For Phyllis Young Only

Homeschooling

Nashiera Free

Liberty University

Homeschooling

Homeschooling has been defined as that type of education that involves having the children being schooled from their homes through a private arrangement from their parents to be taught all the subjects from home. The process of teaching is either carried out by a private tutor or even by the child’s parent and this form of schooling has been common in North America, the United Kingdom, in various commonwealth countries and in Europe (Bohon, 2012). It is important to note that homeschooling is a legal activity in most of the countries that are considered as being developed as it is always seen as a alternative to both the private and the public education system that has been widely believed to be effective in a good number of countries from all over the world (Chang, Gould, & Meuse, 2011). Despite this form of education being legal in most of the developed countries, it still remains illegal in other parts of the world as its quality is always questionable and the impact that it has to the students has always been questioned by a number of stakeholders in different sectors in these countries (Cogan, 2010).

Despite this form of education having been highly acceptable in various parts of the world, it has been rejected in other parts for some reasons. This has led to the development of a debate as to whether those students who are homeschooled are educationally sound or not (Bohon, 2012). The debate has been developed to evolve around the facts presented by a number of scholars and stakeholders on the effectiveness of homeschooling and the impact that it brings to those children who pass through this system. As such, this paper will look at the effectiveness of some of the motivations that make parents to opt for homeschooling as well as the impacts of homeschooling to the involved students (Houston, & Toma, 2003). The analysis will be geared towards trying to conclude on how sound it is to adopt homeschooling. My take for this question is that, homeschooled children tend to be academically sound and at times, they tend to be more advantaged than students from the other schooling forms in any given country (Lubienski, Puckett, & Brewer, 2013).

Motivations for homeschooling

There are many reasons that are given as to why parents tend to choose homeschooling over the other methods of schooling. In this, it is important to note that parents tend to commonly cite two key motivations that make them to opt for homeschooling (Chang, Gould, & Meuse, 2011). One of the factors that has greatly contributed towards the choice for homeschooling over the other methods of schooling include high levels of dissatisfaction with the existing local schools as most of them have lowered the quality of education over time with the grades produced in these institution being said to have gone down significantly (Bohon, 2012). The dissatisfaction that has been recorded by parents to the existing schools is linked to the schooling environment, the curriculum used in these institutions, the quality of academic instruction, bullying and lack of faith in the institution’s ability to meet the needs of the students learning in these institutions (Houston, & Toma, 2003).

The other motivating factor that has made parents to opt for homeschooling is that of developing some increasing interest in getting involved to the development as well as the learning process of their children (Houston, & Toma, 2003). In this, it is important to understand that a good number of children tend to homeschool their children for purposes of being in control over what their students learn as well as having a know how of how their children are taught. Additionally, parents engage their children in homeschooling for purposes of catering for their kids abilities as well as aptitudes more effectively and adequately as well as taking advantage of the efficiency of one-to-one instruction (Chang, Gould, & Meuse, 2011). Homeschooling thus gives a child effective time to engage in various childhood activities like socializing and other non-academic activities that help them to be better individuals as they grow up in the society (Lubienski, Puckett, & Brewer, 2013).

Additionally, it is important to note that homeschooling has also been considered to be caused significantly by the choice of parenting style that parents tend to choose for their kids. In relation to this, it is important to note that homeschooling can generally be a matter of consistency for those families that live in isolated locations with those living in rural homes being the likely individuals to go for homeschooling as a way of quenching their children’s educational needs (Bohon, 2012). Additionally, individuals who tend to move out of their countries and go to other countries with their families temporarily may also opt for homeschooling for the time that they stay in the country where they stay. It is also important to note that a good number of actors, athletes, and musicians tend to be homeschooled for purposes of accommodating their busy schedules in a more convenient manner (Chang, Gould, & Meuse, 2011).

