This reason, outside of the first one, may have the single greatest practical effect on the child. In importance, I would rank this as #2 of these 7 reasons.
Simply put, in the public schools your child is one of many. I don’t mean to insult any public school teachers, and I don’t mean to give the implication that they don’t care about their students. Some homeschooling advocates seem to give off that impression, but I want to be clear that for the most part, teachers genuinely care about their students. However, they get so many. Your average third grade teacher almost certainly cares for the kids entrusted into their care. But they only really get one good school year with each of those students. How many elementary school teachers can remember the names of half of the class they taught 5 years ago? 3? Last year? As much as they can care for students, the simple fact is that most of those students they care for now, their care will fade into nothingness a decade from now. Sure they will love to hear of what happened to them afterwards, but how many of them are praying for students they had 5 years ago? The problem here isn’t with the teachers, it is with the system.
Not only does the child move from teacher to teacher, but when they are in class, they are usually in a group of maybe 20 other children. That means that one-on-one interaction is extremely limited. Given the inefficiency explained in a previous post, the teacher simply does not have the time to give each and every child the opportunity to ask questions and effectively teach the lesson. Also, every child in that classroom is different. Some of the children are tracking very well with what the teacher is saying. Some are bored because they already understand the material and are waiting for the teacher to tell them something they haven’t already heard. And some are having great difficulty even keeping up with what the teacher said five minutes ago. So why are these kids in the same class? Because they are the same age, and are grouped into completely arbitrary units called ‘grades’. If you are 11-12 years old, then you are in 6th grade (they used to hold children who were struggling back from advancing to the next grade, but now it is far more common to placate parents by advancing them anyway and giving them a title like “learning disabled”, and this is coming from one who spent years under such a title). This also means that if you are in 6th grade, you are in 6th grade everything. This creates the possibility that one could be at a 7th grade level in math, but a 5th grade level in science, leaving one bored in one class and outclassed in another.
Under such a system only the most gifted students are typically noticed. The only other ways to be noticed in school is by a) being attractive, b) excelling at extracurricular activities, or c) acting out in defiance (this is negative attention, but most kids would rather have negative attention than no attention at all). This leaves a good chunk of students falling through the cracks, and that is such a shame. Teachers are aware of this, and try to push these “sheep children” up, but there is only so much that can be done under this system.
So what is the solution here? The best solution is to homeschool them. Under this system the child is being taught by someone who not only cares for them, but loves them deeply, and is more concerned about them than a schoolteacher will be. The teacher will know the child’s gifts, and after a few years will know the best way to teach them. Class sizes shrink from 20 to siblings (or perhaps a few more if the homeschooling parents are taking on extra children. Obviously in that scenario some of these benefits are mitigated). That means that there is much more time to take more questions, and explain things in more depth and detail.
Is one child behind another? Allow the excelling child to read ahead, while you slow down to the level of the struggling child, and help them understand what is being taught. In public school, curriculum is decided by people who have never met the children in the room. Homeschooling allows the curriculum to be shaped by each individual child’s needs and gifts. Read those two sentences again. That is seriously some potent stuff there.
Under this system grades can be scrapped altogether. Or they can take on a much more fluid form, allowing one student to be in multiple grades simultaneously as each subject is taught to different levels. Is one child gifted in chemistry, but another is gifted in geography? The way classes are done can actually be changed to help those students foster a love for those subjects.
Under such a system nobody falls through the cracks. The teacher will not forget the student, but will care about them deeply, and will know the best way to teach them. And every student gets education tailor-made for their particular gifts and needs.
Which system do you like better?
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