Is Homeschooling an Ideal Way to Obtain Quality Education? Example Essay
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Is Homeschooling an Ideal Way to Obtain Quality Education?
The percentage of learners in homeschooling has been growing steadily. The United States Census Bureau (1) reports that about 3.3% of learners were homeschooled before 2020, but this percentage leaped to over 11% in the 2020-2021 school year due to the COVID pandemic. Parents that prefer homeschooling to be regular or grade school attendance cite such reasons as the quality of schools, morality, religious beliefs, and the educational content (Cheng and Donnely 259; Thomas 22). Homeschooling is ideal for obtaining a quality education as it provides a flexible, comfortable, and supportive learning environment, integrating high academic achievement with solid values and developing a well-rounded student.
Flexibility Boosts the Quality of Education
Unlike grade school or regular schooling, where students stick to rigid schedules, homeschooling provides a more flexible arrangement where the learner has more time and ability to reschedule lessons and academic work. The flexibility improves student participation and supports the parent or guardian’s effort to drive high performance. Ugarte et al. (144) showed that flexibility was lacking in most of the regular schools in the sample, and the lack of competency and resources fueled such inflexibility. Homeschooling offers more changeable schedules and learning opportunities. Parents or guardians can facilitate or conduct the teaching, which helps integrate learning into students’ routines. The process is also systematic and involves the preparation of teaching and learning resources, including timetables, a curriculum, learning space, and other requisites for learning (Shackelford 23). Therefore, academic outcomes can also be high depending on a student’s capabilities, and Watson (170) demonstrated that homeschooling did not moderate or worsen students’ academic scores. For example, if a learner misses a morning session, the family might help make up for the session later in the day. The option may not be available in grade school, where adjustments need to be for large student groups and classes. Furthermore, the pooling of students in large groups to learn a series of subjects or units restricts their time resources and suppresses their capacity for learning at their best pace.
A Comfortable and Supportive Environment
The comfort of the homeschooling learning environment boosts the quality of education, leading to high academic performance. Modern households provide room to effectively support learning in a space where students have a strong support system, leading to high academic performance. Baig (1763) found that students’ performance in homeschooling was higher than that of regular school learners. Households that opt for homeschooling may have a strong impetus driving high performance, and such a basis leads to creating a conducive environment for the learner. The quality outcomes are also broad in homeschooling, linked to the child’s upbringing and background (Guterman and Neuman 46). For example, families that provide a strong religious foundation to a child’s upbringing might want them to benefit from an environment that reinforces their faith and connection to the local community. Regular school or grade school may ruin such development by exposing the child to an environment of intolerance or deviance, weakening their faith or commitment to higher ideals. Conversely, homeschooling sustains the support system and social connections, facilitating the student’s well-roundedness.
The supportive environment is also immensely beneficial to special needs learners. Ludgate (72) demonstrated that homeschooling made such learners more creative, social, and emotionally healthy. Students benefited from family bonding and more inclusive practices that would have been inadequate in grade school environments. Homeschooling can create such benefits because learners cooperate with their guardians and family members, who understand them and the resources at their disposal. One exemplary resource is time, and homeschooling improves its planning and utilization.
Solid Values and Well-Rounded Outcomes
The quality of education is also higher in homeschooling due to the values that students acquire from it. For example, learner becomes more self-responsible when they have to account for their progress and manage such progress routinely, which develops their personality and self-control (Icmi and Suryono 512). Unlike the regular school environment, where the teacher-student relationships are often non-familial and sometimes superficial, the homeschooling environment leverages love, respect, care, and such other values as faith and growth. While Cheng and Donnelly (259) reported that the quality of homeschooling education was up for debate, including its impacts on students’ academic outcomes and preparedness for civic life, many important and broader outcomes improve through homeschooling. Chen et al. (13) found that homeschooling boosted student participation, volunteering, strong character, and the learner’s sense of greater life purpose while reducing the odds of marijuana use and improving faithfulness to sexual partners. Such outcomes impact the learner’s life course, including their long-term commitments to careers, relationships, and community. Arguably, such commitments determine one’s success and fate, indicating the high quality of outcomes in homeschooling.
Conclusion
Homeschooling is ideal for obtaining a quality education since the learning environment is comfortable, flexible, and supportive in ways that integrate high academic achievement with solid values, hence developing a well-rounded student. The homeschooling environment makes the learner more comfortable than the grade school or a regular school. The learner has a stronger support system and better odds for high academic achievement. Homeschooling also improves the learner’s flexibility, enhancing the effective use of time and other resources, leading to high student achievement. Students also develop strong values in homeschooling, including self-responsibility, faith, care, and voluntary service, which strengthens their personality and contributes to their long-term careers, relationships, and participation in the community. Therefore, homeschooling provides quality education to develop a well-rounded learner.
Works Cited
Baig, Muntajeeb, A. "To Study the Impact of Homeschooling on Students Achievements-A Simple Literature Review.” International Journal of Science and Research, vol. 8, no. 5, 2019, pp. 1761-1763,
Cheng, Albert, and Michael Donnelly. "New Frontiers in Research and Practice on Homeschooling.” Peabody Journal of Education, vol. 94, no. 3, 2019, pp. 259-262, doi: 10.1080/0161956X.2019.1617576.
Guterman, Oz, and Ari Neuman. "Parental attachment and internalizing and externalizing problems of Israeli school-goers and homeschoolers.” School psychology, vol. 35, no. 1, 2020, pp. 41-50,
Icmi, Ajeng, and Yoyon Suryono. The Role of Homeschooling in the Modern Era. KnE Social Sciences, 2019, doi: 10.18502/kss.v3i17.4678.
Ludgate, Shannon, et al. "Small Steps and Stronger Relationships: Parents' Experiences of Homeschooling Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).” Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, vol. 22, 2022, pp. 66-75, doi: 10.1111/1471-3802.12542.
Shackelford, Bethany. Global Citizenship Education in Homeschooling Practices and Experiences in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, 2020, pp. 1-51. SIT Graduate Institute,
United States Census Bureau. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey shows a Significant Increase in Homeschooling Rates in Fall 2020, 2021,
Ugarte, Carolina, et al. "The Need of Autonomy for Flexible Management in the Fostering of School Quality.” International Journal of Leadership in Education, vol. 25, issue 1, 2022, pp. 124-146, DOI: 10.1080/13603124.2019.17084.
Watson, Aresia. "Moderating Effect of Homeschooling on Retention and Academic Achievement of STEM Majors at a Private, Faith-Based, Liberal Arts College.” Aquila Dissertations, vol. 1580, 2019, pp. 1-178,
