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Some Reasons for Home Schooling

July 9
4 Min Read
Jennifer Cartwright examines some of the reasons to homeschool.

by Jennifer Cartwright

Many parents are choosing to home school their children for a variety of reasons ranging from dissatisfaction with a particular individual in the school system to religious reasons.  It is important for a parent to understand his or her specific reason for choosing home schooling and to be aware of the work involved in home schooling.  It is not a choice to be made lightly or in the heat of the moment.  This article will explore rationales for a decision to home school and look at the ramifications of the choice to home school.

Reasons

There are many reasons for choosing to home school your child or children.  Some reasons may be well considered and others may not.  Listed are some of the more common reasons to home school:
  • Religious:  You may feel that you do not want to expose your children to certain type of ideas or individuals who do not have the same religious beliefs that you do.
  • Better education:  You may feel that you will be able to give your child a better education than the public school.  You will be able to tailor the educational program to your child and provide undivided attention to them.
  • Afraid of the school environment:  You may be concerned that the school is in a neighborhood that is not very desirable or that the students in the school are not a good influence on your child.
  • Personal vendetta with the school:  You may have had an argument or problem with some of the school personnel including the principal and teachers.
  • “Living off the grid”:  You may like living a self-sufficient life style with little interaction with society in general.
An example of the wrong reason for deciding to home school your child or children is the case of Adam.  Adam, the father of three school age children, attended a meeting at school in which he became engaged in a heated argument with the school staff.  The argument escalated and Adam was asked to leave the school premises.  When Adam got home, he relayed the event to his wife, and they made the spur of the moment decision to take their children out of school and home school them.  At that time, Adam’s wife was running her own business outside the home and Adam had a business that he conducted from the house.  Neither Adam, nor his wife, had any experience or training with teaching their children.
The situation quickly fell apart when neither Adam, nor his wife, were able to find time to gather materials, teach new material, monitor progress, or supervise the learning of their children.  The children ended up playing; the oldest one worked a part time job, and doing house work.  The next school year, Adam and his wife enrolled their children in a parochial school.  When the children were tested for placement, it was found that they were not on grade level and they, essentially, had to repeat the year that they had spent at home being “home schooled”.  Adam and his wife had made a decision to home school because of a disagreement with the school district without thinking through the ramifications of their choice, thus penalizing their children in the process.
Biography for Jennifer Cartwright

Jennifer Cartwright B. A., M. Ed., Ed. D. Candidate, 

has been a classroom teacher working with children with disabilities for the past 29 years.  She began her career working with institutionalized severely and profoundly mentally impaired, multi-handicapped children and has, through the years, worked with children having various disabilities.  Jennifer has taught in public schools in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Georgia.  She has been a co-presenter for workshops on ADHD in New Hampshire.  She currently lives and teaches in Georgia.Disclaimer: Any names used in this article do not represent any real people or children, but are based on the experience of Jennifer Cartwright in her many years of teaching experience.

No part of this article may be copied or reproduced in any form without the express permission of More4Kids Inc © 2006

 

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