Wednesday, July 23, 2008

GUEST POST: Homeschooling – Is it for Your Child?

The idea of not sending a child to a regular school does not go down well with too many people; they are aghast at the thought that children are segregated from others of their age, that they are brought up differently with limited exposure to the activities that kids involve in as part of school, that they do not go through the routine of making friends and sharing stuff with classmates. But homeschool is a concept that has been around for ages now, and it seems to be working well for those who believe in its goodness and merits.

The key to making anything a success is to formulate a plan, set objectives and schedules, draft methods to achieve objectives, and work on accomplishing them within the time limit you’ve set. Homeschooling thus becomes a hit when the master planner is creative and innovative, when discipline is able to be enforced and when the pupil is dedicated enough to work without the threat of punishment or the reward of good grades and praise.

Parents are thus wholly responsible for choosing to homeschool their children – they start at an age when the child is too young to make an informed decision on his/her own; they are responsible for what their child turns out to be, they are the reason the endeavor is a success or a failure.

Defining success in homeschooling is not as straightforward as with conventional schooling – a parent picks and chooses the subjects that the child shows an interest in and an aptitude for. So if a musically-gifted youngster is not able to do calculus and trigonometry because his/her parents decided to emphasize his/her inherent skills rather than waste time on other forms of academia, who is to sit in judgment and say that the child is a failure?

Probably one of the biggest advantages of homeschooling is that it brings out the special ability in a child and allows the parent to focus on that aspect of development without worrying about how the child’s grades are going to be affected. But this very freedom is also the reason some homeschooling attempts fail miserably, because the parents are not dedicated or up to the task or because the kids are too lazy and disobedient to fall in line with the schedule set for them.

Parents must choose wisely, after analyzing all the pros and cons associated with the process not from what they’ve heard from others, but from their own child’s point of view. Does the child have it in him/her to be a good homeschooled student or is he/she better off in a conventional setting? This decision can make or break a child’s future, so if you’re looking for guidance on whether you should homeschool your kid or not, look nowhere else but at your offspring!

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This post was contributed by Heather Johnson, who writes on the subject of California teaching certificates. She invites your feedback at heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.