AIBU to wonder how home educators feel confident teaching children?

Of course you’re judging 🤣

But as an aside, I know loads of home educators and I don’t think one of them started doing it without loads of research. 🙂

I am a teacher and I would say teaching a neurotypical child with no learning disabilities is fairly easy. You did it from 0-5 without any teachers!

Teaching is complex because of the juggling of 30 children’s individual needs, children with specific learning disabilities and/or neurodivergence, fitting into new (daft) government, local authority and school policies without enough time, money or resources.

There will be aspects that challenge an educator if a child moves to a higher level of understanding than they have themselves at say 17/18. But, at that point you will probably be paying for a tutor, no?

@Imaginingdragonsagain
It isn’t cheap, exams are expensive too.

This sounds like a parenting issue rather than an educational one. You don't know how to talk to your 4 year old? If you went to the library together you could probably find a picture book explaining gravity 😂

Most children don't need 8+ GCSEs, and you can spread the cost over several years rather than all at once.

And so many terrible schools rife with sexual assaults, violence and bullying. Is it 40% of schooled children that don't pass maths and English GCSEs?

I assumed that a lot of home educators did this, but is it not really expensive to teach 8+ GCSEs this way?

That's because school work is boring, not because home education is impossible 😂

I'm not particularly pro home Ed, but I can see why some chose it, and some do it very well, and some do their best out of desperation at the current school system.

I have a bright 10 year old, who comes home telling me they did about 10 mins actual work, and then the teacher spend rest of lesson trying to control children who run out the class, swear, shout and generally misbehave. I feel like we are semi home educating as we will go over lots of maths etc at home to ensure she has covered the full syllabus and feeks confident in it, and support with private tutoring - which she loves as its a small group of children who actually want to learn. In this setting I think they could easily get through more in 2 hours a day than she does in a whole school day.
She likes school for her friendships, and PE, music, clubs etc, but I don't feel she learns that much. If she really hated it, and we didn't need them at school so we can work, she would be better off doing a couple hours tutoring and a sports club each day.

My secondary school was awful. I taught myself the curriculum from revision guides, and got all A's. By about 14, a bright motivated child can virtually teach themselves if given the correct resources.

I imagine the only reason some people point out their Oxbridge bound children is to illustrate that there are many successfully home edded kids. Some of whom haven’t been taught by former teachers or physicists.
I don’t think anyone would disagree that many slip through the net due to lazy and indifferent parents.

I think the issue is talking in absolutes and generalising.

Some home edders are shit. Some schools/teachers are shit. Plenty of kids fall through the cracks in both.

I don’t think many are teaching their child themselves. The only two I know who are home educated use an online school I think it’s called kings???

Precisely

Well, according to these threads, a lot of Home Ed kids will attend Oxford or Cambridge. They help to skew the statistics for the ones that enter adulthood without GCSE's . So no worries, no accountability needed.

At the end of the day you can have the best teacher in the world (dd did have a couple of brilliant ones) but if the overall school environment is toxic/not conducive to learning, all the teachers' effort and knowledge is wasted.

For me it's not about confidence, it's about strategy. Getting the passes required for 6th form, by whatever DIY/free method that gets her there.

Where’s the accountability though , when a child leaves school with no GCSEs for example?

As others have said, not everyone outsources and joins groups, there's no singular home education community who does it all the same.
I've met many children with an amazing home education - I know a lot of families who have come from other countries and don't like the UK school system and they've pretty much formed a part time language school, many of the children speak multiple languages, they travel a lot, they have a really wide field of learning.

I've also met children whose parents have assumed that attempting to teach their child the alphabet and watch the occasional education TV programme is enough, and frankly there are some parents where the home education choice is clear neglect. There are also others who are muddling through where they have real barriers to delivering home education (money, resources, isolation) but they have no choice due to a lack of statutory provision for additional needs,which is just awful - it shouldn't be forced on someone.

