A wave of illiterate “home schooled” children

[RedSkyatNight25]

Prepared to get torn apart, and I know many homeschool because the school environment isn’t right for their children (SEN, sensory issues - whatever else) and their needs aren’t met by school with a chronic lack of SEN placements and too much demand etc. I’m not naive to that. I also know some parents with adequate resource will ensure their children have a rounded education whilst being homeschooled.

But there seems to be a movement to homeschooling by people who are simply anti establishment with a point to prove. Their grammar and communication on social media tells me they’re not equipped to homeschool a child. Not least I think the socialisation and soft skills school provides are hugely important too. I suspect most of these parents either haven’t considered the benefits of school or hugely underestimated it, especially past primary are parents really equipped to teach ALL the subjects with sufficient skill if they lack the knowledge themselves? Are they not underestimating the skills and expertise of qualified teachers?

AIBU to think it’s really concerning? These are the next generation of our workforce and infrastructure. I personally think we are hugely privileged to live in a country with free education - I know it’s not perfect but I’m not convinced homeschooling is better for a vast majority.

No, I mean not swearing at teachers, or calling their peers disability related names. Or indeed, arriving punctually 🙃

Fair!

In the '60s and '70s unsupervised play was fun. Mind you, I'd say that it was more likely to take place on demolition sites. We had more sense than to play on sites where building (or demolition) was in progress.

One summer day, I recall that some 'big boys' had set fire to waste ground. A gang of us set to putting out the fire. Some older boys used planks to beat out the fire. The rest of us collected water from a burn (stream) and poured it on the edges.

At one point, two police officers turned up. They observed what we were doing, told us to be careful and left.

My now 65 yr old self looks back and shudders at what might have gone wrong...but - by gum - it wasn't a 'difficult childhood'. It was fun.

My point was that there isn’t much data because a lot of them aren’t known to/have been forgotten about by the LA.

Hilarious. Yes my 7 year old brother and I ran along the joists of 2 story building once. I was the victim of the teasing.
I spent hours placing a toy snake in the road and seeing if people were scared.
The world was a very different place.

And I think that comments like these just prove that you both know jack-all about home ed. Never heard of self-directed learning or autodidacts? There is a reason why home ed children settle into Uni easier than schooled children, because they're used to self-directed learning styles. They have great focus and self-motivation too. Generally speaking of course.

Never heard of self-directed learning or autodidacts?

Yes, laudable but tends to be ponderous and one-sided. Much better to get a range of input and perspectives on a subject.

Nor is true that home-Ed students necessarily settle in better to uni - some struggle with the social aspect, institutional aspect and lack of personal attention.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that there aren't any good or successful home-edders. I find it a bit baffling that the genuine and good ones are so furious and sceptical at the idea that there are lots and lots who aren't.

Someone I know 'unschools' and is very critical of the school system despite her kids never having been. She shares stuff on FB about kids who go to school being trained to be robots by the state. She is very anti test or any measurement of learning and appeared to be genuinely upset that my DS was given books to learn to read in R.

Because there is no evidence of this.

I think this is true in principle but my current experience is what this actually means is hard.

We have found that level 1 courses are in very specific subjects, often only two or three choices and the peer group is not always people who are able. There's nothing wrong with being with people with learning difficulties, but if you dont have them, and you just had no qualifications, its not always the right pace or environment for you and you are stuck with horticulture when you wanted physics.

A lot of the level 2 courses will take gcse equivilent but not all and not all equivalents. We have personally found college after college reducing or shutting down its level 2 offer due to funding issues.

Haven't got to post 19 yet so cant comment on university access courses,

but I can comment that options post 16 without gcses and only gcse equivalents have been narrow and far away for my son. Its been a big issue.

This has nothing to do with home ed as he is in school, its SEN related (and i am pro home ed as it happens,) but I would judge a parent who didnt give a child with the abilit to so the opportunity to do 4 gcses which include maths and english.

I completely agree with you as a home ed mum.

lots of homes mum’s I know can spell properly for example and very small amount of people come from a family with super intelligent parents and also can’t afford tutors etc

my children are privately educated at home for the things that I can’t teach. I can teach most of it but of course I’m not brilliant at everything.

I often wonder if I’m doing the wrong thing for my kids. But my eldest was on the way to self harming and I could t do it anhmote

menyakly it was the best thing we’ve ever done.

also there’s a lot of anti vax. Anti establiment. Lots of families who took their kids out because they taught dec education and taught about genders etc and they didn’t want it

but I agree. How can you teach your child what you don’t know?

