A wave of illiterate “home schooled” children

They can join the forces cadets for that lol

Basically this. For every story of an illiterate child being home edded , you’ll have just as many finishing formal schooling with no GCSEs. For every child that has been harmed in some way (especially emotionally or mentally) by home ed, you’ll have just as many being harmed in a formal school environment. Including children being seriously injured, or attempting to take their own life and so on.

What we need is for schools to be better. What we need is the government to actually give a shit about children (firstly) and their education. What we need is for schools to actually be a viable, safe alternative available to all children. Then (or in conjunction with) we can look at home education regulations and possibly a more structured (but descriptive, not prescriptive) framework.

What I find highly ironic is that on any thread about issues (genuine or otherwise) with schools, every other comment is “home school then!”.

She was describing the young man with ASD she knows, who hasn’t achieved despite being bright. Hers was also an anecdote. I described the young man I know with ASD. Also hasn’t achieved, despite staying with formal education.

Home educators generally behave as learning facilitators not teachers. We guide, encourage and monitor progress. We provide materials, trips, work books, opportunities etc. I have never met a home ed parent who believes they are better or more superior to a school teacher. Some of my friends who home ed are teachers. We don't need to learn about behaviour management in a classroom or how to make a subject interesting for 28 children who all have different learning styles to educate our own child. We are not teachers and we aren't trying to be!!

Yes. I'm 'against' children getting an education that doesn't suit their aptitude, abilities or needs in school, or at home.

There are dreadful teachers in excellent schools and fantastic teachers in sub-standard schools. There are brilliant home educators providing an enriched, broad, rewarding education for their children that fires them out in the world ready to thrive, and home educators who shouldn't be home educating at all. And, of course, all that's in between.

I think home education can be a fantastic thing, but I'm hugely in favour of a register and compulsory local authority engagement for home ed families.

Goodness, there are some ridiculous and ill thought out knee jerk comments on here.
I didn't home educate because a) I didn't want to and b) I didn't need to.

I posted this earlier, but I think it is worth repeating - No one way is perfect. Some children don't suit school and some parents shouldn't "educate" their own children.

No, I'm not claiming that. I was responding to a poster saying there's "no evidence" that home education is sometimes poor. Of course it is, just like some schools are sub-standard. But there's a system of checks and balances to maintain standards in school (albeit a flawed one), yet home-edders get outraged at the suggestion that their children's quality of education should also be monitored. There are a scary number of children being denied their right to an education - I've met quite a few of them.

I can only comment on my situation as a forced home schooler/educator. My older child went through the school system beautifully, they are at uni and very successful. My youngest is from my highly successful second husband, I’m sure he (DH) would get a diagnosis these days but in previous more flexible schools it was not an issue. Our child however was ejected from his independent school at age 5, the state provision following was extremely poor and grouped him with deeply abused and traumatised children as his challenging behaviour was classed as the same as theirs. I’m forced to home educate and am trying my best, a year on I’m finding my feet and he’s thriving. We don’t fit in with home educators as we are more home school, I hope our child might go back into formal education, I’m trying to keep that option open. As a neurodiverse child the system disables him but I’m educating him to be as successful as his father and I. We are rejecting and disabling a generation of children who just need a different system. One that champions them but does not currently exist. We are very lucky I have the time and finances to provide him with everything we can, I’m learning the expertise as I go!

This is a huge plus for us. I remember being gutted that I couldn't do both French and History for GCSE because they were in the same "group" for timetabling. We avoid that totally with home ed - DD is currently working on Sociology and Environmental Management as her first GCSEs.

About a third of kids leave school without 5 GCSE passes - would you be fining or jailing all their teachers too?

That's a good point. My DC did the 'usual' GCSE's, but also chose from a range of subjects that they were interested in. They did Marine Science, Classics and Latin as additional exam subjects, which was terrific for them. One has gone on to do Classical Civilisations at A Level in college.

This is utter nonsense. When my DD was in school, every report that came home, every parent teacher meeting I went to, they said she was wonderful - a pleasure to teach, etc. She was bright, always read to at home, her dad and I are well educated and value education. She passed her 11plus and got a grammar school place. In fact, she was masking really heavily, and eventually burnt out in the transition to secondary. The school offered nothing, the education authority offered nothing. Stop blaming the parents for everything when the reality is for SEN children, the system is largely incapable of meeting their needs.

