Children who attend public school are better socialized than those who are home schooled

University of Maryland University College

May 2, 2015

28288 Cardinal Lane

Evans Mills, N Y 13637

USA

Parent Body

10th Mountain Division

Fort Drum N Y13625

USA

Dear Parents,

Please accept the following analytical report entitled ‘Children who attend public schools are better socialized than those who are homed schooled’.

This report begins with a brief abstract which compares both the home and public schooling options being explored within the American society. The second section is the introduction which highlights the various attributes that parents hope to achieve for their children, followed by the overall analysis of the topic. The final segment is the conclusion which summarizes the entire report by reiterating the key elements of both home and public schooling, and will allow you the audience to make a decision that would be beneficial to your specific needs.

I would like to say special thanks to Professor Amanda Richey for granting me the opportunity to research a topic that is of personal interest and I hope that you will all enjoy reading my report.

Yours Truly,

Cadien Vaccianna

Table of Content

Title Page 1

Letter of Transmittal 2

Table of Content 3

Abstract 4

Introduction 5

Literature review 6

Importance of Home school vs Public school 8

Home school environment vs Public school 9

Socialization 10

Conclusion 11

References 13

Abstract

Making the best choice for your child’s education is a crucial step that will determine his or her future direction and instill discipline, values and beliefs that will help the child to face the real world. Homeschooling is one option many families in United States are practicing. According to Henegar (2014), it is a family based child centered approach of education that provides parents with an opportunity to custom tailor the child’s curriculum and activities and insulate him or her from external forces, peer pressure and negative influence that are readily seen in public school. Furthermore, the system of education provides the parents with an opportunity to teach their children particular beliefs and values that will help them to remain useful to the society. Many who have adopted the public school education system believe that homeschool children are emotionally unstable and too judgmental to the world around them. This is mainly because they are isolated from the rest of their peers and are not constantly exposed to peer pressure which prepares them for the real world. However, Guterson, (1992) points out that homeschoolers are better socialized and ready to face the real world as they have the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of social situations such as community activities where they learn communication and problem solving skills through daily interaction with others.

Introduction

To educate an individual in mind and not morals is the same as to educate that person to become a menace to the society. This is an exact quotation of Theodore Roosevelt (Roosevelt, 2010). Many parents who adopt homeschooling for their children share the Roosevelt sentiment when it comes to public schooling as they argue that promiscuity, drugs, peer pressure, violence and moral relativism found in most children from public schools provide an inadequate setting for proper socialization. On the other hand, 92 percent of the parents who take their children to public schools believe that children under homeschooled learning are deprived of proper social development, emotionally unstable and too judgmental to the world around them. This is because they lack proper socialization and are only confined to the beliefs and values of their parents around them.

With a yearly growth of 15 to 20 percent of homeschooled children in United State, many school boards and professional educators are concerned and have a feeling that this will drastically reduce funds in public education system. On the other hand, many teachers believe that homeschooling jeopardizes their jobs and undermines their expertise. As a result, questions regarding inadequate socialization are brought forward with the aim of disqualifying homeschooling. Many school socialization advocates believe that home-based learning does not prepare children to real life experiences but it keeps them isolated from the real world. However, the fact is that such children frequently extend their everyday classroom to repair shops, city halls, museums, hospitals, fire departments, colleges, churches, national parks, where real community contacts and interactions are made other than being locked behind school gates, a setting that is characterized by aggregation and forced silence (Kaufeld, 2013). This paper tends to show how homeschool children as compared to public school children are better socialized despite their isolation from the rest of their peers and are well prepared to face the real world as compared to public school children.

Literature review

The U.S Department of Education in 2007 established that there were between 1.2 and 1.7 million homeschooled children in America. In 2008 just one year later, National Home Education Research Institute indicated that there were more than 2 million homeschooling students in United State (Henke, 2000). This number has continued to increase over multiple years indicating that more families were favoring the home-based education over public school despite the debate that children who are under homeschooling are less socialized than those who are in public schools. Homeschooling is a family based child-centered approach of education that is carried out at home. Socialization is the process by which a person at infancy begins to acquire beliefs, values, and habits, accumulated knowledge of the society through training and education that enables a person to interact with the outside world.

