My pros and cons list of each
Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:24 am
I've been doing some serious research into homeschooling because I have three of my four children (10, 13, and 14) who are just not thriving in public school. Both my children and I have so many issues with our particular school district. So I came up with this list of pros and cons for both homeschooling and public schooling to help myself decide.
Homeschooling:
Pros:
1. No peer pressure for drugs, sex, etc.
2. No bullying or teasing
3. No 7 hour school day
4. No strict or abusive teachers
5. No truancy officer to tell me I should send my children to school when they are sick.
6. Concentration on emotional development, not strictly academic
7. More bonding time with my kids
8. We can tailor their lessons to fit their individual learning styles
9. No prison-like food
10. No more early morning waking up, sometimes before even the sun (none of us are morning people here)
11. No more rush, rush, rushing around stress in the am getting ready and off to school
I could go on, but I think everyone has heard enough...lol
Homeschooling cons:
Originally, before I began my research, my only two cons were:
I'm not teacher material and will they get a quality education
The lack of socialization thing never was a problem for us, because my children live around children their own age and there are too many other places for socialization besides just school: parks, clubs, 4H, Girl scouts, community events, etc. We found out that in our state the public schools have to offer their extracurricular activities to homeschooled children too. So socialization is simply not an issue for us. Besides, my children and I firmly believe it is better to have just a few really decent friends then 100's of acquaintances.
I couldn't really come up with any pros for public schooling but here is my list of cons:
1.)Too strict attendance ...the government and the school think of your child in dollar signs, not their emotional and physical health needs. I think it is utterly ridiculous to expect a child to sit for 7 hours in classrooms when their noses are running a mile a minute, they are coughing continuously all day, or have a severe headache. Forget about their emotional needs...you are allowed to take one day of an excused absence for a funeral. What about the grieving period?
2.)The food at our schools is awful. I have often had lunch at school with my 10 year old and the food is disgusting. Most everything is stale, bread as hard as a rock, and my children have told me they have a "cooks special" once a month where all the left overs in the fridge are thrown together for lunch that day. OMG...this scared the beejeebies out of me. Cleaning out the fridge and feeding that to my kids? I was horrified to say the least. Besides which, no allowances are made for vegetarians or other diets...my children (the 13 and 14 yo's) are vegetarians and when they asked if they could forgo their meat dish for some extra veggies they were denied the request.
3.) Sicknesses, pink eye, lice, etc.....things my children never experienced until they started going to public school. And because we have such a strict attendance policy here (basically if you aren't dying you have to go to school) my kids are always sick because they are exposed to it for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.
4.)Bullying, teasing. I hated school growing up because every single year from kindergarten through my freshman year in high school I was either mildly teased for being shy, poor, etc., or beat up or mentally or physically abused by peers and in some instances even teachers. Fortunately my own children have only had to deal with mild teasing...but they shouldn't even have to deal with that. And are taught at school to simply ignore it.
5.)The arts (music, art, anything creative) is all but completely missing from my children's schools. My 14 yo has played the flute in band class since she was 10, and loved it til we moved here to this particular town...she says it is boring and they rarely ever learn new or difficult pieces. Art classes are only offered one year (actually just one semester) out of all four years of high school and as far as the grade schools here...art classes stop at 3rd grade...until that one semester in high school. My children are all highly creative, hands-on learners.
6.)Textbook learning only curriculum...my 7th grader has only had one field trip this whole year and my 4th grader has only had two and one was to our public library. My 7th grader has a minimum of 4 hours of reading and writing and doing worksheets almost every night for homework. The labs, field trips, hands-on learning is not stressed in our town at all. It's all about read a textbook, write on a worksheet. I think an equal mix of textbook and hands-on should be taught, the school believes otherwise....and math and science are the main subjects stressed here.
7.)High school is not focused on the children's interests at all....My 14 yo daughter has to choose between agriculture or industrial arts next year....those are her only two choices for the entire year....my daughter is a musician, artist, writer....not interested in cows or drafting at all.
