Are you going to have a generation of Home Educated kids by parents who are not up to it?

[Thegrinchshorriblesister]

I’ve been on Home Education sites for a few years as was momentarily considering it but decided against it. The crowd was great, informative, inclusive and lots of resources were shared.

I noticed at the beginning of lockdown the member counts shot up as obviously people wanted help during lockdown. Then September came and there have been a noticeable rise in those parents deregistering their kids and asking for help regarding issues with stubborn LA or meeting resistance from their families. Or posters saying they have no access to laptops or printers and what phone apps can they use for online materials.

However - a lot of these posts are written in really poor grammar. A lot of people are clearly not set up for the huge commitment that HE is.

There is a very different feel on the site now, very much ‘us against the system’, lots of memes about having children and farming them out to be drones or robots, or not loving your children because you have teachers raise them.

It’s making me wonder will there be a generation of kids that never sit any exams and go in to adulthood with no real kind of education or children who are stuck with adults that have these views making their world very small.

But won't most of those you're concerned about have been through the school system themselves? Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

I do agree it is a big commitment. I've had a brief period of home educating (not Covid related) and I must say I'm glad I'll finally have them all back in school come January.

But presumably these families feel that Home Education is their only option.

Ah thanks year5teacher! It has been a tricky couple of years balancing it all. Totally agree re SEN. There is just no way DS would manage in mainstream but there’s no special school around that would cater for him. There are so many kids like him. We’ve found a college he can attend for core GCSEs 3 days a week so he can do that at 14 thankfully, although we might look into chemistry as a separate one as that’s what he wants to do.

I work in informal education and come across a lot of HE families and children. Though I suspect it's a particular subset of the HE community that engage with the kind of providers I work for.
In my experience the children are usually very articulate and confident and self assured. I can imagine them doing very well in the kinds of careers they will chose (I think they will often choose careers with a lot of autonomy).

I don't know what the 'new wave' of families will be like because our I haven't met them yet and our sector is still largely closed and will continue to be until we can drop down to tier 2 or below. I don't suppose they'll be any more damaged by this 12-18month break in normal service than kids at school will be.

Pinot that is very, very disturbing. I think maybe a call to Social Services?
How is she getting away with this?

Some people have no choice. If there is no school offering a place for your child and the LA provide little or nothing in the way of an alternative then you have to do it yourself. There are thousands of children without school places.

I know. That is terrible. I fully understand that there are a number of reasons why parents might consider home educating, might feel they have to do it due to serious problems with their child or with a school, or might literally have to do it at least temporarily due to lack of a school place.

What I'm saying is that I wouldn't want to attempt it, and would do so only if I felt I had no other option. Whereas there are presumably quite a lot of parents who do it out of free choice.

@NamechangedforAIBU

I am not worried about doing the home education so much as worried about the negative aspects of not seeing their peers - social skills etc. The last efforts of our local schools at sending home work to do with children was woefully inadequate. Hopefully, this time they actually do some work and come up with something instead of a weekly email whilst they spend time in their garden on full pay. Otherwise, we don't really need that many teachers so perhaps as they retire don't employ more.

Yes I'm worried about that too. My children are both at home because of SEN funding cuts and the fact that there is inadequate specialist provision.

They both have autism so they find socialising particularly difficult.

The government could not care less.

@lazylinguist

Some people have no choice. If there is no school offering a place for your child and the LA provide little or nothing in the way of an alternative then you have to do it yourself. There are thousands of children without school places.

I know. That is terrible. I fully understand that there are a number of reasons why parents might consider home educating, might feel they have to do it due to serious problems with their child or with a school, or might literally have to do it at least temporarily due to lack of a school place.

What I'm saying is that I wouldn't want to attempt it, and would do so only if I felt I had no other option. Whereas there are presumably quite a lot of parents who do it out of free choice.

It's not a temporary arrangement.

There is no provision. End of.

My son hasn't been in a school for 4 years. Other than residential that he couldn't cope with, there is no provision.

He is bright but autistic. Can't cope with the sensory/ loud environment of mainstream, it made him suicidal.

No SEN provision for children locally without behavioural problems or moderate learning difficulties.

There are many teachers who also have poor grammar, particularly younger ones! It doesn't seem to be a priority these days, same with spelling, so if it's not corrected at home then kids are growing up with these poor standards. I know many don't see it as particularly important but it really IS.

@RockinDobbin

But won't most of those you're concerned about have been through the school system themselves? Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

I do agree it is a big commitment. I've had a brief period of home educating (not Covid related) and I must say I'm glad I'll finally have them all back in school come January.

But presumably these families feel that Home Education is their only option.

I suppose the point is that at school there is a chance that the children will attain much more highly than their parents because they have other inputs (or if they were doing a different type of homeschooling, with groups and tutors), whereas if their parent is their only teacher it's hard to see how that could happen.

I don't know why so many people are replying with individual anecdotes of homeschooling being done really well. OP was really clear that she isn't talking about homeschooling as a whole or a concept, but about an influx of recent, very unprepared people embarking on it for the first time.

