Should children be homeschooled?

Children can be recognized for their achievements

Question: Should children be homeschooled?
Position1 of 3›: Yes, children should be homeschooled
Argument1 of 4›: Children can be recognized for their achievements

With a limited amount of students, homeschoolers can actually be recognized for quality work.

The argument

Proponents of homeschooling argue that recognition is not a pleasant extra in a child's education but one of its working conditions, and that ordinary classrooms are structurally unable to supply it. In over-populated schools it is often difficult for children to receive the recognition required for confidence in their work. The arithmetic is simple: the average class size in a US public school is around 25 students, and the average class size in the UK is around 27. A teacher's attention in any given lesson is a fixed quantity divided among that many children, so the share available to each one is small and, in practice, unevenly distributed. The objection is not that teachers are unwilling to notice good work; it is that with the short amount of time each teacher gets with students, it is difficult to recognise every single child. Homeschooling, on this view, removes the constraint rather than asking teachers to work harder against it. The only fellow students are siblings, so the ratio of attention to children is transformed. When a child does good work they are able to be recognised instantly, at the moment the work is finished, rather than days later or not at all. That immediacy matters to the argument, because recognition that arrives promptly attaches to the effort that earned it and so reinforces it, whereas praise delayed until it is no longer connected to anything the child remembers doing reinforces nothing. The same ratio produces a second benefit. Advice can be tailored to the particular child and given at the quality that undivided attention allows, and help can continue for as long as is necessary rather than ending when the lesson does. Children recognised and supported in this way can excel and improve faster, which is why, proponents conclude, children should be homeschooled.

Premises

[P1]In overpopulated classes of around 25 to 27 students, teachers have too little time to recognise every child's work. [P2] In homeschooling a child is recognised instantly for good work and receives quality, tailored advice for as long as needed. [C] Therefore, because children can be better recognised for their achievements, children should be homeschooled.

Counter-arguments

Although children may be getting more one on one time, they are missing out on things such as award ceremonies, peer tutoring, and group learning environments. They take on challenges individually and must be individually motivated. While this may work for some, it is not a learning strategy that every child can successfully learn with.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P4] This is not necessarily conducive to better work.