Home schooling Essay

Home schooled children are argued to have problems concerning their social development. This is expected to happen since their world is perceived to be limited and devoid of contact with children who are also developing like them. It may be a surprise to many but it is not true and there are several reasons that are primarily empirical proofs to the issue. The following are compelling evidences that there is no such thing as social development problems that accompany home schooled children. The issue on social development lies on the premise that social skills and emotional intelligence have a lot to do with successful adjustment and better if not excellent performance in academics and much later in the workplace. Social adjustment then is a key component in the much heralded findings on emotional intelligence’s quotient (EI or EQ) superiority over intelligence quotient (traditionally known standard of measurement). In addition, the rationale for home schooling is more than protecting the child from the more negative influences that are in the current educational systems today; believers of the home school paradigm look forward to developing lifelong learners who are better catalysts in the ever-changing world we live in. What can be more compelling are independent studies advanced and done by Shyers, Seligman, Adams and Smedley whose works have been either intentionally overlooked rather by those educators and policymakers who refused to have their perceptions changed or could not simply afford the change to occur. Seligman is known for his treatise on â€Å"optimism† as a concept that defines and describes the kind of child who has an edge in the harsh realities of the school and the environment as a whole which must be seen developing in a child (Bunday, 2006). Schools churn out children who must have high self-esteem for them to succeed, but ironically, it has become eluded the school and the children. Optimism is only built within the child through the parental oversight rather than a school’s primary task hence, home schooling can be deduced as better at it than the traditional venue. Socialization if we take time to think about it has something to do with maturity and the ability to understand other people and have the sensitivity to look at others in their respective contexts which in essence adults with experience and wisdom can do and can train or convey to their children in a personal way. Not so with a bigger and more impersonal school system (Bunday, 2006). Adams wrote about the better way which is biblical approach of training children and home is the foundational avenue to instill these values of respect, cooperation and consideration of others (Bunday, 2006). Shyers in a well-researched thesis did a comparative study on the traditional and home school set up employing the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale to measure self-esteem showing that there is not a significant difference between the results of the two groups (Shyers, 2009). The implications simply reveal of the home school landscape that defies the kind of training deemed only to be received or provided by the school system; a picture of children in the area of socialization and their abilities to see themselves among difference kinds of people and situations regardless of whether they come from the traditional or home schooled way (Bunday, 2006). Lastly, Smedley discussed in his seminal work focused on daily living, communication and socialization skills as items of interest and found out that home schooled children scored higher with percentile at 84 in comparison to the percentile of 27 on the traditionally schooled children. Smedley used the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales which is a standardized tool or instrument in his study. Conclusions in the study are obviously clear: home schooling is better at the main issue posited by most opponents on the system (Bunday, 2006). Therefore, socialization is not impossible with home schooling and cannot be levelled at those who choose to have their children trained to learn life skills at home. Reference: Bunday, Karl 2006. Socialization: A Great Reason Not to Go to School. Accessed May 7, 2009 at http://learninfreedom. org/socialization. html Shyers, Larry E (2009). Comparison of Social Adjustment Between Home and Traditionally Schooled Students. DA9304052, from UMI, 1 (800) 521-3042. )