A Teacher's Defence of Homeschooling
A short while ago, my Instagram feed was full of reels showing adorable traditional families homeschooling their children. The videos made me smile as I glimpsed the fullness of the bond between the mother and her children - idealised for the digital platform, of course, but wholesome nonetheless. Far less wholesome were many of the comments underneath these videos, which I will briefly respond to in the following.
As for me, I went to conventional institutional schools as a child - public and Catholic schools. However, many of my cousins were homeschooled, and the following comments couldn’t be less representative of them. Having just recently completed my Master of Teaching, I feel prompted to clear the air about some of these homeschooling stereotypes from the perspective of a graduate teacher. So without further ado, this is a teacher's defence of homeschooling.
“Homeschooling is just a way to brainwash your kids.”
“All those poor abused and brainwashed kids.”
First of all, let’s address this “brainwashing” idea. This seems to imply that schools would never brainwash their students - which is a ridiculous thing to believe. In recent times, we have seen woke narratives permeate into school cultures and even curriculums. We have seen religion pushed out of schools. We have seen STEM hailed and promoted as the most important of school subjects, at the expense of the liberal arts. There have been several instances in which students have been discouraged from criticising, questioning, or speaking out against selected narratives - and this is the hallmark of indoctrination. Schools certainly can indoctrinate children, which is why transparency with parents is vital.
Raising one's own child with one’s own values is not comparable. Children need that stability and support, and parents have the authority to provide this. Schools do not have the authority to step in between a parent and their child. At the same time, however, indoctrination can certainly happen at home too. If indoctrination is just teaching a person to accept an idea uncritically, from a biassed point of view, sheltered from other perspectives, then this can happen at home if education is narrow. (The age and maturity of the child is also an important consideration.) Indoctrination is something that can happen at home just as much as at school. However, only one has the added disgrace of acting behind a parents back.
“Keep homeschooling your kids. I need janitors and cleaning ladies.”
“This is why US education standards are plummeting.”
“Increased homeschooling coincides with the rise in undereducated and misinformation oddly enough.”
Next, there is the idea that homeschooling produces poorer academic outcomes. This assumption surely has to be born from a simple lack of understanding about how homeschooling works and what kinds of resources are used. As with normal schooling, homeschooling follows a set curriculum. Common content is covered and students have to meet set achievement standards. It is unusual for parents to write their own curriculum.
Statistically, homeschooling is very often on par with, or above, public schooling in terms of academic performance. According to one study, the home-educated typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardised academic achievement tests. 69% of peer-reviewed studies on success into adulthood show adults who were home-educated succeed and perform significantly better than those who attended institutional schools (Ray, 2017).
Of course, this does not necessarily mean that institutional schools produce poorer outcomes, but rather that homeschooling is a perfectly viable option for a child's education. Many of these studies do not control for demographic factors. It is also worth noting that more structured homeschool programs tend to perform well while less structured homeschool programs tend to perform at a lower level when compared to institutional schools. A parent's approach to homeschooling does have an impact, just as a teacher's approach to schooling has an impact.
“Homeschool is raising weird kids. I said it. No social skills. Can’t play with others. Won’t know how the real world works.”
A third complaint is that homeschoolers are not well socially developed. Again, this is demonstrably false and depends upon a parent’s approach to homeschooling. 87% of peer-reviewed studies on social, emotional, and psychological development show that homeschool students perform better than those in conventional schools (Ray, 2017). Many homeschoolers are regularly involved in social and educational activities outside their homes, e.g., volunteering, academic or extracurricular cohort groups, league sports, music lessons. Additionally, due to their more flexible schedules, homeschoolers can enter the workforce at an earlier age, gaining real-world experience and fostering independence.
Of course, sheltered parenting is not going to achieve these same outcomes, and many institutional schools have their ways of meeting these outcomes in other ways. However, it must be remembered that I am not here arguing for the supremacy of one method over another, but am simply defending the validity of homeschooling as a means of education.
“It’s disrespectful to teachers to think that an unqualified woman is able to educate kids to the level that they could.”
“How exactly does one who has never had formal training teach a physics course should your child want that? You cannot.”
Let it finally be said that, as a teacher, I do not find homeschooling disrespectful in the slightest. Teachers have by no means “mastered their craft” - becoming a good educator is a process and takes practice. There is no reason why parents cannot put in the same effort to be good educators. Additionally, all throughout my degree, relationships were emphasised far more than expertise. Educators will struggle to properly engage and teach students without developing good relationships with them - and who else knows a child better than their parent? Parents are in a unique position to understand and respond to the learning needs of their child. Homeschooling is also far more personal and tutor-like, while institutional schools can have around 32 students in one class with one teacher.
Teachers learn how to teach and manage a classroom of students within the conventional school setting. Parents do not need this kind of expertise, as they have far less students and do not need to know how to work within institutional schools. The fact of the matter is that many teachers are only a few steps ahead of students in content knowledge, and specialisation into various subject areas can often be more of a time-saver than a necessity (knowing where to look and how to start). Likewise, parents can commit themselves to learning content a few steps ahead of their child.
Of course, there are some levels of content which a parent may struggle with, but this is usually more for the final years of high school, when some homeschoolers will switch to attend institutional schools regardless (often so that they may attend university through a more direct pathway). Even at this stage, there is no harm in a parent learning alongside their child and guiding them in research and critical techniques.
Another angle to consider is that conventional schooling doesn’t suit everyone. For example, it has been observed that boys tend to perform more poorly than girls in conventional schools. Boys can be a lot more movement-driven in their learning, which can be more easily catered for in homeschooling rather than the conventional classroom. Boys can also be a lot more single-task focussed, making numerous transitions between subjects difficult. Some kids thrive in conventional schools. Some would be better off homeschooling. For some, conventional schooling is their only option, and (though unideal) it does the job well enough. Plenty of kids can benefit from the flexibility of homeschooling and the opportunity to study at their own pace. Kids can also benefit from the opportunity to specialise earlier than at conventional schools, leading to increased expertise in their unique fields of interest.
All of this to say that homeschooling is a completely valid option for a child's education and should by no means be looked down upon as an incompetent and ineffective teaching pathway which produces brainwashed and socially stunted children. Homeschooling is a lot of work, but reaps the benefits of flexibility and full transparency.