Parents are eligible for two different types of custody. Both physical and legal custody are options. Where the child sleeps at night is what is meant by physical custody. Who gets to make the child’s important decisions depends on who has legal custody. It has nothing to do with choosing what to wear to class. It relates to medical decisions. It has to do with educational options. Religious decisions. What if the ex-spouse says no to our child’s homeschooling in Michigan?
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One of the most important decisions we must make for our children is going to school. During COVID, the value of education in our lives has increased. Parents must choose whether to send their children back to school or to homeschool them. These matters should be discussed among the parents. This can be contentious if the child is under the sole custody of one parent. There won’t be any conversation. The dispute between parents may end up in court. So make sure to consult an experienced child custody attorney in Michigan. The court will set a hearing date to go over the evidence. Joint legal custody issues will be handled. What is best for the child is decided by the court.
Traditional schooling versus homeschooling in Michigan. What’s the difference?
The homeschooling rate before the pandemic in the United States was 3.3%. During the pandemic in 2020, the homeschooling rate jumped to 11.1%. Students had to swiftly adjust to remote learning from home. The bulk of the world went remote in early 2020 with the COVID-19 epidemic. Many parents started to think about homeschooling. This is in contrast to sending their children back to the official school system.
Traditional schooling
Traditional schooling or education is systematic instruction in useful fields of knowledge delivered through methods typical of public schools and educational institutions, directed at an unspecified class of people, and indirectly assisting the general public because it is of a nature typically provided by the government at taxpayer expense.
- The traditional method of knowledge transfer used in public schools involves teachers and pupils being in close proximity to one another. The children study in a classroom with their peers, and a teacher is constantly on hand to provide any necessary supervision.
- Students from diverse backgrounds assemble at schools to pursue education. Since they communicate frequently with their classmates, there is an increase in child interaction. This gives students the courage to approach strangers outside of the classroom.
- Teachers in public schools regularly mentor their students. Due to the face-to-face nature of the teaching-learning method, teachers and students get to know one another better. Anytime they have questions or concerns, students are free to speak with their teacher.
Homeschooling
Homeschooling is a progressive movement that encourages parents to educate their children at home rather than enrolling them in a conventional public or private institution. Families choose homeschooling for a number of reasons, such as discontent with the educational options offered, adherence to various religious or educational beliefs, and the perception that children are not making progress in the conventional school system.
- Students who are home-educated enjoy a fairly flexible schedule. It lends itself to curriculum customization. A child can choose any curriculum. It can include the home learning curriculum for kindergarten. It can be the home education for the preschool curriculum. Parents can also choose the home-based preschool curriculum, and so on.
- The lack of peers forces the teacher to concentrate solely on the students, which seems to increase student knowledge in home-based learning. This enables pupils to learn instead of just memorizing and to confidently ask questions.
- The safe setting is among the homeschooling experience’s biggest benefits. When a child is homeschooled, they can learn comfortably in their own environment. Parents are no longer responsible for driving their children to and from school or letting them go on solo trips. In the comfort of their own homes, they are sure that their child is learning.
The common reasons for homeschooling in Michigan
During the pandemic, the need for homeschooling forced parents to rethink their ideas of school. The pandemic forced people to choose homeschooling. Even before the pandemic, there were other reasons why homeschooling became an easy choice. The data is culled from the National Center for Education Statistics:
- Provide religious moral instruction (36%).
- Concern about the environment of other schools (21%).
- Dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools (17%).
- Other reasons (14%).
- Nontraditional approach to child’s education (7%).
- Children have other special needs (4%).
Children may learn through a variety of methods, such as lectures, exercises, and experiments. They could also decide to gain knowledge through experience. They talk about their experiences with their parents, friends, and neighbors. The research compared homeschooled pupils’ academic success to that of students in public schools. There didn’t seem to be a clear distinction between the two groups’ academic performance. Reading, math, and written language results for both groups are average or higher. They possess a broad understanding of the humanities, social studies, and sciences.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of homeschooling?
