Should People be Home Schooled?

By Elizabeth Correa

05-29-2005

I am the product of a home school family; therefore I have the authority to tell you about it. Many other home-schooled children have similar experiences to mine. My parents, being very religious people, wanted to teach me their own beliefs both religious and political and their overall worldview. So they home schooled my eight brothers, sisters and I. I went for two years of public elementary school before I hit college. Was home schooling a good idea? Just like most things in life, it was neither all good nor all bad. There were some benefits and some disadvantages. I’ll try to go through them so you can make your own decision.

Of course there are a few benefits of home schooling. I got lots of time with mom and dad, which was wonderful. They read to me. My mom sat with me for endless hours teaching me reading, writing and math. I hated it all except reading, and she had to work hard to make me concentrate.

Another perk of home schooling was after I developed a love for reading, I had freedom and time to read whatever I cared about. I would become interested in a subject and read as many books about it as I could find.

But these aren’t the only perks of home schooling. Studies show home-schooled students do better on all national standard tests in every subject. And the professors I have spoken to agree, home-schooled kids perform better than public schooled.

Another advantage was my social skills developed. Adults surrounded me, and I learned to converse with them at a young age. I learned listening skills and vocabulary along with very important common courtesies which helped me to learn from the adults around me.

The negatives of home schooling also presented themselves to me after I finished my home education. I found myself having some disadvantages to other individuals who had attended public school.

When my mother failed algebra in high school she resigned herself to believe she couldn’t do higher math. This attitude was gradually given to me, and when I got to the point where I was ready to start algebra I didn’t think I could do it. My mother also couldn’t teach me. Luckily she got me a tutor for about three months for algebra. I discovered how nifty it was, but after the tutoring stopped (she went back to Spain) I was again lost.

When I got into college I had to start out with the basic math and work up to basic algebra, then intermediate algebra, then College Algebra. I discovered I was pretty good at math and worked up to Calculus 3 and Physics II with calculus with B’s. But it wasn’t easy. I had to work harder than most people because my mother didn’t have the math background.

Another problem with home schooling is the lack of hands on science labs which high schools provide. Most high school kids don’t even realize how wonderful it is to have labs where they can perform science experiments. The exposure to the innards of a frog lets the student understand more of how the world works. I could only view pictures in textbooks.

Because I dealt with adults or my family members, I missed out on some peer-to-peer interactions such as being hit on or dealing with idiots who are clowning around. Dealing with these types of situations was new to me. The mechanisms to handle these exchanges needed to be developed while I was young. I didn’t expect students to be disrespectful to their teachers or other adults. It’s still strange to me to this day.

In conclusion, coming from a home school background gives me a different perspective on life, which comes in very handy when writing about society. But I also had some disadvantages which I had to work hard to overcome. I learned no matter what background a person has they can always overcome their limitations if they are self-disciplined and work hard.