This list is from an article which appeared in TCPalm out of Florida. The article itself is actually quite good, and even refers to the sozialization problem as a myth. But it ends with some summary information, and I guess for the sake of “balance” included some cons to homeschooling.
- Parents have a much greater role in their children’s academic life.
- Curriculum and home-schooling resources can get expensive.
- Some children have trouble adjusting from school to home school.
- There is less available free time for parents.
- Providing adequate instruction for advanced or gifted children can be difficult. TCPalm
Parental involvement as the first con of homeschooling? Who is this a con for? The parent? The child? The system? I want to know because every study I know of researching the topic concludes that parental involvement is the number one indicator for academic success, regardless of socioeconomic status. I personally believe that is why homeschooling parents with a GED seem to be able to educate their children well enough to out perform public schools. It isn’t that the schools are that bad. It is that parental involvement is that important.
Even the NEA recognizes the importance, but of course won’t draw the obvious conclusion. In fact, a year ago (also in a Florida paper) Barbara Stein of the NEA stated:
“There are concerns about deputizing whoever happens to be at the kitchen table as a teacher.” TBO.com
It is actually an amusing quote in a police state sort of way. Who is the sheriff deputizing me?
The next three cons are really pretty normal, and a consideration for anyone wanting to homeschool. There are ways to alleviate each concern, but they are still factors to consider, especially if you are removing your child from a school environment.
Point five is true, I guess, but teaching advanced and gifted children is difficult no matter the setting. In schools, they are often trapped. Hence the high drop out rates of gifted children. But that we shall be discussing at greater length on Home School Talk today at 1PM CST, so please join me and Susan of Life on the Planet!
Update: The show is up, with only a minor glitch at the end. A little about the California decision, the Olympics, how we talk about school to our children and and unschooler who went to school. And of course Susan discussing gifted education!
And the piece de resistance…my daughter introducing the show and making a brief comment on one of the stories. It is so much more enjoyable when the technology just works.
Hey, I didn’t get my deputy badge. I want my badge, darnit! I knew I should have spent more time at the kitchen table.
Yeah, that would be cool. Do you think we could get a government issued pointer, too?
I always see the con of ‘curriculum can get expensive,’ and think back to when we started.
We were hovering above the poverty line. School registrtion was looming and all I was thinking about was school supplies, fees, clothes, lunches, peer pressure, etc.
It would all cost money we didn’t have.
Yes, It’s starting to cost more this year as we get a little more formal with my oldest but it was cheap while we didn’t have money and if that were still the case I could still make it cheap. The expenses are variable. With school there would have been a certain number of fixed expenses that I couldn’t make disappear.
Quite true. With the library, the Internet and a bit of creativity, particularly the elementary years can be done with little cost. Most of the costs we’ve had thus far are things we would have been buying for our children, anyway, even if they were in school. Now I just have a better excuse for the same purchases!
Yes, that “parental involvement” con stumped me, too. What, I’m not supposed to be involved with my own children?
They forgot a con:
The child won’t have ample opportunity to learn how to handle bullies.
But yeah, homeschooling can get really expensive, but that’s only because I keep running out and buying way more stuff than I’ll ever use! It’s kind of an expensive hobby in which the collector assembles the perfect educational experience. :]
The “voluntary fundraisers” in public school will literally take your last dime, too, if you let them. Equal spending opportunities, if I’m going to be fair.
Mrs C, surely you mean: The child won’t have ample opportunity to learn to accept bullying.
Oh, Dana, I missed the show – I was still farting around with supper when it started and I totally forgot about it. I guess I’m going to have to send myself a reminder in future, because I want to listen to it regularly.
Great! And you can listen to the archived show at your convenience. It is up, now.
You can click on the link in the entry or on the player in my sidebar and it will replay the most recent show.
Voluntary fundraisers…yes, they can get expensive. So can supplementary materials to help your children learn what they didn’t learn in school.
Watch how involved you are, suburbancorrespondent, or you might lose your deputy status. You are only the deputy of their education, after all. Acting in the stead of the state, if you listen to some commenters on homeschooling.
Yea! We have restored internet power.
I don’t want a deputy badge. I want a little teacher’s bell to ring so I won’t have to yell across the house. A pointer would be nice, too.
“Parents have a much greater role in their children’s academic life.”
It’s only a con when the kids decide it’s an educational necessity to visit the zoo and it’s thirty degrees outside. I wouldn’t mind passing that one off to a teacher!
That is one surprising first “con”!
And here I thought that was the main reason for homeschooling!
Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for pointing out the weaknesses in the arguments. It is amazing how some people can grab hold of anything and try to make it sound scholarly and clever, whereas they are actually just talking nonsense!
Grandpapa
Hmmm – wonder if that first con is meant from society’s perspective?
Two, four and five are cons mainly for parents, who pay the costs and direct the education. Three seems like a con for kids, who “experience” the education. Maybe one is a con for the nation unable to predict or influence much less control, the essential education its future citizens?
I was thinking how in debate with Rob Reich for example, we all acknowledge that education is of legitimate concern to kids AND parents AND the public.
Internet service, huh? Nice luxury, isn’t it? My computer threw a fit, ate everything and took almost three days to get running again. It doesn’t help when it develops a taste for its own operating system.
I think the first con is related to the belief that homeschooled children are super-sheltered and never get exposed to points of view other than their parents’. Which may be true for a subset of the HS population, but it isn’t nearly as widespread a problem as certain critics imagine it to be.