Homeschooling is better than public school

Education is an essential and determines the future of every child. In order to give
children a bright future and a good education, parents must choose the best type of schooling
for their children. The main education systems are public school, private school and
homeschool. Homeschooling is led and managed by parents and public school is led by the
government and qualified teachers. The real question is, which is better? While
homeschooling has its benefits, public schooling is superior because it prepares children and
teens for the real world in many ways. People may believe that homeschooling is better
because of influence and effects from public schools; however, it is better for children to be
exposed to things early on than later in life. Taking the time to learn about the benefits and
outcomes of public school over homeschool is important. Public schooling is cheaper, reflects
the real world, and prepares young individuals for future obstacles which may occur.
To start off, public schooling is funded by the government which makes it more
affordable than homeschooling. The government guarantees all children education, no matter
the financial status. However, there are private schools that can be very expensive; the most
common education systems are public schooling and homeschooling. Reporter Amy
Esbenshade Hebert, explained that “Whatever the advantages of home-schooling, saving
money isn’t necessarily one of them. Add up the expense on books, curricula, tutors, field
trips — not to mention the loss of a second income if one parent becomes the full- time
teacher — and the cost of home-schooling can easily rival paying private-school tuition”
(Herbert, 2007, p. 88). For public school, normally, buying supplies once or twice a year is
required. But for homeschool, spending an abundant amount on the curriculum alone, not to
mention textbooks and supplies including Wi-Fi and a device or computer are essential.
There are costs associated with both education systems, but homeschool is distinctly more
expensive than public school. Although some people might complain about the added
expenses of supplies and participation in athletics, public schooling are still much more
budget friendly than homeschooling.
In addition, public schools provide access of an education for any child no matter
academic performance, income level or disability. Public schools ensure that every student
has the same opportunities regardless. Given that any child is admitted, they are likely to
have classmates that do not act, think, or look like them. The diversity of classmates can be a
great learning experience. It exposes children to different cultures and attributes. While there
is not much exposure to the diversity with homeschooled, many homeschooling programs
offer dual enrollment. The Coalition for Responsible Home Education stated that, in some
states, homeschooled students participate in public school athletics alongside other students.
In ates, they are banned from participating. In other states, homeschooled students are barred
from participation in public school athletics. The trend in recent years has been towards
allowing participation, and the states are today split fairly evenly down the middle on the
issue. (¨Homeschool¨, 2018, para. 1). Although this has good points as to why and how public
schooling programs are available, not all homeschooling programs have this option available
in certain areas and it is not always the best economical choice.
Furthermore, conventional schooling and homeschooling both offer their own
respective advantages in preparing children for the social demands of the real, adult world. It
is possible to become socially well-adjusted through private schooling and homeschooling.
However, it is challenging and encompassing part of a child’s formative years. Public school
is a major place where kids learn to socialize, how to behave around their peers and teachers,
and how to generally just communicate and interact well. Students have the ability ability to
interact with people of diverse ages and beliefs. Contrarily, Calvert Education explains, for
one thing, homeschoolers do not have the same exposure to peer pressure and bullying, both
of which are tied to poorer academic performance and lower self-esteem. Parents often decide
to homeschool because they do not want their child’s values to be defined by their peers or
for their children to face social ridicule or bullying. In private or public schools, the pressure
to “fit in” or achieve a perceived level of social status among classmates can be quite great.
(“Homeschooling” 2017, Homeschool Socialization Sect. para. 2-3).
As much as I would agree that these are possible disadvantages of public school, every
person will go through some type of pressure or negative things in his or her lifetime. Public
schooling is a way to become familiar of the real world and be exposed to problems and
certain circumstances. Bullying and social ridicule are very negative and can result in many
outcomes; however, they are real and whether someone is homeschooled or not, they will or
may face negative circumstances in their lifetime. With the experience of public schooling,
individuals may be able to handle it differently and react differently than people who are
homeschooled. Experience is a number one factor that can change how someone reacts to,
copes with, and manages a situation. Homeschooling limits children’s interaction with others,
as well as it limits their contact and association with diverse individuals.
In addition, the main difference between homeschooling and public schooling is the
environment. In homeschooling, there are no distractions because children are studying at
their own risk. David R. Hodge stated, “for instance, the most widely cited reason by parents
which accounted for 88% of all homeschooled students was concern about school
environments and the associated detrimental effects related to substance use, peer pressure,
etc” (Hodge, 2017, p. 274). Parents feel that the public-school environment is dangerous and
will cause their child to rebel. Also, that it may teach a different set of values and beliefs than
what parents believe and want to instill in their child. In a homeschooling setting, parents are
able to watch over their child, help them develop, and teach them morals. Homeschooling
provides with a calm, safe, and comfortable environment. However, even though public-
school classrooms always have the same calm and peaceful atmosphere, the disarray of the
classrooms is helpful to. This is because, in reality, the real world is not so calm and peaceful.
Therefore, the children who live sheltered and preserved from real life are the ones who
commonly have difficulty adjusting to reality. It is necessary for children to learn to interact
and work with one another to build the dynamic skills needed for the real world. Both
homeschool and public school provide helpful opportunities for children to learn, but public
school is more impactful in assuring a children’s future success and adjustment to the real
world. Lastly, public schools provide children with certified teachers who are committed
educators. Where in homeschooling, children are taught by their parents who only need a
highschool diploma or G.E.D. to homeschool. Parents do not have the same level of
education or experience as teachers. As well as, parents have to be fully dedicated to their
child’s’ education for them to succeed. Many parents have jobs; therefore, balancing a job
while trying to educate their children can be difficult. In addition, while parents are directly
involved in the education of their children, it may be difficult to teach certain subject without
experience. Therefore, homeschoolers may have to invest in a tutor or educational
professional for support which defeats the whole purpose of homeschooling. Although
homeschooling may teach a student to become more independent and do things on his or her
own, it is not always best to just rely on oneself.
Tara Jones expresses that “it may be that home-educating parents have more
opportunities to be influential, supportive and encouraging in their children’s education as
well as having more control and power over their children’s learning” (Jones, 2013, p. 117).
However, she also contra versed that “home- educating families argue that they are not able
to access the funding and services that schools have in order to educate their children” (Jones,
2013, p. 118). Therefore, even though homeschooling allows parents to have more
jurisdiction and opportunities for their children, many may struggle to provide his or her child
with services and education the education they need.
To conclude, public schooling has its advantages financially, socially, environmentally, and
educationally. However, it is important that both the advantages and disadvantages of public
schooling and homeschooling are taken into account. Homeschooling can have a more direct
role on a child’s daily learning and help protect a child from bullying or other negatives
aspects of reality. As well as, being in a friendly environment, having less distraction from
students, and becoming more self-motivated and independent are all aspects of
homeschooling. However, children lose out on social interaction with peers while
homeschooled.
In addition, fewer resources such as technology that may be available in public school
are not provided and with parents having to dedicate time and money to homeschooling it can
result in a loss of income or reduced working time. Not only do students that are
homeschooled miss out on the interaction with peers and diversity of people, they lack the
real-world experiences which are the reasons why parents decide to homeschool their
children in the first place. With homeschooling, parents or people in general are afraid of the
negativity that is exposed to children in public schools. This includes, bullying, violence, peer
pressure, and many other negatives influences. Furthermore, while homeschooling can
provide a wide variety of courses and curriculums that are not available with public school,
homeschooling is much more expensive traditional government funded public school.
Whether the differences between homeschooling lic schooling it all comes down to each
parent’s learning goals for their children.
 ASSESSMENT

