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AIBU?

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Original poster

Why do people fear Home Educators so much?

810 replies

sebumfillaments · 16/08/2017 22:06

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?

OP posts:
musicalprof · 16/08/2017 23:11

I've found this thread really interesting to read as I am just coming to the end of home educating my ds, which we have done for the last 18 months, before he starts at secondary in September.

He had been at primary until the spring of year 5, when we finally took the decision together to home educate as he was becoming less & less interested in learning, particularly as his school had taken the decision to no longer differentiate activities in subjects like maths.

I had been a primary teacher prior to having children & it broke my heart that my son wasn't getting the inspiring, stimulating education that I would have hoped for him. By home educating, we have worked on all the 'basics', given him the opportunity to become a really confident French speaker, grabbed lots of opportunities (theatre, science events, etc.) that he wasn't getting at school & given him the chance to direct a proportion of his own learning (he chose Latin & politics). He has taken part in lots of different sporting activities in the evenings, trying out new sports, which also gave him the chance to make new friendships whilst also maintaining his old school friendships.

He has played a big part in the choice of secondary (not the obvious one, where most of his old school friends are going, but one that reflects more of his interests & one which he felt had a better 'buzz'). He is nervous about starting secondary, though no more than any child is at this stage, but I feel he has got his love of learning back; I also know, however, that I am fortunate in having been a SAHM who could make this decision fairly easily & one who still had lots of resources to use & knew where to get hold of what I needed.

I also know that I could never home educate his older sister...! Wink

newdaylight · 16/08/2017 23:11

The 4 of us were home educated. Now a doctor (gp partner), a teacher (head of department), a social worker, and a business owner. As for following our passions we all got to do that too, whether it was touring Europe in a band, leading community art projects, doing art as an extra a level alongside the required 3 sciences for medicine then also traveling around the world and practicing medicine in different parts, or simply spending a year doing voluntary projects with people who are homeless. That was all on a curriculum of 2 hours lesson time per day.

And I can guess what it sounds like...we must have grown up with money behind us to have time to do those bits we were passionate about. Actually we all grew up in the highest level of child poverty according to government criteria.

I'm not an evangelist for home education. I might do it with mine, I might not. There's some proper nutters who do it, especially the religious ones, and some people who are aggressive in their defence of it.

But most people who home educate aren't necessarily that weird, and it can give people lots of other ways of having opportunities too.

MorrisZapp · 16/08/2017 23:11

How do people support their families and pay their bills while home educating?

goingmadinthecountry · 16/08/2017 23:12

I HEd for 8 months out of necessity - we were out of the country. Dcs were 11, 9, 8 (and 1). I hated it - I'm a teacher (then secondary but now primary). I'm not cut out for it but my children definitely didn't fall behind. It did make me change the children's school on our return but no way would I have continued to HE. The groups were too dippy for my liking too. DCs could see they covered material more quickly but didn't want to continue. Dyslexic ds definitely had the biggest benefit. It did have an impact on the way I teach though.

gillybeanz · 16/08/2017 23:12

Certificates and GCSE's are the last thing on my dd mind, she doesn't care less.
This is just as well as she's hardly likely to do well whether H.ed or school.
H.ed allowed her to find out exactly what she wanted to do, be the person she wanted to be and work at what she wanted to.
We are so lucky to have had the opportunity and now not to have to worry too much about the future.
There is no way this would have been possible by going to school.

notevernotnevernotnohow · 16/08/2017 23:13

Homeopathy suits some people more than traditional medicine

Homeopathy suits nobody for anything.

I'd be interested if there were any correlation between homeopathy using and home educating. It would certainly add weight to the not qualified to teach anything argument if there was.

BoneyBackJefferson · 16/08/2017 23:14

JoelyB

Here's a thought, radical but worth a go ; maybe there are good home educators and crap home educators. Just like there are good schools and crap schools. And good teachers and crap teacher

Here is a radical thought, I didn't suggest otherwise.

annandale · 16/08/2017 23:15

Ultimately home education is alien to 'normal' life in this country. Normal things suit most/a large group of people and people often do fear or criticise things that are not normal. In theory I'm very pro home education but it was never going to be our choice; however I'm aware that that's because I just happened to have a child who was born to be at school (like most) and because I was also very happy at school myself.

MyWhatICallNameChange · 16/08/2017 23:15

I think homeopathy is a load of bunkum. Do you approve of me home educating now? Wink

Original poster
sebumfillaments · 16/08/2017 23:16

Homeopathy is bollocks and made up. HE is real, and not made up.

