<![CDATA[Originally shared by Homeschools Uk
Advantages of Home-Education
The ubiquity and availability of schools means that many people have forgotten that, for young children at least, home education was the preferred option for anyone who could afford it for up until quite recently. The reason for this is simply that children learn better when in the comfort of their own homes. The home is a better environment for learning than a classroom.
This explains why home-taught children often feature in the headlines for having passed their GCSEs or ‘A’ levels at surprisingly young ages and for their high levels of success in gaining admittance to universities. There is, however, a more subtle side to the learning potential offered by the home environment which is often mentioned by home educating families but which is difficult or impossible to quantify in terms of exam success.
Children working at home are able, from a young age, to develop a greater depth of knowledge. They are not restricted by the subject matter of a narrow curriculum or the content of school textbooks but can interact with their parents and other adults in a way that allows them to explore areas that interest them, at their own pace. This has the effect of making them enjoy the process of learning , it makes them more responsible and mature, it makes them more able to adapt to requirements of a rapidly changing world and it gives them a belief in themselves. This is one of the aspects of home-education that receives the least public recognition but which home-educating parents rate most highly.
Home-education also has social advantages. School creates an artificial and highly stressful social situation that young children in particular find difficult to deal with. Home-schooled children are not subject to this stress. One of the immediate advantages of this, often remarked on by friends and family, is that home-schooled children get on very well with their brothers and sisters. They do not squabble and fight in the way that has become accepted as normal sibling rivalry in cultures where school attendance is universal. The resulting peace in the home goes a long way to compensate for the extra time and trouble required to home-educate.
Home-schooled children also find it easy to socialize with adults and people of all ages. Not being subject to the ‘us and them’ syndrome that characterizes school life, they tend to accept people as they find them. This has long-term advantages because it means that if they encounter problems in teenage years they are not forced to seek advice solely from people as young and immature as themselves, they are likely to have older friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors etc. to turn to, as well as their parents of course, for a wider perspective on the problem that they are facing.
Home-education is particularly beneficial for any child who, for whatever reason, does not fit in the mainstream school system. This applies especially to children who have special educational needs. All young children thrive under a continuity of care: children need to be able to build up long-term relationships with any adult who is caring for them and those adults have to be available at all times. This requirement is even more imperative in children who have severe learning difficulties; a succession of teachers, however well-meaning they may be, disorients the child and impairs their tenuous process of learning. Home-educating these children requires a huge level of commitment from their families but it is the tried and proven method that works best.
Many children have no learning difficulties at all before starting to attend school but are then diagnosed as having reading difficulties, behavior problems etc. When this is the case any perceived problems will disappear when the child is removed from school. They can learn at their own pace, at home, and are usually able to successfully re-enter the school system some years later if they so wish.
In addition to everything else, the home provides the ideal environment for a child in which to achieve academic excellence. There are innumerable examples of mathematicians, artists, musicians, writers, linguists, philosophers and scientists who are self-taught or who were taught at home. It is a well-established tradition and one that continues today.]]>
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