A school is any place where instructions regarding any particular discipline are provided, or in other words, an institution for educating people. Traditionally it had to be a designated place where people, be it, children or adults, meet to get the available lessons. Homeschooling is where a tutor is hired to come and teach an individual at their residence. With the evolving technology and the internet, things just got more convenient, and one can take online classes wherever and whenever.
When people started homeschooling, most people in society had a lot of negative comments mostly centered on the fact that the children would not get enough social exposure. While it does make sense, everything has its advantages and disadvantages, and homeschooling is no exception.
Homeschooled individuals tend to have a safer studying environment than those in a school setting. For example, bullying occurs in school, which may have a long-term negative psychological impact on the individuals who experienced it (Loveless). Such individuals can develop some undesirable behaviors that need mental health intervention.
There is also the risk of encountering bad company in a typical school setting (Loveless). Often, those people are considered cool kids and everyone wants to be in their company. Intense peer pressure may lead to one making terrible choices that one may live to regret someday. Some might say that the activities are phasic, but some destroy one’s life. For example, drugs and theft are everyday indulgences for such people, and this may have a permanent impact on the individuals as they could end up dead or in jail (Loveless). For these reasons, a parent may opt for homeschool since it gives them a sense of relief and peace that their kids are shielded from such activities.
However, exposure to such things can also have positive effects on the child. Learning how to defend oneself against bullying is a skill that applies to school and life itself. Although, most of the time, they will need some help from the administration and their guardians. They also learn how to be assertive and develop self-control to avoid bad company and anyone who might judge them for it. The child also develops some social skills and will know how to handle different kinds of rude, fragile, and indifferent people. Homeschooling may also cause stress in a child because when the contents get tough, the child may have no peer to talk to, and the guardian is not suitable for such talks. Sometimes kids need someone to whine with, and their peers are better since they go through the same things, and a guardian may not necessarily understand. It is also more tiresome and boring than the regular school because one is usually alone during the lessons, e.g., during this pandemic, children complain of being tired of online classes, and some actually rebel and reject it.
However, some of those, if not all, skills can also be cultivated by homeschooling. For example, I believe it requires self-control to focus on studying at home where there is a lot of distraction. However, this needs the guardian’s presence at first, especially if the classes are online since it is very tempting to start browsing other sites of interest on the internet.
However, this is not to say that homeschooled individuals lack opportunities for good jobs and desirable lives. Some studies have shown that these individuals are employed and have good sustaining sources of income since they also go to college to acquire life skills but at least in a more mature state of mind. Though it may contribute to the child being antisocial, studies have shown that individuals give back to society. For example, they volunteer to teach in a community school or train local sports teams, etc. Therefore homeschooling should not be dismissed in ignorance since it has its benefits.
Reference
Loveless, Becton. “Benefits and Disadvantages of Homeschooling.”Education corner, 2021. Web.