Home schooling essay

Initially, most home-schooled children were children with disabilities or children whose parents travelled a lot or lived in places that were quite far from any schools. Now, however, millions of children are being home-schooled even when they live right next to schools and are not in any way disabled. The idea of home-schooling has been a cause of endless debates among educators, parents, and governments. The paper will be analyzing all these areas and answering the questions raised concerning home-schooling. B. Perhaps one of the most common arguments against home-schooling is that home-schooled children end up as social misfits because they lack the social skills needed to function normally and interact with members of the society accordingly. Critics of home-schooling argue that since children are isolated from the world outside their families, they are rendered socially handicapped.

Most of the critics who bring forward this argument are, not surprisingly, educators. Home-schooled children are sheltered from the real world and therefore have no opportunities to exercise social interaction skills, the critics argue. Further, critics claim that home-schooling children denies them the opportunity to adapt to real-life situations. Home-schooled children are also more likely to act unselfishly, research shows. It is important to note that while critics of home-schooling believe that home-schooled kids are locked up in their houses all day isolated, it is not the case. Home-scholar’s travel, visit parks and museums, participate in competitions and take classes like dance, music and drama. This shows that they are not isolated in their houses all day every day. The traditional system of schooling emphasizes on children being together so as to socialize.

Ergo, they feel the need to look and sound cool. This conformity denies those children a chance to be their authentic selves and discover who they really are and what they truly like. In schools, also, children tend to have unhealthy competition which results in rivalry. The sad reality is that many children in public schools, especially high schools, are exposed to drugs, sex and violence through the cliques that they hang out with in school. In the course of trying to be sociable and getting a sense of belonging, many children end up belonging to the wrong cliques. Another common belief about home-scholars’ is that they do not get to form friendships or have any healthy relationships with anyone who is not a family member since they barely interact with people outside the family.

This is, however, untrue since the home-schooling program incorporates group activities that allow the children to meet with other children and have fun while learning. In these group learning settings, children are presented with opportunities to form and grow friendships. Home-schooled kids get to interact with children who are not necessarily their age mates thus giving them a chance to form friendships with older children because they are not limited to grade levels unlike children in conventional schools. Older home-scholars’ understand that there is no harm in hanging out and playing with younger home-scholars’, unlike in conventional schools where a 13 year old would be nowhere near a 6 year old and would be ridiculed if they tried to. The social environment also encompasses parental proximity, how children are disciplined, parent-child relationships, and the overall environment in which the children spend their time.

Considering all these components of social development then, the discussion in the paragraphs above makes it clear that parents should not be worried that home-schooling produces social misfits. In fact, home-schooling produces children who are more socially equipped than traditional schooling because while the conventional school system socializes children horizontally into conformity with their peers, home-schooling socializes children vertically toward responsibility and service. Contrary to what opponents of home-schooling claim, research shows that home-schoolers are often more mature than traditionally schooled children. This can be attributed to the fact that home-schooling allows for independence as the children are mostly self-directed in their learning.  ERIC, 17(1), 1-8. Medlin, & Richard, G. Homeschooling and the Question of Socialization Revisited.  Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3).