Homeschooling As An Increasing Trend In Our Society

When majority of our people think about school, they think of bricks walls and the teachers, principals, administration staff, and other employees whose job is to staff school buildings. As the number of students has increased in the United States, now home is the classroom for them and the teacher is probably their parent. More Than 1.8 million children are now being happily educated at their own homes. That is about 4 percent of the K-12 school population. For these students, the issues of bureaucratization and social structure are less significant than they for public school students.

In the 1800s, after the establishment of public schools, families started to teach their children at their own homes who lived in isolated environment and held strict religious views those were at odds with the secular atmosphere of public schools in united states. But as for today, home schooling is gaining attention to a broader range of families that do not necessarily tied to some organized religion. Poor academic quality of public schools, and public school violence are the reasons that motivated a number of parents to take the decision of teaching their children at their own homes. The recent publicity give to school shooting sprees seems to have accelerated the move toward homeschooling.

While the supporters of homeschooling believes that children can do just as well or better in home schools as in public schools, critics counter that because homeschooled children are isolated from the larger community, they lose an important chance to improve their socialization skills. But some parts of homeschooling claim their children to get benefit from contact with others rather their own age group of children. home schools are considered as a good alternate for children who tends to suffer from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and learning disorders. These sorts of children can perform better in small sized classes, which give them personal proper attention.

Quality control is an issue in homeschooling. While homeschooling is illegal in all states 19 states require no notification that a child will be homeschooled, and another 14 require notification only. Other states may require parents to submit their children's curricula or test scores for professional evaluation. Despite the lack of uniform standards, a research review by the Home School Legal Defense Association (2005) reports that homeschooled students score higher than others on standardized tests, in every subject and every grade.

Who are the people who are running homeschools? In general, they tend to have higher than average incomes educational levels. Most are two parent families, and their children watch less television than average --- both factors that are likely to support superior educational performance. The same students with the same support from their parents, would probably do just as well in the public schools. As research has repeatedly shown, small classes are better than big classes, and strong parental and community involvement is key.