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.

Great, another thread demonising homeschooling written by someone with no experience of homeschooling.

I’m not demonising well delivered homeschooling, I’m demonising knee jerk homeschooling from ill equipped parents. PP mentioned educational neglect and that’s what’s being discussed here.

There isn’t just one reason for Elective Home Education though.

I work in a school and see the school refusers trying to make it through the gates. When they finally manage it, they are unable to cope with the demands put upon them and inevitably damaged property/assault staff until their parent is called, they then refuse to leave site.

Just this week, we had a child’s EHCP go to panel where our school said we could not meet their needs, the local authority made the decision that mainstream is the right environment for them. Another one of our school children has been out of education since last summer while the LA have been trying to find a suitable placement (unsuccessfully).

If a child has an EHCP, the parent can’t just decide to Home Educate, they have to apply to EHE and are then overseen until the child reaches the end of their education.

I teach a full class so obviously my time is devoted to ensuring the needs of my students are met, but it is time consuming to prepare ways for children to learn in a meaningful way. During lockdown, the school I was in did require a heavy online presence so I was working full time hours teaching my class, marking their work etc, planning, making resources etc. My own kids were very young and there was no way I was able to devote any quality time to their education after I'd finished my own work. I was able to catch them up in the summer but they whinged and cried in a way they would not have done with a teacher who wasn't their mum! Even now, I hate helping them with their homework because they resent me in that role and try to get away with half-arsing it in a way they wouldn't dare with their teachers!

I would have to agree based on the class WhatsApp this week, with parents arguing over the correct answer to year 2 maths homework. I kept quiet and in the end a maths graduate dad stepped in 🤣

This is me! I have an English degree but since hitting my mid 40s I've been making all sorts of embarrassing mistakes.

She was friends with neighbours kids and girls at brownies/swimming club/tennis and wanted to try it. Our plan was to skip primary and for her to go straight to secondary. If I could go back id do that. The Head had a real chip on her shoulder about it, couldn't accept that this kid who'd missed five years of school was doing better than the kids at school and missed no opportunity to put her down.

I don't know why people insist on getting so involved in other people's educational choices. You wouldn't appreciate it if others sat there criticizing your choice of school, why do you think it's OK to go on about others' choice to home ed their dc?

I don’t have an opinion on the education setting parents choose - it should be right for the child’s ability and needs.
However, I do have an issue with poor education provision, wherever that may be. Education of the population has an impact on everyone - from the jobs and skills that these children will be able to undertake, the health (physical, mental, emotional) and reliance on the state.
Schools are generally attended by 100s of pupils and so there is accountability to many many parents, data from exam results and external inspections. Whilst all these are imperfect, in combination they do provide some indication of how well the school are doing at educating children plus all the intangibles.
In homeschooling, it is just that family’s children. No assessment of the quality and suitability of that education and no assessment of their welfare or safe guarding.

If you watched Paris Hilton in her documentary she said exactly the same thing. "Oh she will be able to be whatever she wants, a beautician, doctor, hairdresser....". Well no, not without any qualifications she won't!

Nobody has said all homeschooling is bad. The OP very clearly caveats that in her first paragraph.

This is about those that aren't equipped and are doing so for the wrong reasons.

You've done a great job.

I home educate some of my dc. Totally ostracised by the local home ed community as I follow a timetable, do formal learning and fully engage with the LA (sending samples and allowing them a yearly visit to our home) plus I fully vaccinate my dc.

There’s some YouTubers I’ve seen who are doing this with their four kids. The kids have to make TikToks and YouTube vlogs every day. I think the authorities need to do more.

Those illiterate parents probably went to school and it seems it didn't do them any favours.

You're sneering at them for following a crowd - but how many people thought "home ed vs school" when your child turned 5? Most people just put their child in school because that's what you do. They might think "which school?" But they don't think "should i send my child to school at all?"

Which ones are following a crowd again?

The curriculum is incredibly outdated, delivered to the convenience of the school (1 adult to 32 children in my child's class) there's no time or money for individual attention if your child is struggling or not picking up the content. How many of us who were schooled moan about never needing most of the stuff we were taught? How many of us learn a new skill as an adult by sitting quietly in rows with a bunch of other people you may or may not like, reading out of a textbook? Or do we learn by doing, experimenting and trying it out, maybe watching YouTube videos.

School doesn't suit everyone, especially as it is in 2025 where the main focus is on attendance and exam results. A child's success is only measured on those two things. The world has changed immeasurably in the space of 1 or 2 generations, yet we are still educating children essentially the same way the Victorians did. When the current cohort of primary school children graduate school, who is to say whether anything they've learned in their school career will even still be relevant with the rise of AI?

I'm the parent of a SEN child who struggles with school so before this started i might have thought the same as you about illiterate home edders taking their child out of school because they're a conspiracy theorist. But my experiences have showed me that once you look beyond the "children must attend school" mindset and see that there are other options it's hard to lambast other parents for making the sometimes brave choice to go against the norm in the interest of their children.

It’s a very complicated issue because it’s such a varied cohort in most aspects. From very high achieving or sports oriented children/parents to anti establishment nutters to neglect and abuse to parents who literally had no other choice.

I'm not going to comment on some hearsay you claim to have heard.

But on the education side, firstly, that person may be looking for another school. Secondly you have no idea whether the parent in question would do a good or bad job if they did home educate.

