To think Home Education should be made illegal

[Viviennemary]

I would like to see a ban on HE except perhaps in a very very few cases and with good reason and under strict supervision.

@MrsSunshine2b

There's a huge amount of wasted time in the school day though.

I agree. It's amazing any teaching takes place at all given all the wasted time.

It's not just all that you mention, but huge amounts of time are spent doing homework just to prove to the teacher you're doing it, time which could be better spent actually learning the material directly. Likewise all the time wasted in lessons doing tests, again to prove you've learned it, rather than actually learning it. And because the course is delivered over 2 (if not 3) years, lots of lessons spent on revision, etc., because they've obviously forgotten what they first learned 2/3 years ago!

I helped my son learn a subject outside lessons to do an "extra" GCSE. Just working from a text book and CGP manuals. Couldn't believe how little time it took to get through the syllabus, and we did it so quickly that there wasn't much of a need to "revise" at the end of it because he could remember most of it from having done it all within 2/3 months prior to the exam. Just a couple of hours of actual "study" every week for 2/3 months was enough to get a top grade. I'd have guessed somewhere between 20-30 hours of actually proper learning (reading and doing selected questions).

I'm home educating because:

School failed to protect me from bullying and sexual assault.

Failed to recognise I was being abused at home.

Failed to support me academically.

Failed my daughter when she was being bullied.

Transed my daughter without my knowledge, and encouraged secret keeping.

Failed my son when he was being bullied.

Failed to notify me or take my son to hospital for stitches when he fell at school.

Destroyed both children's mental health.

Gave me life long trauma.

Stopped up from taking affordable holidays.

The list goes on.

Schools are horrible exam factories at best, and abusive at worst. No thanks!

Yet go on any home ed facbook group, and you’ll
see posts asking if anyone wants to meet up as their child is so lonely. Go to a home ed group, you’ll likely find some bored, lonely teens, ten year olds having to play with 6 year olds as there is no other choice. Flaky parents who won’t commit to meeting up. And god help your child if your face doesn’t fit, the parents won’t let their child be friends with yours.

All I get is people telling me that’s untrue but I’ve lived it! I’ve seen it.

I tried so hard with my son. Took him to lots of home ed groups (all fucking dire, what ever anyone says), enrolled him in every afterschool sports, drama, beavers club going.but it’s actually quite hard to form relationships at clubs, where you are in, do the activity and then out. There’s often little room to socialise and make friends.

He went to school at 11, the first week he was over the fucking moon. He couldn’t believe there were hundreds of other kids, loads his own age, just there to get on with, to have a laugh with, mess about with, build proper relationships with, see after school without their parents monitoring everything.

But still, home educators argue it to the death and tell me I’m talking bullshit when I saw it for year first hand.

Stopped up from taking affordable holidays.

Of all the reasons I've seen to HE that's the absolute worst.

Big incidental advantage though. That and being able to go to places when they're not busy, which is a major plus for autistic kids that shouldn't be underestimated.

Yes, some children never go on holiday even in the UK because prices are so inflated over school breaks. I think that's actually a big deal. We never go abroad but even taking DS to different places in the UK, you could see connections being made, especially when he was younger. Its like his brain would have a growth spurt from being around new things and new people (we'd often share a cottage with friends).

I see why it's a rule for schools, otherwise makes teaching and continuity a nightmare - but undeniably it does mean some children don't get to go elsewhere in holidays. Which is a great learning opportunity missed (I know kids who have never been to the seaside, countryside or London).

I completely see why some people feel HE is the best option but the level of entitlement I'm also seeing here from SOME (not all) posters is quite staggering.

The parents of bullies don't take bullying seriously.

Schools and teachers have quite limited powers below the level of exclusion if the parents don't see a problem. See the thread earlier this week (or maybe last week?) from the Mum devastated her son is a bully, and then refusing to believe it. You can track the stages from denial to victim blaming in their posts as the thread goes on.

Example?

Just one example - the LEA should pay all exam fees, provide learning materials but in no way should the HE cooperate with the LEA in providing evidence their children are actually learning something

As I say, I see the points of some people. Not others.

Has anyone said both of those things in the same post?

I do think exams should be free for HE kids if the government professes to want them to achieve academically.

OTOH I haven't got any issue engaging with the LA but they seem to not care at all. In the 5 years I was home educating my son we only heard from them three times.

Can I ask which post it was that said this as I may have missed it. I have home educated for a long time and have honestly never seen anyone hold both of those opinions at the same time.
Some think exams should be free but accept that this would come with some kind of oversight, others aren’t interested in cooperating with the LEA at all but that also extends to not wanting free access to exams. In my area I would settle for actually having an exam centre accessible, we will have to travel and probably stay overnight in order to access exams.

