Homeschooling offers a newfangled approach to education that is superior to traditional, institutional schooling because of the many advantages that home education gives students such as offering them opportunities to develop their social skills and also to establish their individuality. Despite the backlash that homeschool parents encounter from their adversaries, the sui generis protection which parents consciously create for their child by opting to raise them at home is key in fostering their early educational, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual prosperity.
Before we begin, let us unpack the history of homeschooling first. To many people's surprise, homeschooling is not a foreign concept, by any means, in America. In fact, it was being practiced for years before the twentieth century. According to Christopher Klicka, author of the book Homeschooling: The Right Choice, he points out a noteworthy fact and describes, “Few Americans realize that from 1620 when the Pilgrims landed until 1837 [when Horace Mann introduced the Common School], virtually all education in this country was private and Christian” (Klicka 10). In the early 1900s, homeschooling almost faded out after the enactment of compulsory education laws, which were laws that basically mandated children between the ages of six to eighteen to attend an educational institution (California Department of Education). However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the resurgence of the modern-homeschool movement started to spread and John Holt, the pioneer of the movement, had the goal of wanting to “liberate” children from the “oppressive classroom environment” by encouraging parents to “un-school” their children and have them become their teacher (Responsible Home Schooling). Today, approximately three percent of families in America choose to homeschool—not just to shield their children from the perils of public school—but because of the benefits that home-education offers, ergo what educational institutions lack.
Firstly, a benefit that defends homeschooling as being advantageous is how it fosters and reinforces positive effects on a child’s social development. While many people often criticize homeschooling and buy into the popular misconception that a home-education will negatively impact the social development of children, including child development specialists who claim, “homeschooling deprives the child of the ability to develop socialization skills,” parents and supporters of this form of alternative-education aggressively refute this contention (Lebeda). Here is why: It may seem counter-intuitive how choosing to teach children in the privacy of their own home can reap positive and flourishing effects on their social development, but the reason that this works and intuitively makes sense, is because, through homeschooling, parents are now fully involved and are active participants in choosing what morally upright environments and contexts that their children are exposed to during the critical years of early development. Unlike public schools, parents of young children are unintentionally unable to supervise and prevent any influence that may be harmful to a young child, who is by nature, still emotionally insecure and virtuously unsteady. By choosing to homeschool, parents are able to facilitate the establishment of their child’s relationships—not just with individuals of similar backgrounds, religion, race, age, or socioeconomic status—but also with peers that are rather quite different than them.
Secondly, another benefit that homeschooling offers contrary to traditional schooling, is that it gives students an open space to discover their sense of individuality. Albert Einstein, one of the most popular and celebrated thinkers of all time—who was homeschooled, I might add—said this famous quote about individuality: “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom” (AZ Quotes). Individuality, and the idea of fostering individuality, are extremely crucial. Homeschooling encourages and makes tons of room for children to seek out and discover their innate and distinct qualities, while also removing any judgment that would’ve come from their peers. Spaces of “Judgment Free Zones” from race, class, sexuality, style, political or religious stances, and everything in between, are so few and far between in conventional, public school. Speaking from experience, as well as after interviewing Kim Sandino, another San Diegan mother who attended public school and later decided to homeschool, our experiences support how children can struggle in finding their sense of individuality in a traditional school due to the pressure of our peers and also the potential of being ridiculed by those around us for being different.
By a parent's sacrifice to choose to homeschool, they are giving their child an invaluable and intangible gift: opportunity. Parents give their children the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, whether it be academically, emotionally, spiritually, musically, athletically, etc. when they choose to give their child a home-education experience. Homeschoolers can reach their highest potential because of the steadfast love that their parents exhibit by guarding them against the negative pressures and judgment that live in public, pedagogical institutions. To that end, it should be mentioned that there are and will be unfavorable and harmful pressures anywhere—it isn’t just limited to the confines of a public, learning space.
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