to be interested HOW a teenager is being home educated when both parents work?

[tessa231]

and didn't get further than GCSES (if that ) themseleves....
no no tutor

yes judgy.

Mind your own business OP. I didn't go to school for the last 18 months of gcse years, I studied independently when it suited me, both my parents worked and...shock horror...didn't have any qualifications. I passed 10 gcses at A* grade and did plenty of underage socialising in the pubs and clubs of camden. I'm now in a professional job and on my second degree. School is not the be all and end all of life.

TotemPole - parent do not need to sit any kind of test to be allowed to HE. In a subject like maths, textbooks and workbooks and websites will explain things. If there is still a problem with understanding, then the parent and child can work through it together, or ask other family and friends, or talk to other HE families about it. Most subjects can be understood without needing an expert to explain them in person.

totempole - you do not need a degree to teach your own children. In fact, you can do it without any qualifications.

There are thousands of home educators out there who are not teachers yet their children gain qualifications and can go to uni just like the schooled children.

I know saying this feels like a kick in the teeth to those who have done uni and teacher training or wahtever, but it is the truth.

There are many who are self taught as well. If you have the desire to learn you can do it, with or without a teacher.

The child in question may me having lessons or doing educating during the evenings and or at weekends.

There is no law about having to study between 9 and 4 monday to friday.

I'm hearing a lot of judgement here but not many facts.

The parents need to provide access to age-appropriate learning materials, certainly. They don't need to stand over a teenager making sure he or she is engaging with them.

FWIW by the time I was a teenager I was literate and motivated enough to teach myself. My parents would have been no help at all as they both left school without much of an education.

Exactly JeanB - There are so many people out there with narrowminded and ignorant views about HE.

They reallyt need to look more into exactly what it is all about rather than post on a subjec they clearly have no idea.

As an ex home educator, it riles me every time I see it!

Sometimes I think I need to start a thread about HE explaining all and then others can see what it is really all about.

The teenager is that oddboots link is rather exceptional. Also he was not left at home on his own. If he had fallen from his windmill then his villiage would have come to aid as much as a third world villiage can. He had loving people around him who cared for his welfare.

It is very rare for a teenager to be self moviated enough to teach themselves a rounded curriculum. How can a teen know what is a rounded curriuclum if there is no one to to guide them?

The wellbeing of all children is EVERYONE's business. Lets hope there is nothing wrong, but its better to be safe than sorry.

I know that it is home as a result of having attended at least two different secondary schools, always ending in a row.

I dont think all educators need a degree etc.

If I said " get 'ere Brannon - do you want a slap?" you'd get the idea.

Well everyone's falling over themselves to say it's perfectly possible, but I have to say it seems unlikely. Possible, but unlikely.

Most subjects can be understood without needing an expert to explain them in person.

I appreciate that for the subjects that are mainly about gaining knowledge, such as history.

For maths, after reading textbooks and using the internet etc, if the child still doesn't 'get' a particular topic, parents who don't have flair for the subject are going to struggle to explain it.

I've read about families swapping lessons(I mentioned that above). I just wondered what happened in situations where there isn't someone around who can help.

Its hard to agree or disagree without knowing all the details. On the face of it, from what you've said I'd be concerned... but much of what you've said is your opinion so again, can't make a judgement!!

I know adults who were home educated by their non-degree holding parents and they're doing as well as anyone else I know, I know children of PhD holding parents who aren't doing well, I guess each case is different.

Home educating can be the best kind of education for the right parents (and the right child, my kids absolutely adore school) and it can also be a disaster. The same could be applied to state school or private.

I think that it is very normal of a home educated teenager to be self-motivated. School is usually to blame for sapping all forms of self-motivation out of children by its very nature.

Lots of HE children attended school and found that it didn't suit them. Funnily enough, not all children are the same and the one size fits all nature of state education probably doesn't suit the majority of children. Home eduction is not school at home, especially autonomous HE. There is so much prejudice and misinformation about HE and people seem to be really threatened by it. Bizarre.

OP, nothing you have said tells anyone anything about the reality of this situation. So I would butt out and let this teenagers parents bring him/her up as they see fit.

I suspect from what tessa is saying that encountering very hard maths and physics concepts is not going to be a probelm this family have to face...

whatis the pointof this thread OP? aren't giving enoughinformation for anyone here to comment on and you have very obviouslymade your mind up that this child is not being educated. phone the LEA and log your concerns. smething tells me you get fo rmore pleasure from bitching about this particular family though and none of this OP is out of concern.

As has been said, there are quite a few internet based secondary and sixth forms. Some LAs actually use them to provide alternative provisions. Or they could be taught outside of 'school hours' when there parents are home - there are many ways to teach topics these days, even for parents who do not have backgrounds themselves as there are dozens upon dozens of online and book based curriculum that people can do themselves.

There are many HOWs. If you are really concerned, then contact the LA rather than wearing judgy pants. Though as been said, this can cause problems, especially as a few schools have been caught out telling parents to pull their kids out to HE in order to avoid truancy issues and a school order is unlikely to help if that was the case previously.

What an amazing person William is oddbod - thank you for linking to that article.

YABU because you don't provide enough facts about why you think there might be a problem, just you hold a low opinion of the parents and the child, and I agree totally with booyhoo.

Hey guess what? I'm not a bloody lentil weaver either but I have HE'd my children in the past and would do so again. Sorry, but we working class buggers don't always fit neatly into your little boxes.

Like the people you're bitching speaking about, my DD had been to more than one school and left "after a row". That "row" was because she'd been severely bullied, which is one of the more common reasons for parents deciding that they have little option but to HE. That DD is now 14 and perfectly capable of exercising the self-discipline necessary for study in the absence of an adult.

Unless you're in a family's sitting room watching over them daily I fail to see how you can make such alarmingly unpleasant judgements about them.

There are 2 HE teenagers living next door to me. They are both autistic. Both parents work. They use an online school and are doing very well. DD1 knows the oldest, he got 9 A's and an A* in his GCSEs. Less judgeypants, more tolerance.

Maybe the parents are telling people he is being HE to others because that is as much info as they want people who have no business trying to get involved to know.

Ring social services. Let them decide whether or not there's a problem.

It certainly sounds like a problem to me. A teenager shouldn't be expected to manage his or her own education, unless it's an exceptional teenager in truly exceptional circumstances.

Why ring social services? This is a teenager, not a small child being abandoned. Have you ever tried to get a teenager who doesnt want to go to school to go? It is nigh on impossible.

A home educated teenager does not need an adult on hand all day. There are plenty of syllabus outlines, textbooks and online learning materials available.

It is really rude, by the way, to refer to a person as 'it'.

marfisa EVEN IF you were right in saying that a teenager shouldn't be expected to manage his own education, this wouldn't be a SS matter.. and that goes to show just how little so many people really know about HE and why for so many ignorance leads to spurious accusations and unpleasantness towards HE families.