Anti-homeschool only?

Question

im doing a report for school and the essay needs 3 body paragraphs. i have the effects of homeschooling

1) for the family

2) for the kid

3) for society

but for the third one i cant seem to find any information.....so could some please tell me what drawbacks could homeschooling have on society as a whole.

Answer 1

Having had experience teaching previously homeschooled kids, I can tell you that they are socially very awkward and often do not function in society as well as kids who have been exposed to a broader range of personalities by attending school.

The children vary from timid to loud and poorly behaved. Most actually are well behaved, but they are less agressive to the point of timidity.

Also, many parents do not consistently provide instruction, they are well meaning but it is easy to sleep in or let the kids have a day off etc and thus these children do not get ebough instruction to be as compettive as they need to be in the world at large.

Another point that effects society is that often the children get good insturction in the basics, but not in addi tional subjects that might better prepare them for a well rounded world.

Also, these kids are limited severely in their social interaction with other races, ethnic groups and cultures, as well as with people of faiths other than their own.  Thus they are not prepared or at least are less prepared to deal with the world of work.

hope this helps.

Answer 2

1. As it is now considered normal for families to despise each other's company a homeschooling family of tight knit individuals who enjoy one another's company may seem out of step with society as a whole. This is made more notably odd if the parents are still married.

2. A child with healthy self esteem and a firm foundation of loving, self motivated learning and a wide variety of rewarding experiences may have too much self respect to be belittled, abused or ignored. Such social responsibility and healthy boundaries may make the pump 'em and dump 'em method of "hook up" dating that is so popular today seem incredibly unattractive in the student’s teens and even into adulthood. Because of this, they may never have to wonder why it burns when they pee, an experience that their peers in the average dating pool are sure to have.

3. Society is the hardest hit by homeschooling. Our society relies on its people remaining convinced that they need a governing body of some sort to make all of their decisions for them. Why, if we all start thinking we can raise our own kids without the help of government schools, what is next: Elections by popular vote? Meanwhile the public schools system is made to look incompetent by continuing to insist that it needs more and more government funding every year, often upwards of $15,000 per student per year. At some point government officials and tax payers are going to wonder why a homeschooling family who spends less than $200 each year on homeschool supplies still gets better on average results than their professional counterparts in the public schools.

         In case you missed it, I'm being ironic. Homeschooling has no negative effects as a method of education. Any parenting issues a family has will be present regardless of how the children are educated. We've been homeschooling for a while now and only seen benefits from this lifestyle. Please consider giving that some thought.

Answer 3

I have to agree with the HUGE economic impact of putting all of those overpaid educators out of work, not that they can teach anyway.  That whole community is already feeling the impact of the mass of students who are being homeschooled this year alone.  In our area those teacher's are ridiculing and ostracizing the parents who choose to teach their children at home in the sports, music, and scouting programs that operate outside of schools, because they are in jeopardy of losing their jobs or have already been given pink slips for next year due to low enrollment.  

Is this a bad thing for society to downsize the public schools in this way, or cause negative chords in society at large, you ask, no.  It makes them more accountable, makes them put in better equipment on their playgrounds, revamp their curriculum as much as they can, it makes those teachers who are about to get let go a chance to become better teachers who the higher ups will want to keep.  

Homeschooling also produces a lot more happy citizens who are grounded in their family, beliefs, and have opportunities they would never have had if they were left to be labeled by people who will never love them and guide them like their parents will.

Answer 4

socalmal, is that the type of morals you are teaching your children?  Teachers have dedicated their lives to educating children for little pay (starting salaries of $30,000 after 4-5 years of college is hardly overpaid) and even less respect.  Just read the posts on this board, and you will soon see why teachers and homeschool advocates have conflicts.  People who don't homeschool have their own narrow views about it, while people who do homeschool have equally narrow views about what goes on in a public school setting.

Public schools are already held accountable in ways that home schools never will be.  If you're looking for any drawbacks for society as a whole, here it is:  Homeschool advocates have not discovered a way to win over teachers and public school advocates.  Therefore, they will be seen by teachers and the general public as a fringe minority raising socially lost and unintelligent children.

Are those accurate assumptions?  Probably not.  But until homeschool advocates get off this we're-better-then-you mentality, that's the way people will perceive it.  If you don't feel that applies to you, read the posts above, because that's what's happening.

Answer 5

Homeschooling threatens the education system as it stands.  If everyone decided that they could raise their own children it would put a lot of professional educators out of work.  

