## "Children should never be educated at home"

  
  
It is evident that the massive number of parents are choosing to educate their children at home recent years. "From 1999 to 2012, the percentage of students who were homeschooled doubled, from an estimated 1.7 percent to 3.4 percent," reports the National Center for Education Statistics. Although the rise of homeschooling has been making more and more parents consider and accept this method of education, many others do not believe that it can replace the normal school. Otherwise, the effects that home-based education brings are proving that it should be opted for due to the prevention from detrimental adolescent's problems, and children's higher academic achievements.  
  
School-age children are often endured some negative problems; as a result, parents tend to homeschool their children in order to avoid them. In many instances, normal schools can be rife with intimidation and threats of violence to children. These schools are also filled with children "who are all too happy to do drugs, drink alcohol and have unprotected sex" (Carlee Westbrook, 2014). However, thanks to home education option, the requirement for students to go to school is unnecessary; therefore, they will not be exposed to detrimental issues which children in public schools frequently encounter. Indeed, the effects of this educational method have been evidenced by numerous studies. For example, in 2016, Thomson and Jang researcher stated that, "Homeschooled teens are less likely to drink than their public and private school counterparts". Other example showing the effectiveness of homeschooling is the study of Shyers (1992). According to him, homeschooled students "received significantly lower problem behavior score than did their agemates from traditional program". Through both outstanding studies, home-educated children have been proved to be less likely to suffer from adverse problems such as violence, drugs, and other negative behaviors. In short, home education enables children to avoid numerous negative adolescents' issues.  
  
Not only does homeschooling shelter students from adolescent's problem but also improves their academic performance. Parents always want to exert the most effective teaching methods on their child without school's intervention. They can prioritize the most suitable curriculum and schooling schedule for only their child because they do not need to concern on a large scale of students as normal school. As a result of efficient methods and appropriate syllabus, home-educated students often gain higher academic achievement. This can be supported by analyses of extant empirical evidence such as SAT test. In 2014, SAT "test scores of college-bound homeschool students were higher than the national average of all college-bound seniors of that same year (NHERI, 2016)". Other evidence demonstrated by researcher Brian Ray is that those who study at home "have consistently scored in these studies, on average, at the 65th to 80th percentile on standardized academic achievement tests in the United States and Canada, compared to the public school average of the 50th percentile" (Ray, 2010).  
  
Recently, the criticism of positive claims about homeschooling has been emerged. Some contradictors suggest isolation from peers' interaction and social activities are considered as evidence that homeschoolers tend to lack. Some who do not advocate homeschooling claim that "homeschooled students have fewer friends and a significantly lower amount of social interaction with peers", according to The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CHRE). Although home-educated students do not interact with children in class or school, they still get involved in other groups when they play with neighborhood children and participate in many activities such as museum events, online forums, and campings, etc. "Homeschooled children typically interact with a broader range of ages (of children and adults) than do most institutional school children (Smedley, 1992)". Besides, according to Devitt (2017), homeschool isolation occurs because homeschoolers do not go to school to get their "social fix". However, children educated at home can take advantage of the time away from school to participate in other social activities. There are numerous activities sponsored by local support groups for homeschoolers such as "physical education classes, special speakers, sports, camping, trips to museums, industries, farms, parks, historic sites, and hundreds of other activities (Klicka, 2007)".  
  
In conclusion, homeschooling should be considered a viable educational option as it reduces the risk of detrimental adolescent's problems and improves academic performance despite accusation of lacking socialization. With the remarkable benefits, home education can highly develop to have the opportunity to replace the current education systems because people may have a broad minded attitude towards homeschooling in the future.