It is also important to note that the process of homeschooling can also be about apprenticeship and mentorship meaning that a teacher spends quite some time with the child making him or her to be more intimately acquainted with the child (Houston, & Toma, 2003). It is also important to note that engaging in homeschooling activities can be used as a type of supplemental education and as a technique of helping learners to get their education under some very specific conditions (Cogan, 2010). The system gained relevance over time to a tune where the existing jurisdiction call for those engaging in homeschooling to adhere to the country’s or region’s approved curriculum (Lubienski, Puckett, & Brewer, 2013). It is thus important to note that that homeschooling has been growing at a very fast rate and it is most likely to be one of the things that will gain grounds in the future with a good number of parents likely adopting the system for their children.

Why homeschooled students are academically sound

There are a number of reasons as to why homeschooling is considered to be of great quality as well as being effective in imparting students with the right academic knowledge just like the other students who go past the normal schooling programs. In this, researches that have been done in the past have indicated that homeschooled learners tend to have scores that are higher or equal to the scores that are acquired by non-homeschooled student on different states college entry exams (Bohon, 2012). The results of the entry exams have been compared between students who passed through the normal system and students who went through homeschooling and the difference was significant thus proving homeschooling to be effective imparting the right knowledge to the students confirming that it is surely an effective learning process. As a result of this, it gets important to know the types of motivating styles that are used to homeschool students as it will generally help teachers to improve the performance of the children using the other schooling methods (Cogan, 2010).

Another study that was carried out to note the difference between homeschooled students and students from the formal system found out that homeschooled children tend achieve similar academic levels just like the other students who pass through the private and public schools. It is important to note that the results of this study cuts across students from all walks of life irrespective of their socio-economic status as well as their originality (Chang, Gould, & Meuse, 2011). In this, it is important to note that homeschooled students have been found to get exceptionally high marks in almost all the standardized tests that are administered to them. In an example, a countrywide study that analyzed data from 1,952 different homeschooled students found out that homeschooled students averagely scored over eighty percent in all their test categories, a phenomena that could be easily linked to the environment in which the students are exposed to, the language used to teach them, and the study skills that they employ during their reading thus making them better than the other students (Lubienski, Puckett, & Brewer, 2013).

It is also important to note that State-level studies also ended up reaching to the same conclusions with homeschooled students having a score higher than students from the other schools when they sat for a common exam (Bohon, 2012). The other method that can be used in measuring the difference in the academic performance between homeschooled students and students from other schools is their academic performance and success level when they get to college. In this, it is important to note that homeschoolers tend to perform better than compared to their colleagues with all fresh homeschoolers having a higher GPA compared to students from normal schools in different parts of the world (Lubienski, Puckett, & Brewer, 2013).

Studies have found out that those homeschooled students who have parents with appropriate knowledge in education tend to get higher scores compared to those students whose parents do not have the right knowledge on education. The students whose parents have a strong education background tend to get more attention during their learning time compared to other students thus making them to perform exceptionally higher and better compared to their counterparts whose parents do not have similar backgrounds in the education sector (Chang, Gould, & Meuse, 2011). It is on this basis that I conclude that homeschooled students tend to be highly academically sound just like the other students from both the private and public schools as much of them tend to score higher marks in joint tests and in college entry examinations.

Benefits of homeschooling

There are a number of benefits that are linked to homeschooling to both the parents and students that make it an appropriate education system to be adopted by parents. Some of the benefits linked to homeschooling includes the convenient attached to the homeschooling activity as it offers both the parents and students with an opportunity to access the curriculum at any time when they wish to as they always have access to the resources needed to get all the resources (Bohon, 2012). The other benefit is that of the system being self-paced as the students passing through this system have the ability to work on their courses at any give time following their schedule (Cogan, 2010).

