Why does home schooling appeal ?

[SeptemberFlowers]

I myself would be far to scared to do it with my dc's as I'd be needing to reach for the most weekends of having to teach them curricular that I was shit at at school.

Why does it appeal to so many people ? There are a few children in the next village (live in a rural location) who are HE but only because their mother doesn't trust other adults with her children. I know this an extreme case but the only one I know personally.

How would you know your child is learning all the correct syllabus for different subjects ?

What I would have found very difficult about HE (had dd wanted to go down that route) would have been that it all depended on being able to travel here there and everywhere to meet up with HE groups which consisted of families scattered around a larger area.

Difficult to provide a social life if you didn't drive, and even if I did I wouldn't be comfirtable with a lifestyle that depended so completely on the combustion engine.

What school provided for us (amongst other things) was a place where dc could walk (or be pushed in wheelchair) and have both social and educational needs met in the same place without lots of unnecessary travelling.

Of course if several hundred HE'd children had lived within walking distance of our home, the whole thing would have been very different. As it was HE (assuming that it was to include a social life) seemed just about the least environmentally friendly alternative we could come up with.

Cory.

Hello. We don't attend any H.ed groups tbh, just because there never seems time.
However, dd is very sociable and has kept a few friends from school, met some more at our local youth club. She has also joined another choir and has made friends from different walks of life, social groups schools and ages. She still remains in her other groups, choirs and ensembles.
This will sound challenging, I don't mean it to.
I don't drive and although dh or ds1 will help out if need be and they are here, the majority falls down to me.
We live near enough to major cities though and transport links are good for us, we are lucky to be able to do this.
Thank you for helping me to see this.

My only issue with parents who home school is whether their children will have the same opportunities to socialise with children from a wide range of backgrounds and have the same opportunities to make friends as well as falling out with friends!!

I can see the appeal, the education system is not perfect and under Gove is getting worse imo. However I see the complexities of my dds friendships and how she is developing the ability to maintain friends and learn how to function within a group environment. I don't believe that can be recreated in a home school set up.

Also my brother is a teacher who has had several previously home ed children come into school aged 8-9 yo and not able to spell their own name this imo is outrageous and the children have been seriously let down by their parents and local authority.

The only children I know personally who are home ed are lovely but talk like mini adults and find it very difficult to relate to their peers.

girliefriend

Did you not read my post above.
I'm not sure you could find a more sociable child who is confident, yes she can talk with grown ups in some cases as their equal, but still maintain friendships and form new ones.

If you only live or work with people born within the September before your birthday and the September after your birthday - then yes of course school is the best place to learn socialization and social skills :)

Legally the position in the UK is that PARENTS, not the state are responsible for a child's education.

This exempts the state from being sued when schools fail children, and we all know that sadly too many kids are being failed. A quick glance over at the SN boards will show that a universal adequate education provided by the state is a distant dream for many families.

SATS are just a way of ensuring that schools are fulfilling their responsibilities to parents, despite the spin & pressure schools put on it.

In some countries such as Germany home ed is illegal, that also means that the German state has accepted some legal liabilities that the UK government would run a mile from at this time.

Home education is simply one option amongst many in which some parents choose to exercise that right in a proactive rather than passive manner. Others include being a governor or active member of a pta, going private, volunteering at their child's school etc, etc.

My son is currently following a route already trodden by thousands of US, Aus, and Canadian schools - he attends school online. Online schools will I think eventually be a major disrupter to the UK education system, in ways we can't yet predict. As it is they are reaching a whole cohort of children previously unable to access a conventional mainstream education. Just as the world of work is changing, so the world of education needs to adapt for the modern world.

Alternative curriculum's also exist within the conventional world of school, state and private schools are choosing to offer the IB, the American High School Cert and the igcse as alternative models to the state sanctioned GCSE courses.

The problem with conventional education is that children are forced to spend time with others who they may not get along with and before they are equipped to deal with such people.
Home schooled children don't have to tackle the daily issues of children they hate or are scared of.
When they go into the real world they are confident adults (mostly)
For some families this works well but not for all. I know home schooled families and the children are all sociable and well adjusted. One of the families have two kids , one now 30 went oxford uni the other slightly older is a midwife .
My four children were traditionally educated though. So no personal experience of this .

Mellow,

I have been to university twice - once as an 18 year old (I stayed for 7 years) and once as a mature student to get my PGCE.

Second time round, as a mature student, I brought nothing to the university outside the course, and took nothing from it other than the qualification. I drove there, worked, came home, took up family responsibilities again, repeat.

First time round was a totally different kettle of fish. Total involvement, many more gains both ways.

i understand it would be different if you were a childless, unmarried mature student who lived on campus with the other students (I was at college first time round with a recently-retired, widowed civil servant who threw himself into the life of an undergraduate with extraordinary vim). But that is not the position of the vast mnajority of mature students, so their contribution to the 'wider' life of universities is often very limited, simply by practicalities.

I am quite keen on internet school for ds3 if he doesn't get his first choice school. I wasn't so much for ds2 (horses for courses). I would worry about him finding close buddies independently of me though - something I can see ds2 doing now he's at secondary - forging lifelong friendships himself. Would be interested in how HE's manage that. (Not in any critical sense, just in a it's the one thing that would stop me making HE my no 2 choice after first choice school).

So teacher your added experience added nothing to your interactions with other students ? You brought no real life experience to anything, no added study skills, no maturity of thought or anything? You also got a pgc I suppose that has added nothing to society or the pupils you do or have taught ? Be careful you do not get sucked away as nature aborhes a vaccine you must have become as a mature student.

