'm not cut out to be a homeschooling parent, but if you are, more power to you. I think there is lots of info online about it.

Answer 2

I and all of my brothers were homeschooled. Both of my brothers have doctorates. One is teaching special education at a public school, and the other one is an attorney. I teach at a private school, and I'm continuing my education. The point that I'm getting at is that we are all professionals, and I believe that the education we received as children played an enormous part. Homeschool materials concentrate on classical education and learning the basics well. We learned to read with phonics. We learned grammar and studied it all the way through to college, along with spelling and vocabulary. We read, read, and read. When I arrived at college, I already knew much of the material for the first 2 years of classes, whereas my friends with other types of schooling had never had it before, or at least not to the extent that I had.

Now, I do have to say that there are 2 major problems with homeschooling. First of all, whoever the teacher is (the parent, I'm assuming); she needs to be capable and educated enough to teach. This is not as big of a deal in elementary, but when your child gets to high school--can you explain the math concepts? Can you explain chemistry? If you can't, you'd better find a tutor or someone who can teach it, for them to study with.

Second, there is a social aspect. My parents were always very involved in church, and I made many friends that way. Probably the thing that helped the most, was becoming members of a homeschooling group. They're all over the place. They meet together constantly for field trips, sports, picnics, etc. I think if you are going to homeschool your child, you need to find other ways for them to socially interact with people their own age. My parents did this, and I've never had a problem. I'm extremely outgoing, and I was always in the more "popular" ; ) cliques in college.

Answer 3

The teacher to student ratio is definitely a huge pro for home-schooling. I don't think social interaction is a con though. My family was involved with a support group that had meetings and field trips. There are plenty of after school activities that kids can do without trying to mix socializing with study time. the only pro I can think of for public school is that they have an uncontested records system and public money. But records have never been a problem for me and I am in college now with a 4.0 GPA. Homeschooling is for the dedicated parents who want to make sure their child gets an education and not leave it up to whether the child can CATCH it in a busy classroom.

Answer 4

I am also in homeschool but it's my first year as a high schooler homeschooler. There is alot more time to do stuff when you're not in public school. You can do whatever you want whenever you want. There are no teachers bossing you around and the best part NO HOMEWORK. Homework is such a waste of time and it is one of the main reasons I am homeschooling. You get to see your friends at public school, but if you want to see them that bad, see them after school. Also there isn't a set out plan for P.E. so you don't have to go through the stupid fitness garbage.

Answer 5

The pros and cons for public school and home schooling is what you make them to be. Everybody has a different point of view on this issue.

Answer 6

Homeschooling is great if you can keep your kid on track. Lots of parents just assign the lessons and don't really teach anything. Public school has a standard cirriculum that is based on Federal standards. And there is great social interaction for the kids. The teachers are not parents that can be persuaded to do other things besides the school work. I would rather have my kids go to public school just for that reason.

Answer 7

I have to agree with Glurpy's answer whole-heartedly.
There are too much to say on each. The public school system I was in for 11 years was a good one, but I was lucky. It was tiny, so the teacher-to-student ratio was much smaller, in certain high school classes as little as five and as many as 15 to 20 students. The teachers were quite good.
However, I liked homeschooling much more. We moved from that tiny town to a town where the graduating class was bigger than my whole school (pre-kindergarten through Seniors). It was too much. The teachers weren't very good. Most people got lost in the school system. I didn't want to go through that.
I started homeschooling. I was able to go at my own pace (much faster than public school). I finished in approximately 9 months. I got straight A's (in public school I had gotten A's and B's with a very occassional C). I became more social because I actually had social time. (At my school, we had 3 minutes to get our books and run to class. There wasn't any talking in class. There was a 45-minute lunch--you had to stand in line for a while, get your food, eat, get your books for the next class, and run to that class--very little time to socialize there. Then, after school, you either had extracurriculars you had to get to really quickly, or you had to grab your homework and run for the buses. There was very little time to socialize). I still have my school friends, but I made new friends (and, big bonus, learned how to overcome my shyness to meet new people). I learned through a distance education course, so if I needed help I could just call, e-mail, or snail mail my teachers and get the help I needed. I worked, so everyone who saw me could see perfectly well that I am completely normal. I completely disproved the anti-social homeschooler picture. I absolutely hate it when people say that homeschoolers are anti-social. In the past, there were problems with socialization, but society has done everything in their power to change that. They have so many groups that provide extracurriculars, homework help, field trips, dances, etc. Those who say that homeschoolers are socially retarded are just ignorant. They are passing on what they assume or have heard. The problem is, if you haven't homeschooled, you can't imagine it. Homeschooling is not for everyone. There are those who can't do it. Many times, homeschooling costs quite a bit of money (but there are certain curricula that are free).
I loved homeschooling, but there are those who didn't.
Are there bad examples of homeschooling? Of course. Are there bad examples of other forms of education? Of course.
Columbia University conducted a study that found that homeschoolers scored higher on college entrance exams than other students.

Answer 8

I can not think of a con to pulling out a child from the current PS system and home schooling! They get individual attention and they are cared about. They get a truly more in dept education because they often get to explore subjects that really matter to them instead of having a bunch of stuff memorized for a test and afterward forgetting 90% of it.

My kids are home schooled and they have a better social life that most PS kids. They have time to invest in friends and outside interests as they are not tied down to do more "homework" after school.

One of the reasons for me pulling my 1st child out of school was the social atmosphere. There where so many discipline problems in the class room that she was waiting to be taught something school related!

That coupled with the lack of teaching and books even. It was ridicules. The effect has been that she is about 2 grades ahead of herself and will be graduating HS with a 2 year college degree if she continues on the same pace she is now (thanks to duel enrollment).

Home school kids actually have an advantage in socialization

Answer 9

The pros of homeschooling are one-on-one learning and a stable enviorment. The cons of homeschooling are not having access to consulers, no pep rallys, being apart of clubs (FBLA, Art Club, Cheerleading).

Answer 10

Public schooling is subject to more checks and balances, and there is at least a fair chance that most of the teachers know most of their stuff and will not abuse the child. I would never recommend a parent teaching their children at home unless their own general and specific areas of knowledge are adequate. You can't get it all from books.

Also, unless your family is emotionally and socially stable, home schooling puts the children at risk--probably at greater risk than the bullying levels at most schools. I should know; I and all my siblings were "taught" at home; well, we taught one another to read and we had good books in our house, and most of us got good degrees, but two of us are still emotionally wrecked. My parents were going through a lot--an awful lot--during our childhood years, and we had full-time exposure to serious emotional abuse, with no exposure to normality...

I would just say, Don't take on home-schooling your kids unless you have the brain, the emotional stability, the patience, the stamina--and so on.

Having said all that, I have to say that, as a teacher, it worries me how much of teaching time is taken up with basic behavioural matters and how little time you can actually know that everyone in the class is learning what they should be.

But I was disappointed when my sister started teaching her kids at home. The reasons, I felt, were too similar to my parents' reasons: things like keeping their children innocent (Oh dear) and not exposing them to evil (What did they suppose we were exposed to at home?)...and I personally don't think my sister has a lot of disciplinary control or stamina. And her husband wants the girls taught at home, but seems to think his role is to boss her around in front of the kids, etc.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying home schooling is bad; I'm just giving you the benefit of my experience because it's probably different from most people's.