Schooling Decisions Without The Deafening Hum

The difference between home-schooling and home-surgery

Creating effective curriculum, employing pedagogy in delivering lessons and making adjustments to teaching based on valid assessments of student work isn’t for everyone. So, short of being a qualified teacher, shouldn’t that position alone end all consideration of teaching a child in a family setting? No – and here’s why.

Unlike a surgeon whose minute by minute presence during an operation simply can’t be realistically duplicated, a parent wanting to guide their own child’s education can coordinate resources that do provide the necessary skills and techniques of a master teacher. Today, the internet, among other sources of review, offers a host of well-recommended assets for homeschooled children. From curriculum, to diagnostic and formative assessments, to computer assisted instruction, (CAI), the ability to successfully provide a great education at home is by no means illusive. While there are unquestionably many non-web-based resources available, homeschooling has a strong contemporary tie with technology.

What about later?

Before making your own personal decisions about the pros and cons of homeschooling, there’s a final thought that should be addressed. If you choose to home school, how will that affect your child down the road when they leave home and pursue higher learning in more traditional settings? Essentially, the jury is in on this matter and the verdict is that you really need not lose much sleep worrying for a couple of good reasons.

For one, there’s a growing body of evidence, albeit not free from bias, that suggests home-schooled students, at the very least, do as well if not better than their traditionally schooled college peers. The second, perhaps more compelling research has to do, again, with technology. As today’s homeschooled student will likely receive much of his/her instruction on line, the college in that student’s future will almost certainly involve e-learning as well, something that could possibly give a homeschooled student a leg-up over fellow classmates just beginning the online course experience.

With most of the distractions removed

It is beyond the scope of this article to advise any family on what values go into such a personal decision as how to best educate your children. Hopefully, by peeling back some of the more common obstacles that tend to obscure those unique issues of child rearing, you’ll be able to better make those decisions without too many other distractions.

About the author: Blake Fields is a professional writer living in the Indianapolis area. He writes on behalf of American InterContinental University, specializing in education and career subjects.