While homeschooling is popular to bring a personalized and flexible education experience, does this method really give the interaction a child needs with the real world? In my experience, no. Thus, it seems important enough to question the adequacy of homeschooling in terms of preparedness of real life culture and experiences. Lets explore some of the potential shortcomings of home education:

1. Limited Socialization: Limited socialization in homeschooling is often seen as a concern, since children in a traditional school setting interact with peers, learn social skills, and learn the navigation of different social situations. With homeschooling, the social environment can be more controlled and less diverse. Most parents avoid public and private schools due to the diverse factors, and parents are afraid of what different perspectives and interactions could do to their children. While this method appeals to parents who want to “protect” their children from “bad” and opposite world views, it can bring more harm than good due to their raw and unprepared exposure of the real world following graduation. Personally, I have seen home school students graduate and either become extremely different than their childhood environment and beliefs, or simply drop out of college or quit a job due to the overwhelming ideas of the real world.
2. Missed Access to Extracurricular Activities: Through homeschooling, children are limited to sports teams, clubs, and special interest groups found in traditional schools. This restricts students from finding their interests and new skills outside of academics. Some children do find co-op or local activities to participate in, but these are limited, along with less potential of a child becoming exceptional at the activity.
3. Limited Preparation for Testing and Structured Environments: Home-schooled students usually lack the resources and preparation for standardized testing. This has a large negative impact on a student planning to take finals, milestones, or the SAT/ACT. As an example, the book Educated, by Tara Westover, explained the accurate struggle of preparing for college. Tara was unfamiliar and unprepared for the traditional method and structure of tests, such as the ACT, which ultimately led her to set-backs and hardships. With traditional teaching, her struggles with test anxiety and spontaneous studying would be nonexistent.
4. Resource Access: From a recent Oregon Education blog post, writer explains that homeschooling lacks specialized resources, knowledge gaps, and well-rounded subjects. The writer emphasizes on how these limits effect children’s academic potential and experiences. These crucial resource exposures include field trips and experiments. These courses are important for education as they teach critical, in-depth thinking and learning skills. Moreover, school is not just about reading and writing, but about experiences and observation.

Though the reasons above do focus harshly on the negativity of homeschooling, it is not a wrong education, nor is it a poor way to educate. There are different approaches to the education, since some participate in co-ops, sports, and more traditional teachings and activities. Every child is different, which means all have a certain path that works the best for their needs.

In my personal experience as a home schooled student, I faced shortcomings of home education, especially in grade school levels. Thus why I wrote this blog. I always found myself behind, unchallenged, and unprepared for the world. In addition, homeschooling families around me explained the wold and controversial opinions as evil, but never explained the “why” or the “how”. Today this troubles me, as this is so unhelpful and incompetent for children. From this, I felt poorly prepared for the real world, and if I would have graduated home schooled, the challenges of controversy and opinions of others would have be much harder to comprehend.

In summary, homeschooling has its pros and cons, just like anything else in life. All children have different needs, and each parent has different beliefs and opinions that work best for their family. This blog is not intended to bring offense to anyone, nor is it to shame anyone choosing this education. I personally felt to share my thoughts and experiences.

Concisely, if you or someone is considered homeschooling a child, consider asking if they have considered the beneficial along with the faulty ideas of the home school education.