Traditional schooling offers better experiences
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December 22, 2009 • Bobby Zuiss, Editor-in-Chief
Filed under Opinion
It’s rare to go through an entire hour in BHS without overhearing someone complain about how our school system works. Common complaints include: “It’s too early to work,” “That class is so boring” and the recent “We should have had a snow day today.” However, there are many students in Belton that never have to deal with these sorts of problems encountered by traditional education. Homeschooled students aren’t required to wake up at any set time, they don’t have to deal with “busy work” and, best of all, they can work at their own pace. But is homeschooling worth trading away the social experience of a public education?
Though most students never look at the bright sides of public schools, imagine for a second that you have a class all by yourself in your room. There are no other peers and no distractions. Sounds like a utopia for learning right? Although this might be the chosen path for many families in the U.S., I believe it lacks many fundamentals important to a youth’s growth and education. Taking away elements such as teachers, peers and physical resources (ex. scientific instruments) can truly hinder a learning experience.
In my mind, classes such as math would be extremely difficult to learn simply by staring at a computer screen or by flipping through the pages of a textbook. Having an actual person work out problems in front of me really helps me learn. Working in groups with friends and recieving one-on-one help from a teacher are experiences that simply cannot be emulated by homeschooling.
Extracurricular activities involved with a public education such as sports, pep rallies and school dances are also experiences that are a large part of a graduate’s memories of public schooling. It would be hard to imagine not having football games every Friday night in the fall, no snow days in the winter and no Prom in the spring. Homeschooled students would also miss out on graduation festivities that can only be experienced through a traditional schooling system. Instead of attending graduation parties, listening to graduation speeches and hanging out at After-Prom, homeschooled students would simply receive a GED in the mail. There would be no senior picnic or yearbook signings to share the last memories of high school together.
Of the many homeschooled families I know, very few of them would rather transfer into a public school. How can this be? The answer is that the students simply don’t know what they are missing and that they, like most humans, are reluctant to change. In reality, most homeschooled students do go on to lead successful lives. Homeschooling is just a different lifestyle that comes with different memories. But in my opinion, I would rather keep my memories of a traditional high school than twelve years at home learning from a computer.
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