Within the United States, there is a great debate over the quality of the public education system. Due to a lack of standardization across the national level, and due to a number of socioeconomic factors that affect school quality, schools in the United States range from outstanding to poor in terms of their performance. As a response to this quality difference as well as perceived deficiencies within the public education system, many parents have elected to educate their children on their own, rather than ‘risk it’ in the public education system. Frequently, homeschooling is an appealing choice for parents who cannot afford the steep tuition of private schools, but insist that the perceived deficiencies within the public school system are too great to overlook (Lubienski).
As a parent, one of the biggest decisions made is what kind of education your child will receive and where he or she will get it. Public school is the most common form of education a child will receive, unless parents are wealthy and are able to send their children to a private school. However, this occurrence is uncommon and many wealthy individuals forego private school and instead choose well-renowned public options.
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"Public Schools vs. Home Schools: Which One is Better?".
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “public school” means “a free tax-supported school controlled by a local governmental authority.” Another definition of “public school” is a school supported by the government for the use of the community of a defined district, as part of a public (usually free) education system; a State school” (Oxford English Dictionary). However, there are other ways to give a child an education; which home schooling is one of them.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “home school” means “a school located in a private home; the fact of educating children, esp. one’s own, in the home.” In the words of a 28 year old home school mother in Washington; “…No one can love, nurture, and teach our kids better than we can. We know their individual talents and needs” (Mayberry, xiii). Her statement may hold true, but there are far more disadvantages than advantages in home schooling a child.
Socialization is a very important part in a child’s development. A great deal of how they learn to socialize comes from their peers in the classroom. Many educators argue that the biggest problem with home schooling children is that they miss out on how to interact with other children. Although the need for socialization may be understated by parents, there are great psychological consequences to improper socialization as a child (Gorder).
Some parents of home schooled children believe that their children aren’t missing out on any social activities. “I think children should have time to concentrate on what is meaningful to them and on what is going to help them develop into secure productive adults.” [45 year-old home school mother, Nevada] “Going to ‘public’ school makes this difficult, not only because of the time and energy it requires, but also because of the continuous peer pressure to act or not act in a certain way, or to participate or not in certain types of activities. I consider that our children attend school in a sense- it’s just that we choose our own subjects.”[45 year-old home school mother, Nevada] (Mayberry, 1).
In this case, the child benefits from being at home with no peer pressure from other children. Parents that home school must go out of their way to expose their child to situations where they can learn social skills. However, this is difficult to the very nature of home schools, as the child is not in a constant environment of their peers. Without this exposure, some children have a much more difficult time in learning mainstream social skills, as the home environment frequently lacks the diversity and depth of experiences and individuals that the child would be exposed to in a public school environment (Kumpulainen and Wray).
Children should be allowed to develop proper social skills to help them interact with others later in life. A great portion of that socialization comes from public schooling. Kim, now a 32 year old was home schooled for most of her life. When she was 19 she decided that she no longer wanted to be home schooled. She signed up to take the GED and after a couple of attempts she passed. She found out in her journey to get her GED that she actually was only reading at a tenth grade level and needed a tutor.
She also realized that she had no relationships outside of her immediate family. It was especially hard for her to socialize with other women (Kumpulainen and Wray). Being the only girl in her family with four brothers, her behavior was more masculine than feminine. To this day, she has trouble interacting with other women and feels more comfortable around men. Her story is a great example of how a child should be a part of a public school system; where they can learn to play and talk to other children (Lubienski).
A child in public school is exposed to different types of people. Children come from a variety of backgrounds. Thus, children get an opportunity to interact with others who have different viewpoints. Kim has been in many awkward situations because she would not accept the viewpoints of someone else, she was not socialized to be open to or respect the opinions of others. If she had been in the traditional classroom environment, she would probably be more opened minded to the thoughts of others socially (Lubienski).
She also wasn’t able to grow with her peers and associate herself with the reality of other things besides her home. Kim has stated that, “it has been hard throughout the years to make friends and sustain relationships; and she knows that being home schooled has a great deal to do with it.”
The most important advantage of public schooling is the social development of a child. Parents of home schooled children may involve their child in other social activities; but none of them will probably be more effective as being a part of the same group for several years. It has been shown that children of school age benefit from having children their same age to interact with in order to help them develop their interpersonal skills.
Social interaction among students tends to differ from the interaction of teacher-student or parent-student. (Kunpulainen & Wray, 14) When students are communication with one another they must learn how to control conversations like; when someone talks, when it’s time to listen and etc. That concept can be hard to achieve if you haven’t been placed in a environment to learn it.
When deciding the best option for a child’s education, the question of who will teach him or her arises. In looking at home schooling in some cases the parent is not professionally trained or educated to teach a child. Teachers have been trained with certain techniques of how to give a child a quality and strong education.
Home schooling parents naturally pick and choose a curriculum that fits into their value system. “We met those who believe it was their ‘God-given right’ to be responsible for their children’s education. They established home instruction manuals and programs based upon their particular Christian religious and philosophical orientations.” (Mayberry, 2) The problem with this is that, children should have a broad and varied curriculum that will help them outside of their home environment.
A child’s education should ultimately prepare them for the world outside of ‘their world’. In public schools teachers are better equipped with the tools needed to teach children. There are also a wide range of topics as well as strategies used to stimulate active participation and an all around better learning environment.
