When a parent considers the education of their children, often, choosing home schooling versus public education becomes an issue. There are many things to consider in the home schooling versus public education choice. A parent should carefully review and consider all the advantages and disadvantages to the different forms of education and look at their child and their ability to teach their child prior to making a decision. With careful consideration the parent can make a good decision for the whole family regarding home schooling versus public education.
Quality Of Education
In the past people considered home schooling to be inferior to a public education but this is not necessarily true. Because of all the issues the public school system has to address sometimes the education is lacking. And depending on the teacher a student gets, the classroom experience might be inadequate. The public school education is only as good as the individual teacher. This is true of home schooling as well. If the parent is committed to providing a superior education for the student then the quality of education will be high. When considering the quality of education in home schooling versus public education a parent will need to look at their own abilities to teach and will need to look at the reputation of the local schools and teachers.
This paragraph seems to overlook the incredible achievements that homeschoolers have made in academic contests, college entrance exams, and annual standardized testing. All have shown that per capita, the homeschooled children are out performing public school children by a large margin.
Cost Factors In Education
The cost factors of home schooling versus public education are very different. In public education the government provides the teacher, the materials, and the curriculum for each student. Parents may need to pay for incidentals but even these can be covered by the school for low income families. In home schooling, not only will the parent lose the ability to work outside the home while educating the child, but, the parent will have to pay for all materials required for a good education. Home school materials can be quite costly depending on the curriculum that is chosen. In homes where finances are an issue the family may simply not be able to afford the home school option.
Government = taxpayers. We are paying for public school regardless of whether our children attend or not. It's certainly not "free" and the government schools are consistently calling out for more money, claiming that it is needed to "fix" or improve the poor results.
Social Factors
Many people are concerned about the social factors of home schooling versus public education. Children that are home schooled do not have as much opportunity to develop relationships outside the home. In the public school setting a child is able to have relationships with several authority figures and with their peers. It is a matter of opinion which situation is better for the child but a parent should consider this factor in choosing between home schooling and public education.
This paragraph completely ignores the immense negative impact of having the wrong social influence on children. Schools are saturated with negative moral messages and beliefs. Is that the kind of socialization that you want for your children? Do you think that you can just overcome that by spending some evenings and weekends with your kids? I don't think so.
When making the decision to homeschool or use the government school system, there has to be some consideration of just where you stand on certain issues. There are some things that I absolutely will not expose my children to. There are some things that I definitely do not want taught to my children as "OK", "acceptable", or "encouraged".
I don't want my children taught how to try and mitigate immoral sexual behaviors, how to get the opposite sex to notice various body parts, or how being American is something to be ashamed of or sorry for.
For me, the question of whether or not to homeschool is very simple. The biggest question that I have is "what must I do to keep my children out of the public school system?"
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