Home schooling is the legal alternative to compulsory education in public or private institutions

Home schooling is the legal alternative to compulsory education in public or private institutions which is offered at home and in the community. It is mainly offered by parents that wish to provide their children with a customize type of education or an even more complete education which they feel cannot be attained in public or private schools. Several options are seen as playing part in decisions linking parents with this kind of education option (Taylor 2006 p.1). The family education, according to many of its proponents, is integrated with community organizations, reading, vacations, religious activities and other family functions. The education also proceeds flexibly all year round at the pace of the student. This even accounts for the time used in travelling. Ethics, character and religious topics that are usually omitted in public school curriculums are taught. Money management and business studies may be integrated into the family business. With all these attractive curriculum options, parents deem it fit to have their children undergo homeschooling rather than take them to public schools (Taylor 2006 p.2). The other advantage is that the parents can monitor the progress of their children from the first day instead of leaving that to the teachers who may be biased at times. Spending more time at home with their children increases the family ties which is important for the child’s psychological being. It provides a natural environment from which the child can learn to develop confidence and independent thinking. The diversification of learning environment enhances communication between all age groups hence providing an avenue for the child to do away with shyness.

Better attention is accorded to these children as the tutor has only one child to concentrate on rather than twenty kids in one class. This implies that the individual attention can be utilized to enhance skills, identify talent and maximize potential which could have gone wasted in a class with more extrovert type of children (Byfield 2001 p.43). Gifted children will realize their dreams as they will have the attention required plus the chance to reach the maximum potential they can. If it was in a public school, they would lose interest along the way since they would have to wait for the rest of the class to catch up with them while they already have the content. In home schooling education, they may even pursue their own academic studies since there will be minimal pressure at home. Through out the primary school period, most children change their teachers annually. This could break a bond that was beginning to flourish (Taylor 2006 p.3). As a matter of fact, these children feel left out after the teacher they so much adored is taken to another class or is left in the previous class when they have graduated to the next. The next teacher may not get enough time to know all the students individually making it difficult to help the children adequately. However, at home, the tutor is the same throughout the years. This creates a good rapport between the teacher and the student. The student is privileged because they do not have to adapt to anew teaching style very so often. The teacher on the other hand gets acquainted with the child’s learning style and will be ready to provide a consistent environment for the child to learn in.

The above benefits notwithstanding, several criticisms have emerged over homeschooling. Students undergoing this type of education have been said to be academically and socially challenged by those in the public institutions. However, several researches have emerged to dispute these allegations. Researchers found out that home-schooled youngsters scored slightly higher in all subjects and in all grades. They were seen to average at the 80^th percentile in reading, 79^th percentile in math and 76^th percentile in languages compared to 50^th percentile where the public and private schooled children clustered (Byfield 2001 p.43). This goes further to prove that that they are better equipped to handle exams than their counterparts which put the homeschooling institutions on top (Byfield 2001 p.43). These facts have been studied over and over to ensure correct conclusions are arrived at. Even if social activists do not want homeschooling to be the mandatory education system, the people who have undergone through it surely know the benefits they get academically.

There is the ability to obtain immediate feedback from the students allowing tutors to quickly assess whether the concept has been grasped or not. This gives the teacher the needed information on whether to alter teaching methods or review the course contents to reinforce the topic. This also gives the parent a chance to offer immediate positive feedback for a job well done which is motivational to the student especially coming form one’s parents (Holt 2004 p.48). The home environment eliminates many academic distractions that could cause interruptions in learning. This is especially witnessed in classrooms where students have different characters and may not have the same agenda while in class. The teacher’s attention will thus be divided and time may be wasted trying to bring them back to attention. More so, the parents do not have other administrative duties that they have to deal with during school hours (Nyberg 2008 p.95). Thus, a great deal of content can be accomplished within a particular period of time.

Colleges prefer homeschooled children to public or private schooled children because of a number of things. First, homeschooled children have learnt how to learn. This means that they are not spoon-fed but are taught how to decipher the meaning of things on their own. They are granted the challenge of being their own inventors and innovators of the provided knowledge. Secondly, homeschooled education is tailored to their own abilities and not the ability of few students in a class of more than 25 children (Nyberg 2008 p.97). Each child is given the chance to become what they are best at rather than a generalized probability of what they could become if they tried out something else. Students that find it difficult to grasp concepts are not left alone to sit and wonder but are tutored on that topic until they are able to decode the concepts on their own. Thirdly, they are not shy when it comes to asking questions. This can be traced form when they were young as they always asked thei.............