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.

? IME, (over 50 years) the parents I've known who Home Educated included the usual range of qualities seen in parents whose children are educated in school.

Some did a great job of parenting, and making sure their kids got a good education and some were crap at both.

RE grammar, not everybody uses it online, a lot feel it's for formal situations.

sorry, what?

Either you master it, or you don't. If you know you should HAVE spoken in English, you don't write you should OF spoken because you want to be informal

😂

I know a couple with a three year old who are planning on home education. They don't want her to be "brainwashed by the system" they're conspiracy theorists and reject vaccines, fluoride toothpaste, covid restrictions, smart meters etc so that's a concern. She'll probably end up resitting at college when she's old enough.

She'll probably end up resitting at college when she's old enough.

Or, she'll go to college in her teens to get the exams she needs for her chosen career path. This is the route many home ed families take. It's not "resitting" which implies total failure caused by her parents choices but just an alternative route to GCSE's that many children take who for various reasons can't be in mainstream school. It's the route my own child took. Many children can't manage the mainstream system but relax and thrive in the very different college system, on the 14-16 programmes

I expect once most are vaccinated and things become a bit more normal, all those who acted in haste will be quickly reregistering.

I was in Yr11 before I was corrected on Of/ve by my history teacher. It was a revelation to me!

I went to what would be considered good primary and secondary schools, my parents had a good standard of education and worked in middle management type roles.

It was just something I picked up from the regional accent (that neither of my parents had).

I picked DS2 up on it in Yr6.

@Pinotpleasure

My grandchild is 10 years old and has never been to school with the exception of two days three years ago. The first day went fine as he had made a new friend and was basically observing. The second day when the actual school work began he couldn’t cope so his mum pulled him out.

He is being failed by his mum who sees herself as a ‘free spirit’ (father is dead). She’s an anti-vaxxer and is into all the conspiracy theories and is scared witless right now about a ‘New World Order’ and says she ‘knew this was going to happen years ago’. She does not believe that children should do tests or exams as it limits their creativity and makes them anxious.

My grandchild goes to a childminder when his mum goes to work and does ‘nothing because the childminder is busy looking after the babies’.

He doesn’t even know his six times table :( Apparently he is ‘unschooled’ so he can just approach his mum and tell her what he wants to learn; it is mostly playing a Roblox game. His spelling is akin to that of a six year old.

His mum takes him to Forest School which seems to be mainly climbing trees and sometimes making a camp fire (this could be done with the Scouts after school/weekends but his mum doesn’t agree with their ethos). Most of the Summer is usually spent going to spend a few days at various festivals, obviously it didn’t happen this year.

Worst of all - my grandchild now will avoid any child who attends school, as if they are tainted in some way.

I am so upset and when I contacted the home learning officer at their LEA was fobbed off with “as long as at least some education is being provided then it is not our concern”. Shocking that there are no checks in England that these unschooled/homeschooled children are not being made to ensure that they are receiving an appropriate level of education.

I feel that is is neglect and I do not know what to do but my grandchild’s future is going to be very bleak indeed and it breaks my heart.

That's so sad. It must be so upsetting and frustrating for you. I guess you don't ever get him alone? Not that it should be your responsibility to teach him.

Yes, absolutely, though I think that’s always been a risk with home educating anyway.

I can’t believe how appallingly unregulated it is, and how social workers are so hands off with families who do it. It’s ripe for exploration by abusive parents, and I’d love to know the stats on how many home educated children get 5 goof GCSEs or more, or do A Levels or go to top universities.

With the best will in the world I do think it’s something anyone should embark on if they’re not qualified teachers, unless there are specific SEN circumstances.

• good GCSEs! Walking and typing don’t mix.

RE grammar, not everybody uses it online, a lot feel it's for formal situations.

Grammar isn't something you can choose not to use. It is impossible to speak or write without it. People might be less formal in how they phrase things on social media, but they're not going to decide to type 'could of' when they usually write 'could have'! People use incorrect grammar online because they don't know what's correct (and don't check, which they might do if they were writing in a formal context).

@Thegrinchshorriblesister My dd goes to a Steiner school she will still sit her GCSEs in Maths, English, Triple Science and French alongside a qualification in jewellery making and other crafts. Steiner schools don't necessarily mean no formal qualifications.

I doubt if any parents are up to the required standard in all subjects.

They don't need to be. Home Education is not limited to teaching by the parents; the children might be taught by any number of other skilled people. One to one teaching/instruction./demonstration and encouragement at that child's level and speed can be far more effective than learning in a class of 20+.

