Okay here we go...
Let's compare the outcomes of the two different ways of learning:
HOME EDUCATION VS. PUBLIC EDUCATION
Home School students:
- have a great disadvantage due to the lack of funding, and yet they generally outperform academically, emotionally, and yes, even socially, when compared to public schooled students (more on that in another post).
Public School students:
- have an unfair advantage due to the abundance and ever-increasing amount of funding and yet their educational performance is on a steady decline, and is low as it has ever been.
Home School students:
- have a healthier diet, as hot meals can be prepared everyday before and during school time, and a variety of drinks are readily available. Fresh baking can be given them, even while they learn how to bake. Furthermore, this does not cost the provincial budget any money because food from a home school nutritional program is not an expense that can be reimbursed, it is paid for by the parent/teacher.
Public School students:
- have less healthier diets as students generally need to keep their food outside of a fridge, so the food grows more bacteria, and is generally processed. And instead of fresh healthy baking, they consume copious amounts of packaged, preserved "cookies and snacks".
- can only eat during scheduled breaks or lunch time, and are forced to sneak treats if they cannot concentrate on their class. Unfortunately, sometimes students do not even pack a lunch, which is a further detriment to their education and general well-being. However, some schools do have a nutrition program to feed the students, but this comes at the expense of the budget, not the teachers.
Home School students:
- take approximately 1/10 of the time to learn all the same educational material as is required by the provincial guidelines, which leaves ample time for extra-curricular activities, field trips, or a pursuit of personal interests the student may have. Furthermore, it allows for downtime for the parent/teacher and students to build important relationships with each other and with society in general, which vitally complement the learning process.
Public School students:
- take approximately 10 times the amount of time to learn all the same educational material that home schooled children take. This means that approx. 90% of the time a typical child spends in a public education institute school is not applicable to the education process. In fact, it is only a costly burden to the taxpayers.
Home School students:
- are better socialized, and generally interact friendlier and more inclusive than their counterparts in public school, because they primarily learn how to behave from caring parents, and use what they learn in practice with siblings, and children with a variety of ages as they participate in extra-curricular activities.
As a side, the competition siblings engage in isn't under the scrutiny of hundreds of other immature students, and therefore it can be maintained in a healthy manner by parents, who understand each child's individual abilities.
Public School students:
- are less independent and more dependent upon the acceptance of immature peers because group-settings are so highly stressed in the curriculum and schoolyard environment; this promotes forced association and compromising conformity in order to fit-in, rather than personal creativity and acceptance of other people's individuality.
- are forced to disassociate with siblings if in different grades, or to enter into combative rivalries with each other if in the same grades, according to status of friends they have or sports they play. Siblings can become worst enemies if they are both vying for acceptance from a particular clique.
Home School students:
- no costly burden to the budget for mental health professionals, counselors, or security guards needed “on site”, because the child's mental, physical, and emotional health is not constantly at risk.
Public School students:
- need a costly team of mental health pros, counselors, and security guards needed on site for the plethora of potential problems such as bullying, popularity contests, lack of self-identity and self-esteem, distracting drama, school shootings, violence, drug abuse, depression and anxiety, mental/emotional/physical/sexual abuse from other students, teachers and coaches, teen pregnancy, abortions, teacher and student relationships, rapists and other criminals hanging out around the schoolyard, kidnappings, gangs, etc.
Home School students:
- have freedom within their own home and have more flexibility in regards to learning at their own pace, recess times, meal times, water breaks, bathroom breaks, and even what they wear. This is particularly beneficial to young or disadvantaged children.
- have the freedom to ask questions at any time without being criticised or rushed by students or teachers.
- are not forced to work with peers or associate with peers who they do not get along with, or are intimidated by.
Public School students:
- dwell in a prison-like institutional atmosphere of strict rules and restricted freedoms everywhere; and not just from the teachers. There are a load of fashion standards and silly rites of passage involved in schoolyard "socialization" on the road to peer conformity and acceptance.
- suffer from a lack of classroom windows and ventilation, comfortable transportation on school bus, rules when to eat and when to have recess, rules for when to go to the bathroom, rules when to drink water from the water fountain, etc.
- are limited to the type and amount of questions they ask: either by the teacher for personal biases or lack of time, or by fellow students who may mock them for asking certain, or too many, questions.
Home School students:
- have a much stronger bond to their parents as they are the primary caregivers and educators. Subsequently, a stronger parent/child bond results in more psychologically stable children, and a more unified family unit.
Public School students:
- consequently lack a familial bond to their parents as they hardly see them or learn from them, because they are at school for 6-8 hours every week day. This causes their emotional compass to shift from mature parents to immature peers whom they now take all their directional cues from. This causes a stark disconnect which confuses many parents as to why their children have suddenly developed behavioral problems.
Home School students:
- have a higher degree of self-esteem and sense of individualism. They care little for the acceptance of fickle peers, but rather take major cues from their parent who loves them unconditionally.
*COVID-19 pandemic has not really changed a home school students’ way of life because they are used to being at home and learning in that environment
Public School students:
- lower self-esteem caused from peer-orientation, a naturally unstable environment, as children are apt to turn on their friends over the slightest mishap.
*COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way students learn and a lot of public/private students are suffering mentally, physically, emotionally because of this change. There is a great instability in their lives that they cannot seem to handle. However, home schooling is clearly the safest for children as it is the "essential" form of education in this crisis.
Home School students:
- do not plague the education budget with WCB claims – as neither students nor parent/teachers are not being regularly injured, and thus, not adding extra unnecessary costs to the education budget and funding.
Public School students:
- have frequent and sometimes severe injury claims due to student violence or sports injuries. Both students and teachers are costing millions of taxpayer dollars for preventable injuries. Not to mention the amount of killings and accidental deaths on school grounds. The most obvious way to prevent these needless injuries and violence is by homeschooling.
Home School teachers:
- cost the education budget $0.00 because they do not demand a high salary, nor a large pension, nor extensive healthcare benefits with 3 months paid vacation a year. Parent/teachers are the superior educators for their children, which is exhibited by their consistent self-sacrifice by choosing to nurture the success of their children at the expense of their career.
Public School teachers:
- cost the education budget millions of unnecessary dollars because they demand a high salary, a large pension, and extensive healthcare benefits with 3 months paid vacation a year. And they have shown their ability to go on strike (even during regularly scheduled school days) if their outrageous demands are not met. School teachers have shown time and again that they prefer the success and comfort of their careers at the expense of the students' education.
CONCLUSION:
Home Education is superior. Not only is the home environment safer for the children, it repeatedly produces smarter, more self-determined and responsible students/citizens, and stronger family structures, which our fractured society needs more of in these critical times.