Society has made formal education lasting longer and longer.  It is a system that has run amok.  At some point this will collapse, and homeschoolers are just the forerunners.  

The dichotomy between homeschooling and formal schooling is growing.  With universal preschool and 5 years of college becoming the norm, parents are less involved with their children from a younger age and children are kept dependent financially for an extended time.  With homeschooling, children are more involved with their parents and have more independence at an earlier age.  

I am curious what effects you came up with for the first two.  My family and kids have enjoyed our homeschooling lifestyle and I can't imagine how it could be construed as negative at all.

:D

Answer 6

3) They might not be able to fit in socially when they grow up because they may not have any one to interact with of the same age when they were home-schooled. They'll feel awkward in a group, gathering.

Answer 7

Home schoolers have far more time to be involved in the community and usually, they are more involved.  So much teen involvement could change public opinion about teens, on the whole, since public schooled teens have far less time to visit aging people in nursing homes, and so forth.  If teens began to be seen as unselfish and caring, certain programs and positions available to the "normal" teen would no longer be needed.  The whole myth that children need to be segragated by age in order to enjoy growing up would be completely busted if everyone home schooled.  Even the myth that home schooled moms need a teaching degree would be defunked. This would put entire teaching colleges in a horrid financial bind! People in social rehab. jobs would have fewer clients since home schooling stastistically produces far more stable and grounded children and adults.  Even school counselors would be out of work!  Imagine the loss of empolyment!

Answer 8

home schooling is better than going to school because at school u get bullied by teachers and pupils and u don't have one on one learning!

hope this helped good luck

Answer 9

I think it's hilarious that your school would want you to do an anti-homeschooling report.  That in itself is another good reason for me to not send my kids to school.  When people come up with an alternate way to do something, and it actually works, the institutions get scared and start trying to program children, right away.  Omigosh, homeschooling actually works!  We'd better defame it and push it out of the minds of the students we still have, immediately!  Honestly, the only downfall I've experienced is that my housework sometimes suffers.  We deal with it by having daily half hour tidy ups and an hour and a half of mass cleaning on one morning a week.  

To Rumbler:  You're just spouting the same stereotypical social nonsense that everyone else continually regurgitates.  There are just as many shy, loud, aggressive, nerdy, athletic, brazen, polite, quiet and withdrawn kids in schools as there are being homeschooled.  As to the social benefit of school...if my kids are feeling left out, I can always call them horrible names, beat them up, spit on their food, throw their homework in the toilet, steal their lunch, put disgusting things in their hair, ostracize them and give them wedgies.  That's precisely the "social interaction" they were getting in the local public school.  

Has anybody ever wondered...If bullying is supposed to "make you strong", as many people say, why is there a need to implement these ludicrous "no bullying policies"?  Shouldn't everyone just look away while psychotic kids "strengthen" our own kids?

I have to add...to Patrick S:  Here's a sample of my kids social interactions last week:

Monday:  We met at a park with three other homeschooled families.  We were there for three hours.  There were nine kids varying in age from one to eleven.

Tuesday:  We attended the local homeschool co-op.  My kids had gym, art and creative writing with kids in their own age groups.

Wednesday:  We took Grandma to the senior's home to visit her sister.  The kids kept busy by reading to other residents.

Today:  We have another homeschool family coming over to play.  They have three kids that are almost the same age as my kids.

Friday:  We will be going to the zoo with one of the other families we met up with at the park, on Monday.  

All of these things are possible for us because we only have to school in the mornings.  On top of all of this, my kids are all at least one to two grade levels ahead.  My six year old is reading at almost a grade three level.  My four year old is about halfway through a grade one math program.  I'm not pushing them.  They're just being allowed to work at the pace they're capable of.  When it comes down to it, I feel a degree of personal offense to you stating that homeschool kids are "socially lost and unintelligent".  They're not a fringe minority either.  It's getting really big, where I live, and the establishement is getting uncomfortable.  They're reacting in much the way that you just did.

Answer 10

Because it would change society and people today don't seem to want to change.

Answer 11

I, too, would be interested in knowing what drawbacks you found for the family and the child.  As a homeschooling parent, I can tell you that the only drawbacks we have had as a family is the time spent shuffling children to this class (foreign language, science, history-take your pick) or that activity (Scouts, baseball, drama-again, take your pick).  For my children, the only draw is-hmmm, I can not think of any.

