The Arguments Against Homeschooling
Can Lead You to Disaster.
Here's How to Avoid Them.
If you are a homeschooling parent, you will face many arguments against homeschooling from your friends, relatives and even total strangers. Some are valid. If parents plunge into homeschooling without taking heed of them, it could spell disaster for their children. However, most arguments against homeschooling are sheer nonsense.
We are dedicated to helping you give your child the best homeschooling experience possible. If you are just starting out, you will of course want to know the pros and cons of homeschooling to make your decision and to avoid the pitfalls. Don't worry. All the arguments against homeschooling can have little or no effect on you as long as you know that they exist and make provision for them. We also show you how to aviod them. We discuss 50 negatives of homeschooling in our web pages. Dive in and get to know all of them. This page covers #31 to #40.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 31
Homeschooled kids are weird.
Many parents who send their kids to public schools feel that it is the best form of education. Therefore anything that goes against that, by default, can't be right.They mistakenly believe that homeschooled kids don't get to mix with other children but instead study at home 24 hours a day. They assume that homeschooled kids are sickly and pasty white. They have the notion that these kids are shy, reclusive, and lacking in self-confidence. They couldn't be further from the truth. Most homeschooled children grow up to become well-adjusted adults because of the perfect supportive environment given by their parents. Most homeschool parents are knowledgeable people who know the importance of a well-rounded education. Part of that education involves character development and teaching social skills. They also give their children the opportunity to be involved in sports and games. In addition, homeschooling parents ensure that their children get to mix with lots of well-behaved children.
A child's friends are very important, for children are like sponges and pick up good behavior as well as the bad without having the ability to discriminate between the two.This so-called con of homeschooling can certainly be thrown out of the window because it is untrue. "Weird" homeschool children are as rare as the panda. Homeschooled children are bright, friendly, confident and full of the zest for life.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 32
Homeschooling is not natural.
Is this argument against homeschooling valid? Before we go into homeschooling, let us take a look at public schooling. Is a public school a natural environment for children? Forcing 20 to 40 kids to sit in a classroom and listen to teachers droning on for six hours is certainly not what nature intended for them. For millennia, before the advent of the "public school", children had been living and learning from their parents, relatives and other adults from their tribe or village. They were allowed to run around, play and explore the world as children would naturally do. Children learned by observing and imitating adults, and also by playing with their peers. Adults would also teach and instruct them informally in certain life skills which were important in their society. Up to the Victorian Era, it was the norm for aristocrats to be homeschooled by private tutors. Everyone knew that public schools could in no way compare to homeschooling because of the individual attention children received from private tutors. Homeschooling was considered to be the most natural way of educating a child. Public schools were created to mass educate the millions of children that were being born in a cost-effective manner. It is the best way for those parents who don't have the time, money, patience or sufficient education to homechool their kids. Public schools met the needs of industrialization in the past and still do meet the needs of world but they do not meet the needs of discerning parents who don't want to leave the future of their children to chance.
Sending your child to a public school is like playing dice with your child's life because she is taught and molded by strangers who have no love for her.This argument against homeschooling doesn't hold any water.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 33
Homeschooling children lose their childhood.
This argument against homeschooling is very similar to Argument #32. There is not much to say here, except that how can a reasonable person expect a child to have a fulfilling life being bottled up for 6 hours in a classroom with 30 other children?Just because something is the norm now doesn't make it right. Governments believe in public schools because they are the most efficient way of mass educating the population. Educated citizens are important for the viability of a nation. However, it is almost impossible for public schools to ensure that each and every child has a happy and fulfilling childhood. You just have to look at the teenage crime rate of America to know that public schools are powerless to create emotionally well-adjusted children. In fact, many children lose their childhood by going to school. Of course, parents are in the best position to create a happy childhood for their children. By homeschooling your children, you give them a rich, fun and stable environment. Your children's happiness is in your hands, who love them the most. What better childhood can a child have? We can certainly discard this con against homeschooling.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 34
Homeschooling is boring.
This argument of homeschooling is only true if you want to make it true. As your children's education is in your hands, there is an endless variety of subjects you can teach, things you can explore, places you can travel and projects you can do.
The world is your oyster. The is no limit to the ingenuity and imagination of homeschooling parents. Many parents homeschool their kids because they want their children to have a fun educational experience. Public school teachers are limited by legislation and the curriculum they have to teach. They aren't allowed to think too much out of the box. This argument against homeschooling is usually given by those people who are themselves boring. These people have no idea how to make their own children's lives fun. So they leave it to others to do the job for them. Don't worry if you are short of ideas. There are many homeschooling curriculum packages that are fun and rewarding.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 35
Children need negative experiences in their childhood to become streetwise.
