Differences between homeschooling and school
Contents
Is homeschooling the future of education? This is a very interesting question that many experts and people around the world are asking today and that we will try to answer throughout the text by making a comparison (evaluating the differences) between education at home and education at school.
Differences between homeschooling and school
More time available vs. less time available
One of the things that we must look at when we are comparing education at home and school is the time that we will have available to dedicate to the little ones in the house. When the decision is made to learn at home for our children, we must offer them a large amount of our time to help them grow correctly.
If you do not have the necessary time to be part of their learning, their growth, their development, and their education, homeschooling should not be considered a possibility because we could be making the serious mistake of leaving our children behind. without support in a very important phase of his life.
By this, we mean that one of the great differences between education at home and education at school is the time that must be dedicated to our children’s learning (and the time that we will have to spend with them).
Learn what they like vs. forced to learn what they don’t like
Have you ever suffered the difficulties of being forced to learn something you don’t like and something you’re not good at? Did you know that each person is different and that their skills can be wasted on something they don’t like? Perhaps the most important difference that homeschooling has concerning traditional education is that it allows children to study and learn only what they like and what they know how to do.
How much time can our children waste studying what they are not given and what could they dedicate to that activity in which they are good? Do you think that is positive? Wouldn’t it be better to spend more time on what you are good at?
It is essential that children have extensive knowledge about different things from day to day, for example, they should know a little about history, literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, among other things. But spending their entire youth learning something they don’t like and won’t use in their lives doesn’t seem to make much sense.
This is where many people begin to think about whether education at home or school is better and it is also where it is shown that traditional education can often take the wrong direction.
I will give you a small example, a person with great artistic skills must spend several hours a day painting or creating to develop his skills and become a great professional. Can a child or young person develop their artistic abilities if they spend more than 10 hours a day trying to learn math, physics, or chemistry (subjects they are not so good at)? Wouldn’t it be better if you dedicated those 10 hours to art and only a little of your time to other things of general culture?
Another difference between homeschooling and schooling has to do with socialization. Children who go to school are more likely to socialize and be in contact with other children and young people of the same age. The problem is that not all the children and young people with whom they socialize will be helpful for their growth, they can be problematic young people who lead them astray or simply bullies.
This is where we enter another quite interesting discussion: is it preferable to remove children from society a little so that they are raised in a controlled environment? Or is it better to quickly show them the society so they can understand that not all people are good and not everyone should be an example to follow?
Children need to start socializing from a very young age, they must play with other children, make new friends and be part of society (although at that age they do not understand much about it). Therefore, if they decide to educate at home, they must take into account that it is necessary to find ways for their children to make new friends and spend time with children and young people their age.
Save money vs. spending a lot of money
School education is often much more expensive than homeschooling. This is for a simple reason: it doesn’t matter if the school is private or public (whether or not you have to pay tuition), in the same way, unforeseen expenses tend to come out of school that you may not initially have in your budget: books, copies, uniforms, supplies for school and much more.
If you are educating your child at home you do not need to spend on so many things, you can use recyclable material for artistic creations, and you can search for the necessary information on the internet, among other things.
The money savings will not be the same if you decide to hire a personalized tutor for your child, but, in this case, you will know that your child will be developing those skills that he likes and that can be useful for him.
Personalized attention vs. general care
Finally, the last difference between homeschooling and schooling that we will touch on today has to do with the attention that your children will get. While at home they will have individualized attention to deal directly with their problems and concerns, at school the attention is general and it is very difficult to deal with the problems of each child individually.
You already know some of the most important differences that can exist between traditional education and homeschooling. The decision must be made by you together with your family and with those people who you think can help you in a process that can be very good, and very rewarding, but that can also be quite complicated. So decide calmly and study all the possibilities well.
If you missed the blog post on the pros and cons of homeschooling you can read it here.