by Dr. Michael Smith

Created on: January 01, 2009   Last Updated: January 12, 2009

Whether to home school your children, or use public education is a volatile topic. The subject enlists strong emotions on either side, but regardless of our emotions, the emphasis must be on what is best for the child. Which method will provide the best education and allow the child to function in the outside world.

From earliest human history, education was primarily the prerogative of the family, with many hiring formal tutors, or participating in some type of home schooling. Formal education did not become a common practice until the sixteen hundreds. Since the beginning of compulsory education a growing number of parents are opting for homeschooling as an improvement over public education. The battle, over which is better for the education of children, rages with positives and negatives on both sides, but overall homeschooling pales in comparison to a formal, public education. Consider some of the reasons why formal education should be the preferable option.

One major advantage of public education is the benefits of socialization, learning to interact with our peers, and the discipline of responding to an authority figure other than one's parents. Homeschooling tends to delay or limit socialization to a later time, causing the child to feel less sure of his/her surroundings. Being together eight hours per day with people of your own age group has distinctive advantages in learning to verbalize, play together, and work together.

One of the great things about public education is the presence of a teacher. The addition of a new role model into the mix gives the child someone else in their lives from which to learn new experiences. Each teacher has a unique personality, skill set, and experiences that open the imagination, and exposes the child to an entirely new world, much less the fact that a teacher is trained to be a professional educator and mentor. While a parent may be attuned to his/her child, a non-partial teacher can better assess the weaknesses and strengths of the child, and develop a plan for a more well-rounded education.

Traditionally, homeschoolers read better and do better on verbal scores of the SAT and ACT. They do not score as well in Math, again because mathematics is best taught by a trained math educator.

Depending on the methodology used, students in conventional school learn to balance several subjects at once, while many home school students complete their work in units, or they complete one subject at a time, and once completed they move to the next. This approach, while allowed for concentrated effort on a subject area, fails to teach time management and prioritizing skills. Conventional education forces the student to balance up to six subjects today, and to determine how to best meet the expectations required in each. The skills learned prepare the student for real life experiences.

Most home school setups do not have laboratories to promote hands on experimentation, or activities. These are a vital part of the educational process. Graduates of home school programs may arrive in the freshman year at college, and when faced with required laboratory classes, find they are faced with the huge task of overcoming the deficient.

While home school adherents cite many social and learning advantages to teaching their children in nonconventional educational situations, the disadvantages of missed social and educational enrichment far outweigh the negatives. While not an ideal environment in every respect, the public school system is still the better choice.

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