1 of 67

No

Write now Article Tools

Like many other things in life, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.... Nowhere is that more evident than home schooling your child. On the surface to persons with no or little personal experience in teaching, it looks like a good way to "tailor" your child's thinking. Unfortunately it turns out to be a real can of worms and in many cases, the child could end up learning less and being worse off than if they had been formally educated. Let's take a look at why this is not beneficial for your child or children.

1) No Child Left Behind Act - a monumental change in how American education is handled in public schools and dictates specific criteria and areas of learning from Kindergarten till 12th grade for each child. For example, First Graders are required to know and be able to explain specific skills such as numbers recognition, basic reading skills, understanding of scientific concepts, etc. Parents choosing to home school their children aren't required to adhere to this but are taking a chance when the child applies for college or even take the SAT, they will fail. Plus many parents who opt to homeschool their children lack a background as an educator, increasing the chance a critical skill or area will not be taught to their child.

2) Update of Information and Educational Techniques - Teachers in both public and private schools regularly attend seminars and courses to expose them to the latest and greatest techniques and data sources for use in their classroom. Those who choose to homeschool, unless they make an effort to update their data sources and techniques run a good chance of providing obsolete or incorrect data to the student.

3) Investment of time - teaching is a profession and it is not uncommon to see teachers working well over 40 hours a week to prepare lesson plans, creating quizzes, grading homework, etc. It is highly unlikely someone who is attempting to homeschool their children put in a similar or comparable effort so will end up "short-changing" their kids.

4) Subject Specialization - There are few parents that can claim to be competent in multiple fields normally taught to elementary students. It's one thing to be able to add and subtract but how about also understanding how to explain the difference between an adverb and a verb or being able to explain the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 time or explaining ratios or review the events leading up to the American Revolutionary War? Once a student heads to intermediate, high school or

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Is homeschooling better than formal education??
We want to hear your view. Write now!