if homeschools isn't for everyone?

if homeschools isn't for everyone?

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Homeschooling Is Not for Everyone

Educational policies and legislation should tailor to purposefully serve different groups and educational environments. National standards, choice, and privatized education tend to clash with the homeschooling program because of the diverse demographics of children educated at home. The one-size-fits-all argument and tendency danced in the backdrop of profound historical shifts in the American family with significant implications for schooling of homeschool perspectives. Historical shifts in American family formats included the ideal nuclear family model and conjugal family. The ideal nuclear family comprised of working husbands and stay-at-home wives; the family based on conjugal traditions had an increased incidence of divorces and declining birth rates (Lubienski et al., 2020). Moreover, parents increasingly delayed marriages and childbearing compared to previous normal because of the historical evolution of conjugal families. These transformations shifted the same-age cohorts, challenging the feasibility and practicability of traditional grade-based classrooms. Many families started questioning the appropriateness and effectiveness of educational programs tailored for the general childhood population as seasonal classes tended to undermine the benefits of smaller, matched experience (Lubienski et al., 2020). Accordingly, homeschooling did not fit all children as other policies had to be enacted to cater to the educational needs of diverse populations in different social, political, and historical settings.

Homeschooling is also not appropriate to all students because it may undermine educational, social, and psychological implications in the children. For example, lack of formal settings in homeschooling curriculum implies reduced social interaction compared to schooling children, leading to poor life skills. In addition, the likelihood of addressing all the areas of the formal curriculum when teaching from home reduces, especially when parents lack the professional capability concerning the end curriculum requirements of the educational authority. This may imply the child acquires inadequate knowledge and skills, thus affecting their academic performance in higher learning institutions. Parents may also seek to homeschooling their children due to some psychological tendencies affecting children, thus failing to recognize the consequences of not putting children in the official learning institutions. For example, some parents may want to offer education at home to a mentally retarded child rather than using the available special needs schools that offer mental blank education because of their child’s status. This implies that not all learners are appropriate for homeschooling due to its adverse educational implications.

When children are enrolled in officially recognized learning institutions, they have access to the resources that may not be available if the child is required to stay at home all the time to study. In this context, advantages are associated with the formal learning systems that compromise items’ legitimacy and practicality in their lack of static and traditional character. For example, it is rational to claim that educational products are tailored to serve an increasingly complex world. In addition, formal education learners can recognize new paradigms, thus allowing innovations by observing and learning from their multicultural peers. Public training institutions are run by professional teachers who receive training on modern learning theories and the information on incorporating technology into academia. Instructors are also specialized in different subject matters based on their knowledge and experience. This means learners have high probabilities of achieving their academic goals because of the high quality of education in formal learning institutions than homeschooling. Overall, homeschooling does not fit all children because of its adverse educational, social, and psychological impacts. In addition, there are higher chances of achieving the academic goals and objectives when enrolled in formal learning institutions than homeschooling. Therefore, parents need to consider their child’s needs and the benefits they are likely to achieve regarding education before deciding on the type of learning system.

References

Lubienski, S. T., Brewer, L. P., & Lubienski, C. (2020). Intended and Unintended Consequences of Homeschooling for Racial and Economic Educational Equity. Journal of School Choice, 14(2), 151-183. https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2020.1744115