Does Homeschooling Provide a Valid Alternative to Formal Education in Schools?

Since 1999, homeschooling has grown ever more popular, and in the US, there has been a rise of 74% in the number of parents choosing to teach their children at home. Homeschooling is a highly controversial issue all over the world and there have been many debates on the internet, in the newspapers, and even in classrooms about whether it is or isn’t a valid alternative to formal schooling. Advocates of homeschooling say that the benefits of homeschooling are numerous, and would argue it to be necessary in the case of bad schools in the area or a need for a more personalised tuition. Not only that, but most homeschoolers do so to remove the factor of peer pressure. On the other hand, critics believe that homeschooling deprives homeschoolers of their own independent lives and can have negative social effects on the children. They also bring up the idea that it breeds overdependence on parents and limits the child’s sense of free rights. It is, however, crystal clear that homeschooling – while providing an interesting alternative for some – still does not provide a valid alternative to actual formal education in schools.

Firstly, those in favour of homeschooling would argue that if the schools in the area afford an unsatisfactory standard of education to their child, then it is imperative that they be homeschooled. While we all maintain that a bad education is nowhere near a good thing, homeschoolers believe that if they find the schools within their area to be teaching at a lower standard than what they would like, that they should not be remiss to extricate the children from said schools and to take it upon themselves to either hire tutors or teach the child (or children) themselves. In a 2007 survey, 73% of homeschoolers stated dissatisfaction with academic instruction at schools as their reasoning for homeschooling.

Another main reason homeschoolers give for their choice of education is that in that case, children are away from the possible peer pressure in schools and so are not affected. Many parents have children who struggle with peer pressure, be it to buy expensive clothing, drink alcohol, smoke, or worse still: take drugs. Advocates of homeschooling highlight this point as it is critical in their minds, and those of most any parent. They maintain that to combat peer pressure in schools, homeschooling provides a good alternative to formal education.

The final main reason advocates for homeschooling argue is personalised tuition. Personalised tuition can mean a plethora of things: it can mean that the parents do not agree with what the school teaches (whether for pious reasons or other), it can mean that the parents believe the school is not challenging enough for their child and wish to pander more to his or her abilities, or it could mean that the parents believe the school is not focusing enough on the needs of their child. In the United States, in a 1999 survey by the NCES, 48.9% of homeschoolers listed the ability to give their child or children a better education at home as the reasoning behind their choice. Religious reasons came second with 38.4% and are a growing factor in today’s open-minded schooling system. It is a main point for homeschoolers that they are able to fully control how and what their children are being taught and it is a benefit most homeschoolers seem to relish above all else.

On the other hand, critics of homeschooling argue that despite good intentions, homeschooling can sometimes ruin a parent’s life, both in the social aspect, and in the business sense. Parents who decide to homeschool their children can really be making a huge alteration to their lives and schooling their children themselves means one of the parents quitting their job as it is a full-time pursuit that requires a lot of energy and effort. Critics argue that it is a valid concern and that it is a serious