Homeschooling And Socialization

Homeschooling and Socialization

Homeschooling, something once known as alternative, is now becoming somewhat mainstream in the United States. Parents are looking for alternative ways to teach their children, besides the public school system. Back in the day, homeschooling was frowned upon because society felt that the parent needed to have a teaching degree to teach children, even their own. As time has gone on, parents have made drastic changes to how they want their child educated and now homeschooling is on the rise. Private schools tend to be very expensive and many parents cannot afford to send their kids, especially if they have more than one child; so in looking for an alternative, they choose homeschooling, (Knowles). What does …show more content…
More parents are deciding to take the alternate route of keeping their children home and homeschooling their children. Today the number of homeschoolers in the United States is estimated to be somewhere in the millions. Those numbers have been increasing more and more lately. Now days many parents choose to homeschool their children in either a homeschooling association or have their children involved in groups of other homeschoolers that meet regularly. There are many associations that assist in homeschooling. (Gathercole) There are programs that provide curriculum for parents to use when teaching their children, or provide ideas of field trips to take your children on that have an educational benefit. There are also many groups that consist of only homeschooling students and those groups meet on a regular basis. Those groups meet to share their experiences and to get their children together so that they still get the interaction of being with other individuals around their age and can work on improving their socialization skills. Meeting with other homeschooling groups can be beneficial for students who are homeschooled because they get to meet and become friends with other individuals who are also homeschooled, creating better friendships because of their similarities. A study in 2007 showed that the threat of homeschoolers being isolated is becoming no more. It is only growing ten to …show more content…
Galen, the author of Home Schooling: Political, Historical, and Pedagogical Perspectives, provided good points behind why parents choose to homeschool. One of the reasons mentioned was that parents have more control over what their children learn. Some of the things that children learn in public schools proves to irrelevant and a waste of time, if a student is homeschooled their parent can decide what is and is not important enough for their children to learn about. Another reason was to reduce the effect of peer pressure. Public schools tend to be very over populated, which leads to more student interaction and in turn can lead to greater peer pressure among individuals; that could be reduced or even eliminated with homeschooling. Another reason was to improve family life. Spending all day in school and then having to finish assignments and homework later on at home takes children away from their families and interaction with their loved ones. Being taught an education from home can improve family relationships. The author also mentioned that homeschooling parents are glad to be able to spend more time with their children (Galen). There are many benefits and reasons to homeschooling your children, mainly being that they get to spend more valuable time witht beir family and expanding those relationships and