I'm getting soooooooooo tired of typing so I will stop now...but I really have nothing good to say about our school system here. I have tried and tried to get them to start an organic garden at the schools and they tell me every time that we just don't have the funds for that...they are not open to change or improvement at all here. And my children are suffering because of it.
Homeschooling:
Pros:
1. No peer pressure for drugs, sex, etc.
2. No bullying or teasing
3. No 7 hour school day
4. No strict or abusive teachers
5. No truancy officer to tell me I should send my children to school when they are sick.
6. Concentration on emotional development, not strictly academic
7. More bonding time with my kids
8. We can tailor their lessons to fit their individual learning styles
9. No prison-like food
10. No more early morning waking up, sometimes before even the sun (none of us are morning people here)
11. No more rush, rush, rushing around stress in the am getting ready and off to school
I could go on, but I think everyone has heard enough...lol
Homeschooling cons:
Originally, before I began my research, my only two cons were:
I'm not teacher material and will they get a quality education
The lack of socialization thing never was a problem for us, because my children live around children their own age and there are too many other places for socialization besides just school: parks, clubs, 4H, Girl scouts, community events, etc. We found out that in our state the public schools have to offer their extracurricular activities to homeschooled children too. So socialization is simply not an issue for us. Besides, my children and I firmly believe it is better to have just a few really decent friends then 100's of acquaintances.
I couldn't really come up with any pros for public schooling but here is my list of cons:
1.)Too strict attendance ...the government and the school think of your child in dollar signs, not their emotional and physical health needs. I think it is utterly ridiculous to expect a child to sit for 7 hours in classrooms when their noses are running a mile a minute, they are coughing continuously all day, or have a severe headache. Forget about their emotional needs...you are allowed to take one day of an excused absence for a funeral. What about the grieving period?
2.)The food at our schools is awful. I have often had lunch at school with my 10 year old and the food is disgusting. Most everything is stale, bread as hard as a rock, and my children have told me they have a "cooks special" once a month where all the left overs in the fridge are thrown together for lunch that day. OMG...this scared the beejeebies out of me. Cleaning out the fridge and feeding that to my kids? I was horrified to say the least. Besides which, no allowances are made for vegetarians or other diets...my children (the 13 and 14 yo's) are vegetarians and when they asked if they could forgo their meat dish for some extra veggies they were denied the request.
3.) Sicknesses, pink eye, lice, etc.....things my children never experienced until they started going to public school. And because we have such a strict attendance policy here (basically if you aren't dying you have to go to school) my kids are always sick because they are exposed to it for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.
4.)Bullying, teasing. I hated school growing up because every single year from kindergarten through my freshman year in high school I was either mildly teased for being shy, poor, etc., or beat up or mentally or physically abused by peers and in some instances even teachers. Fortunately my own children have only had to deal with mild teasing...but they shouldn't even have to deal with that. And are taught at school to simply ignore it.
5.)The arts (music, art, anything creative) is all but completely missing from my children's schools. My 14 yo has played the flute in band class since she was 10, and loved it til we moved here to this particular town...she says it is boring and they rarely ever learn new or difficult pieces. Art classes are only offered one year (actually just one semester) out of all four years of high school and as far as the grade schools here...art classes stop at 3rd grade...until that one semester in high school. My children are all highly creative, hands-on learners.
6.)Textbook learning only curriculum...my 7th grader has only had one field trip this whole year and my 4th grader has only had two and one was to our public library. My 7th grader has a minimum of 4 hours of reading and writing and doing worksheets almost every night for homework. The labs, field trips, hands-on learning is not stressed in our town at all. It's all about read a textbook, write on a worksheet. I think an equal mix of textbook and hands-on should be taught, the school believes otherwise....and math and science are the main subjects stressed here.
7.)High school is not focused on the children's interests at all....My 14 yo daughter has to choose between agriculture or industrial arts next year....those are her only two choices for the entire year....my daughter is a musician, artist, writer....not interested in cows or drafting at all.
I'm getting soooooooooo tired of typing so I will stop now...but I really have nothing good to say about our school system here. I have tried and tried to get them to start an organic garden at the schools and they tell me every time that we just don't have the funds for that...they are not open to change or improvement at all here. And my children are suffering because of it.