Homeschooling is a relatively new and rapidly growing educational trend in the United States. When done properly, this way of learning can maximize a child’s potential and provide them with a specialized curriculum that fits their needs as a student. However, under-regulation of this newfound method may potentially put children in danger — socially, academically, and physically.
The obvious consequence of homeschooling is that it stunts children’s social and emotional development. When they have to rely on co-ops and groups of other like-minded families for company, their exposure to diverse opinions and interactions with peers on the outside are minimal. Because of this isolation, home-schooled children cannot properly and effectively interact with others – especially those of different races, ethnicities, or religions.
Even if parents decide to socialize their children properly, homeschooling lacks basis; evidence pointing to full-time homeschooling as an effective way of learning is almost nonexistent. While there do happen to be a few home-schooled students who go on to attend competitive schools and even Ivy League universities, there aren’t enough to effectively represent the home-schooling community as a whole. All claims that home-schooling works are made based on these very rare success stories of the few that do apply to and attend university, not the average student.
In addition to lacking a concrete basis, homeschooling does not effectively prepare children for college and the workplace. Many homeschooling curricula lack structure. One example is a learning method called “unschooling” which is heavily centered around experiential and independent learning. This means no tests or homework, which are essential to teaching children how to manage time and meet deadlines.
If the absence of a formula isn’t enough, at-home learning also does not allow children to be independent thinkers. Since the majority of homeschooling families are conservative Christians, many children’s education and learning are heavily censored and ethnocentric. These parents choose to homeschool their children to have control over their learning or conform to their belief system. Children within these communities will only learn what their parents want them to learn, leaving no room for exposure to cultures or views other than their own.
Children grow out of home school as they get older. Expertise is essential to their education once they reach a certain age. A good chunk of homeschooling parents do not have a college education, and another almost equal portion don’t even have a high school degree. How are these parents going to be able to adequately teach their high school-aged children everything they need to learn? This lack of qualification can lead to educational neglect, something many homeschooled children complain about as adults.
Perhaps the most dangerous shortcoming of home-schooling is how it enables child abuse and maltreatment. Even though home-schooling is more popular here in the United States than it is anywhere else in the world, it is the most loosely regulated here – something the homeschool lobby has fought long and hard for. One of the reasons that many parents choose to homeschool is so they can easily avoid child protection laws and vaccination requirements. While many states ask that parents submit the curriculum that they plan on teaching, most do not check to see if the children are being taught. Additionally, there are no standardized tests that make sure that homeschoolers are at the academic level that they should be. Most importantly, there are no regulations, such as required home visits, that protect the safety and well-being of homeschooled children.
When home-schooling goes underregulated for so long, it enables abuse and endangerment. Legislation that requires in-home visits and checks will further ensure the quality of education for all home-schooled children.
Works Cited
Grose, Jessica. “What It Means to Home-School.” The New York Times, 18 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/parenting/homeschool-coronavirus.html.
“Homeschool Laws By State.” HSLDA, hslda.org/legal. Accessed 19 Dec. 2023.
Lenz, Lyz. “A Family Looks Back on Their Hybrid Home-School Experience.” The New York Times, 18 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/parenting/homeschool-siblings.html.
Parsons, Lian, and Liz Mineo. “Law School Professor Says There May Be a Dark Side of Homeschooling.” The Harvard Gazette, 15 May 2020, news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/law-school-professor-says-there-may-be-a-dark-side-of-homeschooling/
Powell, Lindsey T., and Cheryl Fields-Smith. “Is Homeschooling Socially Harmful?” New Internationalist, no. 530, Mar. 2021, pp. 50–52. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=06d19bc0-50f7-3aed-864b-11730fb38b15.
Pulley, Kathy. “Homeschooling: The History and Philosophy of a Controversial Practice.” Journal of American History, vol. 107, no. 1, June 2020, p. 257. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jaaa143.
Worthen, Molly. “Opinion | ‘When You Get Into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion.’” New York Times, 25 Sept. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/opinion/sunday/unschooling-homeschooling-remote-learning.html