This argument against homeschooling is given by those who believe that bullying, drug addiction and teenage crimes are unaviodable and children need to be exposed to them before they can grow up to become better adults.What these critics of homeschooling fail to notice is that it is precisely because children are exposed to these negative experiences that they fall victim to them. Why then are teenage crimes, drug addiction, bullying and sexual promiscuity so rampant in America? We advise all those in favor of this argument to scrutinize the relevant statistics. Here is a simple argument. Why is cannibalism practised in the Korowai tribe in New Guinea but not by other tribes. That is because it is part of their culture. Children of the Korowai tribe are exposed to cannibalism at a tender age and because of that they grow up to belive in it and practise it.
On the other hand, children of vegetarian parents usually become vegetarians!Early exposure to immorality is bad, period. A good number of children either partake of this or become traumatized by it. Research done by psychologists corroborates this. You can teach your children how to be streetwise in the safety of your home. You don't have to throw them into an inferno to learn that fire hurts. Does this argument against homeschooling count? It is sheer nonsense - and dangerous nonsense at that.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 36
Homeschooled kids are snooty.
This argument against homeschooling goes like this. Homeschooling parents think they are superior to others. They do not want their children to rub shoulders with the "commoners". Therefore, they homeschool their children and these kids become snooty too.Nothing could be further from the truth. There are various reasons why parents might decide to homeschool their children. Some parents might want to spend more time with their kids; some might want them to excel academically; some might want to impart moral values. We have never heard of any homeschooling parent who is elitist. They just want the best for their kids.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 37
Not everyone should be allowed to homeschool their children.
This is one argument against homeschooling that we totally agree with.All parents are not the same. Most parents love their children and do the best they can for their kids. However, there are some parents who shouldn't even have children. Drug addicts, criminals, alcoholics, abusive parents - these are but some examples.
We believe that you certainly are a responsible parent or you wouldn't be taking the trouble to do some research on homeschooling. As long as you love your children, want the best for them and are willing to learn the best methods of homeschooling, then you are a parent who has every right to homeschool your children.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 38
Homeschooling children are shy and withdrawn.
This argument against homeschooling is based on the premise that homeschooling children are confined to their homes and rarely ever get to meet people. Therefore, they become bookworms and have no social skills whatsoever.Many homeschooling parents have shattered this myth simply by raising their kids to be fun-loving, gregarious angels who love having a good time with their friends. Generally, homeschooling children mix with people of all ages as compared to their public school peers who only mix with children of their own age. They are also confident when talking to adults. They are much more polite and show greater concern toward others. This is all due to the way they were raised by their parents. Another con out of the window.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 39
Homeschoolers don't have the competitive spirit.
It is widely believed that public schooling is good for children because it pits them against other children. So what this argument against homeschooling says is that even a slow learner who is exposed to smart children in her class is motivated to do better and excel in her studies.
What the critics of homeschooling fail to notice is that many children who lag behind stay behind because they get demotivated. For many slow learners, being exposed to bright kids only produces low self-esteem. These kids give up because they come to believe that academic excellence is an unattainable goal. By seeing themselves as being inferior to their peers, many slow learners are emotionally scarred for life. They develop low self-confidence and feelings of helplessness. Some become depressed and suicidal. Homeschoolers, on the other hand, learn at a pace that they are comfortable with. As they are receiving individual attention, generally even the slowest among them do better than their counterparts in public schools. As a result, most of them develop self-confidence. And when they enter college, they do very well because of their self-belief. This argument is not really a negative of homeschooling at all.
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
The Cons - 40
Homeschooling is not advisable for a parent who is undergoing divorce.
Children who are in the middle of a custody battle are usually in a traumatic state of mind. And so are their parents.
Neither the children nor their parents are likely to be emotionally stable at this point of their lives. There is too much going on in the minds of both parents and their children. No one will be able to think about studies. We advise that it is better to send your children to a public school until the divorce is clearly over. You might want to leave some time for your children and yourself to heal first. When the bad memories are forgotten and the emotional scars healed, then you could try homeschooling your children. This is one argument against homeschooling that we take seriously.
This is the End of Homeschooling Cons 31 to 40
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Arguments Against Homeschooling.
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