Homeschool 2

Home-schooling Compiled by Nathalie Farah, Community Journalist Published: August 07, 2008, 23:59 G NEWS According to Homeschool.com, the number of children in the United States being home-schooled has jumped by nearly three million every year. According to the website, many parents are using home–schooling to connect more with their children as well as provide them with a more flexible and diversified educational style. However, there are some disadvantages such as the loss of income because of a parent having to stay at home to focus on educating his or her child. Do you know anyone who was home–schooled? How did they find it? Do you think it is a more feasible approach to education as compared to traditional schooling? Why? Home-schooling prevents a child from learning social skills and being exposed to different people and ideas. Children who are home-schooled do not interact with other nationalities and cultures. In school, pupils learn how to interact with different people and learn more about the world while home–schooled children only have their computers. Because home–schooled pupils don't interact as much with others, that might affect their self-confidence compared to other pupils. Ailene del Rosario Abu Dhabi While anyone can learn from a book, schools can give other essential skills to pupils such as how to interact with other nationalities. Also, pupils can make friends, which is important. When I first came here I didn't know how to interact with other nationalities because I wasn't exposed to them in the Philippines but now I know what to do. Solon del Rosario Abu Dhabi It depends on how children who are home-schooled are being taught. Even though in regular schools there is more interaction between pupils, if they are taken out for a lot of social activities then home–schooled children don't really miss out. They learn how to socialise and interact from those activities. I have friends who were home–schooled and they didn't miss out on anything. Ridade Bayik Dubai When pupils are home-schooled they lose out on being exposed to others. Also, going to school is a tradition and pupils who are home-schooled miss out on that and other experiences that come with attending normal schools. They also might be a better influence for children compared to home-schooling. Mariam Hozefa Dubai

Technology can help tailor education for special needs children better than a classroom experience. Technology is becoming a major part in education today, so children with special needs would benefit more from programmes that are created specifically for them. This would be better than focusing only on teachers and their ability to explain something that the pupil is having difficulty understanding. Roshatha Sampath Abu Dhabi It's a good idea to use technology to help educate children with special needs. The material can be structured for their specific needs and it can be a creative way to teach them because it can expose the curriculum in a new way. That way, children with special needs would be able to grasp the material better than if they were in a classroom. Yousuf Khan Abu Dhabi It might help pupils with special needs because of the way the programmes are created. They might be able to get the pupils to focus better because of things like sounds and special effects that would catch their attention. Pupils can also learn at their own pace instead of trying to catch up with others in a normal classroom so they would be able to retain the information better. Harkirt Singh Sharjah I think that it's better for pupils to be in a classroom, even if they have special needs. If a school has the proper equipment and teachers, then pupils would be able to learn and at the same time be exposed to others. That's important because it will help them discover more about the world and it would provide them with skills that would be valuable in the future. Kitho Jones Dubai Educational achievement has the most influence on an individual's future earning power. When in school, children learn to interact with one another and they discover whether they are leaders, followers or team players. That is important because it reveals what they would most likely be in the future. It's not enough for a pupil to be good academically, he has to have good social skills, too, if he is to be successful in the future. Sandra Kefayeh Abu Dhabi What a pupil achieves in school is important but what they learn from home also has an impact on their future. What they learn at home influences the way they interact with others and how to handle different situations. If a pupil has good grades, a good upbringing and good friends then they are most likely to be successful in the future because they know what to do in any given situation. Zakaria Ashour Egypt In school, pupils are taught everything that they would need to be successful in the real world. So if they have good grades, they learn how to manage stress in an effective manner in order to be successful as adults. They also learn skills,

such as how to communicate with others and how to present their ideas that would help them later on in their lives. Ranjeet Raju Dubai It is very important because it acts as a guideline for what may happen in the future. But school does not only teach pupils information that is relevant to their education and success in the future but it also teaches them how to be good members of society through interactions between fellow pupils and teachers. So how pupils do in school is a parallel to their success as adults. Neha Najeeb Dubai Computer-assisted education or e-schooling cannot achieve proper learning in case of older pupils. It's better than conventional schooling because pupils can immediately search for information using the internet if they aren't sure about something instead of waiting to speak to a teacher. Also, it's a more interactive way to educate pupils. Pupils who use e-learning also have an advantage because they learn how to work with technology better than their counterparts. Raouf Al Henawi Al Ain It should only be used to supplement what a pupil is learning in school instead of as a replacement for it. At school, pupils interact with one another, both on the playground and in the classroom. Pupils who use e-learning miss out on those interactions and that could affect them in the future because they wouldn't know how to properly communicate with others. Wasfi Tarabishi Abu Dhabi It's different for pupils who are in classrooms. They can interact with the teacher and if they have any queries they can ask immediately instead of trying to look for the answer online. Pupils also learn skills, which are as important as learning information to get good grades. E-learning is good but after a certain extent it can't help pupils as much as traditional learning. Noura Mohammad Sharjah I would prefer that my children go to school. In traditional schools, pupils are exposed to many things that I feel that home-schooled children might be deprived of. Also, the experiences that pupils have in schools help to build their character, which is essential for the future. Kristina Estero Dubai