Should children be homeschooled?

Homeschooling shields children from a negative school environment

Question: Should children be homeschooled?
Position1 of 3›: Yes, children should be homeschooled
Argument‹2 of 4›: Homeschooling shields children from a negative school environment

By teaching children at home, they are less likely to be exposed to things such as bullying and harassment.

The argument

For many parents the decisive objection to public school is not what is taught there but what happens between the lessons. Bullying is widespread rather than exceptional: in the USA alone, 28% of children report having been bullied during their time at school, and a shockingly high 70.4% of US students report having seen someone be bullied. Proponents of homeschooling read the second figure as the more telling of the two, since it indicates that the experience shapes the environment for the large majority of pupils, including those never targeted themselves. Homeschooling addresses this directly rather than by degrees. Measures taken inside a school must work on the behaviour of the people in it; removing a child from the public school system removes the child from the setting in which the behaviour occurs. On this view that is why the remedy is reliable where school-based ones are not: it does not depend on adults detecting incidents, on other children changing, or on a complaint being upheld. A parent is able to shield their child without needing anyone else's cooperation. The benefit claimed is not merely the absence of harm. Learning requires a measure of security, and a child preoccupied by the terror of bullying is spending on vigilance the attention that the work requires. Remove the threat and the child can feel safer in their learning environment, so their education is no longer compromised by it. Proponents add that the effect need not be permanent withdrawal. Confidence damaged in one setting can be rebuilt in another, and a child who regains it within homeschooling may return to public school once that confidence is developed. Homeschooling on this account provides the ground on which a child can stand up for themselves, a period of shelter that equips them rather than one that merely removes them.

Premises

[P1]Bullying is a major concern in public schools, where 28% of US children report being bullied and over 70% report witnessing it. [P2] Homeschooling removes a child from that environment, letting them feel safer and learn without the terror of bullying. [P3] Sheltered in this way, children can regain confidence and even return to public school once they are ready to stand up for themselves. [C] Therefore, because homeschooling shields children from a negative school environment, children should be homeschooled.

Counter-arguments

Homeschooling can only really protect children from physical forms of bullying. With social media and texting, there are many invisible ways for negativity to invade a child's life even if they are homeschooled. They may feel even more alone and isolated without the support of their peers.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] There are non-physical ways for children to be bullied.