By Osborn Montague
The term “homeschooling” is seemingly born out of the marriage between two independent words – home and schooling. A homeschool, in essence, can therefore be described as a school at home. Here, instead of sending a child to a government or a private school, he/she is taught at home by the parents or a tutor. As a matter of fact, homeschooling is often described as the home education where the primary duty of the parents or a tutor is to make the child learn how to read, write, and behave socially.
Different countries follow different rules on homeschooling. In some countries, parents are allowed to continue with the homeschooling for their children till the age when the school attendance becomes compulsory. On the flip side, homeschooling is a strictly “No” in some countries.
Interestingly, there were approximately 3% children of the US who attended homeschooling during 2011 – 2012 as found in the US National Household Education Surveys. Out of them, 83% were white, 2% were Asian or Pacific Islander, 5% black, and 7% Hispanic. In the UK, there is a separate body called Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) that oversees the learning of people of all ages including children and youths.
The USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of homeschooling
- Opportunities of knowing one’s children: Parents who opine in favour of homeschooling, are of the view that it offers unlimited opportunities to know their children; thereby bonding with them comes naturally and becomes stronger over a period of time. Because parents get to spend more effective time grooming their children the way they want.
- A stopgap for good schools: Some parents want to take their children through homeschooling since they can’t find good schools in the locality. A proposition like this is seemingly debatable. But parents know it all when it comes to what constitutes good for their children. After all, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world!
- Bespoke solution: Like the five fingers of your hand, parenting styles too change from one parent to another though there may be general similarities. But the unwritten nuance of individual parenting always prevails in every part of the world. As such, parents view homeschooling as a bespoke solution to their unique need of parenting.
Homeschooling has gained popularity in the US. It is evident from the data on homeschooling. For instance, homeschooling in 1999 accounted for 1.7% of the total US children aged between 5 to 17 years, and it touched the 3% mark in 2011 – 2012.
Key concerns of homeschooling
Countries like the UK have started taking stock of the development of children in homeschooling. Because it has been found in recent studies in the UK that at least some parents are falling short to brainwashing and indoctrination of the children. As a matter of fact, there has been growing concern in the Department of Education in UK about the overall quality education of the children in homeschools.
Here is some blanket advice on keeping a check on your children’s homeschooling a.k.a. home education as it is popularly called in the UK:
- Eradicate extremism: Parents must consciously take every effort for eradicating the extremisms in children. Because extremisms such as the political orientation of the children does no good either in the short-run or in the long-run for the children. They rather spoil the children for sure. Extremisms must, therefore, be avoided.
- Teaching about accepting authority: Morning shows the day as child shows the man – so goes a saying. It means you can jolly well guess what a child would become in life having seen his/her childhood. But the crux is that children are just like soft clay and you being at the helm of affairs while homeschooling must be adept to make the best use of that clay. Because it’s your craftsmanship that can either make a saint or a devil with the clay. That’s the catch. Hence, children must be taught well about accepting authority and becoming a responsible citizen of the country.
- Behavioural teaching: While children are being taught about accepting authority, they should also be taught about how to become socially responsive. Because no amount of education will suffice for the children unless they learn the manners and etiquettes of everyday living.
The aforesaid list is not exhaustive. You can explore more on this site befitting the stage of growth of your children.
Osborn Montague is a freelance writer at Essay-bag.com and a student of Stark State College. He is well aware of contemporary academic writing styles, emerging essay topics what can be worth working on.