The advantages and disadvantages of both homeschooling and traditional education have been debated for many years, and the decision to send a child to either one has many implications, both financially and emotionally. Homeschooling has grown to become an increasingly popular choice for parents, with thousands of families embracing this alternative education route each year. In this article, we will explore 13 reasons why homeschooling is superior to conventional education.
1. Flexible Schedule
With homeschooling, parents can create and control their children’s educational schedule. This is especially beneficial for those with special education needs, as parents can work to promote their strengths and fill any learning gaps at their own pace. This could mean that certain parts of the curriculum are revisited and reinforced if the student needs further assistance, or if the student is particularly bright, more complex issues can be explored.
2. More Focus on Individual Needs
A one-on-one educational setting allows parents to focus on the individual needs of their child. Each child has their own style and pace of learning, and homeschooling allows parents to determine the best way of teaching each child.
With traditional education, there are set standards that must be met and often leaves little time for each student to be addressed as an individual.
3. Culturally Enriching Activities
Homeschooling allows parents to teach their children in racially and culturally diverse ways. Besides offering a wide range of subjects, parents can also include activities into their children’s educational journey- from cooking to foreign languages, and more.
Traditional education focuses primarily on academic subjects, and these extra enrichment activities tend to be viewed as an afterthought.
4. Cost Savings
Homeschooling is cost-effective because parents no longer have to pay for tuition, uniforms, school supplies, or transportation. In addition to this, parents can opt to give their children additional resources- such as tutors, educational field trips, and classes- without additional costs if they are willing to dedicate their time.
5. Increased Responsibility & Improved Self-confidence
Homeschooling encourages children to take more responsibility for their education, as well as their day-to-day tasks. Parents are often more involved and invite their children to collaborate with them in the decision making process, which promotes cooperation and better communication between them. This nurtures a positive self-confidence and self-image in a child, as they are encouraged to take initiative in their own learning.
6. Higher Academic Performance
Data from the National Home Education Research Institute shows that students who are homeschooled usually excel academically. This has been attributed to the one-on-one setting and the focus on individual needs that have been mentioned previously. As parents can also implement enrichment activities, this could also contribute to increased performance in a child.
7. More Open-mindedness
Many parents opt to homeschool their children due to the fact that kids can have exposure to different points of view. Traditional education seems to be more prone to conforming to a certain standard, and teachers often have to protect children from uncomfortable conversations and content.
With home-based education, parents can confidently invite open discussions about various matters and allow their children to come up with their own opinions.
8. Less Exposure to Bullying & Bad Influences
Homeschooled children also tend to experience less exposure to bullying and other negative influences. As their circle of contacts is limited to family and close friends, their social behavior is less likely to be impacted by their peers.
Therefore, children can focus more attention and energy on their studies and avoid having negative views about themselves or the world.
9. Focus on Character Building
As homeschooling is a less structured educational environment, children can gain valuable life skills, such as responsibility, accountability, cooperation, and problem-solving. Some of these are usually topics that are overlooked in traditional education as they don’t hold as much weight towards academic success.
10. Stop Social Hierarchies
Homeschooling can drastically reduce the amount of comparison between students, as the focus is on individual growth. This diminishes the comparison factor of the standard ‘grading system’ and encourages children to focus on their own progress and achievements, not in relation to what someone else has done.
11. Enhanced Collaboration with Family and Friends
As homeschooled kids are often working from home, they get more quality time to spend with their parents, siblings and friends. With traditional education, there is a gap between school and home life, which could lead to a decrease in their family and social activities.
This allows homeschooled children to be more involved in their close surroundings and learn the essential aspects of social interaction.
12. Increased Opportunities for Exploration and Adventure
Homeschooled children have more freedom over their studies and often have opportunities to explore a greater variety of topics and areas of interest than those who attend traditional school. They could explore outdoors, take trips to museums, set up educational field trips, and more.
This can result in children gaining knowledge and experiences that are not within the scope of conventional education.
13. Improved Parent-Child Bond
Spending more time together through homeschooling results in an improved communication and trust between parent and child- as they often collaborate and discuss the learning material and other matters. This level of cooperation is not possible with conventional education as the relationship between parent and teacher lacks the understanding of the individual personality traits and other unique aspects of the child. Conclusion: Homeschooling offers a variety of benefits to both parents and children.
It provides flexible schedules, a more personalized educational approach, and increased learning opportunities. In addition to this homeschooling creates a strong bond between parent and child and encourages positive character building traits.
It is clear that homeschooling is the superior choice of education for many families.