I think I might be home education-adjacent. We home educate the extra stuff around school. Supplementing the teachers.

That doesn't come from me though, I do understand the problems around schools and see the benefits of home ed. I also understand that 4 is probably too young for starting reading across the board, but for my DC so far it luckily hasn't been an issue, I just don't think it's as straightforward as saying it's downright bad to start learning to read at 4. I'm sorry it made your child hate reading, that must have been hard to see 😪 and clearly that's a disadvantage of the school led reading programme.

I do think that home education can be done quite well

The only ones I know of is my sister and her 2 DC.

It's not a good situation they have become tablet children where they sit on their device all day. I saw this when I spent a couple weeks with them visiting. They have no friends. They don't go outside. They are rarely taken anywhere.

They both seem to know how to read but I don't know about their other skills

"home education-adjacent", oh look, we've found an expert then 🙄

Just like how school is very bad for many kids too then.

School is not always the best or safest place for a child.

I agree (especially the sexual harassment side of things in secondary...but that's another thread).

She probably saying this about schools as she sick of all the negativity and misconceptions around home Ed.
Also just because schools start teaching reading at 4 doesn't mean it's right for all children. Some children are ready earlier and some need more time before they have the concentration or will to learn to read. The pressure of books and having to read every night made my child hate reading and books she had previously enjoyed books.

They can read now but most of that is self taught and all school achieved is causing them trauma and made them believe they couldn't learn

I had to unfriend my friend on FB because she constantly shares stuff that is judgemental against people who send their kids to school. It's all about the state turning our kids into robots and that tests are bad and our kids are hard done by etc etc. I don't do the equivalent or criticise home ed. I am skeptical of unschooling but don't criticise her for it.

There must be people who are 'bad at' home ed just as there are schools/teachers that are bad or in fact any group of people. It's not the case that all schools are failing either, the state system has its faults for sure, some schools are failing and the system fails many children. But ultimately any system that is set up for mass education will not meet the needs of all children.

I would home ed if school didn't work out for my kids but I don't think there's anything wrong with using state provided education either. I had a state education then got a BSc then an MSc, primary school was amazing, secondary not so much but overall it was fine. Maybe home ed would have been better but I suspect, given the discussion on a child's 'success' being down to parental academic level, I suspect I wouldn't have got as far.

In our case, the social anxiety, mental health issues and safeguarding failures were all caused by the school, and now we're left trying to pick up the pieces. I'd never have chosen to home ed, but my DD has been left in such a state that she's not capable of going to school and we're bankrupting ourselves paying for both education (one to one tutoring plus online courses) and therapy to try to help her.

School is not always the best or safest place for a child.

No evidence that there are crap home-edders? I've been home education-adjacent for quite a while, and sadly most of what I've witnessed has been pretty shit. My SIL is a case in point. I'm sure it can be done well if people have the time and resources, but it can also be done very badly.

It is not arrogant at all. No-one is saying that they are subject specialists. But home-educators can absolutely facilitate this learning, whether through online learning, tutors, workshops etc. (Without the added pressures of classroom management).

I think many have a very narrow view of what education can look like.

I want to add to this that they often end up attaining GCSEs that are less often available in school, marine science, psychology and classical civilization being popular examples.

The reason even the 'good ones' are so furious, is because we are sick, sore and tired of this judgemental shit that happens to us all the time. We don't give people who choose to use failing state schools constant grief, yet we get judged all the time, with ignorant threads like this from ignorant people who are clueless about home ed.

The more uproar there is against home ed, the more clamp downs the government try to bring in which affects ALL home educators, not just the few who take advantage of the system.

There are so many people who haven't a clue about home ed who want our right to private family life violated by making home inspections compulsory. That is outright disgusting. I'm a private person, a law abiding citizen, and I do not want some council jobsworth stranger inspecting my home. Honestly, you can all just fuck off and leave us in peace.

And statistically, there are MORE abused children in schools, than there are being home ed. ALL who were allegedly 'home ed' that came to harm were both known to services and failed by those services.

ETA statistically we are (around) four times more likely to have social services called on us too. All because people are judgemental, ignorant busybodies.