There are many different types of HE and for many different reasons. Including but not limited to, failure to support SEN, concerns about behaviour in state education, concern about producing exam monkeys instead of critical thinkers etc

I know several people who home educate. One family is an extreme evanlangical Christian family. Morning prayers. Girls do chores. Boyd do bible and follow a US style home learning system. 3 boys and 3 girls. The three boys are now 18 plus and all married to the same church girls. The boys all live at home with new wives. They married at –18 to meek girls the father who runs the church selected. The boys all work for dad in his landscaping business. The girls are all still living at home and waiting for their father to decide who they marry. Still doing chores and the bidding of elder brothers etc so sexist and none had an qualifications to leave the set up even if they wanted to. To me it's control and abuse.

Another took her daughter with serious anxiety out. Educating at home. Daughter is doing well and mum is pulling all the resources available at her finger tips. The local school was dire and in special measures.

My children go to outstanding local state schools but I still home school on top. They have support books such as all the Cgp ones at home and I set them daily work on top of homework to do - it is not just the schools job to educate my children - but mine as well.

My children go to outstanding local state schools but I still home school on top. They have support books such as all the Cgp ones at home and I set them daily work on top of homework to do - it is not just the schools job to educate my children - but mine as well.

Sorry but this is not home education/schooling. Home education is taking full responsibility for your child’s education, not hothousing them by making them do extra work on top of what their school set.

I'm seriously considering home educating when our time comes, but I agree with the OP. There seems to be a lot of people at the moment who have joined home ed groups with little to no appreciation of what many parents do to effectively home educate.

My concern would be that for many of this new influx from the covid year, the novelty wears off at some point, the children aren't appropriately educated and then the parents put the children back into the school system where they are substantially behind their peers.

Home Education is not limited to teaching by the parents; the children might be taught by any number of other skilled people.

This is a genuine question - how would this happen if the parents don't have the money to pay for outside teaching or resources?

Haha I didn't proof read! I also meant text speak 😬 I hate '2' instead of to etc, pet hate 😆

@Hardbackwriter

Home Education is not limited to teaching by the parents; the children might be taught by any number of other skilled people.

This is a genuine question - how would this happen if the parents don't have the money to pay for outside teaching or resources?

They'd use free online resources. YouTube, BBC Bitesize, Khan Academy and whatever else.

Or the library!

*Mental health issues and anxiety among children, teens especially, are extremely high and are rising.

While school is not the only factor in this, it's the biggest one.*

I doubt that. Over-involvement with screens and social media has replaced real life activities and changed social interaction . Far too many kids are losing the boundary between real life and fantasy with predictable results.

Sorry but this is not home education/schooling. Home education is taking full responsibility for your child’s education.

Says who? Surely it just means educating your children at home? Just because the home ed community might have decided on their own narrow interpretation of the phrase, that doesn't mean everybody else has to abide by it.

I saw a lot of indignant "This is not home educating!" gate-keeping comments by home ed people referring to distance learning during the first lockdown. I fail to see why parents delivering/helping with content produced by online sources or tutors is so wildly different from parents delivering/helping with content provided by a school that the latter isn't even allowed to be referred to as educating your children at home.

I certainly didn't home ed my own dc during lockdown, because they are 12 and 15 and were perfectly capable of logging on and doing the work themselves. However, I know parents of younger children who absolutely were just using the school resources, supplementing them, and teaching their dc themselves.

@Hardbackwriter

Home Education is not limited to teaching by the parents; the children might be taught by any number of other skilled people.

This is a genuine question - how would this happen if the parents don't have the money to pay for outside teaching or resources?

Group sessions can be really affordable. In my local area just as an example there is a science group which is just £3 per child. Also since Covid there are loads of online resources and classes on zoom.

@TheSunIs Oh, I see. I wouldn't count that as 'being taught by skilled people', I'd consider all of those as resources created by skilled people that could be used to support learning but not as any sort of replacement for teaching. It also (and I say this as an educator) takes a lot of skill and knowledge to actually find and evaluate appropriate resources (particularly from the internet) without direction; a lot of my undergraduates couldn't do it without being very explicitly shown how.

@lazylinguist says the government,

1.1 Elective home education is a term used to describe a choice by parents to provide education for their children at home or in some other way they desire, instead of sending them to school full-time.

Of course setting your child extra work on top of full time school and homework is not home educating.

@Hardbackwriter

Home Education is not limited to teaching by the parents; the children might be taught by any number of other skilled people.

This is a genuine question - how would this happen if the parents don't have the money to pay for outside teaching or resources?

One of my home ed groups has regular meetups and subject specialists teach the group. So for example, one of the mums has a chemistry PhD so will do experiments etc with the children. We also do things with the kinds of people who go into schools as well, like portable observatories, museums, animal centres etc.