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Research Paper
Research Paper
Phoebe Grubbs
Ottawa University
ABSTRACT
The raising of the next generation is one of the most important parts of our society today.
Because of this, every aspect of that process is heavily scrutinized. In this paper public schooling
and homeschooling are compared to see which would be better for students who are introverted,
with a finer focus on the socialization of the students, bullying in schools, and parental
involvement, all with regards to their personality type in an effort to answer the question of
INTRODUCTION
The most important part of society is the raising of the next generation. That is something
that is a very hot topic in our society today, all aspects are being scrutinized by the public eye.
Every subject involved in this process, from the subject of discipline to the subject of education,
is being carefully examined. In this paper I look into one of those subjects: education. More
specifically, I will be comparing two of the main forms of the education process and reflecting
on whether either of the two is better for students with certain personality types. The two forms I
will be comparing are homeschooling and public schooling. Both of these paths of education are
highly scrutinized by our society and have seemingly been found lacking in several areas.
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First let us go over the main points that have created the controversy that exists and
generates animosity between these two schooling systems. We can go in alphabetical order and
start with homeschooling. There are two sides to each of the mediums of study, the pros and
cons. I will just touch on the main topics of each presented in a very easy to read format in the
article Homeschooling Vs. Public Schooling by Khilawala (2016). First are the pros of
homeschooling: Specialized care for each child, closer family relationships, more efficient study
habits, and incorporation of religious beliefs in the child. The cons consist of: The time that must
be invested by the parents causes one of them to stay at home and not work, this could cause
financial constraints on the family, difficulty competing in sports, and lack of socialization.
Keeping those things in mind, let us look at the pros and cons of the public school
medium. Pros: Easy access to artistic outlets, after school programs, proficiency of the teachers,
and large amounts of socialization. Cons: High levels of bullying in public schools, lack of
individual attention, non-conformism and innovative thinking are not easily accepted, influence
These all mix together and form a never ending argument that has no clear answer. In this
paper I will not be going over whether or not either medium is good for the general student, but
more specifically which medium is better suited for introverted students. Would it be better to
cater their education to their quiet nature, or to put them in a situation where they are required to
grow, and reach out of their quiet comfort zone on a daily basis in order to prepare them for
working with others in their field of study? My strategy is to use this question to narrow the
focus from all of these topics to the few that could really affect the student based on their
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personality. Chiefly with homeschooling, the specialized study and the lack of socialization, but
with public schooling, the necessary interactions and the bullying problem.
The book Child Development written by Scarr (1969) places the number of introverted
students at approximately 35-50% of all students, so taking this personality into account when
designing a school system that works best for them could have huge ramifications for a large
percent of the general population. The article Introverts and Extraverts Require Different
Learning Environments written by Schmeck and Lockhart (1969) outlines the sort of learning
environment that best suits the introverted personality. In the article the stimulation levels
required for introverts to become engaged, and how they are so much lower than their
extroverted counterparts. Because the stimulation levels are so different, they predicted that a
public school environment that caters to the stimulation of extroverts would overstimulate the
introverted students and that would cause them to shut down and have a difficult time learning.
This would then lead to poorer performances from public schooled introverts compared to the
extroverts. Then there is the problem presented by bullies in school. The website
NOBullying.com posted october 19, 2016 with the latest statistics on bullying, and it states that
up to 77% of students at school are abused by bullies either verbally, physically, or both.
alternative to traditional school (2016), homeschooling in the past has been the chosen medium
of education for religious reasons, but now the motivations have shifted. People are now
academic instruction in other schools. (p.5) So the parents of these children are moving away
from the environments of the public school system because they believe that their students are
better off away from these environments. In the article Why Parents Choose Homeschooling
written by Chris Jeub (1994), a homeschooling parent outlines all the reasons he chose
homeschooling.
In it he states that his main motivational factor was the academic success of
homeschooled students. And they have been proven on a national level to perform extremely
national tests (2009) places the average homeschooler in five key areas of study. In reading they
are in the 89th percentile, in language they are in the 84th percentile, in math the 84th percentile,
in science the 86th percentile, in social studies the 84th percentile, and in core studies
homeschooled students averaged in the 88th percentile. There are other studies done to the
academic success of homeschooled students as well. For example the study Academic
achievement of homeschool and public school students and student perception of parent
involvement conducted by Barwegen, Falciani, Putnam, Reamer, and Stair, (2004) published in
the Community School Journal, as well as a study done by Snyder An evaluative study of the
a catholic university. (2013) published in the Catholic Education journal 16(2), 288-308. So it
would seem that homeschooling would be the better option of the two.
THEORETICAL RESULTS
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From all this it would seem that public schooling overstimulates introverts and therefore
makes it harder for them to learn, and that if you homeschool you can tailor a specific curriculum
to your child that teaches them in the best ways for them to learn based on all the factors you
want to take into account. And while the second half of that sentence is true, going back to the
article by Schmeck and Lockhart (1969), they look at the success rates of introverts in public
school, and they found results that contradicted their expectations. They found that introverts did
quite well in the public school arena, and that teachers tended to reward students who could work
quietly and alone. So the answer seems to be more complex than there being a simple right or
There was a study done on Subjective Well-Being by Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E.,
& Smith, H. L. (1999) and its main topic is the discussion of happiness. It suggests that introverts
get a sort of elated feeling, or a feeling of happiness from short bursts of extroversion. If this is
the case, then putting them in a situation like public school where they will have the chance to
have short spurts of extroverted behavior could potentially benefit their overall happiness and
therefore improve their self confidence. Opportunities like that would probably be fewer and
CONCLUSION
It would seem that this question does not have an umbrella answer with one solution that
fits all introverted students. The question would need to be made on a case by case basis. Things
that need to be taken into account would be the financial situation of the family, can the family
afford to only have one parent working? Then there is the severity of the child's introverted
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tendencies, is the child comfortable enough in social situations that they can function? Or do they
shut down? Another issue is the curriculum used for teaching at home, and the question of
whether or not parents are qualified to teach their children. The fifty states all have different
statutes on the required qualifications of homeschooled parents. There are some families that are
very well suited to homeschooling, and some that are not as suited to it. The only way to
determine the answer is by looking at a student's individual needs and make a decision based on
that.
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Works Cited:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/homeschooling-vs-public-school.html
2. Scarr, S. (1969). Social introversion-extraversion as a heritable response. Child Development,
823-832.
3. Schmeck, R. R., & Lockhart, D. (1983). Introverts and extraverts require different learning
https://nobullying.com/bullying-statistics-2014/
5. Ripperger-Suhler, J. (2016) Homeschooling: An alternative to traditional school. The Brown
schooling-outstanding-results-national-tests/
9. Barwegen, L. M., Falciani, N. K., Putnam, S. J., Reamer, M. B., & Stair, E. E. (2004). Academic
achievement of homeschool and public school students and student perception of parent
versus traditionally schooled students attending a catholic university. Catholic Education, 16(2),
288-308.
11. Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three