Why do people fear Home Educators so much?

[sebumfillaments]

Not a TAAT but inspired by the other thread, I was stunned by the level of vitriol aimed at home education. Is it all borne from fear and ignorance?

Home Ed isn't about replicating school. And education isn't (in our case) about gaining qualifications from an institution to increase their value in the workforce!

So why so much animosity?

but that's exactly what primary schools already do, and way too basic for secondary.
Also close to what a lot of parents do at the weekend/in the holidays

This was just an example to the poster who said she would rather go to the beach of the weather was nice and not want to teach their child so I formed an example of how this could be transferred into a learning opportunity.

At no point did I specify this to be a lesson for a secondary level student at any point, it was literally an example and you are extremely foolish to even think I thought it would be an acceptable lesson for a teen!!!!

Tbh, many experiences you often get in a school are well worth missing.

Tbh, many experiences you often get in a school are well worth missing.

This always sounds fine for learning basic skills, and is what my parents did anyway - I went to school. My dad taught me about molecules this way when I was still in primary. But it gives you only the basics. You have to move beyond that for a decent education

You absolutely do but if you paid attention, my response was to a poster who said of the weather was nice, she would rather go the beach so I presented a situation with many learning possibilities and how you could turn the trip to the beach into an educational one without feeling like you are being forced to learn . It's very much child led and would provide fabulous opportunity for extending knowledge.

My example provide basics as I thought that would suffice as my example. I wasn't aware my example needed to be thorough and include lesson plans age appropriate from 5 to 18 years to satisfy the nit pickers

I dislike home educating as it is associated with creationists including young earth creationists in the us and many of the so called science materials are not that at all but materials giving alternative pseudo science dressed up in a scientific manner which I suspect that few would recognise as pseudo science.

I think for HE to work you need a particular type of parent and a particular type of child. A parent needs endless enthusiasm and imagination and, above all, dedication. A child needs to have the same, plus needs to be receptive.

HE sounds lovely, and I must admit when I've seen a group around and they're lolling in the park on a sunny day instead of being stuck in a classroom, it does look appealing. But - not every day is a sunny, halcyon day. How the hell do you get a bolshy tween to do Maths or Science or Geography when they don't want to? How do you make yourself teach Maths if you struggle?

I just know if I were HEing I'd focus on what interested me, because I could be enthusiastic about those subjects. Even reading about a science experiment makes my jaw nearly dislocate with yawning.

And then there's the social aspect. If you have six or more dcs, then maybe, but it would be a bit lonely for one or two dcs and I agree with others that school does offer a bit more than just straight learning.

Brittbugs80I understand that, but it is always the type of examples given on HE. When it gets down to serious study, the examples given are always of hiring tutors or kids going to college.
There is an active HE community where I live. In spite of living in a very ethnically diverse area, the HE community are white and largely hippyish.

"The local HE community" =/= the people in the area whose children are not in school.

Gosh I never thought this would get to 12 pages! It's very interesting to see the diverse views and experiences.

I have a question for those who are pro school - what would you do if your child simply didn't fit? If they couldn't cope, couldn't concentrate, panicked, cried to be taken home every day, and was utterly miserable, and possibly a bit odd? Assume you've tried a LOT of dialogue with school and nothing has worked. Then what? Genuinely confused as to what you'd do.

sebum I would try to find another school that worked. I would HE as only the last option. I work full time, and although I know some HE parents who do this, I do not think it is fair on the children.

I just flat out don't think it's fair to the children to miss out on the experience of school and everything that entails

My ds's experiences in school was to be punched and kicked in the head because he couldn't read and the teacher when I complained replied well he can't read. She did nothing to stop the bullying. A friend who saw one of these incidents dragged 2 boys off him and went to the HT who said he didn't believe her as they were nice boys. They go to church every Sunday.

Do you actually understand that it would be unfair to leave a child in that situation or getting kicked in the head is one of those things that I should have left him in school to experience.

As for taking children out of school to train them to be a wife and mother you do realise boys are HE too

And ds is certainly not odd

My child went to four schools. He lasted only two weeks at the final one before being hurt by a teacher. We tried different schools, in fact we tried everything. The only thing that has worked is HE.

Brasty, what would be different about the other school? Assuming that there's similar class sizes, teachers are the same well meaning but over stretched professionals, and your child is no more or less of a misfit than they were at the previous one, except now they're the New Kid, so they're even more anxious. Then what?

"Nearly half of the home-educated children in some areas of England receive an unsatisfactory or non-existent education, according to the first official statistics on the subject released last week."

www.tes.com/news/tes-archive/tes-publication/first-official-figures-reveal-failings-home-education

HE can work, but there HAS to be some proper oversight.

If there were proper safeguarding systems in place around HE , many of my concerns would be eradicated. I don't really understand why this would be a problem.

sebum As I said it would be a last resort. Because I have to work.

Both boys and girls can be HE for different dubious religiously or culturally motivated reasons. The girls because they should not leave the home or because they need to be educated for domestic servitude and boys because they need to focus full time on religious study to the exclusion of all else. It's a minority of self-titled "home educators" but it's still a lot of children who need protecting.

I hope you also advocate safe grading systems in place for all children under legal school attendance age then.

Brasty that link won't open without a subscription.

This ^^. I don't see how the Swedish model would work for these children, or do they receive a lot more support than their counterparts in the UK?

Yes. Much more support. Which is my point. A child who has extra physical needs should have those needs met in mainstream wherever possible. A child with severe behaviour issue that disrupt a class may need parallel schooling for a while but the sim should always to return to mainstream with support. A few years back we knew a kid with CP, bright kid, absolutely NO reason to be excluded from mainstream, but almost was due to council cuts meaning simple adjustments were quibbled over. This kid was just needing a few structural adjustments and help - they got it after all the parents pulled together and raised hell.

My son has 30% deaf kids in his kindergarten group. They have a sign language fluent deaf assistant and signing is used alongside spoken for all of them. It's actually benefitted my (non hearing impaired) child hugely as he learned to sign some needs and was less frustrated.

There shouldn't be a system where kids who are different are marginalised to the point they're taken out of school. That's utterly disgraceful. Some kids do need a more one on one specialist care/ed setting, but most are just being failed by the system.

Home ed is too unscrutinised. Yes it can be done well but that's not really the point. When you take kids out of daily contact with people like teachers you have the potential for abuse or indoctrination to go unseen. I think a lot of home ed people see that argument as insinuating they hurt their kids, hence the defensiveness. But the potential is there innthat situation

It's too risky. Too open to religious abuse, too open to indoctrination and too open to neglect.

That is not pointing the finger at individual home ed parents. It's just a rather sad assessment of reality

Actually Britt many of my university modules, where beach based. You can easily create many graduate level lessons out of the beach/coastline/ocean....geography/physics/ecology/geology etc etc. But your teenagers will probably hate you

As a H/E your science lesson could take place on the beach, your geography lesson could be made up of planning the journey to the beach, the maths lesson is working out costs of travel to beach, buying an ice cream, your English lesson is reading three pages on the beach.

What happens when your child is no longer aged 7?

Haha...my head is science. Art of course as well! Good friend of mine spent 3 years on the beach painting, for his fine art degree

What happens when your child is no longer aged 7?

This point has already been raised and replied to.