Perhaps she went to school herself?

I bet there are quite a few people on this thread who are very critical of home education despite the fact neither they nor their children have been home educated.

For example part of our home ed was business

my children wanted to start a business and it’s just about to go live. If it doesn’t work that’s ok because now they know how. If it’s successful then that’s also great

theyre not even Teens yet as such.

also school was just horrific mentally for my eldest. They were not good at all. You can always redo exams but you can never redo mental health which is my moto.

ky children will also be doing GCSES like everyone else

I think this is balanced and fair and would encourage anyone who home educates to start to look into what the college requirements are, once their child is about 12 and keep an eye on their future.

Teachers often don’t have a degree in the subject they are teaching.

In my old school, over half the maths department did not have a maths degree, or even A-level. One had a B in Maths GCSE has their highest maths qualification. A couple had a degree from a bottom tier university (University of Greenwich/ Westminster type unis) and had huge knowledge gaps, totally unsuitable to teach top sets and A-levels. Only three had a good maths degree and these ones taught top sets and A-levels.

So unless your child was already very good at maths, they were getting a very poor maths education!

Yeah she did. I am pro home ed and can see the problems with mainstream school, but I don't understand why a parent would purposely avoid teaching anything to their child and also be so critical (robots, really?!) of going to school when it's working well for many (I acknowledge not all by a long way). It's like she is sad for kids that have to go to school. I would home ed if school didn't work out for my DC, but I would teach them and get tutors as necessary.

You have obviously not read the posts from home educators, outlining the process. They know they cannot teach every subject which is why they employ tutors, online or in person, and join together with other homeschooled children to share costs.

The reason even the 'good ones' are so furious, is because we are sick, sore and tired of this judgemental shit that happens to us all the time. We don't give people who choose to use failing state schools constant grief, yet we get judged all the time, with ignorant threads like this from ignorant people who are clueless about home ed.

The more uproar there is against home ed, the more clamp downs the government try to bring in which affects ALL home educators, not just the few who take advantage of the system.

There are so many people who haven't a clue about home ed who want our right to private family life violated by making home inspections compulsory. That is outright disgusting. I'm a private person, a law abiding citizen, and I do not want some council jobsworth stranger inspecting my home. Honestly, you can all just fuck off and leave us in peace.

And statistically, there are MORE abused children in schools, than there are being home ed. ALL who were allegedly 'home ed' that came to harm were both known to services and failed by those services.

ETA statistically we are (around) four times more likely to have social services called on us too. All because people are judgemental, ignorant busybodies.

I want to add to this that they often end up attaining GCSEs that are less often available in school, marine science, psychology and classical civilization being popular examples.

It is not arrogant at all. No-one is saying that they are subject specialists. But home-educators can absolutely facilitate this learning, whether through online learning, tutors, workshops etc. (Without the added pressures of classroom management).

I think many have a very narrow view of what education can look like.

No evidence that there are crap home-edders? I've been home education-adjacent for quite a while, and sadly most of what I've witnessed has been pretty shit. My SIL is a case in point. I'm sure it can be done well if people have the time and resources, but it can also be done very badly.

In our case, the social anxiety, mental health issues and safeguarding failures were all caused by the school, and now we're left trying to pick up the pieces. I'd never have chosen to home ed, but my DD has been left in such a state that she's not capable of going to school and we're bankrupting ourselves paying for both education (one to one tutoring plus online courses) and therapy to try to help her.

School is not always the best or safest place for a child.

I had to unfriend my friend on FB because she constantly shares stuff that is judgemental against people who send their kids to school. It's all about the state turning our kids into robots and that tests are bad and our kids are hard done by etc etc. I don't do the equivalent or criticise home ed. I am skeptical of unschooling but don't criticise her for it.

There must be people who are 'bad at' home ed just as there are schools/teachers that are bad or in fact any group of people. It's not the case that all schools are failing either, the state system has its faults for sure, some schools are failing and the system fails many children. But ultimately any system that is set up for mass education will not meet the needs of all children.

I would home ed if school didn't work out for my kids but I don't think there's anything wrong with using state provided education either. I had a state education then got a BSc then an MSc, primary school was amazing, secondary not so much but overall it was fine. Maybe home ed would have been better but I suspect, given the discussion on a child's 'success' being down to parental academic level, I suspect I wouldn't have got as far.