Parents who choose to home-school their children have a mentality that their kids are provided with all the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills that will help them to interact with the outside world. Such parents believe that their children are more socialized than children from public schools since they are more involved in various outside activities. In addition, parents favoring homeschooling have negative feelings about public schooling as it exposes their children to an environment that involves testing, immoral discussions, gossiping, bullying and general peer pressure (Gathercole, 2007). On the other hand, parents who favor public schooling suggest that homeschooled children are provided with relatively sheltered lives that bar them from exposure to group dynamic and peer pressure which provides coping skills for children. For this reason, such children are less prepared to join the real world due to inadequate interaction with potential colleagues and peers. Furthermore, such children are not exposed to competing beliefs and ideas as they are only informed of the beliefs and ideas of their parents and thus they lack the opportunity to accept and learn the beliefs and ideas of others (Kaufeld, 2013).

According to Gathercole (2007), homeschooling is better than public schooling. This is because parents who choose homeschooling are able to custom tailor the curriculum based on the child’s individual needs and natural interest. Furthermore, parents are able to teach and impact a particular set of beliefs and values to their children as well as insulate the children from the negative forces and influence that are mostly seen in public school settings. According to Daniel Kessler, a Pediatrician, children need to successfully pass through three overlapping spheres; with peers, at school and at home. According to Kessler, Home-school compresses the three spheres of development into a single setting which makes it difficult for a child to develop socially (Back-to-school shopping, 2011).

Although homeschooling may seem to have many benefits as compared to public schooling, one of the question a parent is likely to face when he/she mention that her child is homeschooled is whether he/she is getting enough socialization. This is basically because the child is taught solely by their parents without exposure to other children of the same age. Individuals who choose on both side of this debate- those who choose public education and those who choose homeschooling- have passionate arguments when they share their feelings on socialization. Based on research regarding children socialization, homeschooled children as compared to public school children do not receive adequate socialization as they are restricted to home school and isolated from the rest of the world. However, combined with outside activities such as community music arts group, community sport teams, homeschooled groups or classes, summer school, community college and summer camps, socialization can be achieved (Gathercole, 2007).

What makes home-school versus public school an important debate?

Homeschooling is constantly gaining popularity in United State as more and more families elect to educate their children at home. The reason behind homeschooling has been that children are provided with reasonable social interaction with adults and there is an established relationship between children and parents that help the child to learn good moral behaviors, beliefs and values. Although there has been a hot debate that criticizes home-school learning, it is true to point out that children under home learning are also well socialized as public school children as they are constantly engaged to various activities such as music, scouting and sports where human contact and interaction are made. However, if the parents who have adopted a home based learning fails to provide their children with an opportunity to visit and participate in various community activities, their children will definitely not develop any socialization skills that will help them to face and succeed in the real world.

The government homeschooling form of education resembles a weed that is quickly spreading its roots in different corners of United States and resists control. However, to homeschooling parents, this is a flowering of value, skills, and knowledge within kids who the public school has abandoned or betrayed. With continuous growth of homeschooled learning, the federal government has reacted by increasing regulation for homeschool curricula (Wade, Moore & Bumstead, 2010). The reason why many especially within the education sector has been rejecting the homeschool education saying that children within it are less socialized is because the public schools are desperate for funding and teachers fears that the government will not have enough money to pay their union salaries, pensions and other benefits.

Homeschool environment vs. Public school environment

Although the issue of homeschool versus public school is a hot topic, parents who have embraced homeschool are quick to respond and points out that those who say their children are less socialized are misguided. They claim that their kids are well prepared for the real world than children from public schools since there have more hands-on experience and learn how to emulate and respect those who are older than them (Chatham-Carpenter, 2002). In addition, parents who value homeschooling argue that if socialization at public schools entails immorality, testing, gossiping, peer pressure and bullies then they prefer their kids to avoid socialization. According to Gathercole (2007), no parent wants their kids to be exposed to immorality, peer pressure or bullied, however, the world we are living today is full of situations and surprises that parents cannot shield their children from. Gathercole continues by saying that as a kid becomes exposed to peer pressure, he/she eventually learns how to interact with peer pressure and solve problems that are similar to the problems they will encounter in the real world. According to Henke (2000), the parents of home schooled children overlook the issue and forget that those children who are exposed to peer-pressure and immorality in public schools will eventually turn to their children once they encounter each other in the real world (Henke, 2000). In addition, bullying and peer pressure is not something that only happens in public schools, the problem still continuous throughout life and it’s vital for them to learn how to deal with the difficult situations at public schools.