The other benefit of the system is that of being easy to keep records on the performance of the students thus providing an opportunity for the tutors to work on the student’s weaknesses and make them to improve their performance as required (Lubienski, Puckett, & Brewer, 2013). Parents tend to benefit from this as they always have the opportunity to scrutinize the performance of their children making it easy for them to know the areas where their children are weak and where they are strong thus taking the right step towards helping them to perform better (Cogan, 2010). Additionally, it is important to note that this system is generally flexible as it gives parents an opportunity to choose the grade level for their children to join and be taught about as well as the courses that the students will take as well as the work that they need to complete within the guidelines given by the state about homeschooling.

The flexibility makes it easy for the children to develop time for their social development thus being in a position to grow socially strong compared to those children who study in strict school environments. The other thing that makes this education system appropriate for students and parents as much of its grades are automated (Bohon, 2012). The reason for this is that, approximately ninety percent of all the work done in homeschooling is always graded using the computer thus making the involved individuals to save a lot of time as students tend to get their feedback instantly and ask questions on areas where they perform poorly.

Again, this specific schooling system tends to offer the parents with an opportunity to create their personal transcripts by way of using easy to follow transcript system. The homeschooling system is also important as it makes a way for students and parents to choose the courses they want to work on and allocate time on courses based on the performance of the students towards specific courses (Cogan, 2010). The system also offers an opportunity for the students to concentrate on their gifts and talents thus leading to better extra-curriculum development to the students. The lessons in homeschooling tend to be assigned in an effective way to save time as students are not allowed to engage in guesswork as they work as per the lesson plans (Houston, & Toma, 2003).

Other benefits of the homeschooling system include offering an opportunity for real-time progress tracking to the students, the rate at which the syllabus is completed is minimized thus making the students to take little time to complete their studies. Additionally, the system is highly engaging, and it helps the students to build on their courage and self-esteem leading to better performance and appropriateness in developing their presentation styles and skills. Generally, it is important to note that these are the reasons that make parents to engage their children in homeschooling (Kunzman, 2009).

Criticism of homeschooling

Despite this system being linked to a number of benefits, there are a number of reasons why it is considered to be ineffective in the learning process. One of the reasons why the system is considered to be ineffective is the inability of the students to interact with the other students as they grow up thus having some socialization problems as they start interacting with the other students (Bohon, 2012). Additionally, the system may be ineffective as much of the time may be spend by the student engaging in non-learning activities thus leading to ineffectiveness and a drop in the performance of the students. The tutor teaching the kid may not be an expert in all subjects thus making it important for the parents to get multiple teachers thus making the entire process expensive at the end of it all (Chang, Gould, & Meuse, 2011). The time spend on learning may be much more compared to the time that is taken by kids from other learning institutions as they carry on with their learning activities.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is important to note that homeschooling is one of the emerging trends in the education sector and it is generally being adopted at a very fast rate by a number of parents in different parts of the world. As a result of this, it is very important to note that the system is considered to be very effective as most of the students who pass it have been found to perform exceptionally compared to the other students who pass through the normal education system. As such, it is important to note that students who pass through homeschooling are generally academically sound. It is thus important to note that parents who tend to travel from time to time as well as those who temporarily move from one place to the other should adopt this type of learning for their kids as it will help them significantly towards their learning process and ultimately end up in good colleges and universities.

References

Bohon, D. (2012). School at home or homeschooling? Education, 23-24.

Chang, S., Gould, O. N., & Meuse, R. E. (2011). The Impact of Schooling on Academic Achievement: Evidence from Homeschooled and Traditionally Schooled Students. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 43, 195-202.

Cogan, M. F. (2010). Exploring academic outcomes of homeschooled students. Journal of College Admission, 19-25.

Houston, R. G., & Toma, E. F. (2003). Home schooling: An alternative school choice.

Kunzman, R. (2009). Understanding homeschooling a better approach to regulation. Theory and Research in Education, 7, 311-330.

Lubienski, C., Puckett, T., & Brewer, T. J. (2013). Does homeschooling "work"? A critique of the empirical claims and agenda of advocacy organizations. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 378-392.

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Riley, Gina (2015) "Differences in Competence, Autonomy, and Relatedness between Home Educated and Traditionally Educated Young Adults

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