Is it really a radical choice for parents to decide to homeschool? Or should we applaud these parents for making the right choice about their children’s education?
Some parents nowadays are thinking-out-of-the-box to make sure that their children don’t have only the best education but possess also the right values, principles and attitude toward life. There is an apparent increase in the number of homeschooled students. According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are approximately 1,096,000 students who were being educated at home in the Spring of 2003. This is a big leap (approximately 29% increase) compared to back in the Spring of 1999, which saw only an estimated 850,000 homeschoolers.
Let us delve into why more parents are now taking the radical choice of opting for homeschool education for their children.
Away from school bullying
This is one of the primary reasons cited by parents who homeschooled their children. School bullying is extremely prevalent nowadays. The National Youth Violence Prevention stated that there are over 5.7 million youths who have experienced bullying at school. It is about 30% of total youth population in the United States.
It is a disturbing situation with a negative impact on the children being bullied. Bullied students live a stressful life as they become fearful with possible bullying incidents again. They are scared to be alone like being in the bathroom or in the hallway. Victims will have less interest in attending school also and even the task of riding a bus becomes a terrifying activity.
This results in depression, low self-esteem, physical illness, loneliness and in worst cases, suicidal thoughts. Most bullied children also find it difficult to learn at school as they struggle coping with their fear and anxiety. They can hardly focus in the classroom.
Other Safety Concerns
Homeschooler parents are worried about the safety of their children in traditional schools. Safety concerns include drugs, negative peer pressure and accidents. Some isolated cases include children being gunned down or murdered at school. Children’s safety at school is unpredictably at stake.
Some homeschooler parents perceive homeschooled children to be safer when compared to children attending a regular school.
Quality Learning
Parents are the primary teachers and models of the children. A ratio of one teacher to two or three students makes a huge difference in the quality of education delivered, compared to a teacher handling 30 to 40 children in a regular classroom.
Some homeschooler parents perceive homeschooled children to be safer when compared to children attending a regular school.
Also, the fact that it is their children means that the education is more personalized and the result is far better. Schedules for homeschooling are flexible, too, so children are not forced to wake up early to catch the school bus and options for what the children want to learn for the day are possible.
A Better Person
Parents always want to instill good values in their children. It is one of their intentions and hopes that their children become a better person, but when children attend a regular school parents can no longer control the factors such friends, schoolmates and the school environment. These are external factors that can influence children either positively or negatively.
Oftentimes, children acquire attitudes from their friends at school. Children are vulnerable to adopting certain manners or attitudes which are relative to the kind of friends or clique they mingle and hang out with. On some occasions, they are negatively influenced because of peer pressure. For the child to be part of the group or to be labeled ‘cool’ at school, sometimes they do things that seem strange for their character.
Parents of homeschoolers prefer to guide and raise their children the way they would have wanted them to be. They believe that they are more effective in instilling moral values.
24/7
This is the best advantage of homeschooling. Parents are with their children 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Experienced parents always encourage new parents to spend as much time as they can with their children, especially in their growing years. This is the stage where children are still dependent on their parents. Once they reach puberty, they prefer to spend time with their peers and once they reach adulthood, they will spend more time with colleagues, friends and at work.
A Strong Bond
As parents and children spend more time together than the average parents whose children are attending a regular school, the opportunity to develop profound bond and strengthened relationships is inevitable.
Homeschool reinforces the value of family.
Flexibility
There are parents who are always mobile because of work related issues. Some parents find homeschooling especially convenient because it allows them to travel without much constraint. Traveling can be planned anytime as there are no worries of missing the classes or interrupting school activities.
Without doubt, homeschool education offers many benefits to your children and to you as parents though critics always question the socialization life of the homeschool children. Are they really being deprived of their socialization skills?
Homeschool curricula nowadays include supplemental activities like pottery classes, museum visits, karate classes and so on. There are many institutions that offer and organize different activities for homeschool children. If you can just do a little research and get connected with the right network or community of homeschoolers, you will be amazed with the available socialization opportunities for homeschool children.
Socialization is not limited to school only. There are so many venues that children can develop their socialization skills.
So, is it really a radical or right choice to homeschool? Parents know their children better than anyone else and so does the answer to this question.
Statistics Resources: www.safeyouth.org, www.ed.gov
About the Author:
Cyra Miles Valdez is a freelance writer living in Abu Dhabi, UAE and her areas of interest are travel, events & holidays, health, culture & society, human interest stories and education. Contact her for all your article and web content writing needs. You can visit her at www.cyramiles.com or read her journey as an expat in Frugal Expat
