Homeschooling: Why More And More People Are Picking It

By Tom Addison


The subject of homeschooling is one that has been debated on over the past couple of years. Just like everything else in life, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are some of them.

The first advantage is that the child will get more time with the teacher. Let's face it, in most schools, the number of students in a class is over twenty. A Teacher may be handling four to five of such classes. This means that a teacher is teaching around 80 to 100 students. It is close to impossible for a teacher to understand the needs of all these people. However, with homeschooling, your child will receive unlimited attention from the teacher.

The child will also learn at a speed that they feel comfortable with. At times, a child may feel that the teacher is moving either too fast or too slow in a certain topic. As the teacher has to consider the other students, he will only alter his pace to suit the majority. If the child does not fall in this group, then they are at a disadvantage.

Another benefit is that you get to design your child's curriculum. Some parents feel that their children aren't learning things that are relevant to them. Some may even feel that their children need to learn more about religion or other subjects. A normal school designs its curriculum to suit the majority. Therefore, the best alternative for parents with such demands is to homeschool their children.

The biggest disadvantage with homeschooling is the lack of socialization. In a normal school, a child has to socialize with people. As they grow up, they acquire knowledge on how to make friends and deal with certain issues. A homeschooled child, lives in a kind of 'bubble' where they do not have to socialize with people. Therefore, they miss out on acquiring basic socialization skills.

Another disadvantage of homeschooling is that the quality of education may not be that good. Unless the parent is a qualified teacher or hires a professional tutor, then the quality of education may be substandard. Even if he parent was a teacher. Or if they hired a tutor, they may not be good at teaching every single subject.




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