pros and cons of homeschool?

Question

what are the pros and cons of homeschooling versus attending a public school?

Answer 1

I feel passionately about homeschooling--in favor, not against--because I think that public schools do two mutually exclusive things: they force everyone into little compartments or make them pay the consequences, and they also preach total acceptance. If nothing is right or wrong, if everyone is to be accepted no matter what, then what standards do we have? Racial prejudice is wrong; moral prejudice is different. To say something is wrong is not to say that a person is bad; I think that's where the difference lies. When kids are homeschooled, they are encouraged to learn in a non-threatening environment. How many homeschooled kids are forced into a state of despair so deep that they see murder and/or suicide as the only way out? How many homeschooled kids do you know who are socially maladjusted? How is it that publicly educated people, who are so socially adjusted and accepting, can't accept homeschooled kids? The truth? Yes, they will be different. They will be naive. They will think that the world is governable by reason and right. They will also have the tools--self-reliance, discernment, reason, intellect--to deal with the fact that it's not, that there are people out there who will hate them for utterly arbitrary reasons. They will be different, but if you love your kids, if you work hard to instill values and a work ethic into them, if you make sure that they take responsibility for fixing their own problems, learning from their mistakes and the mistakes of others, if you give them a desire to learn, learn, never ever ever stop LEARNING, then they will cope better than the half-educated, barely literate, jaded, disillusioned masses of mangled children the American public schools churn out every year. The public schools destroy children. I apologize to all of you who attended them, and I know that you're ok--you survived it, you learned from it, etc. But don't you think there's another way that children can learn, and still be children, not forced to deal with an ugly world until they have to? And when they have to, they'll be able to. If you look at it moderately, without the absolutes--because it's not for everyone--then it makes a lot more sense. There's no need to damn it or canonize it. And it's utterly uncalled for to judge a whole way of life by the few homeschooled kids you may have known. Do I sound like an illiterate, free-loading, sheltered person? I'm in college, in my junior year, and I still have a 4.0. I was homeschooled by intelligent parents who cared enough to give me a chance to grow up slowly, as children should. I work in the real world. I'm a manager. I deal with people every day. This fall, I'll be tutoring; for the highest irony, I plan on teaching fifth grade in public schools when I graduate. I am far from a failure. At the same time, I realize that there are other extremes. The thing is to not judge the whole method by those extremes, because you find them everywhere.

Answer 2

I'm going to generalize - every situation is different, but you've been doing it for five years so something must be going right. Pro's 1. Going at the child's pace. Are they 12 and have mastered level one calculus but their reading level is closer to fourth grade? Cool, let's keep working on the math and reading will catch up too! Fifteen and maybe ready for a course at a community college? Sign them up! Struggling with math at six? No worries, we'll get there and you don't have to stay stuck on subjects you've already mastered. You don't necessarily get that in the regular K-12 system. 2. Less competing for teacher attention. 3. Flexibility in how you teach. Want to explain the creation story with papier mache? Go to a farm to explain food production? Listen to music while doing an essay exam? (I once asked to listen to choral music on my CD player while taking a test in high school and was denied without reason) Sky is the limit. 4. Having actual recess! 5. Better food. I'm sure there's more. Now, for the cons - again, generalizing, based on experiences, preventable 1. Family dynamics - I've heard people say homeschooled children are clingy. I think I've seen more parents be over-protective and not let their kids make mistakes than clingy children. It's tough to let go when you see your kids every day, for sure. 2. Learning disabilities aren't always identified right away. This happened to a family member. What would have been identified in a public school at six years old through evaluation by a psychologist or special education teacher was not caught until the teenage years until a tutor was called in. Caused stress on the family because the child had a lot of difficulty with the curriculum and there were some self-esteem issues. 3. High school curriculums can get sticky when an advanced subject isn't within the parents' expertise. 4. Grading system, if not in the ABC format, can throw off colleges. Most these days happily admit qualified homeschooled children, but some are stuck on the idea of homeschool programs not being as rigorous as public or private school programs - which is often untrue. 5. If a parent leaves the workforce to homeschool, it can be tough to get back in. Kids do grow up, move out, and you need something to do, ya know? Public or private schools don't fit all children's learning styles and can conflict with a family's values. There's no sense in keeping a child in an environment that can hamper learning. As long as the family has support and can address some of the sticky issues, there's no reason why homeschool is a negative.

