Homeschooling versus public schools:pros and cons

Homeschool vs. Public School

Homeschooling has been a debated issue for years. It's been disputed as to whether homeschooling is more beneficial to a student than attending public school. Although there is some advantages in homeschooling a student, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages and are too detrimental to the student. Homeschooling hinders a students' social development by allowing them to escape from the distractions and pressures of society. Taking students out of public schools only isolates them from society and their peers.

Allowing a child to learn at home, lets them create their own schedule. By establishing a personal agenda, the student gets many perks. They are allowed to sleep later and have more free time. In all, they'll waste less time because school is all about them. They learn things at their speed and can concentrate on their educational weaknesses. Students can get more individual attention from their parents, which can provide greater challenges. And without the crowded schools, the student can have a reduced amount of distractions and avoid peer pressure due to the lack of peer interaction. Although these are all great benefits of homeschooling, they also can be detrimental to the students' growth as an adult.

Without a structural environment that a public school provides, students don't learn how to handle deadlines and rules. This really can hurt these students later in life, especially in the business world. Students need to learn how to listen to authority figures, besides their parents. They need to be able to follow someone else's guidelines and work under pressure. Due to the lack of deadlines and stress in their homeschool environment, students have less practice in handling pressure. This makes students that attended public schools more attractive to businesses. And due to the lack of interaction with their peers, homeschooled students have fewer social skills and less practice with teamwork, which definitely disables them in the workforce. They aren't used to the distractions that kids that were forced to learn in crowded high schools had to deal with. They never had to cope with peer pressure or temptations. So if they are persuaded or enticed later in their adult life, they won't know how to handle the situation and react maturely. Even though homeschooled kids seem to have more free time, they don't have as many activities to fill up their time. This disrupts their ability to manage time and learn to work under pressure with deadlines and time limits. With everything that homeschooled kids don't get to live out, they are deprived of experiences that will better prepare them for the workforce or higher levels of education.

Homeschooling really deprives students of acknowledging all the different opinions and options the real world can offer. By only encountering the opinions of ones' parents, a student gets a limited amount of knowledge and varied ideas. They just become clones of their parents. It's noticeably certain that each generation gets more intelligent as time progresses. My parents are amazed at what I learned in high school, especially in my advanced classes, because they didn't learn any of what I had until college. And although homeschooled students can benefit from a more fitted education and concentrate on their own needs, their curriculum can become too narrowed, limiting all that they could obtain. In all, by limiting the knowledge of a student to only what their parents know, how could society ever grow and develop? A student needs to learn in an environment that will adequately prepare them for the ever-growing society and competitive work field.

Along with the elimination of peer interaction, homeschooled students are isolated from pluralistic society. Once they escape the secluded environment of their home, they aren't prepared to enter a greatly diverse society. Their involvement with different cultures is greatly decreased due to their lack of availability to interact with students of different backgrounds on a daily basis. Homeschooling doesn't develop a students' sense of community. Without any reason, or even any chance, to communicate with different types of people, homeschooled students are at a lose compared to those who attend public schools. A persons' social development expands during high school when one is repeatedly surrounded by different kinds of people with different opinions, ideas, and backgrounds. Homeschooled students are not prepared for a culturally diverse society, so when shoved into the workforce or higher levels of education, they are culturally shocked that everyone isn't like them. This is yet another advantage students have that attend public schools. They are that much more ahead.

All things considered, homeschooling does have some advantages to teaching and helping a student grow educationally. But it doesn't help the student grow socially or even personally for that matter. They will fall into problems in their adult lives. They won't be able to be as socially acceptable as someone who has faced problems and pressures of our economy already. Homeschooling doesn't allow students to be as prepared as others for the distractions and stresses of society. It doesn't adequately prepare students for successful futures.