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The contemporary society has been characterized by a growing acceptance and preference for home schooling, which has led to the diversification of the view towards home schooling as a means of ensuring more effective educational programs. Although tutors and parents have been carrying out teaching practices for a long time in the past, more enhanced home schooling has been adopted as a countercultural and radical change from the usual public education system. In the process of adopting home schooling as an alternative to the formal education system, advocacy groups have called for the enactment of legislations that establish national uniform guidelines that will make the education system legitimate. Such regulations have been adopted in a wide range of states with the aim of controlling home schooling and making it more effective to a level that is justified as compared to the formal educational system. However, different stakeholders in the education sector have been advocating increased regulations on the home schooling programs, especially in the name of enhanced accountability. Given the rising popularity of home schooling and the ineffectiveness of the system as a result of reduced regulation, it would be important to change the regulations for homeschools in an attempt to make home schooling programs as more effective and viable as the formalized, as well as public educational programs.

Carrying out the teaching practice in homes was a program that was adopted in the late 1960s and 1970s when a political movement emerged and adopted the program as a radical critique of the cultural public education system (Imber & Geel, 2010). Advocates of home schools had the notion that public schools were supported the conservative conformity that all children were supposed to attend school. By the early 1990s, advocates of home schooling had their way, and most states had adopted laws that supported the practice. The subsequent periods have been followed by advocacy groups of home schooling have continued pushing for the adoption of both state and federal laws that dictate uniformity between home schools and public schools (Angelis, 2008). However, different states have adopted home schooling programs in different measures and thus, the operation of home schools falls under state laws, where such laws vary widely across different states. As a result, there are different shortcomings in home schooling regulations including the probability of the absence of restrictions on home scholars, low-quality education, as well as inadequate academic benefits to the participants in comparison with the formal educational programs.

The probability of absence of restrictions on home schooling is high, which in turn may lead to malpractices such as mistreatment of children in home schools (Angelis, 2008). As a result, most of the educational objectives that are meant for the scholars may not be met. It would be important for the government to enact regulations that will require state notifications, which will build a specific force to enhance responsible home education. Such regulations will mainly involve setting requirements for parents to provide regular notifications regarding their intent and preference to home schools. Such a notice would include minimum requirements such as children’s personal details, grade levels, as well as the details concerning the contacts of such families (Angelis, 2008). Such notifications will enable the state governments to control the operations of home schools and further ensure that all children are accorded the right treatment by their home school teachers.

In addition, regulations are supposed to enhance measures to ensure that the education services provided by home schools are beneficial to the children in the system. In some cases, those involved in home-school teaching may not be adequately qualified and experienced to cover the existing curriculum, which leads to the risk of low-quality education services to the students (Edwards, 2004). Such an occurrence is mainly as a result of the absence of adequate regulations to provide a level of skills and experiences that teachers in home schools should attain in order to qualify for such programs. In order to solve such a problem, regulations should be changed to ensure that parents that are providing primary instructions in home schools have a minimum requirement of a high school diploma.

In some instances, the subject matter covered in home schools may not be necessary to the child’s academic achievement, which reduces their academic know-how as compared to those in the public education system (Edwards, 2004). Home schools mainly involve teaching students the subjects that involve real life situations, as opposed to the standard subjects, such as English, Math, History, and Science, which are covered in other systems of education. In order to solve such a problem, it is important to change existing regulations to ensure that enacted legislations require parents in home schools to facilitate learning in the same subjects that are covered in public schools. Although such parents may not be required to use the same curriculum, such regulations would set out a framework upon which children would learn these subject matters.

The rising popularity of home schooling has led to a situation were more parents and guardians to prefer home schools as an alternative to the conservative public school system. As such, states have come up with regulations to enhance the effective use of home schools in educating children. However, issues related to home schools have come up including the reduced control of such an education system by the government, which may lead to malpractices such as mistreatment of children. In addition, low-quality education may be provided in home school, especially in situations where the parents that teach do not have the academic qualifications required for such positions. Regulations should be changed to require that parents should provide the state authorities with regular notifications on the welfare of the child participants in the programs, as well as ensure that the subjects covered are similar to the ones covered in the public school education system.

References

Angelis, K. (2008). Home Schooling: Are Partnerships Possible? Maryland: ProQuest.

Edwards, R. (2004). Children, Home, and School: Regulation, Autonomy Or Connection? New York: Routledge.

Imber, M., & Geel, T. (2010). Education Law. Cambridge: Routledge.