家庭教育(Home Education)

Home education, or home schooling, is a phenomenon which is both old and now. It may seem to many like a strange idea, but years ago, it was the norm. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln both received their education at home. And there is a growing trend for children to be educated at home. An estimated two million American children, one source says, are taught in their own homes instead of going to regular schools. The number of support groups, magazines and other resources for home-schooling families is also on the rise. Being comparatively rare cases in China, home schooling is repeatedly reported as an attractive and promising alternative.

Parents who decide to home-school are not without reasons. Many may worry about the quality of education at regular schools. They want to tailor the education of their children to their intelligence and aptitude. They prefer to choose the subjects on their own. They also think caring parents make the best teachers. Studies show that many home-schooled children really do very well.

Proven benefits of home schooling are obvious. But educating kids at home may not be the right choice for all families. It may not be practical, and dose not constitute an important approach to children education.

With computer aided education more and more available and effective, school education has advantages home education can never catch up with. No family has resources which is adequate for modern education. Parents, althoug they are most caring, cannot be competent and qualified as trained teachers. A most discouraging fact is that children taught at home and do not go out to schools will develop strange characteristics which will eventually hinder them when they go out to society. They are sure to lack ability and skills to cope with various intricate relationships which cannot not be acquired through home education environment. And they will end up as crippled.

As the matter stands, home education is not so important as to deserve more merit than is already exaggerated.