<b>Home schooling:</b> More patient and less competitive

HOME schoolers are generally more patient and less competitive, tend to introduce themselves to one another more, and don't fight as much. This was according to a 2001 Time magazine online article on psychotherapist Larry Shyers, who studied the behaviour of 35 home schoolers and 35 public schoolers.

In short, they behaved like little adults, the article said. Which is fine unless you hold the opinion that a child should behave like a child.

Home schooling requires a lot of time and dedication from parents.

Parents must also possess instructional skills or have access to someone who can teach effectively.

In Malaysia, there are a few home schooling associations where they can consult with other parents who are home schooling their children.

Parents will have to research the curriculum to be taught if they want to educate their child according to the school syllabus so that the child can sit for national examinations.

It is also important parents take active steps to ensure the child does not lose out in developing social skills, something which children in schools would develop naturally.

Prof Abdul Halim Mat Diah, an educational expert from Universiti Malaya, said home- schooled children run the risk of being left out of the education system, not to mention missing out on the social integration with children their age.

"This will have a great impact on the child's life.

"If the child is not exposed to the society, he will not know how to deal with the world outside the boundaries of his home," said Halim.

From the educational point of view, there is a possibility that the child undergoes pressure from their parents to succeed, and loses out on his childhood, he said.

Perhaps an extreme example of such a case is child prodigy-turned-prostitute Sufiah Yusof.

At the age of 13, Sufiah, who was home-schooled by her parents, Farooq and Halimaton Yusof, gained entry to Oxford University.

A few years later, she created headlines when she ran away from her family, citing physical and also emotional abuse.

Sufiah made the headlines again last month with British newspaper News of the World reporting that she is now a prostitute.

"Children should be left to enjoy their childhood.

"Parents should not force their own values onto the child," said Halim.

"If they are not allowed to interact with others of their own age, they will not know how to act, and whatever potential they may have is not realised.

"Nowadays, parents have many types of schools to choose from.

"Many private and government schools offer different types of approaches to education and educational philosophy."

Home schooling: More patient and less competitive