Downsides of Homeschooling
June 2, 2009 by Karianne Wilkins
Filed under Homeschooling, Recent Articles
In my last post I discussed the benefits of homeschooling, which mainly revolve around the ability to customize and control your child’s education. The following is my list of possible downsides of homeschooling for you to consider.
Cons to Homeschooling:
1. It is a full time job. Homeschooling is a full time job when you consider the planning, teaching, and learning required on your part in order to teach your child. You will likely be scheduling time with co-ops, play groups, or other group activities in your community so your child has the opportunity to socialize with other children. In a nutshell, it takes time to prepare, plan, and execute the homeschooling lifestyle.
2. Ability to afford homeschooling. Since homeschooling is a full time job, it requires someone to stay home in order to teach your child. This typically means relying on a one-parent income which may require sacrifice and careful budgeting. You will also have to purchase school materials and books for your child, which would not be a factor if your child was attending a public school (although if you take into account the school supplies, clothes, and shoes you would typically purchase for school throughout the year it could be about the same cost.)
3. Control over the content taught to your child. (Yes this, and the next item were on the pro list too!) While it can definitely be a benefit to control the content taught to your child, with the control also comes the responsibility. You are ultimately responsible for what your child knows, and if you are not thorough in your teaching then your child is the one who pays. It is your job to do a good job, so your child reaps the benefits of an excellent education rather than suffers due to the lack of a poor education. The responsibility rests on you.
4. All that time with your child. While quality time with your child sounds great, homeschooling means 24 hours a day 7 days a week with your child. Most children do engage in social, athletic, and other educational activities (especially as they get older) so you will have some time apart. But unlike public school where your child is gone for 6-7 hours a day during the week, with homeschooling your child is home with you most of the time. You need to be able to spend all day together and get along, so you should to evaluate the dynamic between yourself and your child to decide whether homeschooling fits your personalities. Also consider your child’s needs and your own. For example, some kids just need to be in a classroom full of kids and thrive on socializing with others. And some parents need time and space away from their child, whether it is to get other things accomplished or have time alone. Lastly, since your child does not go away to school you do not have that time alone to do housework, run errands, or do things for yourself. Instead your child is around all day continually making more of a mess (think school books and papers laying around, working on science experiments, serving and cleaning up 3 meals a day at home, etc.) and just one more thing to be prepared for if you are considering homeschooling your child.
Hopefully my list of pros and cons will get you thinking a bit more about homeschooling. Maybe it isn’t something you have ever considered before and realize it is something you might want to do. Or maybe you were considering homeschooling and realize it just isn’t the right fit for you or your child. Deciding to homeschool is a personal decision for every parent. You need to take into account your personality, your child’s personality, and your lifestyle to determine if homeschooling is the right option for your family.
So where do you stand? Are you now considering homeschooling, or are you changing your mind? Let me know in the comment section below.
Numerous studies have found that homeschooled students on average out perform their peers ona standardized tests. Homeschooling Acheivement, a study conducted by National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), supported the academic integrity of homeschooling.
Among the homeschooled students who took the tests, the average homeschooled student outperformed his public school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects. The study also indicates that public school performance gaps between minorities and genders were virtually non-existent among the homeschooled students who took the tests.
More information at: http://www.home-schooling-guide.com
New evidence has been found that homeschooled children are getting higher scores on the SAT and ACT tests. A study at Wheaton College in Illinois showed that the freshmen that were homeschooled for high school scored fifty-eight points higher on their SAT scores than those students who attended public or private schools. Most colleges look at the ACT and SAT scores of homeschooled children when considering them for acceptance to a college. On average, homeschooled children score eighty-one points higher than the national average on the SAT scores.
The following are a list of independent studies completed on homeschooling. If you know of other independent studies please don’t hesitate to contact us so that we may include them on this page:
Canadian Centre for Home Education (CCHE)
Home Education Study released in 2009:
” Home Education in Canada: A Report on the Pan-Canadian Study on Home Education 2003″
Conclusions
The last study by the Fraser Institute concludes:
Home schooling continues to grow in popularity among parents in both Canada and the US.
There are good reasons to be suspicious about easy comparisons between the test scores of home schooled and other students, since it is difficult to ensure comparable testing conditions or levels of student participation, among other reasons. However, the number of scholars and studies comparing the two groups continues to grow, bolstering older studies.
Many studies, Canadian, American, and international, have found that home schooled students outperform students in both public and independent (private) schools. One US study found that home and private school students perform comparably well, and that both maintain a strong advantage over public school students.
Home educated children enjoy no significant advantage if one or both parents are certified teachers.
Surprisingly, several studies have found that home education may help eliminate the potential negative effects of certain socio-economic factors. Though children whose parents have university degrees score higher on tests of academic achievement than other home schooled children, home education appears to mitigate the harmful effect of low parental education levels. That is, public schools seem to educate children of poorly educated parents worse than do the poorly educated parents themselves. One study found that students taught at home by mothers who had never finished high school scored a full 55 percentile points higher than public school students from families with comparable education levels.
Despite a widespread belief that home educated students are not adequately socialized the preponderance of research suggests otherwise. The average Canadian home schooled student is regularly involved in eight social activities outside the home. Canadian home schoolers watch much less television than other children, and one researcher found that they displayed significantly fewer problems than public school children when observed in free play.
Though the long-term effects of home schooling are less well studied, both Canadian and American findings on previously home schooled adults are encouraging. Canadian home-schooled students report a life satisfaction score well above their public school peers. American studies have found indications of a wide range of non-academic benefits from home schooling.