Common Disadvantages of Public Schools
Compare Homeschooling versus Public School - Private Schools
 Class
Size
State Determined
Education - Curriculum (behind the scenes selection)
Non-individualized Mass Education
Private Schools (better, but
same basic problems)
Special Needs Children
(gifted, learning disability) |
Why are we concerned?
 The current
public school atmosphere can be detrimental to many students.
Many parents prefer smaller individualized programs for their
children, where they can help shape their
child’s values and
belief systems.
The benefits of smaller classes are now
widely acknowledged. Few education issues have been
studied more than the effect of class size on student
achievement. But until Tennessee’s longitudinal
class-size study -- Student Teacher Achievement Ratio
(STAR) project -- results were contradictory and
inconclusive.
The STAR project showed that those
enrolled in small classes as youngsters were more likely
to:
• Graduate on time -- 72 percent of students, versus
66 percent from regular classes and 65 percent from
classes with a paraprofessional
• Complete more advanced
math and English courses
• Complete high school -- 19
percent dropped out, versus 23 percent from regular
classes and 26 percent from classes with a
paraprofessional
• Graduate with honors.
State Determined Education
Though many people, if not most, probably think public
schools are controlled at the local level, this is only
partially the case. State constitutions and governments
define how each state’s schools are to be organized and
run, what subjects are to be taught, what curriculum may
be used, and how teachers will be trained and certified.
Certain federal laws add some requirements, and some
federally-funded programs also influence what is taught
by schools. Besides basic subjects - reading, English,
math, science, history - many states also require
teaching sex education, drug abuse prevention,
"diversity", and so on. Trendy political "causes" get
incorporated into school requirements.
The curriculum screening process, while
ostensibly intended for quality control purposes, by
reviewing and pre-selecting a few textbooks out of the
many available for each subject, has become an
out-of-public-view means by which
issue-oriented advocacy groups have often gotten their
agendas written into the curricular materials mandated
for use by a state’s school children. These groups’
focus is their particular agenda, not the task of
education.
|
 Thus,
much of what a child in school will be required to
learn, the way it will be taught, and the pace at which
teaching will progress is decided by people that have no
familiarity with the child. |
The local school’s ability to maintain campus
and classroom discipline is compromised by
restrictions that society (e.g. federal and state
courts, threats of lawsuits from civil liberties groups)
imposes on the school. Where once teachers, school
administrators, and parents usually worked in
cooperation in the education and discipline of their
students, now many parents and "rights" groups defend
student wrong-doers, setting up an adversarial
relationship between parents and schools where
discipline is concerned. And should a teacher prove to
be incompetent or worse, tenure rules and teachers’
unions make removing a problem teacher from the
classroom extremely difficult.
Non-individualized Mass Education
In the classroom the teacher has a class of 20 or 25
children, and textbooks that are supposed to be covered
within the school year. Usually, on the first day of the
school year, the students are total strangers to the
teacher. At this point, the teacher doesn’t know where
the students are academically, in what way each student
learns most easily, or the students’ interests. The
textbooks define what teaching methods will be used, and
the pace at which the teacher will teach the subject.
The size of the class limits how much flexibility the
teacher has to slow the pace of instruction or
supplement for students having difficulties, and how
much individual instruction time the teacher is able to
give such students. At the same time, for students who
are quick learners, the teacher lacks the flexibility to
cover the subject material more quickly, as this would
cause difficulties for less quick learners, and might
finish the textbook before the school year is over. It
would be impractical for the teacher and for the class
to have individual students or groups of students
proceeding through the subject material at multiple
paces.
Though the supposed intent of education
is to prepare students for real life,
schools segregate students into classrooms by age, not
because this bears any resemblance to real life, but
solely for the convenience of the school as an
institution and the teachers.
This artificially limits the environment in
which the child learns about interacting with people
with different interests and life experiences.
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In a public school,
most of a student’s time is spent with children of the same age.
