Monday, April 20, 2009

The disadvantages to home education

Despite the many benefits to homeschooling, there are some disadvantages. The most significant disadvantage seems to be the amount of sacrifice it takes. Parents have to sacrifice emotionally, physically, and financially.
Financial costs of homeschooling vary, but if a parent wants to use a curriculum to ensure their student is covering everything they need to in their specific grade, the costs can be around four hundred dollars a year. That four hundred dollars is only the cost of the curriculum for one child, what about a family that has four kids? Plus, to homeschool, many families who would have had two parents bringing in income then only have one working, so they are losing even more money.
In addition to finances, parents have the responsibility of monitoring their children’s education and encouraging learning. If students have questions about something they are studying, they will go to the parents, and parents have to help them find answers. Parents have to choose curriculum for each child, or plan lessons according to their grade, and this can be very time consuming. Overall, there is a lot of commitment. The sacrifice and commitment that help so many home schooling families to succeed are also the responsibilities that cause many to fail.

3 comments:

  1. I think the biggest point you bring up is lack of commitment. Even in a regular school, students can be impacted by their parents apathy. Both students and parents need to get motivated, because school is a very big deal.

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  2. I think this is a very good counter argument to your research paper. I like how you bring up the responsibility point. My father is a high school teacher and it seems as though he spends a majority of his time building lesson plans and grading work. I do not see how a parent would be able to maintain a steady job as well as trying to build lesson plans and also encouraging their children to study and get an education. Over all, very good counter argument.

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  3. This is a good counter argument.

    A lot of parents do not have the qualifications to give their children the best education.

    Since most parents work, students might often end up teaching themselves. This may not be bad for some students, however, some need more guidence than others.

    I do think that home schooling is a great alternative option in some circumstances.

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