Vacuum - I bloody hate predictive text

saintly

I know several types of H.ed families and they are all different.
However, we have a very sociable dd who has grown to be very confident with all sorts of people of all ages. She also has some close friends, a best friend, schooled friends, H.ed friends and works with lots of dc of different ages.
There is nothing from a social sense that is different to when she was at school except a huge increase in confidence.
She has done this entirely herself, I have only helped her get to the place at the right time.

Had she been unable to do this for herself, I would have encouraged friendships, suggested activities and groups, helped them find an interest, suggested Brownies, scouts etc.

Thanks morethan. I suppose it's a daft question in a way. I went to boarding school and had 'home friends' and 'school friends' and forged lifelong friendships within both groups

Saintly - one of the many, many reasons I relocated to the opposite end of the UK, was to be in an area where my ASD child would get lots of opportunities to socialise. It's a friendly area for home edders, with many lively groups. My son wouldn't have got half as much benefit from online school + home ed as an option had I stayed in my previous miserable LA.

My new LA & council even offer a discount card to local attractions for home edders (one way of getting round the compulsory registration question - be nice to them and home edding families WANT to be on a central council register lol!).

The social side of the home ed experience, is like so many other things in life, a post code lottery imho. In our current location he has far, far more opportunity to acquire those face to face language and social skills that are so critical to the life chances for an ASD child.

Hm I have a feeling you may have relocated from the area where we are

In the case of many children with ASD (especially those who are HFA, or where parents have the money to run some sort of programme if their children are severely affected) I think HE can be perfect. Our LA has about 5 decent secondary school places for kids with AS/HFA (luckily for us they cater for a severe autism a lot better - and ds1 has a fab school). Ds3 is NT though and I'm sort of less persuaded for him as he quite likes the mooching around in the playground with a bunch of kids bit that might be hard to recreate at home.

saintly

Am I right that you are a parent of a dancer or actor?
Not sure I have the right person.

DD is a keen musician and H.ed really helps her to take opportunities she couldn't have otherwise. She had got to the point of hardly being at school, and if she was still at school she wouldn't be going tomorrow after her busy weekend.

Yes, but not ds3 :) (DEFINITELY not ds3 )

Re University - my husband sitting next to me is a University Admissions Tutor. He confirms that Universwities generally view a Home Educated applicant with a varied and interesting CV positively, and will base an offer on interview and if necessary a standardised test in maths and English, just as they would for a mature student who had not sat the required exams. They might also ask for a Portfolio of work.

HE children can sit exams if they like though.

As for teaching a curriculum, my opinion is that if the child is interested and motivated, they will learn when it is necessary. I'm not worried about missing anything out, as I know they will learn it if they need to - the fact that something is taught in school doesn't mean that everyone will benefit or even learn from it, retain the knowledge etc.

Home Education will not look like school education. If they do miss anything out, they will have gained something different.

42% of all schooled children leave school without the all important C grades in maths & english. The UK has a huge problem with NEETS. Just because a child is entered for an exam, it does not mean they will pass it sadly.

Home educated kids can be entered for igcse's and other qualifications as independent candidates. The older children I've met have been, (with the exception of a couple of very severe SN's for whom life skills were the priority) simply because a decent number of GCSE's in the core subjects is seen as a passport to accessing further education or training - most home ed children have an interest they seem to want to pursue further by the time they get to 16. (It may be quite vague like "I enjoy science or making things", but is enough for them to want to pursue it further).

Some schooled children leave with a string of A* grades, some Home edded children do the same.

Exams by themselves are not a reason to promote school over home ed. It's a red herring.

I don't think that you are comparing like with like. If the parents care and are supportive the child is not going to be the one who can't achieve a C grade in Maths and English, whether home educated or school. If they leave school without it they are not magically going to get to that standard by themselves at home. I do not have a single friend whose child didn't get to that standard, and that includes the HEed ones. That is because they had supportive parents. Even my dyslexic son got his C grades, he wouldn't without our support. School is a partnership- you don't simply send them and opt out of all responsibility.

People also play with statistics- none of the secondary schools in my area have 42% of children leaving without the C grades in Maths and English.

tamerB - and ? your argument is what ?

Mellow. I am sure that mature students do bring benefits, but it is a harder way of doing things. Much easier to do uni when younger imo.
And teacher has once again put it better than I can.

kitchen. Yes that is my argument for, not against mainstream education. Kids are froced to spend time with kids they dont get on with well. It somewhat forces them to learn how to get along. The world is not going to shield people from this. That is working life and life in general.
I am sitting here talking with a whole bunch of people that I dont normally mix with. It is good for humans to do that.
To learn not to snap etc.

A couple of other interesting posts. I will post later hopefully.

My argument is that people can take statistics and use them to their own advantage. The sort of school where 42% of pupils fail to get a C grade in English and Maths is not in an area where they are magically going to pick them up with private study at home.
I am still mulling over why my husband should have traded in a good school, with well qualified teachers and science labs and fellow pupils to bounce ideas off and collaborate in groups, to do it alone, with parents who were unable to help, however much they wanted to. He would have been mad!
I can also see how someone can be talented in art or similar and get in on their portfolio. I fail to see how someone gets into a university that is within the top ten in the world with a 'love of science' and the skills of working alone.
Anyway- why bother with university? Why does it all change at 18 yrs? Why not do it alone if you follow that argument. Especially with the costs involved and the fact that some students have very few teaching hours? Why is university different from school in those terms?