Home- Schooling is the second-best alternative to the traditional education system. Home– a place where we have family who loves and cares, While School means an institution where we get an education and develop skills. Therefore, we can conclude that Home-Schooling means where a family takes up the responsibility to teach and educate their children at home only rather than sending them to a private or public school.
Background: Home-Schooling in colonial times.
Home-schooling is not a new phenomenon but a very old method to provide education. Since colonial times, wealthy people and well educated like royal families used to provide education to their children at home. Maybe by themselves or maybe hiring tutors. While the poor families can’t afford tutors for their children so they send their children were illiterate. Thus, to ensure the education of every child, the establishment of a public and private schools has been done.
In the 1970s, the Home-schooling started growing because of some popular authors and researchers like John Holt and Raymond Moore. They described Home-Schooling as new education reform.
However, it grew in many countries like the United Kingdom, Australia and India. After a few years, we could also see that it grew rapidly that China and Columbia also started practising this phenomenon.
Parents preferred homeschooling because this way they can show deep interest in their child’s education and bring up their child on their own. Eventually, they become their primary teachers. Parents help their children throughout their physical, emotional, and mental development.
Parents usually fear that in the influence of public or private educational institution, also their involvement in unethical practices under peer pressure. They also feel that the public education system lacks discipline and is in unsafe conditions.
As we know every coin has two faces, therefore Homeschooling has both pros and cons.
Pros:
Homeschooling has many pros over the public education system. At homeschooling parents know how they can work up their child’s skills and at their own pace. Also, according to children’s ability to learn, the schedule is set. This way the child is not forced to follow the same path as of the student going to a school.
The areas in which a child is struggling that can be overcome by giving special attention to those areas of the subject. Homeschooling is not about isolating the child from the outer world as parents provide them with practical knowledge, field trips. These practices enhance a child’s intellectual development.
This method also forms a strong bond between parents and children. They get mature experiences from different ages rather than getting immature experiences from their peer groups. With the help of the advancement of technologies and digital learning, homeschooling could be supplemented with education. Thus, making homeschooling easy and efficient.
Cons:
Homeschooling is all about learning at home. And learning from their parents and family. Therefore, leading to a lack of socialization. Children don’t get to interact much with anyone rather than their family. This can affect their socializing skills or maybe result in fears like people being judgemental, or how would someone react to what they say, etc. might resist them to communicate. Children may not get to know about the different perspectives by different people of various backgrounds, cultures, or traditions.
Perhaps, they might be confined to the biased perspective of their parents only. Parents also might never have their education or experience updated according to today’s world. So it might lead their children to have a limited version of knowledge only. They do not get to imbibe skills like- teamwork, organizational structure, good communication skills, etc.
To sum it all, Homeschooling is a great alternative to the public and private education system but some skills might get left out while learning in a home setup. They might lack in communicating, raising their voices for right, leadership qualities, or teamwork. Nowadays, these skills play a very important role to lead an independent life.
Author: Varnika Narota