Comparison of School Options

In this series on education choices for our children, I wanted to give the notes that I collected (mostly from around 5 years ago, as Hannah was nearing school age) from families who were years ahead of us.  Nothing fancy, just the pros and cons that were given to us.  What I like most is that these insights were given to us by families who had each been involved with multiple education options, so they could give a complete and honest assessment. 

image courtesy of arroclint via sxc.hu

Home School

• Advantages

• Simple and good at an early age, with focus on reading
• Can lay and develop a spiritual foundation
• Maturity issue:  you can make sure that they are stable in their identity before being around a lot of kids, so they won’t get lost
• Flexibility with time and vacations
• Great student:teacher ratio, so you can focus on and customize education to specific academic needs
• Great emotional benefits; kids’ love tanks are full because of so much time together
• Children’s primary identity is to family, ahead of peer identity

• Disadvantages

• Be mindful of how you use time; it is harmful to be either too regimented (no one will enjoy it) or too laid back (easy to get off track)
• Need to remember that you still have a life to live, with other roles and responsibilities.  It gets easy to isolate and draw back into the family; need to keep moving towards other relationships.
• Can be challenging to teach multiple kids and ages
• Homeschooling with younger children can be hard; challenge to keep toddlers busy
• Setting stands; it’s easy as a “loving parent” to give kids a bye or overlook things.  In school, if you don’t do the work, you get an “F” – it’s not personal)
• At some point, you need to teach them to be in and to deal with the world

Private School

• Advantages

• Can find a school with the same foundational beliefs
• Smallness and openness; parents can usually come in an out any time
• Often have great academic standards

• Disadvantages

• Parents can get complacent, relying too much on the school, especially for spiritual development
• Cost
• Can be easy to withdraw from engaging the culture

Public School

• Advantages

• Can have an advantage for academics because have many more opportunities, especially at higher grades
• It is good for kids to be around non-Christians before going off to college
• Great opportunity to teach kids to be in and to deal with the world

• Disadvantages

• Can be very trying because of a rough environment
• Hard to go from a small (home) to a big (school) environment
• Children pick up some of their identity from peers
• School is usually not able to focus as well on individual needs

Can you add any pros or cons to any of these options?  


Related Link:

• Why We Homeschool
• Why Private School
• Why Public School
• Homeschool Families: Myths and Lies   
• Response to "A Case for Homeschooling"