An interesting discussion on whether one should homeschool their children or send them to a school appeared on some blogs from the Philippines.
A Passerby's Trail writes [1]
I am an educator and I had a lot of teaching experiences in different school levels; yet as a mom, I prefer to homeschool my child. I’m aware how much work it’s going to be, especially if I intend to create a curriculum from ground up. But I’m willing to invest all my time, my energy, my creativity and my expertise. It’s worth it, because it’s for my child.
Tito Rolly, another Filipino edu-blogger agrees with [2] A Passerby's Trail [2] and feels that technology may provide a good platform for home schooling
I think homeschooling is not a far-fetched scenario given the extent of what technology can do today. For example, whereas we have to buy volumes of encyclopedia before just to get an idea on a certain topic, the same can be had with just a click on your mouse.
And how it would help the kids, Tito continues
What this means is that a child no longer has to face the dangers of going to school; being run over by a vehicle while crossing the streets, the hassles of commuting to and fro’ being kidnapped, be confronted by bullies, playing hooky :-) or whatever… that also means less expenses for baon, miscillaneous expenses, grouchy teachers, etc. (No more suspension of classes during typhoons provided there is electric current) All they have to do is to log in to a site, open their lesson and learn. This may also mean that we can go global. Enrol our kids to schools anywhere in the world. Ah, the possibilities are just limitless.
Noypetes, commenting on Tito's post [3] feels that home schooling might make class re-unions a thing of the past and the students may not develop social skills if they don't go to school and mix with other students.
Home schooling is fine. My Concern with home schooling is the lack of social interaction among peers which is very important in honing a childs independence to coexist in a society. I think some of the patterns in teaching fundamentals should be retained. I agree that the convenience of the IT or world wide web serves it's purpose well but in so many ways looses the intimate setting of learning with other kids and the full personal presence of a teacher
A Passerby's Trail, having experience in handling large classes, had anticipated this “social skills” aspect, she wrote [1]
I am an educator but I believe that school is not the only place for children to develop socialization skills. Children don’t need to be around many people in order to be socialized because they don’t respond too well when they are in a crowd. I know that because I used to handle very large classes.
Insecurity, self-consciousness and nervousness wouldn’t be an issue if a child is not in a classroom setting. A school environment can certainly be a threatening place. For some children, it can be traumatic. It’s sad… but that is a reality.
Tito has a wish for future schools [3]
Let me take you further. As I envision it, our concept of what a school is will dramatically change in the near future. Schools as we know it will become obsolete. While there may still be a building we call a school, we will have no more classrooms per se but several roomful of computers where a teacher is assigned to each while the learers stay at home. Instructions will be in the form of modules and will be individualized for each learner who, in turn, will be more independent. Since progress will be up to the learner, the slow learners will be spared of the humilliation of being left by his/her peers for after all, there is no direct contact with them.