Home Schooling and its Effects.
Home schooling or homeschooling, if you would rather (in fact, you even see it hyphenated, as in home-schooling) has been popular for about 30 years now, although, of course it was all pupils had before state intervention in education. Remote rural places in large countries like the USA, Canada and Australia still have to rely on home schooling to a great extent, although it is easier now with the wide-spread use of radio, television and the Internet. Video packages also play an essential role, as do books still.
However, home schooling has become very popular in the cities as an alternative to inner city public schools, which are frequently seen as hotbeds of upheaval, violence and drugs, especially by the middle classes and not without some due reason, to be honest. Nonetheless, there are also other valid reasons for choosing home schooling, which we will go into later.
First, it must be pointed out that the decision to go for home schooling has to be a family one. This is because it will turn “normal family life” on its head and place an added monetary strain on the family purse. For instance, one parent will have to cease working. This cannot be allowed to be a cause of resentment, or both parents could take part-time employment and share the children’s educational time. Whichever way you decide, you will not have two full-time incomes any longer. Working from home on the Internet could be a partial solution here.
Home schooling will also upset everyone’s social life. So, the parents’ social life is restricted by not seeing work mates every day, but so is little Johnny’s, particularly if he has already spent some time in a conventional classroom. He won’t see his friends from class as often and they might drift away from him or even be angry with him.
On the plus side is that the family will become a lot stronger as a unit by studying together at home schooling. Both parents will have a complete knowledge of what their child is learning and will be learning. While maintaining a broad-spectrum education, you may however opt to focus on aspects of, say, history or science, that particularly interest your child. It allows you the freedom to match your child’s education to his or her own interests, something that state education cannot do well with large classes. Your child will also be less under the influence of the rowdier elements in school and be able to concentrate more on studying.
A note of caution could be useful at this point. Do not be tempted to force your child to learn too rapidly. It is tempting for a non-professional teacher-cum-proud parent in home schooling to push the child much harder than he can go. Remember that most pupils are only average. You ought to be on look out for signs of burn-out and resentment at all times.
Once you decide to opt for home schooling, you will need to pick a basic programme, run through it yourself to familiarize yourself with it, buy or locate in the library any supplementary books, videos and software, make a load of notes and stock up on pens and paper, folders, binders and filing cabinets and you’ll be ready for your first semester at home schooling.
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