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Elizabeth Vickery
Mrs. Chambers
British Literature
22 November 2013
Schooled or Not Schooled?
Homeschooling used to be a very uncommon way of educating the young
generation. Now, approximately one in every thirty-three teens have completed his or her
kindergarten through high school years at home, and the percentage of homeschoolers
rose from about seven percent to about fifteen percent of the population. With the rise of
homeschooled children, there have been studies, statistics, and experiments to figure out
the question, “which is the better alternative: homeschooling or public schooling?”
Homeschooling is best for students that need the option of studying at either a faster or
slower pace depending on their abilities and for religious families who wish to include a
Biblical study in their education, while public schooling is better suited for the general
family’s budget and for easy access extracurricular activities such as: football, baseball,
dance, track, etc. Both homeschooling and public have pros and cons, but when it comes
to professional studies and statistics, public schooling definitely come out on top with the
longer list of pros.
Unlike homeschooling, public schooling is paid for by taxes, therefore, saving a
large amount of money for a family. Every family makes a certain amount of money and
must live off their expenses with that income. One homeschooling mother, Vicki Bentley,
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stated, "my most expensive year was my first year, when I used a prepackaged
curriculum and spent over $600 for three children"(Bentley). Some families even pay for
online schooling classes which can "run anywhere from $500 to $1000 per student per
year"(Bentley). The cost of online home schooling for a student for all twelve years could
add up to be between $6,000 and $12,000 dollars. The amount of money a family could
save by going with the public schooling system could be added to the amount of college
funds for a student, for bills, or for transportation, a car, etc. There are cheaper
alternatives to expensive online homeschooling classes, but studies show that certain
curriculums used are not suitable for a children’s future. Education is crucial in life. It is
what sets up the kind of life one will have. It tells a person whether he or she will be
barely getting by in life, or whether he or she will become successful in living, have a job
worth doing and settling down with whatever choices one chooses to make. Without a
proper education and instructors, a student does not have those choices to make for
themselves. There are not many options for someone without a proper education. If a
student is going to be homeschooled, a family would need to have excessive amounts of
money to truly give their student the right education needed to succeed in the future.
Statistics and studies by sociologists show that homeschooled children are less
social and apt to conquer the outside world on their own. “Many school socialization
advocates argue that homeschooling precludes children from experiencing real life.”
(Haverluck) and that children do not have as many opportunities to socialize with other
children and other people. In other words, many advocates argue that homeschooling
causes children to become less social once they are out on their own. If a student is
attached to staying at home all his or her life, he or she will most likely have a harder
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time leaving the 'nest.' It is very important in the world to meet new people and socialize
in order to be successful at different activities, jobs, etc. Socialization is all part of life.
During job interviews, a person must be friendly, outgoing, and easy to talk too about his
or her self to someone he or she does not know. If a student ever wants to maybe get
married and settle down with a family, he or she would most likely have dated the person
he or she married and been social with them. Homeschooling a student for his or her
entire school life has been proven a cause of social anxiety. In public schooling students
have more opportunities to express themselves by making friends and meeting new
people to gain a personality and knowledge of self.
Extracurricular activities are important in a student’s life, and it is more difficult
to access extracurricular activities with a homeschooled child. It has been stated that,
"interscholastic extracurricular activities are an important compliment to the academic
curriculum. Participation in a comprehensive extracurricular and academic program
contributes to student development of the social and intellectual skills necessary to
become a well-rounded adult"(Homeschoolers). There are select schools that will allow
homeschooled students to try out for teams, but the majorities of school teams are only
school based and require that a student attends that school. It is important for a student to
have outside activities of whether it is basketball, football, dancing, or on the debate
team. Students only focusing on school and not having free time are very unhealthy for a
student. Sports and other activities teach a student discipline and how to manage time
more fluently. Organization is key in school, and extracurricular activities add to an idea
of a schedule that a student must be able to manage his or her time around. Students also
need to have some rewarded free time for hard work doing something they like to do.
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Extracurricular activities are also important for college applications and essays. Many
colleges will have a section for extracurricular activities on the applications. Colleges
want a student who has achieved something in academics, but also in activities he or she
likes to do for fun, and has created some achievement with that.
Homeschooling parents are not instructors, and they are not suited to teach a
student everything he or she must know. In New Jersey, "parents desiring to home-school
their children are not required to submit any type of communication of intent to a local
school board. Parents are also not required to have their home-school curricula approved
by a school board"(Jalsevac). There have been accounts of parents arrested because they
neither registered their child into a public school nor educated them at home. Theodore
Roosevelt once said, "To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a
menace in society." Teddy knew what he was talking about. Unsuitable education is very
unhealthy for a student. A brain is the holder for all necessary education and instruction
in human's head; a brain will not function correctly if it does not have the necessary
information obtained inside. If a brain cannot function properly, then how would a human
be able to function properly as well? Many parents also homeschool because of religious
purposes. Some strictly religious families do not like public schooling due to schools not
having religious teaching. There are some private schools that are religiously based, but
private schooling is even more expensive than homeschooling. There are plenty of
schools that have opportunities to study religions; there are even religious groups and
clubs that have meetings every week or so. Unless it is a family that has to money to
blow on school, public schooling has plenty of opportunities to do what a parent would
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want their student to do at home, and the parent does not have to spend their time doing
it.
Overall, public schooling is the better option compared to Homeschooling. All
students the maximum amount of education they can get, and parents should be able to
save the maximum amount of money they can to provide that education for their children.
The economy is hard today, and it is a hassle for families to pay for college funds for
their kids. Public schooling is free compared too homeschooling; therefore, a family
could save hundreds, even thousands of dollars saving for their kids educational future.
Homeschooling gives students an opportunity to work more one-on-one with their
instructors, but there is no law that states a homeschooling parent's curriculum has to be
checked by the educational board. Public schooling also gives a better opportunity for
extracurricular activities.