Did you know that home schooling is the fastest growing educational trend in the United Sates, Canada and worldwide? Did you know that the pupil/teacher ratio in 2011 is lower than the pupil/teacher ratio in 2000? Parents today do not take into consideration what their children want to do for their educational learning. I have never been home schooled, but when I have children, I want to home school them because of the bonding and it helps the children become more independent. Dr. Brian D.
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Ray is author, research speaker, and president of non-profit National Home Education Research Institute, surveyed more than 7,000 adults that have been home schooled and compared them to adults that have been public school educated. It showed that 88 percent of home schooled graduates are members of organizations, like community groups church functions, and professional organizations compared to 50 percent of the other adults. Many people from different situations home school from low income, high income, parents with PhD’s, GED’s, and even no high school diploma.
Homeschool is wonderful for small classes and one-on-one learning, but public school has trained teachers to educate children in large groups. The first difference I want to discuss is the student teacher ratio. Home school is usually small class sizes and one parent or teacher, whereas the public school is relatively large class sizes and one teacher. People think that home school parents have it easy because of the small class size, but they could not be more wrong.
Home school children are different ages, so the parent has to transition between the different levels of education, whereas public school teachers have the children who are the same age and in the same level of education. I’m not saying the teachers have it easy, but it certainly makes a difference. I asked my cousin Michele, who is mother of 8 and a home school mom, if she would be interested in answering some questions about the student teacher ratio. I asked her if she has trouble making time to educate all of her children in a single school day.
She replied, “I have made a schedule to divide the time even with all of the age’s groups. The two oldest are only a year apart, but they are on the same level. The four younger children are about two to three years apart, so they each get the one on one time with me. The last child is only a six months old. They way it works with the others are they quietly work or study while I am having time teaching their siblings. It’s like a one room schoolhouse. ” Teachers of the public school are trained to deal with the large class sizes and are trained to teach the material they assign.
Since the children are almost all the same age, and there education level is the same. Of course, that’s not the only difference I am going to discuss. The next area to discuss is the social situations between the two education systems. The public school children make friends with the children of the same age during school hours and they form cliques. The environment is filled with diversity. Some people are misled and think that home school children have only their siblings to converse with.
Linda Wooldridge a home school mom says in a video on the ehow website, home school children have many organized field trips where they can interact with other home school children. She also states that she likes to get her children involved in clubs like Boy and Girl Scouts, and 4H Club. They have a chance to build friendships and develop communication skills. Another issue in the social situation category is peer pressure. When public school children are in school, they seem to have a large amount of peer pressure from their friends and enemies.
That does not necessarily mean that all children will be influenced by their friends, but friends do have an impact on your child’s life. Home school children do not really deal with peer pressure from friends because they are in the home, with their siblings, if any and their parents mostly watch over their educational and social endeavors. Children love to socialize, they also love the time they have holiday breaks from school, which brings me to my next discussion. Schedule differences for the two educational systems are like night and day.
Public schools have scheduled holiday breaks, scheduled hours, summer vacation, and snow days. They also have days off like Martin Luther King Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and Presidents Day. It is all made up by the people in the school system. When you look at home school, they hold the classes at home. I have also asked my cousin Michele how her yearly school schedule is made. They hardly have snow days, the holiday breaks are short, the school days are short, and the summer vacation is short.
She says, “I am pretty strict when it comes to education. Every home school parent will have a different schedule based on what they think is best for their children. With the schedules that are different for the two educational systems, the curriculum has got to be different, right? Yes, the curriculum is different. They are the same is some ways like, they have the same subjects, and they both have the same grading system. Home school parents get special learning booklets to teach their children with because parents are not trained teachers, so they understand what they are teaching their children.
Some parents enjoy educating their children because it gives them the chance to learn new things and also share their knowledge with their children. Public schools hire trained teacher to educate the children. The teachers have an understanding of the material so it is easy for them to teach the students the material. The students are all at the same level of education, so the teacher knows what curriculum the students are comfortable with learning. The material is made to help the students learn, not to help the teacher learn.
In conclusion, if you are looking to decide whether to home school or send your children to public school consider your child’s take on the teacher, social, schedule, and curriculum differences between the two systems. Children may like the differences in between the two, but every child has their own preference. Parents should at least try to home school their children for a year and see if your child like the change. If so, you could make it a permanent thing. Do not knock it, until you try it. If public school and home school was the same they would not give parents a choice.