A public school also offers more choices in specific subject areas such as; foreign language, arts, math and sciences. Teachers are trained to certain levels of proficiency in these subjects and children have a better chance of mastering that subject under this type of teaching. When there is more than one teacher available to teach various subjects, it keeps up the child’s interest and helps them to adapt to more than one classroom setting and teacher.
A 41 year old home school father from Washington, said “Our decision [to home educate] is based on our strong feeling for parenthood and parental responsibility and our desire to allow flexibility and freedom in our child’s education.” (Mayberry, 45) But ultimately, public schools are funded with more opportunities and resources available to children than that of a child being home schooled.
There have been public school administrators who say that a parent lacks the skill and resources needed to teach their children effectively. In the state of Utah, for example, there are no provisions for home schooled children to have access to public school facilities or services. “Home schooling should not be the responsibility of the state,” says a public school superintendent in Utah. (Mayberry, 84) Therefore, the responsibility of educating a child at home lies on the parent.
That parent may not be trained to teach; which leads to them creating a curriculum that may not be strong enough for a child to grow as a student. In some school districts legislation has been passed requiring parents to take and pass a level of certification with the state or local school district before being allowed to teach their child at home. In the San Diego School District, parents must go through the Community Home Education program (CHE). This program advises the parents of the districts expectations for parents as educators. Parents are also given the materials, textbooks and guides for use in their home. They are also required to prepare weekly lesson plans and check in with the coordinator of the program each month with evidence of the child’s work. San Diego’s school district, CHE program is just one way that a district can control some of a home schooled child’s curriculum.
While teachers require significant education, experience, and certification before they are allowed to teach in a classroom, there are very few standards that are across the board for home schooling parents. In many states, there are absolutely no standards or minimum requirements for parents to homeschool their children. Parents may feel that their intentions are positive, they may be overwhelmed by the knowledge and time commitment that are required for home schooling to benefit rather than damage the educational prospects of the child. Because of these lack of standards, the quality of home schooling ranges wildly from excellent to exceedingly poor.
Furthermore, parents within such a situation frequently rely on purchased books and materials to educate their child rather than creating a curriculum from scratch. While an excellent idea, there are few controls set in place that address the quality of these materials. In a number of materials found for homeschooling parents, religious teachings and content is emphasized over scientific fact and research. As such, the child may be exposed to a skewed worldview that is insufficiently balanced and may leave them wholly unprepared to become functioning members of modern society (Lubienski).
Along with the how and who will teach the child, comes the component of diversity. A child will benefit from a diverse student body; it can help prepare them for the multicultural environment and world they will one day live in as an adult. A home schooled child will not cope as well in a diverse environment. In the public school setting with a diverse population, a child can learn how to deal with students of different races and social class. Public schools help a child to realize just how diverse a community we have and appreciate the differences (Gorder). Unfortunately, most home schooled children will not acquire this realization until late in live. Jean Snell, a clinical professor of teacher education at the University of Maryland, believes that diversity enhances the whole school experience. “There is a richness that comes from students working side by side with others who are not of the same cookie-cutter mold,” she stated. (Kumpulainen, 34)
A public classroom setting provides the benefits of diversity to a child; which will help them throughout their lives. Children who are exposed to a variety of groups including but not limited to; race, status, sex, gender, etc. are more likely to function better in the multicultural and multiethnic societies. Public school atmospheres seem to help a child respect the differences of others and be more open to different perspectives of others as well. A child that is exposed to public school will probably be better prepared to face the diversity of the world with confidence unlike that of a home schooled child.
Ultimately, it is in the best interests of the child to attend a public school due to the various advantages that are offered by public facilities. As mentioned before, in many states there are no provisions for homeschooled children to have access to the same facilities and benefits as public school children, which can have a deleterious effect on the educational standards that the child offers. Even though the home schooling parents are paying for these facilities indirectly through taxes, they are not able to utilize these facilities as their child is not enrolled within the public system.
Furthermore, as many parents do not have the adequate education or experience to fully give children a quality educational experience, home schooled children are at risk for not meeting the same educational standards that are required for publically schooled children. However, there are certain cases when home schooling is to the best interest of the child. If the parents are able to provide an adequate level of socialization and educational standards for the child, there are few deleterious effects of home schooling in this regard.
While not often, some children benefit more from a personalized home environment than one where every child is forced to learn at an identical level. In some remote areas of the United States, a commute to a public school is simply not feasible or possible, and as such, home schooling fills the vital educational gap that would not otherwise be filled.
This holds true especially if the child has special needs, or has exceptional academic abilities that would be hindered by the regular K-12 progress of public education. In these few cases, it is in the best interests of the child that they are taken out of public school (Vahid and Vahid).
- Gorder, Cheryl. Home Schools: An Alternative. Blue Bird Publishing, 1996.
- Kumpulainen, Kristina and David Wray. Classroom Interaction and Social Learning: From Theory to Practice. RoutledgeFalmer, 2002.
- Lubienski, Chris. “Whither the common good? A critique of home schooling.” Peabody Journal of Education (2000): 207-232.
- Mayberry, Maralee J, et al. Home Schooling: Parents as Educators. Corwin, 1995.
- Vahid, Amy Schechter and Frank Vahid. Homeschooling: A Path Rediscovered for Socialization, Education, and Family. 2007.