The participants are asked to make a simple argumentative essay with the topics “is

Getting a College degree worth the cost?” and “is Homeschooling better than the Public

school?”. They ask to choose one of these topics. Each essay consists of at least 450 words.

This essay will be assessed based on a composition profile focusing on the five criteria which

are content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics. The classification is

explained below:

Criteria Score Comment

 Knowledgeable
 Substantive
30 – 27
 Thorough Development of thesis
 Relevant to assigned topic
 Some knowledge of subject
 Adequate range
26 – 22
 Limited development of thesis
Content  Mostly relevant to topic, but lack detail
 Limited knowledge of subject
21 - 17  Little substance
 Inadequate development of topic
 Does not show knowledge of subject
 Non-substantive
16 – 13
 Not pertinent
 Or not enough to evaluate
Organization  Fluent expression
 Ideas clearly stated/supported
 Succinct
20 – 18
 Well-organized
 Logical sequencing
 Cohesive
 Somewhat choppy
 Loosely organized but main idea stand out
17 – 14
 Limited support
 Logical but limited sequencing
13 – 10  Non-fluent
  Ideas confused or disconnected
 Lack logical sequencing and development
 Does not communicate
9–7  No organization
 Not enough to evaluate
 Sophisticated range
 Effective word idiom choice and usage
20 – 18
 Word form mastery
 Appropriate register
 Adequate range
17 – 14  Occasional error of word idiom, choice, usage but meaning not
Vocabulary obscured
 Limited range
13 – 10  Occasional error of word idiom, choice, usage
 Meaning confused or obscured
 Essentially translation
9–7  Lack knowledge of English vocabulary, idiom, word form
 Or not enough to evaluate
 Effective complex contractions
25 – 22  Few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function,
articles, pronoun, and preposition
 Effective but simple construction
 Minor problems in complex construction
21 – 18
 Several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function,
articles, pronoun, and preposition, but meaning seldom obscured
 Major problems in simple/complex construction
Language use
 Frequents error of negation, agreement, tense, number, word
17 – 11 order/function, articles, pronoun, preposition and/or fragments,
run-ons, deletion.
 Meaning confused or obscured
 Virtually no mastery of sentence construction rules
 Dominated by errors
10 – 5
 Doesn’t communicate
 Or not enough to evaluate
Mechanics  Demonstrates mastery of convention
5
 Few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing
4 Occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing,
but meaning not obscured
 Frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing,
3
meaning confused and obscured
 No mastery of convention
 Dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization,
2
paragraphing
 Or not enough to evaluate

Herein, the assessment will base on those criteria. Thank you in advance and Please give your
evaluation below!
CRITERIA SCORE
Content 30
Organization 19
Vocabulary 20
Language Use 22
Mechanics 5
Total score 96