Answer 3

I really can't think of any cons to homeschooling except for the rude comments and criticism of the occasional person who knows little to nothing about homeschooling.

For us there are many pros, but it all barrels down to the fact that the kids are doing really well, are happy, have lots of friends, and we get to spend a lot of quality time together.

It's funny that a public school teacher should point out that all the homeschoolers she has met returning to public schools are failed; perhaps this is because the successful one's need not return? Also, I wonder how many of these students originally started in public school, were taken out because of problems, and returned because homeschooling did not help.

I know some private school teachers who have taken on problematic public school children, yet they don't automatically assume this means public schools as a whole are a failure, they seem to understand that public schools were not working for these particular students. I used to teach public school myself and must admit that the vast majority of my students who were having serious problems had never been homeschooled.

I sincerely urge teachers who are seriously concerned about homeschoolers to offer to teach a class temporarily at their local co-op for an hour a week for a couple of months-- they'll make a little extra money and get to see what the average homeschooler is like, rather than just those having the most problems. Perhaps then they can make a more balanced observation and a more informed criticism of homeschooling.

MSB

Answer 4

Homeschooling: Pro = you have the best Nintendo player on the block and get bragging rights.
Con = most kids are homeschooled for religious purposes, another exercise in brainwashing young minds. Much worse than anything a public school would do to a young child.

Answer 5

Pros
-Learning at their own pace, not being pushed or held back at someone elses pace
-not learning all the things about sex in the elementary school
-you do not have to deal with bullying on a daily basis
-you can teach the morals and values your family has set
-you get to spend more time with them and are actually involved with them, makes them feel important
-better academics and more retained since there are less children to teach and more time to learn
-you know what they are being taught
-no bad notes being sent hom
There are so many others to list, I am hoping some other homeschooling parents will hit the ones I have missed!

Cons
-The only con I see is the time and effort it takes to teach your kids and the fact that they are always there with you.

Some may say socializing is a con but it is not, as long as your children are existing with other humans they are learning social habits Working problems out as a family will teach them how to work in a group, especially if they have siblings!!

Answer 6

Cons:
-having to deal with all the people who don't have a clue and spout all kinds of ignorance about homeschooling

Pros:
-kids are closer to family

-kids can get a better education: more one-on-one time, they can go their own pace (this means they can take as long as they need to master or they can move on when they're ready), they have more time to follow their interests because they're not waiting for everybody else to be ready

-kids can have a wider social experience than primarily same-age peers (homeschooling activities usually have a wide age range present)

-kids can grow up in a better environment--I would have thought that there's been enough written about how environment can affect children's moral/social/other development that the naysayers would stop saying things like kids need schools to "toughen up" and "be exposed to negative things early on so they know how to deal with them later" (omg, I wish people would take some psychology courses!!!) This hopefully means that they are not growing up where drugs are normal, dressing horribly is normal, using vulgar language is normal, putting down learning is normal, having sex as early as jr. high is normal... Kids tend to learn what they grow up with. They are not developmentally at a stage to evaluate whether this is good or that is bad. They will accept what's going on around them as the way things are and will learn to be a part of that. The social scene at schools here is atrocious.

Homeschooling is what you make of it. If you are a parent who "slacks off", then yeah, you're going to have your kids not turn out so well. But if you are willing to do everything you can, you'll reap the rewards.

