Homeschooling
Homeschooling is commonly known as home education. It is usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an online teacher. Modern homeschooling movement began in the 1970s. It was informed by an alternative education movement that developed out of the various sorts of counter cultural activism in the a960s in North America.
Homeschooling is legal in almost all countries in the world. Countries with the most prevalent home education movements include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Home education has been legal in Russia since the fall of the Soviet regime in the 1990s and has gained recognition from both the media and society in general. Russian law specifically states that the parents are the primary educators of their children. In the UK, homeschooling can be done either full or part time and homeschooling in India is not regulated by any authority and there is no registration required.
Reasons Why Families Choose Homeschooling
1. Holistic Education
Children have an inborn curiosity that compels them to learn things from the world around them. When kids are not confined to an isolated classroom and instead given the freedom to pursue their own interests, they will naturally develop a sense of purpose, self-motivation, and self-confidence.
2. Religious Reasons
One of the reasons why some parents choose to homeschool their children was because they want to instill the love of God in their children’s hearts and raise them to have character befitting that of a child of God.
3. Worldschooling
Some parents prefer worldschooling. It is self-directed learning that is enriched with an active engagement with the world, often in the form of travelling. Kids can learn subjects like geography, history, math, art, music, different languages, current world events, critical thinking, and social responsibility in a hands-on way through first-hand experience, rather than non-contextually from a textbook.
6. Critical Thinking Development
Teachers have a captive audience of malleable young minds for several years and some parents feel school teachers smother independent thoughts intentionally or subconsciously, stifling intellectual development. Parents do not want their kids to be indoctrinated with any narrative or ideology, but instead arrive at the intended conclusions through their own thinking.
7. Beneficial for Handicapped Children and Highly Gifted Children
Homeschooling has a positive impact on the family in terms of dealing with children with special needs. homeschooling is very beneficial for handicapped children and highly gifted children whose needs cannot be met by the school system.
Success Stories
Mumbai
There was a seventeen-year-old homeschooled Mumbai girl who got a scholarship from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) without having a Class 10 or 12 certificate. It was based purely on her computer programming talent. She is a three-time medal winner at the International Olympiad of Informatics, more commonly known as the Programming Olympiad, which helped her secure a seat at MIT.
Russia
Russian tennis phenom Maria Sharapova was just four years old when she first picked up a racket. She was nine when she enrolled in the prestigious IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. It wasn’t long before she declared herself a major force to be reckoned with. At age 11, Maria’s parents decided that her mother would homeschool her so the young athlete could focus on tennis. By 13, Maria won her first International Junior Tennis Championship, which was quickly followed by the prestigious Rising Star Award. Though she continued to compete, Maria has an Olympic silver medal, and is the only Russian to hold a career Grand Slam.
United States
In the United States, Christopher Paolini was homeschooled for his entire academic career and holds the Guinness World Record as the youngest author to pen a bestselling fantasy book series. His parents homeschooled him and his sister as they wanted their children to have time “to watch the clouds, to have thinking space.” It also allowed them to tailor lessons around each child’s interests. They made frequent trips to the library where Christopher liked to check out classics, mysteries, fantasy and science fiction. Christopher claimed to have read 3,000 books and watched 4,000 videos, and said he was unbeatable at computer games, although he admittedly knew “nothing about math.” Superstar Taylor Swift also pursued homeschooling and even graduated high school early.
Why do Some Parents Prefer Public Schooling
Some parents prefer public schooling as they feel that children who attend public school have more opportunities for social interaction than many homeschool students. There are homeschool co-ops that can be helpful, but they feel that a public school has built-in social benefits and sending their children to public school frees them up to just be a parent.
Some parents argued that homeschooling may hurt the child’s future since they are protected from tensions that are a part of daily living. It would be better if they were left to experience things such as racial tensions and develop proper coping habits for them. The Child is also shielded from problems such as racial tensions and negative peer influence which are prevalent in school institutes.
Conclusion
Every educational system offers great opportunities for children to learn new information and skills, as well as harness their own unique qualities and interests. It is important for parents to choose what is best for their children by taking into account both the pros and the cons to ensure one makes an educated and informed decision.