Homeschooling vs. traditional classroom-based education has long been a contentious topic of discussion. The fact that a homeschooling curriculum contains the same subjects as a traditional school curriculum but without the presence of peers and is, therefore, completely equivalent to those in traditional schools or any other form of learning is often dismissed by parents who seem to believe that the traditional method of learning is the best way to educate their children. Similarly to this, supporters of homeschooling contend that it is the best method of instruction because it gives students a sense of responsibility, lets them learn at their own speed, and offers a flexible schedule.
Advantages of Homeschooling
Religion, socialization challenges, various issues in public schools, better learning possibilities, and spending more time with their children are the main justifications given by parents for choosing to homeschool.
- Educational Flexibility. Parents desire a high-quality education. They want something that develops their children’s skills. Build moral principles while also making learning enjoyable. They are becoming more conscious of the need for alternative learning methods. This is in the light of known limitations of traditional education. Parents oversee their children’s education when they homeschool them. The environment for teaching and learning is also more enjoyable when done at home. Teachers or parents only guide. They ease learning. It promotes independence. Encourage freedom of speech. The method of teaching is humanist.
- Learning that is effective and meaningful. As was already noted, academic inputs and results that are specific to children’s learning needs are prioritized in homeschooling. In terms of structure, everyone agreed that homeschooling helped students succeed academically. Homeschooling functions in three dimensions: (a) to offer individualized instruction intended to assist learning, (b) to permit a secure and healthy learning environment, and (c) to offer enough learning support for talented and special needs children. Homeschooling has been shown to offer meaningful environments and educational opportunities. Based on a textbook and standardized curriculum, researchers came to the conclusion that learning at home has no learning restrictions. It can occur both inside and outside the home and can cover both academic and practical information. Therefore, homeschooling parents can effectively plan and create learning, which contributes to their children’s success.
- Participation of the family and community. Family interactions and expectations are among the most important aspects of homeschooling. Better academic results are a result of family participation, such as parents’ interest and concern in their children’s education. Parents and children can collaborate on projects or learn via entertaining and cost-free educational websites for children. Family engagement becomes essential to building competencies along with social variety. Students who are homeschooled and their parents frequently participate in sports, cooperative learning, church activities, and community service. Adults who were homeschooled did not display traits that could suggest that home education is detrimental to cultivating respect for individual differences and empathy for others. A person is less likely to become cynical the more education they receive at home.
- Benefits for social, mental, and physical health. School experiences are crucial in determining a person’s course toward development and well-being. This is supported by research showing that, compared to peers who attended public schools, homeschooled teenagers exhibit stronger character traits and less harmful health behavior as they age. It was discovered that they had a higher propensity to volunteer, be forgiving, find meaning in life, and practice better habits. A survey of 185 students from various private and public colleges and universities was conducted regarding their adjustment to college. Comparatively, the study revealed that there are no appreciable differences between traditionally educated pupils and homeschooled students in terms of self-esteem. It was also shown that their rates of depression were noticeably lower.
- Tailored for unique circumstances. Psychotherapy and other support services are beneficial for homeschooled children who have significant medical requirements. Students with varied abilities and diverse needs are frequently found to be homeschooled. Families with children who have significant disabilities are another group for whom homeschooling is particularly challenging. For example, the 2007 National Household Education Surveys Program found that about 21% of homeschooling parents chose to do so because their children had “other special needs,” while 11% did so because their children had “physical or mental health problems.” The findings from these surveys showed that homeschooling has gained more acceptance as a viable educational option for parents whose children have exceptional needs.
- Benefits to parents. Most parents oversee homeschooling under various standards. Parents were found to enjoy the control they have over their children’s educational circumstances when homeschooling, notwithstanding the degree of the method of instruction’s structure. The majority of parents express satisfaction with their children’s academic development in homeschooling. Additionally, homeschooling allays the worries of the parents. One of these is their wish for their kids to stay away from social disorders like drug addiction that are linked to interactions in public schools. For instance, in the United States, parents also decide to homeschool their kids due to ethical and religious considerations.
Drawbacks of homeschooling.
There are some drawbacks to homeschooling as well. Homeschoolers lack peers, a happy childhood, motivation, a healthy sense of completion, and decent manners. They are alone quite a bit. It’s possible that they lack access to conventional educational resources. Playgrounds, labs, and libraries are such amenities. As fallible humans, parents can make mistakes. They may also have to deal with behavioral and psychological issues. They have to be with the children at all times.