Just like school is the wrong environment for some children, there are also others who thrive at school and who may not enjoy home ed.

Your experience of home ed was negative and going into school has been a positive experience for your child this is Great for you but for us school is negative experience and not able to meet child's needs. Home ed however has been so beneficial.

The point is currently parents can opt in to school if they want to

My point is that I’ve only ever met a couple of people who are honest about the drawbacks of home ed.

It’s always a lovely picture of how it’s all flowers and rainbows. No one is ever honest.

Maybe people are honest about their own experience?
I've only ever found other home educators friendly and welcoming, my children have lots of friends and busy social lives and we've enjoyed lots of high quality home ed classes, workshops and trips.
I'm not doubting that it didn't work for you but clearly it does work for lots of people.

Totally agree. Never understood why this isn’t monitored. Of course there are well meaning parents who hone educate, but for many, many children, it is not the best thing for them. Yes I work in education so I do have an informed opinion.

itt’s mad that safeguarding is so strictly in schools (rightly so), yet parents can pull their kids out willy-nilly with zero monitoring for that child. We’ve had a few do that abs the parents could cope and begged for the school to take them back. There are so many reasons that the law needs to change. But foremost, it is to protect the child.

Look, I saw so much shit in my years of home ed. I saw people have a shit time but still say it was wonderful. I understand why, you have to be defensive.

Nothing is perfect.

Of course nothing is perfect - but it's just like some people have children who enjoy school and get a good education and they're very happy with their lifestyle. They're not lying just because someone else has children who hate school, refuse to go, have been attacked, the level of education is crap.

I’ve got children at school. yes, some schools are shit. I’m sure there are kids at my children’s school who are having a horrendous time. Some kids hate it. I’d never say schools are without problems.

But when you home educate, you can’t say an anything negative about home ed without getting jumped on.

Thats what I’m talking about.

When I pulled my DD out of school to HE she was being badly bullied and the school were doing nothing about it. We were having to watch our usually bubbly, outgoing child withdraw in to herself and almost fade away.

We had tears, begging and arguing every morning. We had her failing in her lessons,as the stress and anxiety meant she couldn't focus.

Should she have been left there? You will NEVER convince me that would have been right.

When I gave the head the de-registration letter (the only requirement to enable HE) I got a reply saying she needed school in order to mix with her peers.

School is the only time people are forced together purely on the basis they are the same age. When people go to college or work there is at least some level of common interest.

Anyway, her mixing with these people her own age was not a positive experience for her.

The two evenings a week she spent at Air Cadets was. The 10 sessions of martial arts training she did every month were. The one session a week at youth club was. Oh and within a few weeks of me pulling her out of school, the local youth service started a weekly session for home educated children, that was positive too.

She did not need the negative experience of mixing with her peers that school gave her. It would have completely destroyed her.

She is now 19, has a reasonably good job, paying about NMW for adults. She has a small group of mixed age friends, a lovely boyfriend and is, thankfully,back to her confident, bubbly self.

I'm so grateful I was able to do that for her and would be devastated at the thought of anyone not having that option in the future.

Yes, what happened to that poor child who was killed was terrible but evil parents and poor decision making by SS were to blame for that, not HE!

I disagree. The reasons people homeschool are many and varied. The majority of homeschoolers I know (and I know a lot) are amazing educators and parents. I have worked in Education for 17 years. It's a very flawed system. I can see why people choose to homeschool. Overhaul the current system first. Then we can discuss the merits of our education system

I totally get where you are coming from. I’ve already said on this post that I have home educated for a long time and there are certain types who will never admit that there can be issues and difficulties. They are so adament that home education is perfect that at times they cause more harm than good.

That was meant for @Petergriffinschins the quote button didn’t work for me.

It feels like far too many people are basing their ideas about Home Education on lockdown, which bore not resemblance to it- if it is effective. Everybody was shut in at home and not accessing their communities at all.

Both school and Home Ed can be done badly!

Parents often spend hundreds of thousands to move near a “good” school, so why shouldn’t people be able to fund their children to learn differently, at home, if that what suits them? There are lots of people who are forced into Home Education and that’s where the funding should be- that or schools be overhauled. I say that as a teacher of 22 years, having taught in state and independent.

Making judgements about groups of young people and about how they fare at uni etc, based on whether they went to school or not is ridiculous. It should be on a case by case basis- everyone is different- and of course children deemed to be at risk should be heavily monitored or not permitted to receive Home Education.

Do you think home Ed kids sit in a dark room all day?!!

My experience is that they actually meet a lot more and varied people of all ages, not just 30 or so other kids just their own age