Answer 7

Pros:
Academically....
Better alignment of student learning preferences
Early recognition of any issues with student development
Better curriculum selection process (you can use the curriculum you develop, which will usually be much better than what the schools are being provided)
Direct understanding of the students progress
Ownership of standardized test scores & results
Ability to leverage child interests across a broad spectrum of subjects
Better overall understanding (schedule does not dictate when you are done with a subject. You can work with the student until they gain a full understanding...other student progress is not impeded, or even a factor)
More of a chance to look at learning as an opportunity as opposed to a "goal"
Broader range of materials (school boards do not control the books that are acceptable to be taught)

Socially....
Exposure across age groups, not homogenous
Reduced peer pressure
Reduced influence of negative popular culture (the Brittany-ization of America?)
Reduced exposure to drugs & alcohol use
Parental input to socialization opportunities

Cons:

It is a significant financial impact. You have to be prepared to pay for your materials, which can be expensive. Another consideration is that you may be a one income family, which in today's economy can be a struggle.

Your family and friends may not be supportive, and it can cause family issues if it gets out of hand (the voice of experience)

People who have no homeschooling experience will be full of advice for you on it.

You will have to do a lot of education of other people, not just your own kids...because most people don't know anything about homeschooling, let alone understand homeschooling.


Advice:

Your kids are with you a lot more and you may not be ready for the difference that makes. It's been decades since families had this level of contact, so likely you have no experience with what it feels like. Be patient with each other.

Learn to be a critical thinker...do you call an electrician when you sink is not working? If you want advice on homeschooling, make sure you are asking people who have done it or are doing it. Don't go to your public school looking for advice...that's like asking Home Depot if you should go shopping at Lowe's.

Let your kids guide their learning. They'll have passions...let them follow them and use them to cover as many subjects as possible. An interest in music, for example, can cover history, math, science, writing and literature, easily. Why waste time with sujects kids are totally uninterested in when you can leverage their interest into a broader education?

Good luck.

Answer 8

Pro: Sleep late (8:00)
Work at my own schedule
Have time for friends
Flexible in electives
Do not have to deal with
drama

Con: Having my parents throw a
learning experience at me
at random 52 weeks of
year 24/7

Answer 9

Pros
More parental involvement with the kids
Tailor learning process to the kid's needs

Cons
Kids get tunnel vision in terms of group think. They are less exposed to interacting with people who may think very differently than themselves. Learning to deal with alternative viewpoints, even different morals can be disastrous if the kids don't learn how to do this prior to going off to college.

For example: one homeschooler wanted to learn Spanish. The mom stated that she saw no reason for an American to learn Spanish even though the college he wanted to go to wanted two years of foreign language. The kid finally had to accept learning two years of sign language because that was all the mom would allow. This mother also spent her time running a daycare center in her home and isolated her son in his bedroom for several hours per day to learn on his own.

I can give you more negative examples, but I can also share some excellent examples as well.

The best one I saw was a family that had a separate room for the students. The kids were expected to do an hour of studying per subject per day and the curriculum was sent to an accredited school for grading. The kids had fully accredited diplomas when graduating. The kids also had plenty of socialization through sports and music programs.

Answer 10

For those who posted the "oh, my goodness, one time there was this home schooled kid who came to public school and he was [enter horrible comment here] keep this in mind.

There are cases where children were 'home schooled' by parents and later enter the public school system totally unprepared, uneducated, and drowning. But many of these kiddos enter the public school system because the homeschooling situation wasn't' working - mom or dad may have given an honest effort, but realized it wasn't the right thing for their family. Don't label all home schooled kids by the few that come into the public school that way - many home schooled kids (most) remain home schooled kids all the way through school so THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM never meets them!

YOU need to decide what works for YOUR family. Homeschooling may work wonders or it may not. Its OK to try this wholeheartedly and then prayerfully decide that its best for your children to not be home schooled. You as their parent are the only determinant of this! Good luck to you!