To think that most people actually do understand, and therefore support, home education...

[PennyRa]

And it's just a loud minority that are ignorant?

My observation on HE, based on having known several families who do it is that they divide into two rough groups and the attitude and approach to it is very significantly shaped by their outlook;

• Parents whose children have for a variety of reasons not thrived in a school environment (neurodiverse or learning challenges/bullying/struggles with socialising). In these cases I think if done properly and with a dedicated and intelligent parent/tutor and a structured approach it can be enormously beneficial
• Parents who have an ideological/religious/constitutional objection to the idea of mass education and embrace particular ideologies around the idea that it is preferable for children not to be in institutions of any kind

I think parents who fall into the first category generally do an outstanding job and I have seen some children whose lives have been transformed by HE.

The second category is more problematic for me because I think it sets up an automatic “othering” of the child from which it is difficult for the child tp escape from.

I knew a family who were enthusiasts for “unschooling”, which as far as I could tell just involves allowing children to do whatever they like without any structure. I realise not all HE families take this approach but there does seem to be an emphasis on the idea that any kind of institutional setting is by its nature bad. It creates an automatic suspicion that any kind of structure or institutional framework is “authoritarian”. This may work for certain sorts of children who are very creative or entrepreneurial but it is a huge disadvantage for children (probably the majority) who will probably need to go on to have a fairly normal job working in some sort of institutional environment.

If you are going to seek employment in, say, the NHS or in a large company, an attitude of constant distrust and suspicion of rules and order is not going to be helpful.

Of course not all parents go to this extreme and many will put their children through exams etc but it does seem to breed a general contempt for anyone who does anything “normal” or institutional. You can see this throughout this thread, the idea that there’s something intrinsically bad about school etc.

I think for a subset of HE kids it’s a great idea. For the majority, not so much.

@Cluelessasacucumber I completely agree with your statement :

I still think it can be a good choice for some children, but it needs to be much better regulated and supported.

The argument for ANY form of regulation, or even identification, of Home Educated children is fiercely opposed by many of the loudest and most active EHE activists and advocates. Their arguments are usually fully stuffed straw men, claiming they're being accused of abuse and saying they're subject to intrusive requests and forced institutionalisation. This is what they claim now so heaven help us if registration and regulation comes in.

I have a problem with it from an equality and diversity point of view.
My children would never meet any children apart from white middle class kids if they were homeschooled. You see them out and about, a sea of Frugi and mums (always mums) with eco mugs. In order to homeschool one parent must be home, and guess who that parent usually is...
and then the relationship becomes abusive or breaks up and your kids then have to adapt to a new house, single parent and starting school for the first time? How are you teaching a well rounded education when you didn't care enough about your career to not give it up? No one could do full time work and home school, when would you sleep?
Also my friend brought up doing some black history month topics with her local HS group, that was met with silence.
Everyone talks about how great HE is for ND kids but none of the local groups would even consider my friends kid with autism as he needs a one to one and they couldn't provide that. As a parent with an autistic child, I think school is a good thing. If your child talks about their niche hobby or interests for hours, it is quite good that they interact with people who say ' that's boring now' rather than parents who just let them drone on. This is real life! Real life is having to mask a bit. Real life is having to get on with people from different backgrounds, both ethnic, economic, ND, cultural, religious etc.
How many HE groups are providing this?

The argument for ANY form of regulation, or even identification, of Home Educated children is fiercely opposed by many of the loudest and most active EHE activists and advocates. Their arguments are usually fully stuffed straw men, claiming they're being accused of abuse and saying they're subject to intrusive requests and forced institutionalisation. This is what they claim now so heaven help us if registration and regulation comes in.

I've seen the very fiercely anti LA rhetoric, but have also seen parents quite reasonably thinking that LAs should stick with their legal remit and not try to misrepresent the law as it is now.

I'd be in favour of a register and closer oversight on literacy/numeracy for home educated children, and have concerns about some 'unschooling' approaches, but the way a substantial number of local authorities behave doesn't do themselves any favours and provides more evidence to those parents who don't trust LAs that the LA cannot be trusted to be impartial and professional.

The LA has a duty to identify if children are missing from full time education. They don't have a duty to do what a lot of families experience in terms of overstepping their remit.

A lot of local authority EHE workers seem to have a very limited understanding of what education looks like, a very limited understanding of educational philosophies, and a very limited understanding of how to assess pupil progress and I say that as a teacher.

