Home School V Public School Essay

There are numerous advantages and disadvantages to both home schooling and public schooling. The following essay will compare and contrast many of these reasons. Every parent should consider all of the advantages and disadvantages when deciding on the education of their children and where they will receive it. As a parent, one of the hardest decisions you will have to make is having to know how your children will get their education, and where they are going to receive it. Between home schooling and public schooling, there are many advantages and disadvantages a parent must think of before deciding where to send their children. Parents must decide on what they and their children would prefer and what would work best for their household and their lifestyle. There are some benefits to home schooling, but the disadvantages may surpass the benefits, which in turn, could prove very harmful to the child. Being home schooled tends to hurt ones social development, because they are able to hide from the chaos, pressures, and stress of life. By not being in a public school, they are separated from society and their peers. Being in public school, you have a chance of more opportunities, such as riding the school bus. My three year old daughter is in preschool, and riding the bus is one thing she looks forward to every day. Being home schooled means you are always stuck at home with just your parents. This hinders a persons social development, because they are missing important interactions with their peers. Public schooled children get to know the facility, classmates, and other children in the school. Having these people around you everyday for years and years creates a path for deep relationships. Having a routine of seeing the same people around you day after day means you will have meaningful and deep relationships. These relationships will follow you for years to come. You will always look back and think about the people you went to school with. On the other hand, there are many groups centered around home schooled children. My five cousins know many other home schooled children because of these said groups. One of the biggest disadvantages of public schooling is the teacher to student ratio. In bigger schools, there may not be as much one-on-one interactions, and this can prove harmful to a child’s education. In my public high school this was not a problem, because we were a smaller school with many teachers. For some student’s they may need the one-on-one help to ensure they understand what is being taught to them. Some children may do fine with a higher teacher to student ratio, but it depends on each individual child. Distractions in public school is also a disadvantage, because for some children, being distracted may cause them to fail. No parent wants their child to fail in anything. Being home schooled allows a child to create a schedule that works best for them. There are benefits to establishing a personal schedule, such as sleeping later and having more free time. They will, in all, waste less time because their schooling is centered purely around the child and their needs. They can learn at a speed that works best for them, and can concentrate more time on any weaknesses. With not having the distractions like public schools have, home schooled students are better able to avoid peer pressure. Even with all of the advantages of home schooling, it can also be harmful and damaging to the child’s growth as an adult. If one gets use to the one-on-one attention, it could hinder them greatly. If they stop getting this one-on-one attention, they may fall behind in the business and adult world. Not having a structured environment that public schools provide, home schooled students may not know how to deal with deadlines and rules. This may hurt the students in their adult and businesses life. In order to make it through life, one must know how to follow rules and how to work under pressure. Because there is less chaos and stress in a home schooled environment, one had less experience in handling pressure. Therefore, home schooled students are less attractive to businesses. The lack of pressure and guidelines will hinder a person attempting to get a professional job, because they have not had to listen and do as they say in a home schooled environment. However, if a parent knows the importance of deadlines and rules, they may still enforce them at a home schooled environment. It all depends on the parent and their children. One of the advantages of home schooling is not having to follow a certain lesson plan as you would in a typical public school setting. With public schooling, the students have to follow a certain lesson plan set forth by the teacher. With having this set lesson plan, the student may already know what is being taught. Therefore, there is a bunch of filler homework in public school. Having had gone to public school with a girl who got pregnant during high school, I know this information through her. She dropped out because of the birth of her son, and began home schooling herself. If she had stayed in public school, she would not have graduated until the spring of 2008. However, because she was not having to follow a lesson plan set forth by a teacher, she was able to graduate in the spring of 2007. She was able to get right down to what she needed to learn and skip all of the filler homework. By the time she would have graduated staying in public school, she was already through her first year of university. In conclusion, for a parent deciding whether to put their children in public school or home schooling them, needs to take the individual child in to prospective. Each child and their mentality are different. Therefore, each child will respond to different schooling in their own way. There are numerous advantages and disadvantages to both ways of schooling. Each parent needs to take all of these in to prospective when deciding how and where their children get their education.