Stop homeschooling your children.

[pentagonisapentagon]

I run an educational consultancy and exam company. We produce books that most parents in our area of education will purchase. Home educating your children makes us money.

However. STOP. Now I don’t mean those that have children with severe issues (this is a small %, everyone likes to diagnose their children with some form of disorder and it isn’t those I’m talking about) who would benefit out the classroom / often awaiting a better school option.

I mean the parents who are tired with the education system - lots of moans that they can’t take their children for a holiday, annoyed about not being allowed make up, the rules being too hard. You can barely spell, stop trying to teach your children yourself. These children are being FAILED by their parents.

By all means, if you have the relationship, time, ability and means to provide a solid home education system (inc money for tutors which will be needed) - go ahead. Just ensure you’re covering the social aspect.

I am seeing the advice to home school EVERYWHERE. Mumsnet and Facebook filled with the poor advice. It’s detrimental to all parties involved.

I’d love to know others thoughts on this.

YANBU, everyone seems to be at it these days and mainly for the wrong reasons (fulfilling an insta earth mummy persona or because they don’t like that school won’t let little Johnny run around smashing the place up)

YABU - and you don’t need tutors ! I home educated my dc and my eldest has done her GCSEs privately and got level 9s - taught by me , not tutors and I only have a handful of GCSEs myself.

It’s a difficult one. Plenty of kids don’t do well in mainstream education and home schooling is better for them. Is the yummy earth mother trope just a bit of an urban myth? I don’t know but I agree with you if people are homeschooling for those sorts of reasons.

I agree with your sentiment, people are homeschooling for the wrong reasons in recent years. I have always agreed with the freedom/choice to homeschool but it’s been taken advantage of, I don’t know the solution.

I especially despise those who are using YouTube/social media as an excuse to homeschool, because you can ‘be your own boss’ and ‘you don’t need qualifications to be an entrepreneur’. FamilyFizz on YouTube comes to mind, 4 kids brainwashed, educationally neglected, emotionally stunted.

How often does this happen? I only know one family who home schools and that's because their DC have SEN. They're a well educated couple with plenty of resources.

Apart from that I know very few people who are privileged enough. That is, can afford for one parent not to work, have the resources to be able to home school and actually want to do it.

If they are homeschooling for those reasons, I believe home is the best place for them. They’re likely the parents who make teachers’ and other students’ lives miserable so leave them to it.

I’m perfectly capable of homeschooling my child. I have multiple advanced degrees and have taught university. I suppose you aren’t addressing people like me?

we actually send our child to school, but there are many ways she would benefit from home education. She absolutely flourished in lockdown academically. It was so much better for her as an education model.

I have no doubt that is true for other children as well, even if their parents don’t happen to be as personally qualified. As long as they are highly motivated to seek out resources and assistance as needed, it is possible to provide their children with an excellent education.

How are you interacting with these homeschoolers you encounter? Because I know LOADS of home edders and I meet more all the time and your description is a long way from my experience.

YABU and goady.

I mean the parents who are tired with the education system - lots of moans that they can’t take their children for a holiday, annoyed about not being allowed make up, the rules being too hard.

I don't know anyone who homeschools for these reasons.

There are some home schooled children who ate being let down by their parents. They provide little education and are themselves often extremely weak academically. There are some people who pay tutors, use online schools etc who are doing a fab job. The problem is that anyone xan home school. There is little regulation. Personally I think people who wish to home school should have to apply to do so. They should have to prove they are academically able to do so and should be checked on regularly.

YABU, poorly informed, and leaning into lazy home ed myths. We'd tend to call it 'home education' in the UK. 'Home schooling' is a different thing.

YABVVU.

Have you seen the state of most schools?

Most people who home educate are doing so for the right reasons.

One of my children goes to a multidisciplinary arts club for 5-7yos every week. It attracts a lot of homeschool families as it's funded by the Arts Council and has a big social media presence. So I'd say it's around 50/50 homeschool and schooled kids. My child and their friends play together before the session, then queue up happily, chatting away when it's time to go in. The homeschooled children wait with their parents instead of seeking out other children to play with, and often have to be coaxed in. I often wait outside during the session as there's a nice cafe there and I can get a bit of work done there, without fail at least 2-3 of the homeschooled children will come out to their parents and then have to be taken back in by them.

Purely anecdotal and probably not a wider measure but it is definitely noticeable in this tiny little cross section of society that I see every week.

Also, anecdotally, four children in my child's class have misspelled first names. I would like to think that if a parent is qualified to teach a child at home they could at least spell a simple name like 'Jonathan' instead of sticking their child with 'Jonothon' for the rest of their days. So good that those kids are in school! But yeah, showing my bias here I guess....

Have you seen the multiple threads on here about secondary education and how horrific it is? I don’t blame people for homeschooling.

I see what you mean op.

I know one family who homeschool and do an amazing job, their kids are smart, sociable, engaged etc.

But to homeschool properly is hard work! It takes real focus, intention and commitment.

I'm on a big home ed Facebook group and I see a lot of people on there who defo shouldn't be homeschooling!

It's against the talk guidelines for me to post what I think about your post.

The homeschool tiktokkers are the worst. They’re posting all day, every day. No idea how they can be doing any schooling.

As long as they are flogging their home school books in to TikTok shop for the dollar though…

TikTok is full of them, moaning about uniform and jewellery rules, going to the toilet, holidays etc etc .

Honestly every day there is another thread on here from teachers saying how horrific the schools they teach in are and how bad the behaviour is, parents at their wits end because bullying isn’t dealt with etc. My children are still fairly young but I don’t want to send them to the sort of secondary schools I read about every single day on here 🤷🏻‍♀️

My kids are in school and it's fine atm but I don't think the case for not homeschooling is strong right now.

My youngest's class has 5 kids who should have 121 support but don't.

They watch TV every day. Okay so it's number blocks but it's 3 times a day every day.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I get the impression you think it's okay for some sen kids to homeschool but you don't believe a lot of parents who think their kids are sen. I would take issue with that as a lot kids are able to mask.

However the lack of support for the sen kids who aren't coping takes away from the rest of the class. There is so little support available right now that amazing teachers are fire fighting more than teaching most of the time.

Ofsted isn't fit for purpose. God knows what half them are teaching them re sex and gender and pshe.

The fact that parents are feeling driven to homeschool is all about the Tories and cuts.

Secondary schools without subject teachers are rife. None of it is good enough. State educated children are being totally let down but you can't burn them out on the classroom all week and then play catch up around school.

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Every long term study on HE shows children doing better in life after being HE regardless of their parents education or abilities. Even when adjusted for socio economic status.

You sound like a bigot, tbh. An intellectual snob. And I say that as someone who has maxed out every IQ test I was given.

Also you use homeschool as a generic term but there are some many differing approaches.

I respectfully don't like the notion that it's only for those with severe presenting sen or those with deep pockets for tutors.

Ihope that it's not something we have to explore but I would never rule out homeschooling.

I've known 2 incredibly talented and well rounded individuals who were raised in a way we'd now call unschooling. They may not have qualifications - but they make good money and live an enriching life full of travel music and art.

This is really difficult. I am a big supporter of home education.

I have had to home educated for a period of time due to my sons autusm.

I know lots of home educators doing a good job compared to school, mainly due to autism but also just because they want to.

But i also work in a school and some parents deregistering their child are not capable giving thier child a good experience. I wish school was different for them so this didnt happen..