Many of the developing countries around the world these days are making greats efforts to get every child into schools to receive education, while there are a growing number of children in developed countries are leaving schools to receive home education which is also known as homeschooling, is a form of education in which parents teach children at home, instead of sending children to schools, or in some cases, homeschooling can be done by calling for tutors (Merriam Webster). Homeschooling has been around in the United States for a while and achieved extensive recognition from the public. According to the most recent poll conducted by National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), the number of homeschooled students in the United States was more than 2 million. The number has a startling increase, compared with that of 2003 which was just 850,000. The National Household Education Survey shows that homeschooling is increasing a steady rate of 15 percent per year (Swift, 2010) .
Although homeschooling is a challenge for most parents, this challenge is well worth trying for those who have the ability to educate their children. Inasmuch, children can benefit a lot from homeschooling. On the one hand, it provides higher quality of academic education for children; on the other hand, it is a good way for parents to practice moral education.
First, homeschooling, which means one to one education (in some families, it may be one to two or three), can provide children with higher quality of academic education because homeschooling parents can have more attention on their children than school teachers. Parents can keep a closer eye on children’s learning progress and spend more time on children’s weakness, which is hard for school teachers to achieve (Pros of Home Schooling) .
Some people may question about the quality of the curriculum that homeschoolers receive. But parents should be aware of that there are currently many already-designed curriculums from legitimate sources available for homeschoolers, and most of the homeschoolers use them. Parents are also able to design their own curricula that best meet their children’s needs, which is one of the beauties of homeschooling, because parents are those who know their children best. So the curriculums can be built upon children’s interests. Assume that your children are enthralled by housing design, we can let they read architectural books, build a model house on their own, pay a visit to museum to view some models of the great buildings in the world. One of the advantages the own-designed curriculum is that avoiding the awkward situation that what they learned at school cannot meet the needs of their future professions. Therefore, when your children get to work, they would be quite competent for the work (Rupp, 2000) .
Some parents may worry that they themselves with limited knowledge would not have the ability to deal with all the courses, especially when the courses are getting more difficult and more broad. It may be true, but please do remember that you are alone. There are many local homeschool associations across the American society. The homeschool co-op will be a good example. A homeschool co-op is a group of homeschooling families that join together to share the experience of children’s education. Parents can meet each other, encourage each other, and ask questions and exchange information and ideas about homeschooling. In a group setting, supplies can be pooled and expenses can be shared through homeschool co-ops classes. They also offer classes that are difficult to teach at home (Hernandez) . More importantly, there should be two motivations for parent to homeschool their children. One is developing the love of the knowledge, the other one is cultivating the ability to read. Every child has curiosity which is inherent. In order to build the foundation of love of learning, parents can teach children through vivid and vigorous ways. If children have built the love for knowledge and fostered the ability to read, then potentially children have had the motivations. When children have the ability to learn by themselves, then there is no need for parents to worry about the difficult courses (Arai, 2000) .
The success of home schooling is not easy to determine because of the dispersed population of homeschoolers. Even though there is no controlled experiment has been conducted comparing the academic achievement of homeschooled students and their counterparts, a number of researchers have found the effectiveness of homeschooling. Some Ivy League admissions officers reported that homeschooled students have high SAT scores and adjust well to the demands of college. These admission officers also were impressed by an astonishing accomplishment of homeschooling: A family with three home-schooled children at Harvard (Gross, 2009) . The academic achievements tests from University of Maryland found that “25% of the homeschooled students tested are enrolled one or more grade levels above their age-level peers in traditional public or private schools.” (Lips, 2009)
In addition to the higher quality of academic education, homeschooling can also provide good moral education for children.
First, most parents may worry that homeschooling would affect children’s socialization. But, it actually doesn’t have to be that way. For one thing, parents must be clear is the definition of socialization. Socialization refers to “the process by which a human being beginning at infancy acquires the habits, beliefs, and accumulated knowledge of society through education and training for adult status.” (Merriam Webster) So when you walk down the school hall and ask yourself, what kind of behaviors you want your children to learn. The interaction with ill-behaved or problem students at school is the socialization that we expect, but it cannot be avoided and children are and vulnerable and susceptible. Especially, when children are at their puberty, they tend to have mental health problem, for example rebelling. They are likely to learn some bad habits from other peers. In addition, public schooling does provide many group discussions and activities for students, but have you asked your children did they really get involved? Undoubtedly, the students who participated in and have positive incomes are those well-educated at home.