- Lack of socialization in real life. People who are unfamiliar with homeschooling frequently worry about socializing. In general, homeschooling falls short of giving children opportunities for peer connection. It falls short in terms of offering diverse associations, encourages parental dependence, and unavoidably slows a child’s personality development. Children who are homeschooled typically participate more in extracurricular activities. However, participation in these activities is frequently limited to children from comparable social levels, backgrounds, and values. As a result, young children need to be exposed to social life every day in public schools; otherwise, they won’t have the ability to adjust to situations in real life as adults. As a result, homeschooling restricts the range of ideologies and cultural backgrounds that children may meet in most public school environments.
- Differentiated curriculum and progression. It’s possible that homeschooled children lack the tools necessary to evaluate their understanding of, and adherence to, the goals set forth by state institutional education systems. It is still challenging, even for parents, to evaluate, diagnose, and choose the curriculum and instruction that would meet their children’s needs because homeschooling is specifically tailored to meet their needs. Standardized achievement assessments have been found to be a drawback of homeschooling. Standardized examinations are closely aligned with the curriculum in public and private schools, while homeschoolers pick assessments based on convenience. In other words, parents might not be adhering to the institutionalized curriculum of the school that attempts to aid their children in test success.
- Legalities of homeschooling. It is risky for the homeschooling movement’s existence to rely on legislative latitude. Legal scholars frequently advocate for tighter regulations on homeschooling in an effort to give advocates of traditional schools legal means of outlawing the practice. The media also plays a role in fostering anti-homeschooling sentiment.
- A burden on parents. Teachers and online support groups are supposedly available for homeschooling. They assist with curriculum inquiries. Help with student assessments. Parents have mentioned the lack of support. They have experienced the absence of help from communities and schools. Many states do not fund pupils who attend homeschooling programs. Parents are encouraged to justify the decision to homeschool their children to others. There were some households that lacked moral, social, and emotional support. Public schools were less likely to provide support. The support parents got came from other homeschooling families. They also got them from organized homeschooling groups.
In 2020, parents were designated as the “key learning agents” who assisted students with their digital learning tools and learning processes. Out of 193, 130 countries have totally abandoned traditional education in favor of homeschooling. Homeschooling is very common now, but parents, mentors, and the entire educational system still need to review further how this platform of learning could be improved to benefit children and families that prefer this setup.
This is because of a drastic change to the educational system that suddenly made homeschooling a general form of education where parents were viewed as “accidental homeschoolers.” After the epidemic, there will undoubtedly be changes to the education numbers, but it is unknown where. What is evident, though, is that as educational technology advances, homeschooling becomes more practical now.
Who gets to decide between traditional and homeschooling in Michigan?
A child may be educated at home by a parent or legal guardian. Parents are not required to notify the state. The burden is on the state to show that a child is not receiving an adequate education. The requirement for teacher certification was ruled unconstitutional by the Michigan Supreme Court. The state also offers a nonpublic school option. This option requires certified instructors. The parent with legal custody has the final say. It is up to the parent with legal custody to decide between homeschooling and traditional schooling. So consult a trusted Michigan family attorney to assist you on this matter. The court would prefer that both parents agree. There’s always a chance they won’t. It’s possible the court may decide for them The child’s homeschooling is the responsibility of the parent or legal guardian. The parent sets assignments, administers tests, and grades them. The homeschooling family is required to provide report cards, transcripts, and diplomas. For this, internal criteria are applied. You could finish the 12th grade at home. A high school diploma is given to the graduates by their parents.
Homeschooling provides education of a higher standard than traditional institutions. Children get more individualized attention. They are better groomed. Homeschooled children comprehend ideas more quickly than their school-aged counterparts. Routine-based courses that are offered in schools may not be appealing to all children. Studies that are specifically tailored to them will pique their interest more. There’s a chance that parents don’t hold the same homeschooling beliefs. Although there are benefits to homeschooling, some parents may prefer a more active setting. A setting outside the home where people from different backgrounds coexist.
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