The child may find friends with interests similar to the
family’s, interests that encourage learning and becoming a good
citizen. Likewise, a child may encounter children who decide to
bully them or exclude them and make the child’s school life
generally miserable. And a child may find friends whose
interests will lead the child into antisocial and dangerous
behaviors.
The public school has very limited ability (and
sometimes little will) to protect bullied students or
guide students away from bad influences, and have a
difficult time enforcing discipline. What is easily
forgotten, however, is that a disruptive child or two
can bring so much turmoil to a classroom that even an
excellent teacher cannot teach, and that students who
are eager to learn cannot learn as they desire.
Inadequate campus or classroom discipline allowing
distractions is not a problem in homeschooling.
At present, private school students are faring much better
academically than are their public school counterparts. This
reflects several factors.
Parents of private school students tend to be more
involved in their children’s education. Private schools
have considerable freedom from government interference,
have the freedom to focus on teaching the core academic
subjects, and select excellent curricular materials
without being subjected to pressure from political
advocacy groups. Private schools also have much greater
freedom to enforce campus and classroom discipline,
including receiving greater parental cooperation and
participation.
Private schools still retain, however, the limitations
that are intrinsic to the classroom method of
instruction. Their classes still use a single curriculum
that is designed around a single approach to teaching
the subject. The teachers still lack flexibility with
regard to the pace of class instruction. The size of
classes place the same limits on the amount of direct
personal instruction each student can receive. And
classes remain age-segregated, which, while convenient
for the school as an institution and for teachers, is
quite unlike real life. At a public school (and
sometimes a private school), a child does not need to
become a troublemaker to find trouble - too often it
comes to the child. All it takes is for a bully to
choose that child for their target or for the child to
be in the vicinity of a violent person or group at the
wrong time. While this obviously is not a problem at all
public schools, homeschooling avoids this problem pretty
much entirely.
Just as not every public school is excellent, neither is
every teacher. Having even one bad year can have
unpleasant consequences for a child academically,
regardless of whether the problem was with the school or
with the teacher. Nor do school districts always
cooperate with parents who wish to transfer their child
to another, better, teacher’s class or to another,
better, school campus. Homeschooling avoids the risks of
poor quality schools and teachers, and with unhelpful
school administrators.
Not all public schools do
consistently well in handling children with special
needs. Thus, a child with a
learning problem that requires some sort of special
type of instruction or learning environment may not find
the public school amenable or even able to satisfy that
need.
Likewise, the parents of a child who is gifted may find
the public school unable (sometimes unwilling) to
provide advanced instruction to help the child develop
their giftedness. While
homeschooling a child with special needs presents
challenges to the parents, homeschooling enables the
ones who know the child best and care the most for the
child, the parents, to use their knowledge and love for
their child in directly educating their child.
A conflict with a
child’s school is never pleasant, especially when the school is
unwilling or unable to work with the child’s parents to resolve
the conflict. Parents need to know how to recognize whether a
problem is resolvable, or whether it will go on being
detrimental to their child’s education and growing up process.
When the latter is the case, parents urgently need to look
around for alternatives to what isn’t working for their child.
Homeschooling is one alternative parents should
consider when faced with a non-resolvable, harmful
conflict. Flexible homeschool curriculum and full
service
homeschooling help and support is
available at Bridgeway Homeschool Academy.
Bridgeway
Homeschool Academy has a passion for homeschooling
and a desire to provide the best homeschooling options
to parents and students all across the globe.
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Homeschoolacademy.com All Rights Reserved.
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Related Homeschooling Articles
Why a Home School Academy?
Bonus: The top pick of a
homeschooling mom and school principal
Common Disadvantages of Public Schools
Compare homeschooling versus public school - private
schools.
Ten Signs that You Need to Find a Different Kind of
Education for Your Child?
How do you know that it is time to look for another
educational approach for your child?
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