Second, homeschooling doesn’t mean that children have to be kept at home all day. Homeschoolers don’t need to spent time on the road to school so that they save more time. Children can go with parents on almost all of errands out there in the real world, etc. Children can have interaction with people at different ages in the neighborhood. It is a mixed-aged learning. During homeschooling, children can learn the wisdom of the eldership, share the experience of the contemporary, and admire the naiveté of toddler. Moreover, a homeschool co-op or church can provide an opportunity for homeschooled children to socialize and make friends. They also learn to deal with peer pressure. Families can also meet a couple times a month for field trips and social gathering. There is no reason for a homeschooler to be isolated. In addition, more and more public schools are about to open their sports teams, clubs, music groups and other extracurricular organization to the home-educated students in this nation (Dao, 2005) . With so many activities to satisfy their children’s needs, there is no reason for a homeschooler to be isolated.
Dr. Belfield, associate director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia Teachers College, said there was no research in this area but much anecdotal evidence that homeschooled children can have plenty of social contact and eventually benefit from outside school (Gross, 2009) .
Second, homeschooling is the education of life. During homeschooling, if there are something parents are no clear, parents should be honest to children and study that part. Above all, children can learn the spirit from parents. This spirit is far more important than knowledge itself. Honesty is the one of the most importance attitude in life. Furthermore, since children can have more time to help parents do some chores, to socialize with people at different ages and to act or think dependently, they are more likely to be mature mind and have fine character. When they have to go to school to receive higher education, they are more patient to the boring circumstance. Besides those, as we know that we spend the longest time with our family and the harmonious families are the foundation of the health society. Children who receive homeschooling tend to have deep connection with family members. When they grow up and have family, they will know how to love their spouse and children and be a responsible parent. And if it is possible, they would have more experience when they decide to home-schooled their child (Ray, 2003) .
In recent years, public schooling is failing, both academically and socially. According to a research, when parents were asked what are the most important reason for them to homeschool their children. 31 percent of parents said they concerned about the environment of the public schools, such as safety, drugs, and negative peer pressure. 30 percent thought that public school did not provide religious or moral instruction. 16 percent showed their dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at the public schools (Princiotta, 2006) .
Homeschooling your children seem like a challenge, in fact, it is not that hard. If parent start homeschooling their children at their early age, then parents actually have gained some years of experience as teacher before teaching children’s primary program. After teaching children’s primary program, then starting the secondary curriculum should not be a problem because parents already have substantial experience as a teacher. Moreover, in order to ensure the high quality of home education, schools and some other organizations in the society cooperate closely. There are numbers of sources of curricula or books for children’s homeschooling: a public library; a homeschooling catalog, publisher, or individual specialist; distance learning media. (Princiotta, 2006)
Homeschooling is perhaps the fastest growing trend in education in U.S. It is a great option if the factors of social isolation can be overcome through proper socialization. Of course, please think twice before try it because the strength of parents is the determiner of the success of homeschooling.
Reference
Arai, A. B. (2000). Reasons for Home Schooling in Canada. Retrieved Dec 13, 2010, from JATOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1585954?seq=3
Dao, J. (2005, Jun). Taught at Home, but Seeking to Join Activities at Public Schools. Retrieved Dec 10, 2010, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/education/22home.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnlx=1258916122-Lj zgN0eRk5p8uxo0ZwT4w
Gross, J. (2009, Nov). Unhappy in Class, More Are Learning at Home. Retrieved Dec 10, 2010, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/10/nyregion/unhappy-in-class-more-are-learning-at-home.html?scp=4&sq=homeschooling&st=nyt&pagewanted=2
Hernandez, B. (n.d.). Homeschool Coop - Benefits of Joint Classes. Retrieved Dec 2010, from About.com: http://homeschooling.about.com/od/socialization/p/homeschoolcoop.htm
Lips, D. (2009, Sept). Homeschooling: The Sleeping Giant of American Education. Retrieved Dec2010, from Student Research Center: http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=1&hid=6&sid=8f24c2b4-a928-4f43-80d5-2d6117792557%40sessionmgr12&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=ulh&AN=443 07324
PrinciottaD. (2006). Homeschooling in the United States: 2003. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Pros of Home Schooling. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2010, from Home School Info: http://www.homeschoolinfo.org/prosofhomeschooling.htm
Ray, B. D. (2003). Homeschooling Grows Up. Retrieved Dec 11, 2010, from Home School Foundation: http://www.hslda.org/research/ray2003/HomeschoolingGrowsUp.pdf
Rupp, R. (2000). Home learning year by year: how to design a homeschool curriculum from preschool through high school. New York:New York: Three Rivers Press.
Swift, W. (2010, Jul 7). Home-schooling: Rising statistics. Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from Sonoran News:http://www.sonorannews.com/archives/2010/100707/commnews_homeschool.html
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