I know quite a few homeschoolers. One friend has 6 kids at different stages and they are all doing well, including one who is about to go to Oxford. Another sent her kids to college part time from age 14 (their local college runs special classes). And then they went to a normal sixth firm. They also do loads of sport. Again her oldest just came out with 3 As at A level. He's a "normal" kid with a girlfriend who has loads of friends etc.

This is what worries me.
Who is going to look out for these kids?

Yes, noone checks. The 'something happens they don't like' happened to one of them. She took the child out of school immediately, she didn't even try to find another school. The poor child is going to end up with no qualifications. His future looks very like his mother's, no qualifications and a minimum wage job.

One of the women is so chaotic she couldn't get her kids to school on time so just took them out. Her house is so squalid that the council had to re-home her because of rats. I can't understand why social services don't get involved on some level and why there is no joined up thinking- the council knows she lives in squalor and the Local Authority knows 3 children are home educated there. She's never even had any sort of visit.

I've also seen similar.

I'm a private tutor and I was the only tutor this child had. Not even every week. When asking what they'd done that day, the answer was often, "just got up" or "been out on my bike"
This child does not have SEN
There are virtually no checks done on these children.
I'm sure there are plenty out there who are doing a great job. I'm a qualified teacher and would be the first to say that sitting still behind a desk every day isn't ideal for every child. I've seen it first hand. But I'm also sure that there are numerous kids out there who are slipping through the net.

Tiktok is full of videos at the minute about new school rules etc with it being September. Phone / uniform/ punctuality and in the comments there are always those who say "just take them out of school" Those people are raising a generation of youngsters who, as soon as they're faced with a challenge, or something they don't like, will opt out. I'll stress that I'm not talking about the home educators who are doing a great job. I'm not talking about the ones whose school cannot cater for their needs. I'm talking about the ones who take the children out, do very little and no one is checking on them.

There needs to be accountability

It’s maths.

I didn't say anything about academic learning. But social learning away from parental influence is just as important. Learning to pick up Social cues in a large peer group is immensely valuable. I can't see how home education is delivering this to a good standard.
Your post focuses a lot on adult interaction.

I have a teaching background and so do many other home educating parents.

I don't think that I could teach beyond key stage 2 outside of my subject areas.

At key stage one and two, it's a bit different because children vary so widely in their ability levels that it's a luxury to go at the child's pace. I realise I have an edge in terms of my background but I also make use of the resources available to schools, the resources specifically made for the home ed community and tutors. My children did return to school with advanced study skills, a real love for learning because it had all been tailored to their interests and they have been in the top sets ever since.

One of my children was in the bottom set for everything when we removed her from school and was very unhappy. She had additional needs that were not acknowledged. We were later told that this was due to a lack of funding, not, as we'd been told at the time, a belief that there was no need for special provision.

I worked my ass off to make it fun, effective and cover all the bases. Their formal learning time was relatively brief because one can get so much more done in a one to one setting. They still spend most of their lives doing fuck knows what building dams and dens and sea glass fortresses with other feral children. There was at least one birthday every week in our community so there was always cake. They played with everyone regardless of age or gender. They also did all the usual things like swimming and surf school but more cheaply because it was during school hours. A lot of places like zoos, museums and theme parks will open during school hours to home ed groups and many educational resources are available at a vastly reduced price to home ed families subscribing or attending as a group. When my son entered school he became instantly popular with everyone because he was willing to play with little girls from other classes and give his time to everyone in a way that other little boys didn't. He also didn't see the point of wasting time in lessons because why would you, this is your learning so you can grow up and do stuff.

I did sometimes think what the hell was I doing but my daughter went back to school after four years at home and said, "Everything is so easy. When will I learn something new?" She continued to say this until the spring term of big school. Not bad for a kid who couldn't read in the school system at age 8.

Bloody hell, I don’t know that hating the school run is a justifiable reason to home ed 🥴