Home Schooled Home Slice

One thing I don't understand is home schooling.  Why do people choose to home school their kids?  Is the parent better at teaching the kid than teachers at the local public school?  Maybe.  You never know how your kid behaves in school, because you're not there.  Maybe your kid does his/her homework, maybe not.  You never know unless you're the one assigning the work.

I'm sure the list goes on and on about why home schooling is better for some kids.  But there's another list that goes on and on about why home schooling is bad for kids.  Let's think about the good and the bad:

Good:

• You know exactly where your child stands, because you see with your own eyes and not through a report card.
• Can't get into trouble at school, because they are not there
• No more thinking 'who do I believe, my kid or the teacher?'
• Teacher to kid ratio can't get any closer to 1:1, versus 1:20 (or more) at the local school

Bad:

• No interaction with other kids on a daily basis.  This is horrible, horrible, horrible.  Makings of a little robot are in progress.
• Maybe the parent isn't as good at teaching as they thought.  Shaping the kids future lies in their hands, not in the hands of people that are trained to do this.   
• A parent can effectively 'brainwash' a kid.  Forcing opinions down someone's throat is not the same as forcing facts down someone's throat.

The lists get bigger and bigger the more you think about them.  But I think the bad reasons for home schooling by far outweigh the good reasons.  Unless you live 200 miles away from a school, uphill both ways, and it's always raining- I think home schooling is very bad to put your kid through.  Your kid won't always wonder what it is like to have buddies at school or play on the basketball team if they go.  Keep the home schooling to home schooling yourself, home slice.  Send your kids to school- where they belong.