According to Duggan (2009), homeschool children experience some difficulties as they try to socialize. Although Duggan recognizes and agrees that home children are active and productive people, they are usually faced with difficulties as they try to mingle and interact with mainstream culture and develop social problems with friends in the real world since they were not provided with an opportunity to form close friendships with peers of their own age (Duggan, 2009). For many kids who have gone through homeschool learning, leaving home provides them with an opportunity to form new friendship and even date. Unfortunately, they have difficulties to identify a good relationship from a bad one and they end up being frustrated. According to Henegar (2014) homeschool children fail to achieve adequate socialization since they lack exposure from children of different cultural diversity (Henegar, 2014). Although the intention of parent who embrace homeschool is to provide their children with religious and moral instructions that will shape their behaviors and shed light to the society around them, this desire eventually results in an insulated child with inadequate skills and knowledge of the surrounding world. The exposure of children to others with cultural and religious diversity teach them compassion, tolerance and acceptance.

Homeschooled children are better socialized than public school children

Although many who are against homeschool education argue that children from homeschool are less socialized than children from public schools, there is a window of opportunity for this children to become effectively socialized and gain exposure to others. This can effectively be achieved by allowing the children to visit homeschool support groups, community college classes, participate in community activities such as scouts, music, theatre and sports and volunteer in various activities (Wade, Moore & Bumstead, 2010). Participation of kids to homeschool support groups provide the parents of homeschool children the opportunity to interact with other parents that are of single mind and favor homeschooling and also allow their children to interact and socialized with others. Furthermore, the community has a variety of options that can help the homeschool children to interact and socialize through theatre, music, scouts and sports. Although many may think homeschool children are less socialized as compared to their counterparts in the public schools, there is a variety of opportunities for homeschool children that can help them to gain socialization skills. However, this opportunity requires the parents to make efforts to ensure their kids fully participate in the community.

Conclusion

Homeschool children as compared to public school children are better socialized despite their isolation from the rest of their peers and are well prepared to face the real world as compared to public school children. This is mainly because they are involved in a wide range of community activities and maintain active social calendars. However, homeschool kids are not always socialized since most of their parents do not do it well when it comes to providing them with adequate social interaction and participation in various community activities. As a result, some children end up leading a lonely life while others end up being active but socially awkward when placed in certain situations. This is mainly because they were not taught how to act around their peers. In addition, homeschool kids who receive their education through certain homeschooling subcultures may actively socialize with homogenous group but may developed certain feelings of cultural alienation when they move to the real world. Therefore, socialization for homeschool children can be achieved but it requires time, attention and planning as well as parent’s participation. According to Morris (1999), the National Education Association should provide homeschool setting with a curriculum approved by State department education and only an individual who is licensed by appropriate State education agency should be given a chance to home school.

References

Back-to-school shopping: Just leave the kids at home. (2011, September 12). SouthtownStar. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-139B6FC88EE15B50.html

Chatham-Carpenter, A. (2002). Home vs. Public Schoolers' Relationships. [Washington, D.C.]: Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse.

Duggan, M. (2009). Is all College Preparation Equal? Pre-Community College Experiences of Home-Schooled, Private-Schooled, and Public-Schooled Students. Community College Journal Of Research And Practice, 34(1-2), 25-38. doi:10.1080/10668920903388131

Gathercole, R. (2007). The well-adjusted child: The social benefits of homeschooling. Denver, Colo.: Mapletree Pub.

Guterson, D. (1992). Family matters. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Henegar, J. (2014). Homeschooling and financial literacy. Manhattan, Kan.: Kansas State University.

Henke, R. (2000). Issues related to estimating the home-schooled population in the United States with national household education survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics

Kaufeld, J. (2013). Homeschooling for dummies. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.

Roosevelt, T., & Ruddy, D. (2010). Theodore Roosevelt's history of the United States: His own words. New York: Smithsonian Books/Harpercollins.

Wade, T., Moore, D., & Bumstead, R. (2010). School at home. Colfax, Calif.: Gazelle Publications.