Brick and mortar schooling programs are not a better form of education than online/home education.

"Thank you for accepting! This is my first debate on this site so I ask that you bear with me as I try to figure the technology and format out."No worries, I'm fairly new to this myself. Welcome to the site! I apologize in the delay with my reply. I've been sick for the last couple of days and my head was too foggy to properly address this debate.Thank you for clarifying your position. I am arguing that while brick-and-mortar schooling may not be superior to the aforementioned alternative learning environments in every way, classroom learning does have many benefits that cannot be provided to students at home or online. Therefore, brick-and-mortar schooling is preferable to homeschooling or online education.1. RebuttalMy response to your initial arguments:1. Customization and Learning SpeedsYou assert that homeschooling parents are "more able to supervise and customize their child's education. They are able to see their child's level of maturity and learning ability more fully, and therefore are able to set curriculum that fits their child's needs perfectly." In Ontario (my province of residence), a parent does not need to complete any sort of certification in order to home-school their children. If the parent is not required to learn about child development and child education, how can they be qualified to decide which studies and learning strategies will be most beneficial to their child?Teachers in schools are heavily screened. In Ontario, an elementary school teacher must complete a bachelor's degree (usually 4 years of full-time University studies) as well as a minimum 1-year teacher education program which includes supervised and evaluated classroom experience. Classroom teachers are trained to create learning programs and learning environments which are most beneficial to students. Homeschooling parents who are not trained teachers cannot hope to have the same insights into what is necessary to make the best teaching decisions for their children. 2. Quality of Education"This topic varies heavily from school to school, however studies do seem to point out that homeschooled/online schooled students are able to achieve the same standards public schooled students. This summery of a 1998 study on the topic seems to show this fact."In Spring 1998, 20,760 K-12 home school students in 11,930 families were administered either the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) or the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP), depending on their current grade..... Major findings include: the achievement test scores of this group of home school students are exceptionally high--the median scores were typically in the 70th to 80th percentile; 25% of home school students are enrolled one or more grades above their age-level public and private school peers" (This summery can be found here http://eric.ed.gov......)This is certainly not the only study that shows the same results. Many other credible studies can be found with little research involved. Though the above study is not controlled and cannot prove that homeschool is "better" than public school, it certainly demonstrates that home education is not a "lesser" form of education."The quality of home education versus school education is difficult to gauge simply by grade marks, especially since it is not a requirement for all homeschooled students to be tested and graded in the same way that students in classrooms are.In Ontario, it is a homeschooling parent's choice whether or not to test and grade their child.This makes it very hard to know whether a child has absorbed their studies and is prepared to pursue higher education if that is their choice."Furthermore, history also shows that people who were educated at home are just as successful. Inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers were all homeschooled. Numerous US presidents were also homeschooled, as well as many other people in many fields of work. Some more notable homeschoolers include John Witherspoon, Andrew Carnegie, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart! To see a more complete list of successful homeschoolers you can look here: http://www.homeschoolacademy.com....... History indeed shows that homeschoolers are just as well off as anyone else."I would argue that homeschooling was a very different institution in the time of Bell, Edison, Mozart, and others born before the 1900s. In fact, a small percentage of children received formal education from either tutors or in school before that time. This is because children were responsible for helping their families economically. They worked alongside their siblings, parents, and other relatives to make money. Families taught their children informally back then, and their lessons generally focused on developing practical skills such as farming and hard labour for boys, and sewing and cooking for girls.So, while the historical figures you mentioned were homeschooled, the majority of other children of that era were homeschooled as well. Their success should be attributed to their intelligence, creativity, and resiliance, not to their childhood education.2. ArgumentsAfter examining the requirements for homeschooling children in Ontario, I have found the standards to be much lower than the requirements of classroom teaching in Ontario.Brick-and-mortar schooling offers students fully qualified teachers who can direct their studies in the most productive way. These teachers are backed up by their training and experience.Homeschooled students do not have the benefit of qualified teachers, which puts them at a disadvantage to their classroom-taught peers.Also, homeschooling does not offer students the benefit of social interaction with others to the same extent as classroom learning does. How are homeschooled students able to practice the social skills necessary for their future lives outside the home, without the opportunity to interact with a variety of different people as they could do if they were being taught in school?Thank you and I look forward to reading your response!