As for society, the only drawback that homeschooling has is financial.  For instance, we pay tax dollars to fund our states education department.  Whether my children attend or not, they still get those same amount of tax dollars statewide.  However, in my state (SC), each school gets an allotment per student enrolled.  Since my student (two, actually) is not enrolled, they lose that seven or so thousand dollars.  But, is it really a drawback?  They do not have my child to tend to in their environment, so they save the expense of doing so and they have more time to spend with other children in smaller class sizes.  Hmmm-I guess that is not a drawback that homeschooling has on society as a whole afterall.

If you were turning in an essay to me, one which is based on opinion, I would expect it to have an opening and closing paragraph as well as atleast three middle paragraphs.  I would want to see both sides (not the "anti-homeschool only").

Good luck finding any realistic drawbacks, because they are virtually nonexistant.

Answer 12

It's certainly VERY interesting how many school students seem to be doing essays on HS and from the 'it's a bad thing' POV. You'd think someone was trying to poison PS kids' minds against the idea.

Why is it 'bad' for society? Well, society as it IS now anyway. Because government and big business want consumers and obedient worker drones, children who never grow up and think for themselves, because real adults are much harder to control. I suggest reading some John Taylor Gatto for more on this idea.

Answer 13

Well, if a government is trying to create a society of subservient people who don't question their policies, homeschooling is very dangerous as it tends to create free thinkers.

So if you want a society where everyone thinks, acts, does as the government says, no matter what that is, homeschooling could prevent that.

Hitler knew this which is why he made homeschooling illegal in Germany. Food for thought.

Answer 14

The only drawbacks I can think of would be if the parent was not really wanting to take responsibility and teach the children.  I've rarely seen this, but it does exist. There has to be serious commitment to teach the children. Not all parents are good parents.

Another thing I can think of is homeschooling parents pay their taxes, and some of this goes to schools, but homeschoolers do not get the rewards of this because the schools get the money.  If a homeschooling parent has a special needs child, often schools may have programs designed for that child (speech, for example), but the homeschooler in most states will not be eligible for services unless he/she is registered with the local school.  

Now think about this. Isn't this a rather socialistic idea? You do as the government says or you do not get specialized services.  Where is the freedom in that? We are punished for not conforming, yet we surely DO give them our money to run these programs. Not fair! I don't know that this fits the last section of the essay, as it does not affect society as a whole.  It just affects homeschoolers as a whole and if you have a whole lot of homeschoolers, that are affected by this unfair policy, then society as a whole is affected because they are a part of it.

Karen

Answer 15

rumbler, not sure which previously homeschooled kids you've taught...unless they're the ones that are homeschooled because they've been kicked out of school.  The dozens of homeschooled kids that I teach every week are bright, well-spoken, insightful, and very social.  They're not assembly-line robots, if that's what you mean by "not fitting into society".

The truth is, you won't find any *factual* information on any of these - because it doesn't exist.  If you're doing an opinion-based essay, you'll come out fine...but if you're writing a fact-based persuasive essay, you're going to have a hard time.

The only bad effects of homeschooling come from individual cases - there are *no* wide-spread "cons" of homeschooling.  There are kids who shouldn't be homeschooled because they learn better in the structured setting of a classroom, and there are parents who shouldn't homeschool because they either lack the time or motivation/commitment, but there are no proven bad effects from homeschooling itself.

Think about it - our country was founded by a bunch of homeschool grads.  Some of the brightest and best in history, around the world, were homeschooled.  Homeschooling, in and of itself, is a perfectly valid form of education.  The downside comes when it is applied to a student that doesn't fit into it - much like public education fails the students who don't learn well in a classroom, or learn at a different pace.

The only downfall on society that homeschooling could provide is a generation of free thinkers - kids who know their own mind, research the answers for themselves instead of taking what authority figures say for granted, and have the ability to lead and cause change on their own.  This does hinder a socialistic society, which ours is quickly becoming.  You're right - they don't fit into a society that embraces a "one-size-fits-all" mentality...because they don't want to.  They see that it's better to be themselves.

Answer 16

Homeschooling's drawback on society is the economic impact of all the federal, state, and local bureaucrats out of a job (No Department of Education, no state Dept of Education, no local school districts with their bloated, top-heavy layers of administrators...) because parents took on the responsibility of educating their children instead of wating for Uncle Sam to do it for them.