Home-schooling or home education is a platform where children are educated at the convenience of their homes instead of attending a private or a public school. A parent or a tutor are the ones who usually teach the children. Socialization is important because it is meant to prepare children on how to interact with people of different backgrounds, races and all ages. There is a perception that children who are home-schooled will eventually turn into social misfits because they lack the peer social interaction (Lebeda 100). On the other hand, parents who home-school their children believe that their children gain positive socialization from the experiences of life because they spend a lot of their time in the community as opposed to children who spend most of their time in school with their peers (Zhao and Badzis 17). There is need for this perception to be addressed to enable people to understand whether home-schooled children have positive socialization or not and to illustrate how their socialization impact their lives.
Studies by Boschee and Boschee have shown that home schooled children take part in the day to day routine in their different communities hence having an interactive life as they associate themselves with different people from different backgrounds (290). Murphy argues that home schooled children are not isolated from socializing because their parents and tutors always encourage them to take advantage of the social activities in the community hence socializing with the people they work with (250). The children studying at home are advantaged because they are able to acquire the basic rules of how they should behave and the learn beliefs and attitudes they need to have in their lives. According to Mountney, children who are home schooled tend to have a good self-esteem and they are not likely to have behavioural problems as compared to those who attend private or public schools (90). Research by Kunzman and Gaither shows that home-schooled children portray good leadership skills, they behave maturely and they function effectively as adults in the society (20). Similarly, children who are educated at home tend to be more responsible individuals in life because they are not exposed to drugs, peer pressure, bullying or any other form of violence that might affect their behaviours as compared to these who attend schools.
Many parents prefer home-schooling their children because they tend to gain more confidence than children who attend schools since they interact with family members and other people in society (Medlin 288). According to Mountney, children who are educated at home have more opportunities of socializing with caring adults who have good social behaviour as compared to peers who in reality do share the same level of knowledge (87). Parents believe that schools make their children to be confined in a classroom and they only socialize with groups in which they are assigned to, where they are of same academic level and are from the same geographical area therefore children are not able to interact with other people from different backgrounds in their lives (Zhao and Badzis 17). Home-schooling provides the children with a good foundation and develop them with self-confidence; they learn how to make choices and how to deal with complicated people. When the right time comes for the children to face the real world, they will be in a position to deal in every difficult situation in an appropriate and mature manner (Drenovsky 25).
Home-schooled children have a lot of freedom of doing whatever they interest them for example extra-curricular activities or participating in other activities in the community such as volunteer (Ray 261). This helps the children to develop relationships with many people who are of different ages which makes them more bold and active in various activities. Jeynes says that children who are home-schooled tend to know what they want in life and they do not indulge in childish behaviours when they join college because they have parents and tutors as their role models and not fellow peers (80). Similarly Drenovsky argues that home-schoolers have been seen to have good communication skills and good relations with their peers as a result of the good socialization they are offered by their adults (25).
From the above, it is evident that socialization of home-schooled children have positive results in their lives. Home-schooled children are not socially misfit because of the wider socialization they get and the experiences they get from interacting with people from different backgrounds and different age groups. Children who are home-schooled tend to have positive interactions with other people unlike the children who attend schools. Basically, the children have more moral values, more maturity, high self-confidence and self-esteem with efficient communication skills as a result of socializing with variety of ages and going through alternate experiences in their lives than those children who attend public or private schools. The socialization that the children acquire while they are under home education enables them to become responsible individuals later in their lives and others becomes good leaders in the society because they have parents and tutors as their role models who encourages them to behave maturely and responsibly in everything they do in their lives.
Works Cited
Boschee, Bonni F., and Floyd Boschee. "A Profile Of Homeschooling In South Dakota." Journal Of School Choice 5.3 (2011): 281-299. ERIC. Web. 26 May 2016.
Drenovsky C, Cohen I. THE IMPACT OF HOMESCHOOLING ON THE ADJUSTMENT OF COLLEGE STUDENTS. International Social Science Review [serial online]. January 2012;87(1/2):19-34. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed May 30, 2016.
Jeynes, William. "The rise of homeschooling as a modern educational phenomenon in American Protestant Education." International Handbook of Protestant Education. Springer Netherlands, 2012. 77-92.
Kunzman, Robert, and Milton Gaither. "Homeschooling: A comprehensive survey of the research." Other Education 2.1 (2013): 4-59.
Lebeda, Samantha. "Homeschooling: Depriving Children Of Social Development?." Journal Of Contemporary Legal Issues 16.1 (2007): 99-104. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Medlin, Richard G. "Homeschooling and the question of socialization revisited." Peabody Journal of Education 88.3 (2013): 284-297.
Mountney, Ross. Learning Without School : Home Education. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2009: 87-96. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Murphy, Joseph. "The social and educational outcomes of homeschooling."Sociological Spectrum 34.3 (2014): 244-272.
Ray, Brian D. "Homeschooling rising into the twenty-first century: Editor's introduction." Peabody Journal of Education 88.3 (2013): 261-264.
Zhao, Junya, and Mastura Badzis. "Parents' Perspectives on Homeschooling in Chinese Mainland." International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research 78 (2014): 17.
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