In my first post in this series I talked about all of the things I like and dislike about the public school system and in this post I’ll share my likes and dislikes of home education.
Deciding to homeschool was not an easy one. There were many pros but there were also some cons and it took me a few years to figure out exactly why I would or would not choose to homeschool.
I’ll admit there aren't many cons to home education but there are a few that I have considered that are important to think about.
1. I would like my kids to have a wide variety of friendships, not only Christian friends. The vast majority of homeschooled children (at least right now) are conservative Christians. Thankfully that is changing. I say thankfully because I believe everyone can benefit from home education, not only Christians. For my kids, who will be growing up in a conservative Christian household, being exposed to all sorts of people with different beliefs is going to be a bit more of a challenge. Don’t get me wrong, we can and we will find ways to do it, but it’s not as easy as simply going to school every day where there are hundreds of kids with hundreds of different beliefs and backgrounds.
2. Public schools NEED more Christians in them. That one is self explanatory. This is a big one! We need more people in schools that are willing to stand up for Christ and to be examples of Christ as well.
3. Stepping into the homeschool community you have to prepare yourself for dealing with a lot of hatred from both pro-homeschool and pro-publicschool parents. Going into this, you have to know that you cannot please everybody. Someone will be offended by your decision, no matter what the decision happens to be. People in this home school community are very defensive over their choices. The Mom who homeschools often feels the need to "defend" her choice by unnecessarily bashing the Moms who don’t choose home education, or Moms who use the wrong curriculum or teaching methods, or by publicly criticizing women for working outside the home rather than staying home to teach their children. And likewise - the pro public school Mom has the same problem. She also resorts to nasty bashing and petty name calling in an effort to prove her point. She will criticize the stay at home Mom of "not living up to her full potential". It’s a lot like being back in elementary school. This community is very opinionated and it can get to be very harsh. It was without a doubt my biggest turnoff about homeschooling when was first considering what we should do. I actually went through a little grieving period when I thought that there was no way I could home school after realizing this fact. I was so afraid of all of this negativity and pointless (and often unfounded) arguments. I realized pretty quickly though that no matter what my decision is, I will offend someone. It’s sad, but it’s reality and it’s something that we will have to live with unfortunately for a long time to come.
Aside from those three points, I really do LOVE home education. ;-)
The positives truly do outweigh the negatives in this situation. Here are a "couple" of reasons I love it. Yes, love.
- More family time! I get to spend every day with my girls and they will get to spend more time with each other. That is especially important to me since there is a 5 year age gap between them.
- Options! So. Many. Options! I don’t think you realize exactly how many options there are for homeschoolers. You really can personalize each individual child’s learning experience to suit their own maturity level and learning capabilities perfectly. If one thing is not working, you can go ahead try something else!
- Kids can learn at their own pace. Can I get a hallelujah on this one?
- There is no need for busywork during school.
- No homework! Everything they need to learn is accomplished during the day. It is senseless to bombard children with more busywork to do after school is over.
- Religious freedom, no need to be politically correct, and true freedom of speech. They can talk about their faith, they can learn about Jesus, they can say they disagree with a public figure, and they can openly talk about controversial things, and they do not need the fear of being “kicked out” of school for these things.
- We can take “school” with us wherever we go; on the road, on the plane, in other cities, states, countries... we can just go and we can learn as we go!
- The kids will interact with kids of all ages, not only their own age group.
- They can learn the same exact information they would in public school, and then some.
- They can learn things that they want to learn about as much of their education is led by their own interests.
No comments:
New comments are not allowed.