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?

I dislike home education because I was a home educated child and damaged by it.

I have no doubt that there are children who find mainstream school hard and would do better in a home environment.

But for children who have never had the opportunity to try school, or who are pulled out by the parents because of the parents' own wishes/feelings, then I am extremely dubious.

Home education set me socially apart and kept me socially delayed (as strongly evidenced and contrasted by those of my siblings who were home educated, and the later, younger ones who were sent to school).

It also served as a convenient way for our father to abuse us without any way for us to even have an opportuntiy to speak to anyone outside the family.

I wish someone had checked on us, and I hope checks are made on all children that are kept from socialising with the rest of society (I know some home educators do facilitate socialising).

I know a woman who home schooled her 4 children they are all in fantastic highly paid jobs ones a doctor the other is a pilot in the RAF I won't say what the other two do asit might be quite outing. They all say they had happy childhood and easy teenage years as she made sure they socialised with as many people as possible throughout their education.

I think it's all about how you do it that counts and your passion to do the right thing for your children. Our education system is very overrated as it's a one size fights all beast which fails to many imo. That said I don't have the balls to Home ed I'd be frightened I was failing my kids but il be very hands on and focus on building on what they are learning to help them enjoy their education if possible.

I can't imagine being arrogant enough to think I could teach a secondary aged child to gcse / a level standard in all subjects. The idea makes my blood run cold. That's without the crucial social / fitting in side.

The only "fear" would be that child turning on me as an adult as their life hasht turned out as they wanted and it's my fault for cocking up their education.

Pretty much every child I have met who has been home schooled ( I have had many pass through my doors) has been odd. Dadshere

Speaking only about my own children, they were already odd! They didn't fit in at school and were utterly miserable and turned off learning. One couldn't bear to even pick up a pencil.

Socially they couldn't cope - two have ASD and found it overwhelming to be in huge groups and not understand social nuances. Smaller groups and activities suit them far better.

At least if the child was in school this would be resisted or diluted

Do they h/e both children? You are right, it can be a massive safeguarding issue. On my Safeguarding Course it specifically said that if you wanted to abuse a child, home schooling is the way to go and not register them with a GP either. Once you've de-registered with the LA, they request a meeting but all they need to see are lesson plans and work done by the child. The child doesn't even need to be there.

However I think it's important to remember that home schooled children, certainly the ones I know, the ones I meet and the ones I've encountered on line, all have children that have massively been let down by the current education system.

My own child was massively let down but we were able to get into another school else we would have been left with no choice but to deregister. Going off track slightly, he was severely bullied and the school said it was unfair to exclude the Bully bit felt it more beneficial to teach my child how to cope with being bullied.

It included coming home with shoe marks stamped on his chest and back, torn clothes, spat on, spit all over his sandwiches, having his penis touched and rubbed, pushed over, drawn on and his finger and nose broken. This all happened in Year 2 and 3. The bully was apparently upset as Mom and Dad split over the summer. They told me over and over again not to worry as it wasn't just my child, but they can't exclude him for his own safety. I've since heard rumours he has carried on and has started assaulting Teachers etc. A friend who still has a child at the school said he still picks on children and urinated inside their child's water bottle and tried to get him to drink it after.

Sorry for the essay!

Why on earth do you think people 'fear' Home education?

I think people have a view of home schoolers as being like the 'Modern Parents' in Viz. Sort of loony left, ultra right on, hypocritical, deluded and not very bright.

I've never met a home schooler myself, so I don't know if there's any truith in the stereotype.

I'm not at all fearful of HE but

• some children will slip through the net as HE is used to take them out of the system and so makes them vulnerable to abuse
• some children wont reach their potential as they wont be stretched by qualified teachers
• I have found (and admittedly this is anecdata) that the work of HEdding tends to fall disproportionately on women (what a surprise, said no-one ever) who devote their lives to educating their children instead of maintaining their pension contributions
• while mainstream education doesn't suit every child, the more 'different' children are in mainstream education, the more likely it is to change
• the HE snippiness I see sometimes on here, about a free education, which OK isn't perfect but is free and available to every child in this country, strikes me as the very definition of privilege

So yeah, I have concerns and ideological differences. But I'm not scared, thanks.

I'm sorry for your experience @PatriciaBateman my post looks really insensitive after yours. I hope you have had some help coming to terms with that and your abuse. Truly awful

So you're not against formal qualifications as such, and you have plenty, you just don't think they're very important or good. Fair enough. So again I ask, how should someone homeschooled and with no qualifications channel their passions if the career they want requires e.g. A Level Maths? Less mimsily how should the earn a living?

I love the fact that parents can decide how/what their children learn. I had a stern discussion with my husband about this last week, he was shocked that I wouldn't denounce home schooling as evil, and that I thought about doing it. I'm a teacher, btw, part of the sausage factory.

I don't fear Home Ed - I don't think about it very much at all, tbh.

DH and I are more than well enough qualified to teach DS a handful of subjects to a good standard - but when I see how stimulated and inspired he is by the wide variety of teachers he has at his school, I have no desire to limit the breadth of his educational experience to us two. What he gains from school above and beyond "the fistful of certificates" is immeasurably valuable.