Are your concerns educational or about reduced social conformity? If the latter, just be honest. France makes all children go to school because they have a fundamentally different view of the state. That's a legitimate position to hold.

But just attacking home educators based only on your own prejudice isn't helpful.

OP Have you seen the Stacey Dooley episode about the family who ‘homeschool’ their three children ‘without boundaries’? It’s a real eye opener!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dgmm5h

The majority yes, but not all. Through work I’ve met many illiterate adults who went to school. What I object to is dangerous myths about homeschooling like your comment: “deprive a child of an education because the parents can’t get up in the mornings, and are checked out.”
This just isn’t the majority of homeschoolers. The endless attack on homeschoolers on here by people with no experience of homeschooling is ridiculous. Maybe listen to people who have actually done it and learn something!

Is that because the measure only looks at parental attainment and not how those children are educated?
I would argue that a parent (mostly overwhelmingly the mother) who is well educated, previously working in a successful career, who decides to HE their children will take on the role with a high degree of responsibility in that they actually ‘educate’ their child, and not just leave them to stare at a device screen for hours on end. There’s a whole rainbow of HE out there. What’s important is to have some element of checks on children who are out of mainstream school as a minimum for safeguarding purposes. All children deserve access to a decent education.

well a lot of us had a go during lockdown

never again!

I know a family that Home Ed and also blog about it.

The Mum is a university educated SAHM, she’s a lovely enthusiastic woman and from the outside they do all the “right” things in terms of home ed. The children have never been to school, HE was the intention from day one.

But as far as I can see (and of course I may be missing things from the outside) the children are woefully undereducated in comparison to children who attend school.

There is lots of “learning maths and science while baking” which is true, and the sort of thing I did with my kids when they were preschool but it’s not the equivalent of what my children learned in school maths or science as teens.

The mum shares lots of posts about the benefits of HE but they are all comparing HE to a version of school which hasn’t existed for years (children being forced to sit at desks all day long in strict silence)

She’s a very nice, very well meaning mum, but I don’t think she understands quite how much her children are missing out on.

As regards socialisation, they are member ls of lots of groups and their children have other HE friends but everything is supervised. They never have the opportunity to work out social situations on their own without an adult stepping in. They are teenagers who don’t ever leave the house on their own. At the same ages my kids were hopping on the train to the city an hour away for a day out with friends.

We had a conversation about her oldest’s career aims, which are (currently) entirely unrealistic. The child is in her middle teens and wants to do a job which is heavily maths based, but isn’t interested in learning any maths.

It’s been interesting to watch their journey and I’m intrigued to see how everything will turn out, but I do worry a little bit for the children’s futures.

I voted YABU because it’s a goady judgy post.

For any number of reasons, including intellectual capacity

A lot of people fail to realise just how intellectually limited the general population are

There is a anecdote about a newspaper proprietor who was exasperated by the time it took his writers to submit copy

They were polishing up the spelling and punctuation and writing beyond the level of the readership

He put up a notice that said

"THEY ARE ONLY 12"

meaning they were meant to 'pitch' to a reading age of a child

This was in the early 1900s

The average reading age for the general population has never been much more than than what it is now, unfortunately

I’m not sure the education system in this country is fit for purpose these days. I’d love to see our education system working alongside the homeschool community maybe giving schools funding to provide online options or drop in style workshops that homeschoolers could access.
I’ve met wonderful examples of homeschooling but equally I had an acquaintance that proudly told me that at 15 her dd asked to go to college so before she went she gave her the first ever formal lesson she’d had in her life. She explained what plus and minus signs were in basic maths question because the girl had no idea. She also couldn’t read.
My “friend” was really proud of this as she believed it showed she hadn’t pressured her dd into learning anything and she would grow up “free from expectations” I do think this sort of homeschooling needs to be monitored more closely. It just isn’t fair on the young person.

Technically we’re elective home education (my autistic DD goes to an excellent online school) so we get all the stuff through and I’m on a few home Ed Facebook groups. I find them useful as for example there are sports groups which offer classes in school hours, although we can only make the ones which fit around DD’s live lessons.

I actually don’t disagree with you at all. I find the refusal to let the LA carry out basic safeguarding irresponsible on a community level. I’ve no doubt in our area that these kids are actually progressing but the parents make it a point of honour to tell the LA NOTHING because it’s NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS. Meanwhile another Sara Sharif falls under the radar.

That said, if any of the parents (like us) are seeking EHCPs for their children (and to be clear, I believe the best place for DD would have been the local special school) then trust goes two ways and the local authority behaves disgracefully. Obfuscating, gaslighting, disingenuous… I could go on). So there’s that.

Recently the LA invited HE parents to a coffee morning and the Facebook groups were very shrill “Do not go! Do not engage! If you go you do not have to answer questions about your children and under no circumstances talk about any child that is not your own!”. Kids do have the right to an education. That might be a home education but as mentioned upstream, our local traveller population all “home educate” after Primary and no one believes that’s actually happening, but there’s a bit of a tinder box situation where no one wants to confront anyone about it.

Personally I wouldn’t homeschool unless I had absolutely no alternative. I just don’t have the knowledge or skills. Supporting my children’s learning during lockdown with full teacher input was enough to show me that. it’s a very challenging prospect and I imagine some parents do struggle.

Dint do me no harm. Mind you i used to play trueant from home! Sometimes wirked wiv me Dad if it were a 'big job'.
So no harm doned.