WAP Draft 2: Is home-schooling better than traditional education?

Home-schooling and traditional education both have the same purpose of educating
students, however there might be different outcomes. Traditional education take place in a
classroom where a teacher controls the entire class, also there are rules that students must follow.
Whereas, home-schooling is usually conducted at home either by parents or a personal tutor, which
is a 1to1 method of teaching and learning. In the current society, confusion is always occurred in
parents when choosing which is better between home school and traditional education. This essay
will examine the beneficial advantages of traditional education as well as the impact on the future of
the student’s education life.

Socialising is a skill that needed to cultivate from young to prepare children in future to be
enable in holding a conversation, in which a class with students and a teacher is the best way to
practice interpersonal social skills (McGuire n.d.). Other than family, schools act as an important
socialisation agent for students as they spent most of their daily lives in school with their friends and
teachers strengthening their social interaction skills (Barkan n.d.). As this continues, students would
eventually learn and understand how to forgive those who are at fault, respecting others, as well as
developing several moral values from friendships (Truman 2017). Apart from that, traditional
education classes are commonly more diverse as there may be children of different races from
countries around the globe, it gives students an opportunity to be more exposed to different
background, cultures and religion. Socialisation also benefits students in participation of group
discussions giving them a wider perspective of a topic when thoughts and opinions are shared
among the group resulting in a better teamwork. Socialisation skills holds importance for student’s
future because it is the key to connect with the society whether if it is in college or workplace.

Traditional education offers a wide range of services and activities giving students a chance to
enjoy school life better with a fair amount of studying and fun activities. Most school students from
either public or private are entitled to having free services such as counselling or health support for
those who are having problems or disabilities, it provides convenience for both the parents and
students (Mesika 2017). Health services provided by the government through funding from states
such as dental check-up and vaccinations aims not only deliver care for students but also ensures
that they are healthy. Financial assistance is available in some schools, depending on the eligibility of
the student, are able to apply to either get a reduced tuition fees or a study loan. Moving on,
extracurricular activities offers students a broad variety of activities from sports to hobbies or special
interest. For this reason, students can discover their hidden talents and showcase it to the public
while also able to gain knowledge useful for the future (Truman 2017). A recent study shows that
participation in curriculum activities causes students to be more attached to their school which
result a decrease in the possibility of failures and dropout (O’Brien 1995).

The main aim of schools is to provide education to students ensuring them performing well in
their academics. Critics such as (Rudner 1998; Ray 2010) argues that home schooling students shows
a better result academically than traditional education students. However, according to the
International Centre for Home Education Research (ICHER n.d.) states that the studies conducted by
the two researches cannot prove that home schoolers performs academically better due to unfair
comparison, as the home school participants of the research were volunteers. Furthermore, home
schoolers are being tutored by the same person for every subject, eventually it will be a challenging
for the tutors to keep track of all the academic progresses of the student. In contrary, traditional
education method has a different teacher majoring on each subject benefitting them to concentrate
more on the subject. A study from the Institute of Education at London University suggests that
studying in a group shows a more rapid progress as they are engaged in more discussions compared
to individual study (Smith 2006). Also, students from traditional education are more educated on
independency, for instance they are taught to read time tables, time management and so forth. To
be specific, traditional education provides a rather exceptional challenging educational experience to
students assuring them to perform well academically.

In conclusion, even though home schooling consists of more supporters, choosing between
home schooling and traditional education is a hot debate topic nowadays, parents need to take both
methods into consideration, as they always want the best for their children. Disagreeing with the
topic, traditional education is a more practical approach to students due to the importance of
socialisation in the current society. Traditional education should be more encouraged because it
strongly affects the future of the students.
Reference

Body Paragraph 1- Socialising

DellaMcguire Public Schools: Political, Social, Economic & Cultural Contexts [online] Available from:
<https://study.com/academy/lesson/public-schools-political-social-economic-cultural-
contexts.html> [6 November 2018]

Steven E. Barkan (n.d.) Agents of Socialization [online] available from:

Gine Truman (2017) X Pros & Cons of Traditional Education [online] available from:
< https://www.dailyonweb.com/News/X-Pros-Cons-of-Traditional-Education.html>
[6 November 2018]

Body Paragraph 2- Broad support service, Curriculum activities

Coral Mesika (2017) Conventional or Alternative Schooling [online] available from:

Gine Truman (2017) X Pros & Cons of Traditional Education [online] available from:
< https://www.dailyonweb.com/News/X-Pros-Cons-of-Traditional-Education.html>
[6 November 2018]

Eileen O’Brien (1995) Extracurricular Participation and Student Engagement [online] available from:
<https://nces.ed.gov/pubs95/web/95741.asp> [6 November 2018]

 https://education.seattlepi.com/advantages-traditional-schools-2140.html
 http://ohd.moh.gov.my/v3/index.php/en/the-dental-services/primary-oral-healthcare4
 https://www.goodschools.com.au/insights/student-experience/the-advantages-of-
extracurricular-activities
 https://www.dailyonweb.com/News/X-Pros-Cons-of-Traditional-Education.html
 https://nces.ed.gov/pubs95/web/95741.asp

Body Paragraph 3- Education

Anon. (n.d.) ‘How does U.S. homeschoolers’ academic performance compare with other students?’
International Centre for Home Education Research [online] available from:
< http://icher.org/faq.html> [6 November 2018]

Brian D. Ray (2010) Academic Achievement and Demographic Traits of Homeschool Students: A
Nationwide Study [online] available from:
<www.nheri.org/AcademicAchievementAndDemographicTraitsOfHomeschoolStudentsRay2010.pdf>
[6 November 2018]

Alexandra Smith (2006) ‘Group work benefits pupils, study finds’ The Guardian [online] available
from: <https://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/mar/31/schools.uk2> [6 November 2018]

Lawrence M. Rudner (1998) Achievement of Demographics of Home school Children: 1998 [online]
available from: < https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/543> [6 November 2018]
 The Star Online (2007) Textbook Loan Scheme for All Students [online] available from:
 <https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2007/09/08/textbook-loan-scheme-for-all-
students/> [16 October 2018]
 Loop, Erica. (n.d.). Government Funding of Public Schools [online] available from:
 <https://classroom.synonym.com/government-funding-public-schools-8062322.html > [16
October 2018]
 https://education.seattlepi.com/advantages-traditional-schools-2140.html
 https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/sociology-comprehensive-edition/s07-03-agents-
of-socialization.html
 https://www.scribd.com/document/346413172/The-Role-of-the-School-as-a-Socializing-
Agent
 https://www.dailyonweb.com/News/X-Pros-Cons-of-Traditional-Education.html
