Homeschool vs Public School
- By Saima Malik
Like most people in society, I was raised to believe that schools are the only institute of formal learning. So I was shocked when my daughter told me that she was planning on homeschooling her children. I couldn’t believe that my grandchildren, for whose future I had moved to this nation of quality education for all, wouldn’t be going to school at all. How would they ever acquire the academic and social skills needed to succeed in the competitive world?
After overcoming my initial state of alarm, I decided to research the subject and understand homeschooling. After all, I wanted to support my daughter. I learned home education is the education of children at home, typically by parents or by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school. It is legal in Canada as long as the provincial curriculum is followed.
Then I read a book “Weapons of Mass Instruction”, by John Taylor Gatto, an award winning public school teacher from New York who says, “We have been taught in this country to think success is synonymous with schooling, but historically that isn’t true. Mass schooling is actually meant to serve economic and political interests, not those of the child.”
I followed a mini-series on educational issues by the Globe and Mail on home schooling. Some of the reasons they found parents opting for homeschooling were: