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?

Bratsy - some of those children will be ones who were failing in school emotionally and educationally - so they may be doing better than they were.

I work in a school and my children go to school. I'm positive about schools. There are some children that are being let down at school. They are mainly children with special needs to be fair. There aren't enough settings for children who don't fit school so they are left really floundering.

Not really replied to. Older children need teaching in depth stuff. The only HE who really seem to do that, are those who hire tutors or pay for additional college courses.

Some of the issues raised are similar to things that come up within the formal education system in our area. As a very rural municipal authority, we have a number of very very small schools necessitated by geography. It's not unheard of to have schools with just one or two pupils in them. As I see it, the main drawbacks to educating children in this way are a lack of social interaction with peers, a lack of class-based or peer-to-peer learning opportunities, and the reliance on just one (potentially substandard?) teacher, all of which I would see as being issues with home schooling.

grasspigeons They still need someone having an oversight. Better than terribly isn't good enough.

Again do you advocate oversight and safe guarding for all children, including those under legal school age? This interests me because I have seen repeated threads on here where posters are told they don't need to engage with health visitors or attend checks as most HV are useless anyway.

Bratsy - I am all for oversight and safeguarding improvements and some loose goals around literacy and maths.

I just think you need to be careful with statistics. If a child was previously self harming and suicidal and failing academically and moves to no longer self harming and suicidal getting ready to start learning but currently failing academically that is a huge leap forward in my mind.

The only HE who really seem to do that, are those who hire tutors or pay for additional college courses.

That's not always true. I'm not a huge fan of HE, I might do it or I might not, but like I said earlier the 4 of us all got really good qualifications and all do really good jobs. We never had tutors or courses.

I don't fear Home educators/ education at all, but I admire the self confidence of anyone who thinks they can teach all aspects of the curriculum to a good level. As a teacher, I have taught a number of subjects, but there would be some I just couldn't tackle at secondary level. The HErs that I know use internet teaching and group 'lessons' to support, so I guess not full HE, just an alternative to formal schooling.

Yes I do.

I'm not sure the point was replied to.

There are learning opportunities all over when you're outdoors. It at some point you need to sit down with a pen and paper and work through grammar, or maths, or chemistry. It can't all be done verbally while you're out and about.

As I said upthread, Dh and I have eight degrees between us, have both taught and dh has a teaching qualification - neither of us would think we were qualified to teach all subjects up to 18. Or even 10. We can and do teach many things outside of school, but there is no way I'd consider myself able to get a child up to even high school level in modern languages, geography, maths, etc etc. How about stuff like chemistry practicals? Some stuff is suited to classrooms and very hard to replicate outside

Well that's good to know because you'd be surprised at how many people falter at that question and splutter about how effective safe guarding is in place for under fives when it isn't at all. By the way I wasn't nagging you to answer, it was for brasty and others too.

Sorry that made no sense. I do advocate for safeguarding of all children whatever the age.

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.

Then you are very lucky to have had such an experience of school that you think that and everything it entails is a good thing. For many children the experience of school and everything that entails is mental, emotional and sometimes physical torture. And they often don't even have the certificates they need at the end of it. Like I said way upthread, so many are unable to consider that school experiences differ vastly. Look past the end of your own nose.

Not many parents could teach every subject to A Level standard. However, with a strong network of other HE to work with and draw from as well as specialist tutors etc, it could be done.

Safeguarding for pre school children is not great in my view but there is actually quite a lot of monitoring done via health visitors, sure start (where they still exist) those who are not actually accessing groups etc are on the radar. But I am unsure why people think it would be a good idea for yet another group of children to be 'out of sight'

The only HE who really seem to do that, are those who hire tutors or pay for additional college courses.

What is the problem with that exactly? its sounds like you're saying "that's cheating, you're not really HEing if you hire a tutor"

Theres things for and against home ed and ill never judge. I know one of my fb friends (ex school friend ) who is (due to bullying) and both her dc are following a plan and tbh id say seeing what they do are learning more than in school. The other person i know isnt doing as good and in this case dc would be better at school.

What happens when your child is no longer aged 7

Already explained numerous times in the thread. Try reading it.

neither of us would think we were qualified to teach all subjects up to 18.

Why would you have to? You do realise that choosing to HE a 6 year old doesnt mean you're stuck doing it until they go to university don't you? It's not a permanent thing. You are allowed to adjust your child's method of education as their needs change.

drspouse you can attend college to gain qualifications at any age.

Although ds is technically HE. According to our HE community he doesn't fit there HE ways as he does online schooling.

I have been to a few meetings to try and make friends with people around my area but I do find the groups to be on the whole completely entitled and obnoxious. And even I as a HEdder wonder what will happen to these children.

Brittbugs80 exactly. They focus on the subjects of interest, not forced to study the one size fits all curriculum (which is currently failing children...).

No I am not saying hiring a tutor or paying for college courses is cheating. But it is a private education and only open to those who can afford to do that.

Oversight for under 5's in safeguarding is not always good enough. Although it is common for SS to encourage families they are worried about, to send their DCs to nursery, so there is some regular oversight.

I accept the visits and report annually to the LA, I have no problem with doing so. My child has an EHCP, where home ed is stated as his educational environment. I need to engage with them to maintain it. I do not agree that under fives are monitored effectively though. In my area only very limited numbers were allowed to use Sure Start and it's gone altogether now. It's accepted on here that HV unnecessary and don't need to be engaged with so no monitoring there. I feel that it's just Home Ed that provokes these demands for monitoring because it's stepping outside most people's "norm".

Mysteriouscurle - yes!