OP posts:
ASauvingnonADay · 16/08/2017 23:16

A school attendance order comes into play when the LA does not believe the child is receiving an education other than school. They do not relate only to children attending and registered at a school. In fact the point is that they are not.

mirialis · 16/08/2017 23:17

Home Education can be fantastic for all sorts of kids for all sorts of reasons, but surely people can see the downsides for kids if it's their parents - even if they are excellent educators - being the ones doing the educating?

RudeDog · 16/08/2017 23:17

I know someone who decided to HS from her DC being a baby.
She talks a lot about how awful schools are these days with having no experience of them. And she wants to HS as 'there isn't enough art on the curriculum'
She's also worried their veganism won't be taken seriously....

I know she loves her DC dearly and I suspect she doesn't want anyone else to have them - certainly won't let anyone else look after them. I do worry her DC in particular is going to end up being very isolated from other children.

toffee1000 · 16/08/2017 23:17

Home ed and hiring tutors etc is quite expensive though, isn't it? I looked at prices for InterHigh and they seem quite steep. Still cheaper than a private school obviously but it's still a fair bit. Once you get to Sixth Form it's £1350 per year per subject. So if you did three subjects over two years that's £8,100. Surely you'd have to be earning a decent salary to be able to afford that sort of thing on top of the usual household outgoings.
I don't fear home ed or think it's wrong at all. I'd just be concerned that I wouldn't be much good at it.

Brittbugs80 · 16/08/2017 23:18

How do people support their families and pay their bills while home educating

With one partner working? Maybe one partner goes to work during the day, the other does evening/weekend work? Financial support from family? Savings?

SheWhoLivesHere · 16/08/2017 23:19

I wouldn't say i fear HEs, but I will admit to being suspicious of a lot of HE parents motives and I dread having a HE group in my capacity as a tutor.

I'm sometimes suspicious that the HE is only for the benefit of the parent.

Original poster
sebumfillaments · 16/08/2017 23:20

Asauvignonaday, nice to see you've had a look at the Ed Yourself website! If you read the rest of that page you'll see how vanishingly rare that is. Numerous, you say...Hmm

OP posts:
RafikiIsTheBest · 16/08/2017 23:21

*Rafikilsthebest They all (as in the ones I worked with) struggled with their peers and struggled with being told what to do.

Was that because they were home educated or why they were home educated?

How were you involved? As a tutor?*

I was a support assistant in a school.
One of the children (and that child's siblings) had never been in any sort of school. It was actually court ordered that the younger ones attended school (was never told much about the older ones, but at their ages they should of been doing GCSEs so maybe it was decided it was too late to get them caught up/have any benefit). I'll leave it up to you as to what his learning/ability was like for it to be court ordered.

Another sibling group had their parents pull them out and put them back in different schools frequently. Pulling them out often coincided with school raising concerns (but I wouldn't dare speculate). From what the girls vs boys knew and talked of the parents have very stereotypical views of what to teach their children.

BarbarianMum · 16/08/2017 23:22

Home education can be fine, for some children it is far better than fine, great in fact. However it is interesting that so many home educators set their own success criteria so that failure is not possible. I've just sat through 4 years of home education pr from a close family member. The result - a friendless, lonely 15 year old with a handful of lacklustre GCSEs gained through Interhigh and a lot of tears and shouting - is a long way from the rosy picture promised but its a success apparently. Thankfully (for his social life) he's starting 6th form college in Sept but if he fails to keep up with the work this will undoubtedly be proof of the crapness of formal education.

Original poster
sebumfillaments · 16/08/2017 23:23

Rafikilsthebest - thankyou for your reply, I can see why you'd be concerned.

OP posts:
stitchglitched · 16/08/2017 23:25

I home educate my DS who has autism. His only experience of school was one of bullying, lack of care and spending every day in a state of distress. I'm absolutely certain that I'm giving him a better education than his old school and the qualified teacher who showed me his workbooks at parents evening half way into the school year- that had no work in them.

I'm not anti school and fully intend to send younger DC to school all being well, but it doesn't work for every child. Some young people are leaving school barely literate. Why is a system like that so often defended as the only acceptable choice?

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 16/08/2017 23:25

Rude a friend of mine is also considering HE based on her experiences of 'being stuck behind a desk and not getting any free play' when she herself was at primary, some 30 years ago. Of course if she wants to HE that's up to her (I'm not actually agin it, I was rebutting the OP in my first post) but for gods sake, at least go and look around the door of a modern classroom before you make the decision.

Original poster
sebumfillaments · 16/08/2017 23:27

stitchglitched that's where we are too.

OP posts:
zzzzz · 16/08/2017 23:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SerfTerf · 16/08/2017 23:30

stitch my main awareness of HE is through having a (schooled) child on the spectrum. Considering some of the awful experiences that (some) aspie DC have in school, I'm surprised anyone could criticise any option parents take.

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