Opposition Whip Speech (This house believes that homeschooling is not better than studying in
school)
A very good morning/afternoon to everyone. To start things off, I would like to state our motion once again.
This house believes that homeschooling is not better than studying in school. (fix this later)
Now let me just reiterate the main points our previous speakers have presented. School is not just an
institution that is there to purely provide or function as the source of education for the people. School is not
only limited to teaching subjects such as math, science, and English. It is a place where people from different
backgrounds and culture come together and teach each other by interacting with one another. It is a place
where we learn about ourselves as much as we learn about different things and with the help of our dearest
teachers; we are able to find ways to enhance those things about ourselves.
We believe that a child should be one with the more commendable institution due to the fact that there is a
very limited amount one can get from homeschooling. Though the school system is very flawed, that doesn't
hide the fact that it has more advantages to the student than of homeschooling. First, the lack of experience on
the parent’s side. Though you could always hire a tutor to teach your child at home, some parents don’t have
the advantage of living a life where they can pay for a tutor. As it has been stated, the cost of a tutor can range
from 20 to 50 dollars or 8 to 20 riyals hourly. And that price can be estimated to 160 to 400 riyals monthly if
the session is only one hour a day, 20 days a month. And just multiply that to the number of tutors you have to
hire to teach one subject. And let's not forget the price of the supplies parents will have to buy separately.
When instead, you can pay around 70 riyals monthly in schools and that will already cover the teachers who
will be teaching you 9 to 11 different subjects and the supplies a student would need. Because of this, parents
usually result in teaching their kids on their own to spend their money on the needs of the child to learn. Now
let me ask you if a school needs different teachers who specialize in different subjects, what makes you think a
parent can teach you all of that? The parent must fully understand subjects such as physics, chemistry,
calculus, the industrial revolution, sports, music, as well as be able to decipher great works of literature or
know how to write a compelling story before they teach their kids. When the socialization process in school,
children able to learn these from other children, as well as from their teachers there. Teachers are taught in
college to cater to the needs of students in a classroom type of environment, they are trained to teach classes
in schools, thus homeschooling tutors can't apply what they've learned into teaching just one student in a
home's setting.
While we're on the topic, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education found that there was a "math gap"
between home educated students and public school students, with the public school students coming out on
top in this academic area. The researchers concluded that, while it was a fairly straightforward task for most
responsible parents to teach reading, writing, science, and social studies, many parents would struggle with
teaching a challenging math curriculum. And this is downsides of homeschooling because math is a stable,
vital, and crucial in most of the leading jobs in the world. And the math gap just proves that the calibre of a
teacher is different from the parents.
Homeschooling's experience can also restrain that development of skill a child can have as it is only exposed to
"this" much amount of people. One's ideas and thoughts can only be contained within themselves due to the
absence of appropriate people who can understand and listen in within the child's perspective. Although
homeschooling is not entirely a disadvantage, a school, in general, engages more positive attributes that can
also develop one's application skills, once again because of experience.
The second point, if homeschooled, students misses out on social interactions and a lot of experiences or
memories kids their age share. You might say "Homeschooled kids can form a community on their own.". But
that doesn't have the same impact as when a child is at school and is experiencing life as carefree as they can
with their peers. Though they can have social interaction with the people living in their home or in their
neighbourhood, the age gap usually becomes a problem. There is usually a gap in understanding between them.
Again, we human beings are social by nature. We live in families and communities because it is in our nature.
We seek the company of others as it brings us joy and contentment. And through school, the children are able
to find the company of others in their daily lives as they interact with one another in their classrooms.
The third point is if a child grows up in a place where their home and school is one, they will not learn to be
independent and instead be accustomed to depending on their parents. They will sometimes even be spoiled
when grown up because they were coddled by their parents and always had them doing stuff for them.
Additionally, 25% of parents who chose to homeschool their children did it to provide a safe learning
environment for them This will not only make the children dependent on them but they will also not learn
how to deal with life. Life is unfair. In his/her adult life, there will definitely be people who will bring him/her
down. He/She must be ready for the real world. But because they expose them to no stress, and they won’t
know how to react to it when the time comes. The child will not be able to learn how to deal with stress,
bullies, and oppressors. In school also, you have allotted time, at home, you can take as much as time you want,
which in the real world, it's not like that, you have to learn how to manage your time.
The last point is the government's role in the schools. The government has an active role in schools, just like
how deped recently visited us to check the environment and the status of our school with respect and concern
to us, the students, to ensure that schools are giving qualified service to the pupils. The Government also
provides funds to the school, benefitting the students studying in the school. This includes paying for the
facilities the school has such as swimming pools, gyms, running tracks, science labs, computer labs, culinary
rooms, and fields. This just shows that the environment and the resources the school has are very fitting and
very helpful to the students.
And that is why we believe studying in school is better than homeschooling. That is all, thank you.