Home schooling: Is it worth trying?

Story from page 3 - NAVI MUMBAI, dnaofmumbai   Home schooling: Is it worth trying?

It is apparent that those parents who choose to home school their children can clearly see many advantages

dna correspondent correspondent@dnaindia.net

Vashi: An academic degree is certainly not the only way one gets educated. Not obtaining a formal degree does not have any direct impact on how commercially successful one can be in life, if one has been taught informally reading, writing and the basic math operations. Around 99% of the population sends their kids to school and then there is a miniscule 1% or less who swear by the notion that schools can only damage their children. These parents choose to home school or educate their children at home away from the campus and shirk formal school education. It is apparent that those parents who choose to home school their children clearly see many advantages. One of the clear advantages is that the school environment is a leveller. Everything is pitched for the average. What the majority number of students can do gets into the school planning. Sports are chosen on the basis of maximum participation, subjects are offered as per popular choices. Curriculum gets fixed and percentage of time allotment is done as per the requirement of a large number of parents. Core subjects like math, science and English will get the lion’s share rather than say Sanskrit, playing violin or an animation programme. Home schoolers argue that before the advent of schools, no two people were equally wise or had similar capabilities, therefore how can the teaching be tailored to groups? It is true that teaching in schools targets the average sets of students; the system is not geared up for either dealing with the gifted lot or the laggers. Both these sets of learners need to be academically or talent wise supported through after school supplementary activities. Home schoolers also argue that schools at best pretend to educate children. Schools and education are not synonymous. Education is not available to a large number of students because the definition of education is not classroom counsellor homework assignments project work hobby classes examinations. Schools at best increase the chances of making children the run of the mill engineers, computer professionals, doctors or MBAs. It does not teach that there is a life beyond economic success, they argue. In continuation a whole different life can open up to a whole new universe and children can attend to their true calling when they do not attend classroom and are home schooled. The Liberal school of thought may have some merits. But it must never be undermined that the consequences of the actions that parents take today with the lives of their children will show up after they are adults 15-18 years later. Man is a social animal. Besides academics, classrooms teach students lessons in sociability. Schools teach children to toughen up. They get into hassles with their peers, their teachers and school authorities. Lessons of friendship are carried forward for life. Some teachers who act like role models create impacts that last an entire life time. Students learn that for every good deed there is a reward and for a bad deed a negative consequence. The Liberal school or the liberal parents’ concept that gives rise to home schools must therefore be done with utmost care. Some experiments may prove very successful and others may not. Those that fail can have very serious repercussions.

Published Date:  Aug 05, 2016