By Staff writer, Anayis Barzegar

Monday 8:00 a.m.       

A student rushes to class, in hopes that he is not late, while another student does not intend to wake up for another three hours. How is this possible?

            Homeschooling.

            The most common type of homeschooling is when an individual receives a packet of worksheets that are to be completed within a given amount of time. Another form of homeschooling includes a few hours of private tutoring from either a parent or a certified teacher.

            While difficult to gauge an exact number, over one million students are homeschooled in America. According to the survey done by the National Household Education Survey as to why parents choose to teach their children at home, half feel that they can give their children a better education and one-third do so for religious reasons.

Though on the surface homeschooling may present numerous advantages, it also holds innumerable consequences. For one, it does not adequately prepare an individual for life after high school. Due to the immense freedom and lack of a set schedule, homeschoolers are often exempt from responsibility and left inept to survive in the real world.

            Homeschooling does not allow for a young student to acquire the same academic foundation as the pupils of a conventional school.

            In comparison to “regular” high schools, they receive little to no homework. An insufficient workload and the absence of a solid teacher can only spell trouble.          

            High school is a significant time in one’s life for it shapes them into the individual that they will become. Taking up homeschooling completely changes all that.

When it comes to homeschooling, many believe that the biggest drawback is becoming a social outcast of society, which may or may not be true.

            Kaila Kalantarzadeh (’08) believes this to be a misconception.

            “They are the most social people I know,” she stated, “which proves that it just matters from person to person.”

            Natalie Keshishian (’07) and Innessa Arutunyan (’07) are skeptical of homeschooling and how much learning it actually entails.

            “One learns to get along with other people who have varying personalities,” an ideal that can not be picked up through homeschooling, Keshishian mentioned.

            Arutunyan, who has friends in homeschooling states that they have what one may consider a “fun and fabulous life.” The reason for this is that a mere thirty minutes of homework is all that is required of the so-called “students.”

            Arutunyan is obdurate in her belief that “not everyone can learn by themselves.”

            Kristine Abaksountbation (’09) does not recommend homeschooling to others; however, she does not frown upon it. In fact, due to high school’s “excessive drama” she feels that it is in her best interest to take up homeschooling as of next year.

            It has been found that students use homeschooling as a form of escape from their troubling high school experience. But, it really does not help to run away from one’s problems. It is better to confront them.

Experiencing the real world is essential in a person’s life and this can not be done if one is cooped up inside this box of isolation.