Proponents Of Home Schooling Cite Many Benefits
During the past few years, home schooling has become more popular as well as more accepted with many arguments for and against the practice. There are many logical thoughts behind families choosing to educate their children at home and reverting back to the educational opportunities presented before mandatory public schooling became the norm. Families are finding home schooling helps to build a closer family relationship.
The reasons families choose to offer their own educational environment are as diverse as the families themselves. There is no correlation between the family's socio-economic standing as their decision to educate their children in the home, however there are a few common reasons cited for home schooling. Pointing to the safety of their children as a prime concern, many parents choose to keep their kids out of dangerous situations.
They also cite negative peer pressure for keeping their children out of public and private school environments as well as the bullying by a few other children in the school. Shielding their kids from the lure of drugs and alcohol are other leading concerns that prompt some of the over two-million students to participate in home schooling every year.
Reasons For Home Schooling Offer Diverse Thoughts
In addition to attempts to protect their children from what they believe to be unacceptable behavior, some proponents of home schooling also believe that taking a child at such a young age and placing them in the rigid, unforgiving environment of public education is harmful to the learning experience. They claim that plucking them from the safety and security of the their home at about six years old and plunging them into the rigid and structured environment of schools actually harms them academically, socially and mentally.
Most who believe in home schooling contend that as children the desire to learn is greater than in adults and most children will learn more and learn quicker in an environment to which they are familiar and feel comfortable. The bonds between parent and child are stronger before they leave home for a formal education and keeping them in the home, learning from their parents enables them to learn at their own pace, some quicker than others, while providing them the education they will need later in life.
While many opponents claim the child will lack in social development when placed in a home schooling environment, others point out that it is the parents and their home life that sets the tone for the social abilities and no the formal school environment they may be in for 180 days every year.
