Homeschooling vs. Public School

The common school system that was established by America’s founding fathers has for a long time, been considered the basis for providing students with a strong, dependable education. This system of traditional schooling has its advantages and disadvantages. The three most significant drawbacks are that children are faced with many social pressures, are taught based on a school districts beliefs and values, and receive a minimal amount of individualized instruction. Increasingly, parents are homeschooling their children in order to avoid the major problems that plague public schools in America. Homeschooling can provide a more direct and focused one- on- one education vs. public school; although public school can be better in the social development of the child while providing extracurricular activities that homeschooling may not. Although people have very different ideas about what schooling option is best, both provide a reliable education. Homeschooling is a more direct and focused education for the student. This type of education can be customized to fit the individual child, and is more at the students pace. There is also less stress on homeschooled children because the worry about what their peers think of them is eliminated, which reduces stress levels and allows the children to focus more on their studies and not what others think about them. Were as the number of students in public classrooms offer a wider range of opportunities that do not exist in a homeschool setting. Public school gives the students a larger number of peers to learn from, and there is also funding that provides for a larger range of advanced classes in things such as arts, technology studies, and the sciences. Most of these might be difficult for the parent that is homeschooling their student because of the lack of formal training needed to conduct these specialized classes. A child who is homeschooled can still be as socially developed as a child who attends public school, although public schools offer a wide range of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Homeschooling can offer a range of different activities that public schools can sometimes limit. Homeschooled children have a little bit more freedom to attend activities during the classroom day. This also can be a disadvantage for some homeschooled students, mainly because their parents are responsible for setting these activities up for their students. The amount of activities can be less than those of students in the public school setting because of lack of funds by the parents. Students are also able to interact with other students who are homeschooled as well, which in turn helps with their social development. Public schools on the other hand offer a wide range of activities within school times with a larger amount of peer interaction. These activities are set up by the school itself, and all the parents must do is simply give consent and pay for the activity. The disadvantage for children in a public school setting is that they are limited to what activities can be done because of the classroom time and restrictions that come with public school. Public schools offer a great deal of extracurricular activities for their students, were as with homeschooled students, their parents are responsible for ensuring that their student has the activities available for them to participate in. Children that attend public schools have a wide variety of activities that are provided for them before, during, and after school hours. Some of these activities include intramural sports, arts, and a wide range of clubs. They can often be limited to what the school has to offer if that particular school is low on the funding needed for the activities. The cost for some activities can range from little to no cost, or it can be very expensive, depending on the sport or activity the student has elected to participate in. Homeschooled children are limited