There needs to be reform of EHE in my opinion but with that needs to mean that council EHE teams are staffed by people who have half a clue about EHE and don't take a combative approach to families.

On the education part, again.

At higher levels, it seems that parents would have to become almost completely reliant on outside tutors. But who would these people be, and are they likely to be as experienced or knowledgeable about the curriculum as teachers in sixth forms? I have had some former university students become private tutors, eg while writing a novel or trying to become an actor. But it's only for money. My students passionate about education went into teaching in schools. It would also be very expensive to employ multiple different tutors for many hours a week, eg at A-level.

There's also the question of competition. Many students do better and work harder because they want to be top. A HE student is always already top.

I'm about to embark on my own home ed journey with my two boys ages 6 and 7 and your situation and reasoning sound very similar to my own. Would you mind if I pm'd you some questions?

Understand yes, especially if a child is home educated because of neurodiversity or a significant issue with the local schools available.

Not sure that this applies to some who are home educated.

You were taking umbrage at the poster who suggested homeschooling is something many people can’t afford as they have to work by saying well I work. Turns out you work part time and your husband has a very good job so you have a huge safety net. You can’t see why that doesn’t disprove what the poster was saying? A couple who both need to work full time to afford to live would struggle to homeschool. That’s not having a chip on your shoulder that is reality.

@LolaSmiles some form of regulation might achieve that. Currently LAs are working to a couple of sentences in the guidelines, with absolutely no funding from central government (so the pay is lousy) and are often advised on interpretation by lawyers specialising only in school attendance.

My cousin home educates his daughter. They go to a museum sometimes. She's being utterly failed. HE when done well by dedicated, intelligent parents can be very good, but all too often it's not.

So every person at every workplace is born between aug 31 - aug 31 in the same year ??!! Of course they aren’t !!

*school year

One of my dds friends uni flatmates was home-schooled. She reported one of the flatmates for smoking weed, never came out of her room and has now left uni altogether. I'm afraid they all think this is because she was home schooled, although I guess this inability to get on with others may have been why she was home schooled in the first place.

Yes, the lack of diversity and socioeconomic privilege of many home schoolers is something they tend to stay quiet about.

It's not based on prejudice, but on reality. How many parents speak at least 2 further languages (and have the ability to teach them properly), as well as a proper understanding of all the sciences, maths, english literature, language, history and geography?

Almost none, is my guess. The ugly assumption is you thinking you can replace 10 different teachers, and failing your child across the board.

I'm not against home education in principle. But of the 3-4 families I've come across who have home educated, none have done it well. All of the children were behind academically and didn't seem particularly happy, possibly because they were spending most of every day with their mother and siblings. One family of 3 children was also shockingly badly behaved and rude, basically because no boundaries had been imposed. So on balance, although I can accept that home education might be suitable for a few children, in most cases I think they are probably much better off in school.

I absolutely understand it. I absolutely don't support it

I know a teacher who used to say at our NCT groups how she became a teacher because she messed up her degree. Pretty common for people to say 'don't worry if you mess up, you can always become a teacher'. Why is that good enough but a dedicated parent using curriculums, textbooks or/ and tutors isn't good enough ?
The majority, if not all teachers in this country wouldn't have a hope of becoming one in a country where education is more highly regarded. In some countries it is harder to become a teacher than a doctor.
Many home ed students focus on their own progress, what is next for them.
My children are not A level aged yet, I have no idea whether or not we'd home educate at that point so I don't feel qualified to thoroughly go into it but it certainly can work.

The majority, if not all teachers in this country wouldn't have a hope of becoming one in a country where education is more highly regarded.

That really is quite an outrageous lie.

A snobby lie, insulting, condescending and another massive logical fallacy as it doesn't mean that EHE is a better option even if it were true.

I have no qualifications at all and home educated and my eldest dc got gcses and most were level 9

we did have to pay though to sit them which was a very difficult expense as we aren’t on a high income. It wasn’t nearby either as it’s hard to find centres for external candidates

Do you think many teachers could get onto a medical degree ?
I have never encountered one I think could. They would really have to love teaching to have the ability to get into a competitive course but choosing to do something under valued and relatively low paid. I wish it were harder to become a teacher along with better pay to reflect that, but it really isn't the case in this country.