December beginner's tournament: Homeschooling is superior to the public primary school system

As with Stefen, I will be posting my rebuttals to his arguments. This is a really engaging debate since i've learned a lot about homeschooling and public schooling, much of which I thought I knew otherwise. Below, I defend against the claim that homeschooling is superior. Read and enjoy!Rebutting: Homeschoolers performing better than public schoolers?The problem with Con"s statistics is that homeschooling is simply not popular. In 2012, only roughly 2% of the American student body was homeschooled (1). That is roughly 1.1million homeschooled kids out of the roughly 50million public-schooled kids (1). The other problem Con faces is that demographically, the data are very, very skewed.http://www.responsiblehomeschooling.org...(2)http://www.responsiblehomeschooling.org...(2)http://www.responsiblehomeschooling.org...(2)As seen above 68% of those homeschooled in 2011 were white. (2) Considering the skewed income levels favoring whites, it makes sense to find out that in 2012, more than 40% of those homeschooled made an annual salary of $75,000 or more. (1) Roughly 6% of those homeschooled make $20,000 or less. (1) These statistics matter because it tells us that those being homeschooled are in favorable conditions. If homeschooling"s population size was comparable to the public schooling sector, we"d very likely find a drastic reduction in academic success for those home schooled. Why? Because this would entail millions of parents/single parents requiring to spend a large margin of their daily lives at home teaching their kids, at the expense of working a full-time or even part-time job. This is the reality of homeschooling: people simply do not have the time; and if everyone decided to start homeschooling, I again assert that statistically speaking, the effectiveness of homeschooling will be largely determined by familial endowment.To add to the above argument, research clearly suggests that other solid family conditions contribute massively to the success of homeschooled kids. As shown in source (2), nearly 70% of those homeschooled have parent(s) who at least have a vocational or technical degree/associates degree. The 30% have a high school degree or less. On top of that, 89% of those homeschooled have TWO parents. This essentially suggests that it is near impossible to receive an adequate homeschool education with one parent. To be clear: we"re arguing if homeschooling is superior to its public counterpart. Period. This would only be true if it were to satisfy all conditions, because there is no single condition in the real world. Fortunately for public schooling, family conditions are irrelevant; no matter the condition, the child will receive the exact same opportunity as everyone else. Unless homeschooled children on average can outperform their public counterpart under any and all homeschooling conditions, then it is not true to state dryly that *homeschooling is superior to public primary schooling.* Family conditions are real consequences that impact the viability and success of homeschooling. Rebutting: homeschooling provides a safe and free environment while public schools struggle with those?We must ask the question: is a safe and free environment necessarily better? I think not. Again, one of the glories of public education is that they provide holistic experiences, one of which is exposing children to real psychological issues that arise from uncontrollable environments. This is a problem with home-schooling. Home schoolers like to argue that they are socialized even better because they get to go out with their parents, talk to people of all ages, and do more friendly activities. The reality is that life is not that rosy, and homeschooled children will be less prepared to take on distressing peer-to-peer situations. "Being a victim of schoolyard thugs can help pupils learn how to manage disputes and boost their ability to interact with others, it was claimed. Helene Guldberg, associate lecturer in child development at the Open University, said intervening to stop the "supposedly terrible dangers of bullying" can do more harm than good. "If we treat children as if they cannot possibly cope with hurtful experiences, then we will likely undermine their confidence and make them less likely to cope with difficult events in the future. In effect, we will prevent them from growing up."" (3) I"m NOT saying that bullying is inherently good and should therefore be encouraged. What I"m saying is that bullying, or situations like it, are a part of life of experiences; it is inevitable that they will come across situations like it, directly or indirectly. Also, for elementary pupils, only 15% are involved in bullying (includes the bully and the bullied). (4) I would therefore conclude by saying that in the whole scheme of things, bullying (and the possibility of its experience) does not by itself warrant an excuse from a public education. In honest opinion, it should be a non-issue.Rebutting: Homeschooling strengthens the bonds between children and the family?The fruits of nurturing children for the sake of parent-child bonding can only be realized when these same children become teenagers and adults. Therefore, it is bold to claim that family bonds are better strengthened through homeschooling. Con has provided no evidence that homeschooled children have stronger family bonds in the long run when compared to public schooled children. This will be especially hard for Con to prove considering there are a multitude of factors that can strengthen (or weaken) the bonds between child and parent, beyond the child"s method of education. In fact, some of those variables are mentioned above in part 1 of my rebuttals.In response to the religious argument, I have to say that a case can be made against indoctrination; unfortunately, this argument is probably worth another debate all together. But if you"re going to insist with this, I"ll go forth with it, too. For culture we have a problem of evidence again, because as far as my personal experience is concerned " and the experience of ALL my friends and acquaintances " cultural upbringing seems to be a near universal trend, regardless of the circumstance to which one was raised. Sources.1. https://nces.ed.gov...2. http://www.responsiblehomeschooling.org...3. http://www.telegraph.co.uk...4. http://nobullying.com...5. http://www.responsiblehomeschooling.org...