Home School Versus Home Room: The Education Debate

"'We have a greater opportunity to influence our children's socialization with our character as parents rather than letting peers develop our children's character,' Stuart Whitney said."

What Mr. Whitney said in this article is true, but its not completely possible to avoid peer socializing and children do pick up strange ideas from other children. In our town my children's friends are all public schooled. Even though we live in the mountains in a remote place, there's drugs in this town, and schooled children are using them, drinking alcohol, and experimenting with sex. I am happy my children are not doing this kind of thing at this point, but they do have friends or acquaintances that do them and I find it impossible to totally isolate my children from schooled children.

Good news - I heard from a friend that all the children attending her church in this town are now homeschooled, so that's a step forward.

I'm trying to reason why it is schooled children are more likely to use drugs, etc. than homeschooled. If you have any ideas on that please drop me a line in my comments. I think my children are more influenced by me than they would be if they were schooled. Having children out of the home so many hours per day, being influenced by peers (mostly) and teachers (who they learn to despise, for the most part) just doesn't seem psychologically healthy to me. It probably makes kids feel neglected by their parents. They have too much free time between school and home and learn to go with their friends to do things their parents wouldn't approve of if only they knew. But somehow, they don't know, or don't have the energy after a long day at work to adequately address the harmful situations their teens get into. Okay, that's my best guess. What's yours?

  ¶ 3:39 PM