Homeschooling is a growing movement in the United States. One study estimates
that there are now one million home schooling families.
But critics of homeschooling point out some drawbacks that should be
considered. In this article I attempt to summarize these.
Takes a lot of time
Homeschooling takes a lot of time and effort on the part of the parents. It is
well known that parents today spend far too much time with their children,
especially fathers. Homeschooling wastes valuable time that could be better
spent making money or watching television.
Lack of peer interaction
Homeschooled children do not have the opportunity to associate with large
groups of other children their age. Thus, they miss out on many potential
socialization experiences. When young people get together, they are able to
pool their ignorance, and inspire each other to do things that few would have
the courage to do on their own, like experiment with drugs or sex or gang
violence. Homeschooled children miss out on these opportunities.
Parents not qualified to teach
Most parents are not certified teachers or members of the National Education
Association, and thus are not qualified to teach. Public schools today
continually demonstrate a high quality of education, with over half the
high school graduates able to read and write, and many able to do simple
arithmetic.
Endangers the public school system
As more and more parents withdraw their children from public school to put them
into private- or home- schools, state funding of public education falls and
support for school levies dwindles. Homeschoolers continue to insist that this
is irrelevant because their children are, in fact, getting an education. But
this misses the point. Every homeschooled child means that much less need for
bureaucrats and administrators in the public schools, which means that some of
these highly-paid, important people might eventually lose their jobs. Do
homeschoolers think that public school personnel should be happy just because
children are being well-educated? They seem to think that the purpose of public
schools is to educate children! Of course the important thing is to provide
jobs for professional educators and thus keep them off the welfare rolls.
Danger of indoctrination
Homeschooling parents might indoctrinate children in their social, religious,
or political beliefs. This is clearly a serious threat, because most American
parents are generally politically conservative, and either Christians or
sympathetic to Christianity. In the public schools, on the other hand, children
will only be indoctrinated in politically correct idealogies, humanist
liberalism.
© 1995 by Jay Johansen
Comments
Beverly Vleck Apr 15, 2018
Children who have been homeschooled, generally score higher than their public school counterparts.
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