Home School or Public School: How to Decide
By Anne Clarke 

Personally, I was home schooled through part of my education and, I attended public schools as well. There are certainly benefits to both. However, there are probably some things about home schooling you never knew before!

· Home schooling vs. public schooling:

o Home school pros:

1) You can purchase a home school curriculum, which will include most of the ideas and materials you need.

2) Unlike teachers in public schools—your child gets one-on-one attention most of the time. Teachers in public schools often have at least fifteen students at one time nowadays—and usually more.

When I was home schooled I only had two sisters who were also being home schooled. All three of us learned essential lessons in every subject, but we had mom right over our shoulders when we needed her, helping us understand the material. Therefore, a child benefits greatly from learning at home.

3) You do not have to adhere strictly to some mail-order curriculum. Most importantly, a home school instructor should adjust to the children’s specific needs.

Here are a few examples:

You know your child—if he or she is behind in math, slow down a bit in that area. Spend more time working with math and you can easily catch the child up to the level where he or she needs to be.

Another example would be a child who is much more advanced in, say, grammar—you can choose to make his or her assignments more challenging than what is suggested in any set curriculum.

4) Many colleges and universities look for children who have been taught at home. –Why? The answer is simple, most moms (or dads or guardians) are afraid that they will not teach as well as a certified teacher, thus they tend to overcompensate by actually teaching more than a child in that grade would learn. When I returned to public school after three years of home schooling I was ahead of my classmates in almost every subject.

· Some of the downsides to home schooling your children:

1) All children need to learn how to function and behave in society, especially when it comes to social relationships.

This problem can sometimes be solved by involving your children in outside activities, i.e. softball teams, dance lessons, etc. In fact, our P.E. class when I home schooled was always practicing dance, because both my sisters and I took dance lessons.

However, mom made sure we stayed in other activities such as swim teams and tennis—so we had friends to spend time with outside of our lessons. This is very important if you are going to home school.

2) It takes time.

In home schooling you pretty much have to be unemployed, because home schooling can be a tough job—you do not only teach, you also grade, prepare lesson plans, and focus on your “job” most of the day. And then there are your other household obligations—someone has to clean the toilet, right? Do not let yourself get too busy.

3) It can be frustrating.

Especially if your child or children are hard to handle, they may not develop the respect for you that you must have from them as a teacher. Although a child’s relationship with their authority figures should be properly established, often they are not. If you do not get the respect you need in order to teach them, you might try home schooling at first and then change your mind.

A professional teacher is trained to gain respect from his or her students—and often a child who starts out as a problem child in the classroom will soon be “tamed” through the instructor as well as by following the example of the rest of the students in the class.