Homeschooling, Novel but Not Better
Education is crucial for the development of children. Regarding the matter of education, traditional schooling is no longer the only available means. Homeschooling is a popular option for parents who want to fully control their children’s education situation, especially during the period of COVID-19 pandemic. While this novel non-traditional education has become a trend among parents, a continuing debate about whether homeschooling is a practically better means of education than classroom-based education is still ongoing. Despite the growing popularity of homeschooling, traditional schooling is argued to be a more effective means of education than homeschooling by featuring social opportunities and educational resources.
One of the elementary factors that conventional education is preferred over homeschooling is that traditional schooling provides students with great opportunities to socialize with their peers. Students who attend traditional school can interact with kids their age from varied backgrounds and cultures and develop friendships which are vital to children’s mental health. Additionally, in traditional schools, students are able to learn indispensable social abilities and skills like how to cooperate with others and build their self-confidence and leadership which people need to succeed in the real world. In contrast, homeschoolers may have fewer social skills and experiences than traditional schoolers due to the lack of chances to socialize. According to Shaw’s paper (2015), he pointed out that attending a traditional school is likely to result in greater social competence among students compared to those who attend school online. Overall, traditional schooling places a strong emphasis on socialization and peer interaction, as well as the development of important social skills. By attending a traditional school, students can learn to navigate social situations, build meaningful relationships, and develop the skills necessary to succeed in the real world.
Another advantage why traditional schooling being preferred over homeschooling is that traditional brick-and-mortar schools offer more educational resources that homeschoolers hardly access. Traditional schools allow students to access various kinds of facilities that support students’ academic and physical development, such as libraries, gyms, science labs, etc. Moreover, traditional schools have teachers that are professionals in certain subjects. Students can solve almost any academic question by consulting their teachers. Besides the facilities and teachers, traditional schools also offer more extracurricular events like clubs, contests, and even student councils. Homeschoolers, on the other hand, have limited access to these activities. For illustration, Rockholt mentioned that homeschoolers in Tennessee are limited to participating in public school sports as only extracurricular activities in his work (2012). In conclusion, traditional schooling is able to offer more educational resources and opportunities for students, from access to diverse facilities and professional teachers to a wider range of extracurricular events.
While traditional schooling has the advantages of giving opportunities to learn social skills and providing more educational resources and extracurricular activities, some people argue that it can’t give individualized courses to students with divergent learning situations like homeschooling has a more flexible curriculum that can suit students’ respective needs. Yes, it’s undeniable that homeschooling is more individualized for students. Still, some traditional schools are adopting the pattern of classroom-based education and homeschooling simultaneously. By combining physical and online courses, blended learning can keep the advantages of traditional schooling and homeschooling. As stated in Biewener’s article (2023), he brought out the benefits of combining the two patterns of education such as customized courses and controllable learning paces. In this way, traditional schoolers can have flexible curriculums, opportunities to obtain social abilities, and abundant educational resources altogether.
While homeschooling has become a trend among students, we need to remember that there are some advantages that traditional schooling has that make it still a compelling option regarding education. Briefly, traditional schooling provides students an environment to cultivate social abilities and skills such as leadership and self-confidence, as well as access to a variety of educational resources and extracurricular activities that may be more difficult for some homeschoolers to obtain, and by practicing blended learning, traditional schoolers can have flexible and customized curriculums as homeschoolers.
References
Turner, O. T (2021, May 28)Physical Classroom and virtual learning: The perfect blend? Independent School Parent. Retrieved from https://www.independentschoolparent.com/school/physical-classroom-and-virtual-learning-the-perfect-blend/
Sources
Shaw. J (2015). Social Skills Comparison of Online and Traditional High School Students- scholarworks, p29. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?httpsredir=1&article=2658&context=dissertations
Rockholt, Ed (2012). Homeschool Participation in Public School Extracurricular, p2. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1680&context=doctoral
Biewener, D. (2023, February 21). 5 big benefits of blended learning programs. Simplilearn.com. Retrieved from https://www.simplilearn.com/benefits-of-blended-learning-article