The cons to that would be lack of peer interaction, which might make them awkward in social settings around other kids. No Intramural sports. Maybe limited access to lab setups, etc. Deadlines and tighter structure to batter teach how to handle pressure. However, more distractions, phone, pets, media, siblings, etc.

This is an old stereotype of homeschooling that should go the way of the dodo. Tons of homeschooled kids take part in social activities, often with other homeschool kids, and sometimes more often and of more variety than public schooled kids.

On the whole, I’d say that the best choice would be a sort of home-school co-op. That way you get your classroom interaction, your attention, your good curriculum/flexibility – without having to worry about bias in the textbooks, which is a big deal for me. And having your choice of teachers means that there’s a good chance to get some real experts in.

I know several kids who are homeschooled, and several adults who were for part or all of their primary and secondary education, and none of them lacked social skills. One was raised in a very religious environment, and I feel she was overly sheltered, and her religiousity of course is something I do not really identify with; I feel like her education was lacking. But, that one example has more to dowoth the particular parents and family. The other people I mentioned, are smart, some went to college, all in all I think they did fine with their home schooling.

Personally, I think it depends on the child, what is available where you live, and the parents. Some children thrive in a homeschooling environment, some in private school, some in public. I have one friend whose son did all his education in private school. He was a calm boy, very acedemically oriented, liked structure, and his mom wanted him to have a Cathoic education. Then her daughter comes along and she is very adventurous, likes to try all sorts of varied things, and the public schools had way more to offer for her, even as young as elementary school. Spanish class, and cheerleading after school, and her personality seemed well suited for the magnet public school. Her mom struggled with whether to switch her over to the Catholic school, because religion is important to her, her son had done so well at the Catholic schools, and she did not want her daughter to feel she did not have the same opportunity at education. She wound up sticking with public education for her, and wound up being extremely happy. Her daughter has excelled.

Another friend of mine home-schools all three of her children. She says her kids can go to school at any time if they want to try it, which I believe. The one thing I question is, I think most kids have some fear of the unknown, and young children tend to want to stay with their mothers. So, I don’t see how a very young child would say they want to go to school when they have never been. They have no idea what it is like, and the homeschool community tends to talk about school being a scary place, which I think kids pick up on.

I know another girl, well now she is grown up, who was homeschooled through 10th grade and then her parents moved, because their son was training to be a tennis pro. In their new city there was a magnet performing arts high school and their daughter was studying to be a ballerina. She enrolled and it was great! She had no trouble adjusting, and the school provided more opportunity than homeschooling ever would have.

I could give you more examples, but I won’t bore you. My point is, I think it best to not decide when a baby is born what their education will be through the age of 18. I think a parent should evaluate the options and the particular child, and be willing to be flexible as circumstances change. I recommend never speaking negatively about any type of education in front of young children, but just that they are different options. Not only bevause one day you may shift your feelings and beliefs regarding an education option, but also because you would not want to raise children who shun or tease other children who are having a different education.

It all comes down to the parent. Absent that a child will learn equally whereever and whatever you teach them. Overall I have seen public schools offer a more diversified student body, curriculum and intermural sports and art activities than private schools. It is outside the classroom though where life’s lessons and that is where the parents are the true teacher of the most valuable of all lessons that are taught.

I don’t understand how some people can say home schooled kids are mal-adjusted, when there are many mal-adjusted kids in the public schools who have been there their entire lives! I just don’t get it.

Point is, there are very many variables, and it does not make much sense to brand people like that.

One thing you missed out [I haven’t read the other replies so one could have said it before me] is getting lost in the crowd in private/public schools. Those kids that don’t do anything out of the ordinary and just keeping quiet and nobody notices them unless something bad happen. Those kids that don’t have a saying in anything and nobody [from the staff] pay to much attention unless they go on a wrong path. In private schools this happen less because teachers there get payed more so they have to know their students.

I think it totally depends on the ‘schools” in each category. A parent with no teaching experience and limited intellect as a home schooling teacher would be a bust.

Private schools? Could they be religious schools? Could they be schools where students without adequate financial means are bullied by their peers?

As to public schools, they are all over the map in terms of quality.

Your question is too vague to answer.

I can only speak to my experience. I, of course, home school three children. All my friends home school their’s with the exception of one family whose child will be attending a gifted school in the fall.

I think the most important factor is how engaged the parents are. When my kids were in school I basically after-schooled them because their school was train wreck. I knew a few parent who did the same but most just shrugged their shoulders and let the bad situation be.

Private school can be better because they have the option to kick kids out if they become too troublesome. You, as a parent, have more obvious leverage to make things happen if there are problems. I say obvious because you can pull your child from public school and, in my province, each child carried with them $7000 worth of funding. But somehow that doesn’t seem to matter here.

My kids have a LOT of friends.

We get to visit the museums and science centres when they are quiet. We have the opportunity to work with theatre companies for their lunch performances. For science labs….I have access to what every lab material a school would have.

BUT here’s what I love about home schooling: if a curriculum isn’t working then we toss it and find another. If a child is having a rough time then we pause for days/weeks until that child is ready to start learning again. That down time is full of learning too but just a different kind.

As with anything YMMV.

As someone who teaches in a program for homeschooled and unschooled kids, I lean heavily towards those styles. I think overall it depends on the resources available to the kids more than style, since kids will naturally gravitate towards what interests them anyway. That said, I think the socializing that most homeschooled kids get is superior, in addition to the ability of lessons to be taken at the child’s speed. Assuming they don’t have overprotective parents, they’ll get out and do as much or more “extra-curricular” activities as their schooled counterparts. And the way they relate won’t be so contrived and hierarchal; several child psychologist have published papers arguing that homeschooling tended to produce more socially apt adults because of the fact that they learn to relate to each other as individuals. In my own class this spring, I saw friendships form easily between teens who, were they in high school, would have likely been lumped in different cliques.

And of course, so much depends on the quality of the adult mentors in a child’s life, too. Frankly, schooling doesn’t do a good job of controlling for quality, if the teachers even get enough time with the kids at all.

[To Collective] So if which style of learning should be incumbent to how disciplined, and perceptive the child it, if they started out in private or public school, how would you make the choice, ”this isn’t working, they are not learning but struggling. I am going to home schooling”. If you started out on one side of the fence how do you or would you know it is time to try the other side of the fence? If you started out in private school per se, what would make you believe you need to remove the child from that school as oppose of just seeing if they can get a tutor, or an after class learning center, etc? In short, what is the litmus test for you that says, ”change need be made”?

@Hypocrisy_Central One friend of mine, she is one of 5 kids. All of them went to public school, except the youngest, when she hit jr high started getting into trouble, in with the wrong crowd. Her parents decided to try homeschooling, it was a leap of faith in some ways, but something had to be done. It worked out well. If it had not worked they would have tried something else. I have another friend who has been homeschooling her child since thebeginning, but is contemplating putting her in public school in the future, she worries she will not be able to give her all of the opportunities the public school does where she lives. Se might try it and her daughter will thrive, or she might hate it. I am not a parent, but I think parenting is like that, you do your best, you know your child best, and you adjust to what is necessary at the time.

@Hypocrisy_Central I lived that litmus test and overbearing and restrictive protocols that are stifling to the students is what will shut kids down. It happened to me where overbearing, corporal punishment Nuns in a Catholic school turned me into a hellion to the point where my folks were ready to send me to boarding school. Switched to public school and it was like a switch was flipped and I thrived in school from there on out. Kids want to learn and not be bullied especially by adults. I have had to make similar radical changes to my kids learning environments once for each of my sons.

Bottom line is both parents and good teaches make all the difference in how a child will want to learn.

Watch this documentary for some excellent insight:
http://www.thecartelmovie.com/

I had all my kids in public school and I was passionate about it. But my oldest son was bullied unmerciless way and he completely shut down and the school refused to deal with it. My daughter was in grade three and still couldn’t read. My youngest was reading college level science books and was bored out of his gourd in his grade one class. It really was a no brainer for me at that point.

My daughter went from the best private school in town to what is supposedly the best public school in town. It is terrifying that the school she is in passes for the best. We have offered her a chance to go elsewhere, but she is determined to stick it out. Probably because it’ll give her a better chance to get into the college of her choice. They love high achieving kids from urban school systems.

But it is so different. They can’t even be compared.

A lot of kids in my neighborhood are home schooled, and they do very well when it comes to getting into college. One of them went to Swarthemore and is now teaching in my daughter’s school.

In many ways, though, I don’t think you can say which schooling system is better. It all depends on the student. A well-prepared and well-motivated student will do fine anywhere. They will find a way to make it work and they will use the school to learn from no matter how awful it might be. My daughter’s school has so many different kinds of kids, and she observes them all. I hope she’ll find a way to connect with some, because she seems to be holding herself apart. She should join the drama club, but she doesn’t because she didn’t think the older kids would appreciate it. Maybe she will this year. We’ll see.

As far as the ration that get into top schools like the Ivy League, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Cal Tech or MIT; there is no question that top ranked and extremely expensive private schools and prep schools win. While homeschooling admission rates to universities have improved in recent years as colleges and universities have become more aware of the growing movement, and some home schooled students have made it into top tier universities; admission rates still lag behind those of private and public school students. Home schooling varies widely with the motives for choosing it and with the educational level of the parents providing it, as well as the amount of time per day they have available for playing tutor while trying to make a living and run a household as well.

Some studies indicate homeschooled students outperform public school students in SAT results, but these studies were all conducted by advocacy groups for home schooling and the methods used were deliberately selected to bias the test. More scientific testing shows mixed results, which again points to the ability of particular parents to play the role of teacher as a primary controlling factor in success.

A child can learn easily whatever we teach him. The children brain will be able to accept the new things, but depends upon the sort of interest we develop in them. Home schooling is the best choice includes class room interactions, attention, good curriculum and also the flexibility. As like the traditional school the home school is also having the teacher and peer interaction, doubts are solved, attention of not only the teacher but also the parents because the kid will be educating under parents supervision, and also have flexibility in attending the classes. No physical presence is needed, you can learn from anywhere around the world. No bad habits will come near your kid.

As you discussed the corns I do agree, but what I would like to say is disturbance is the disturbance which is caused even in the public schools by the peers. If a child is enough concentrated then nothing can distract him from learning.

My son is home schooled from Forest Trail Academy from past 4 years and before homeschooling him I have made a preparatory plan for his home schooling, I have made him ready for the home schooling, explained the types of learning, made him ready for the home school. Now he is grasping the lesson very easily and without any disturbance or distraction.

So, I conclude by saying home school is the better option to be chosen because the child will be safe in our hands and get’s educated and holds a perfect degree which will be acceptable for the further studies and also for the employment.