Homeschooling is not bad to do

NOTE: Firstly, I would like to point out that my opponent uses no evidence, other than personal experience to back up their argument. Also, I aim to prove that home schooling is negative for most children, for a wide variety of reasons, not just social deprivation. Home schooling, if done correctly, has the potential to be a positive thing; however, since it is so widely abused, I have concluded that it is generally not a good option.Opponent's Arguments"If kids are taught 4 hours of school every day, with focus, they may be ahead of a lot of kids in regular school."This is not always the case. I personally know many homeschoolers who feel behind because their parents didn't teach them everything they need to know. Home schooling does provide for a flexible schedule, but if the parents and the kids don't take it seriously, it becomes easy to take advantage of the flexibility and not get as much work done. "So to say homeschoolers are are socially deprived is false."I would agree. I don't think that most homeschoolers are deprived of social activities. However, the social activities they participate in are often very different from the social activities kids who participate in public school. In the words of Sarah from Homeschoolers Anonymous (1) "I was raised in a family where homeschooling wasn’t just the preferred method of education, but the only right one. Other than AYSO soccer, I had no social contact outside of church, family, and the homeschool umbrella group until I went to community college. This was when I discovered that I was socially retarded (yes that’s a technical term)." Did Sarah have social interaction? Yes. Was it all positive? No. Sarah goes on to say, "The truth is if you shelter your kids from ‘the real world’ they are going to wonder what you are keeping from them and many will run at the first chance they get." "I know 4 homeschoolers who are extremely out going..."Here my opponent covers the argument of homeschoolers feeling "socially awkward" when switching from homeschool to regular school. Look to the fact that this is only four homeschoolers. First off, students often have trouble making friends as they go through this transition. In a PBS article, Kenneth Bernstein, a high school government and social studies teacher in Prince George’s County, Maryland, said he estimates that about half of his previously homeschooled students experience some difficulties in adjusting. Bernstien goes on to say that this is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that often former homeschoolers have not been exposed to opposing viewpoints. This can make them feel clueless of isolated (2). Most students aren't going to be homeschooled forever. Eventually they will have to transition to a public school or to a college. Often times because of they way they are taught, homeschooling actually harms them."ALSO, I was in the National Honour Society and my friend who was skeptical about homeschooling said that I have changed [his] views on homeschooling."One example does not prove that the majority of home school students are successful. Using such logic, I could claim that because I am in the National Honor Society and I go to public school, public school is good.(1) http://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com...(2) http://www.pbs.org...My ArgumentsQualification of the parent to teach: What makes someone a qualified teacher? Washington State defines a qualified teacher as this: "Someone who holds at least a bachelor degree from a four-year institution, is fully certificated or lisenced by the state, and demonstrates competence in eacher core academic subject area that a teacher teaches." (1) In public school, students will be getting education from such teachers. Now take a look at the qualifications a parent needs to teach their child: Psycology Today notes that most states require the teaching parent to have a highschool diploma. In some states, there are absolutely no qualifications. In fact, only one state requires a college degree that doesn't even have to be in education (2). Take a look at this chart from NCES: This diagram shows us that 61.1% of all parents who homeschool their kids are do not have a degree. The other 38.9% do have degrees, but there is no way to ensure their degrees are in teaching. The impact here is that students are being taught by illqualified individuals who simply do not have the ability to teach them the things they need to know.Looking at the other side- actual reasons for homeschooling: I think one of the major questions asked about homeschooling is: Why exactly do parents homeschool?Religion: This one is especially a big deal. Here's why it is wrong to pull a child out of public school for religious reasons. The child will recieve a highly biased education. Generally if a parents wants to homeschool their child for religious reasons, they will do it early on. Here's the problem. If a child is taught by a religious curriculum, they will most likely be blind to a lot of important issues. Look to the PBS evidence I listed earlier. Often homeschooled kids are oblivious to opposing viewpoints. Parents who are homeschooling for religious reasons can often shelter their children a little too much. A lot of christian homeschooling programs have been considered "cults." Take a look at ATI (Advanced Training Institute- Equiping Youth and Families to do Great Works!!) Homeschoolers Anonymous contains a huge amount of testimonies from children that participated in the program. Essentially ATI is a cult. In the words of a regretful mother, "We are still working through the damage caused by those many years in ATI." (3) Of course, there are many secular homeschoolers. With this argument I simply aim to give you, as a reader, a glimpse of what religious homeschooling can do. Many kids involved in such programs end up rebelling which is exactly the opposite of what the programs intend to make kids do.The School Environment: Many parents want to "protect" their kids from the negative homeschool environment. As I've said before: you can't shelter kids forever. Eventually they will have to move into the real world. Look to the mutiple examples I've given of homeschoolers who didn't know what to do when they moved to public school or college.How the student feels: Take a look at this chart from a survey taken from Homeschoolers Anonymous This chart shows that most homeschool students in the lower class have experienced some form of abuse. The statistics are actually similar with the middle class and the higher class (5). Homeschoolers anonymous notes that when surveys from homeschoolers of all classes were averaged together, the score was a 3.06, just barely at the medium score of "so-so."(1) https://www.k12.wa.us...(2) http://everydaylife.globalpost.com...(3) http://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com...(4) http://www.psychologytoday.com...(5) http://homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com...