I think PP have already given the main points. Jobs in this country are often based on these 'certificates', I wouldn't have got my first job without my GCSEs & A-levels. I wouldn't of got my second job without my NVQ and I can't get the job I want until I have a BSc and other scraps of paper to go with it.

There are great ways to home educate, but often (IME) it's not done. IMO children need structured learning, free learning, peers (not just friends) and 'teachers' (ie leaders, authority, people who they need to listen to and follow the instructions of) as well as many other things. These things are easy to lack in HE, where no one is checking up that learning is being done, or that the child is well cared for.
Add in the ease to teach/radicalise children, hide abuse/neglect.

I've been an 'aid' for multiple children that have been HE, all needed to be caught up especially in areas they 'didn't like' or the parents didn't think were important ie one child who could type (very slowly) but couldn't form letters, another who could read well past their age group but couldn't do simple maths etc. They all (as in the ones I worked with) struggled with their peers and struggled with being told what to do.
But at the end of the day as adults we need to cope with our colleagues/family/neighbour and take orders from our boss/clients/police and interact with people on a day to day basis.

Again there are great ways to HE. It can and is done to the benefit of many children, but many are let down by it and it is typically these cases we (educators) are more aware of.

I only know two home schoolers, one hated it and resented her parents for a very crappy education and one (from USA where I believe it's much more common to home school) started up a very successful business from a hobby and he runs several now. I think it's too hard to judge home education as a whole, as it depends on family to family what it's like, in some cases I think it can be very helpful, other times clearly not.

The social lessons my son learnt at school were that if you were different (he has ASD & ADHD) then you will be picked on, laughed at, excluded by your peers. He also learnt that despite needing extra help because he wasn't disruptive enough he was left to get on with it and then denied break or lunch for not concentrating.

I decided to take him out because I knew once he got to year 6 the pressure of SATs would be far too much for him.

He now has a lovely group of friends who accept him for who is, don't laugh at his quirks and odd interests and because he can spend lots of time moving when he does sit down to do work he can actually concentrate and do it.

I'm certainly not some rabid anti-school home educator - my others go to school and are very happy there. It just wasn't right for my youngest.

No doubt some people will refuse to accept that. They think everyone must go to school. Bullying is just part of learning to socialise, toughens them up. Blah blah blah.

So her parents opted to use follow state curriculum, paid for professional educators and had her sit formal examinations.

Hardly the same thing is it?

It's exactly the same thing. Or are you under the false impression that Home educators mustn't/can't/don't use a huge variety of resources to educate their child? It's still home educating because it isn't being done in school.

Blimey what a judgmental and unimaginative bunch of reasons.
Both mine were home educated until we felt like a change and then went to school.
One's now in Uni, with two part time jobs and a fantastic life, and the other one's waiting for her A level results tomorrow. She did just miss being accepted for Oxford but I hope she gets into her chosen Uni because she's already got a job in the city in question.
They seem to be doing alright. As far as I know neither of them is weird enough to hang around judging other people's life choices on internet forums.

I'm not sure about the socialisation aspect - or rather, I think it's different but not unhelpful. I only know two people (different families, different area) who were home educated, and one only until the age of 10ish. But both of them have a wonderful independence about them. They don't do cliques or follow the crowd - they make their own mind up and seem like nice, fair people. One of them I met when they joined my school and others picked on her for wearing unfashionable clothes. She just did not give a shit, shrugged it off, and quickly attracted friends because she was nice, and confident.

It's like they just haven't bought into the weird popularity contest, and conformity and unhelpful group behaviour that begins in school and continues in adult life. And people do not like those who are hard to manipulate or don't follow the crowd.

I didn't say that qualifications weren't important or good lelapaletute - you're projecting massively! I said that they're not the only measure of success, and in my opinion, not a great measure of a successful education, because I don't believe that it's as simple as school being only there to increase the child's value as a member of a workforce.

I think a successful education is broader than that.

And in answer to your question about A level maths, why would that not be available to a HE child? The parent is a facilitator rather than a teacher.

Blimey what a judgmental and unimaginative bunch of reasons

more like accurate and annoying because you know they are entirely valid.

I actually can't believe I've read a post that basically says it doesn't count as home educating because the parents actually educated their child

It's not that the qualifications themselves are the only goal, it's the doors they open for you. In my opinion all home ed does is close those doors and create obstacles (unless it's one of the few situations where a child has been removed from school temporarily for health reasons etc.)

What's the point in encouraging your children to have passions if they can't afford a roof over their head, let alone enough money to pursue those passions.

I think HE is a good choice where a child cannot cope with mainstream education (e.g. SEN, bullied, etc). However, it requires a lot of expensive tutors to effectively recreate the the school environment in a one-to-one situation, so it's not exactly cheap.

What I disagree with is HE where you make up your own curriculum and do not put children forward for mainstream exams. Doing this vastly reduces their options in the workplace. We want to give children as many option as possible - it's then down to them to take them or ignore them.

Impossible for most people to effectively teach their children to pass multiple mainstream exams unless they happen to be qualified as a teacher.

I said that they're not the only measure of success

Thats not what you said.

The only issue I have ever had with home education is when the parents put the child in mainstream education and expect mainstream to do the same as them.