Totally agree with SEN and pressure to de-register. The LA would probably throw a party if I deregistered DS3. DS1 is quite likely to leave school with nothing to show for it, he is dedcr by his teachers and Ed Psych as "intelligent. But I doubt his situation would be blamed on the school yet if I Home Educated to the same end result, it would be my fault?

You can’t blame everything on schools. A lot rides on the engagement of parents which is a sociological issue. I did some time working as a TA. The teacher was fantastic and she has good resources, the class was large but the biggest factor in development was what was going on at home.

Unfortunately, in LAs where there is a poor attitude to SN support, it’s often the case that class teachers are very good and trying very hard, but policy higher up limits Ed Psych hours, or has strange blanket beliefs/policy such as “we do not statement for X condition” with no regard to individual presentation or educational impact. The educational support charities can map LA policy from the calls they take from parents. There are a lot of parents out there fighting very, very hard to secure a suitable education for their children.

Of course you will also get some Karen ta who will deregulated so that they don’t have to get their DC to school on time, but the dysfunctional underclass are a separate issue. It’s not fair to tar everyone with that brush.

Really hate the use of Karen such a sexist put down. Can you stop using a female name as an insult please!

Both HE and school based education is being taken over by those who want to "stick it to the system" some achieve this by withdrawing their child, others will rant about how their child having to wash their hands is an infringement of their human rights.

Both have the potential to be damaging and both are putting their wants before their child's needs.

Addressing that to Groundalmonds

Using Karen as a sexist slur just isn't on.

I will call it out every single time.

I have a friend who is very anti mask, anti lockdown etc and they took their daughter out of school a few months ago. My friend is a SAHM who didn't do very well academically, possiblity scraped a C or 2 at GCSE but I'm not sure. The only reason they took their daughter out of school was because they didn't like the covid changes, nothing about them thinking itwould be better for her education. She's an only child and due to start secondary school next year, she has a place but they are not sure if they are going to take it up. I worry about her.

In many of the groups there is definitely a bias to unschooling or radical unschooling, those who do this are very vocal and anyone wanting some structure for their child or asking about resources to teach reading is quickly told that they are creating school at home or somehow inferior. I find it really frustrating, I do think unschooling has its place but it often comes across(to those who haven’t had much experience of home ed) as just letting your children do what they want even if that means being sat on Minecraft all day when that is not what unschooling is at all and I think sometimes people justify a lack of education going on by saying they unschool.

I think people read the posts from these very vocal people and tar us all with the same brush.
In real life every home educator I know has some form of structure even if very loose. Perhaps that is simply a case of gravitating towards those with similar values.

@givemehealth

Addressing that to Groundalmonds

Using Karen as a sexist slur just isn't on.

I will call it out every single time.

I didn’t. I never do.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Oh, I see. If you look at it, @givemehealth. you’ll see it’s an autocorrect from “parents”. I have a relative called Karen, which is why it’s so keen to insert it (and also pet of the reason I’d never use it as a slur, or any woman’s name actually).

I am tempted to start using “give me health” as a euphemism for “overly aggressive Twit” though.

Your last paragraph @GroundAlmonds, is it a weird autocorrect as think deregulated should also be de-registered

Of course you will also get some Karen ta who will deregulated so that they don’t have to get their DC to school on time, but the dysfunctional underclass are a separate issue. It’s not fair to tar everyone with that brush.

Ah X post

My post has "dedcr" when I was going for described.
Just as well DS4 is returning to state education as I'm apparently one of those Home Edders with poor grammar!

Even with there is provision for children with sen it is often 'full' and parents are told the wait will be years. People are forced to go to educational tribunals to get their child a place in a state special school and they are the 'luckier' ones where there is a suitable school locally.

Yes @RockinDobbin I get more than my share of autocorrect weirdness when I use the phone because my thumbs are prematurely arthritic and I don’t always remember to check. I refuse to use the laptop for chit chat though so kind of rely on people to be understanding and use their common sense.

Nice festive NN BTW

I used to be against homeschooling but when I thought more about it I came around to the idea. A lot of the arguments against it don't apply to everyone. I know a main one is about socialisation but if you're being bullied in school that environment will make you less social.

A main issue I had is with parents who were doing it for ideological reasons and because they couldn't stand their kids being taught differing viewpoints to their own. I think that's still worrying.

There are many teachers who also have poor grammar, particularly younger ones! It doesn't seem to be a priority these days, same with spelling, so if it's not corrected at home then kids are growing up with these poor standards. I know many don't see it as particularly important but it really IS.

I'm not sure how you can make it more of a priority tbh. There have always been teachers in primary and often in secondary in subjects other than English and MFL who didn't have great spelling and grammar. Grammar has not been taught much in schools in England (and possibly the rest of the UK) for generations, so it's hard to see how you could insist on it being impeccable in teachers without automatically cutting out a huge proportion of candidates. Good grammar and well-spoken or well-written English is more an indication of background and upbringing than intelligence, education or good teaching skills.

More grammar has been taught for the last few years in primary, due to the SPAG SATS test, but it's targeted to the test and is dropped like a hot potato as soon as the tests are done. Besides, knowing what a fronted adverbial is does not magically make one's spoken or written English better.