In 2007, NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) reported that there was an approximate 1,508,000 homeschooled students in the United States. 36% of these homeschooling parents have reported that the main reason behind their decision to home school their child was to provide him or her with religious or moral instruction. The second most popular reason to home school a child, at 21% of parents, was their concern for the school environment. 17 % of the parents say they were dissatisfied with the academic instruction available to their children. The remaining parents reported other reasons, such as their child’s physical or mental health, 2 percent; their child has special needs, 4 percent; interest in a nontraditional approach to education, 7 percent; and other reasons such as family time, travel, distance and finances, 14 percent.

Even though parents who home school have their reasons, there are so many more reasons why homeschooling is bad for their children. For example, how is a parent properly educated to teach every level of education? Teacher’s go through years of college to prepare themselves for the difficult task of educating children. A parent doesn’t have the necessary qualifications to educate a child. Plus, isolating children from other children doesn’t allow them to grow up understanding how society works. There needs to be bullying, asking teachers for permission to go to the bathroom, lunch tables, assemblies, packing lunches, taking school pictures, riding buses and presenting projects. Without situations like these, children won’t be able to function properly in society. Public and private school prepares children for the real world, it teaches them how to interact with those around them and how well they can act in given situations.

Through many online blogs, the majority of homeschooled student’s talk about how much they hate having to be stuck in their houses all day and how they never get to see their friends. For example, on My Blogging Site there are two entries from anonymous writers that talk about how much they despise being homeschooled. One even stated how they only see their friends at church on Sunday’s. I feel that this is another example of why children should not be homeschooled. Why should someone be stranded at home all day, everyday, and rarely see their friends? The worst part is they don’t even have the opportunity to make new friends. Homeschooling is a horrible way to raise a child. A parent can’t shelter their child forever, they need to realize that.