To think that homeschooling (without additional needs) is selfish?

[IndigoFlamingooo]

I’ll start by saying that obviously for some DC homeschooling is unfortunately a necessity for various reasons eg: SEN/medical & MH problems/severe bullying etc. These are all valid, understandable reasons to take a child out of school.

A very different scenario however is when parents actively choose to take their child out of school for no good reason other than they think they seem to think that being taught at home is somehow going to be a better experience for their child. In reality this ends up being detrimental as a) the parents are not qualified teachers b) the child is isolated & not socialising enough with their peers and c) they end up without proper qualifications. There is even an online trend of parents trying ‘worldschooling’ - in other words travelling the world instead of school as apparently this will be a more worthy education!

On many of the homeschooling pages a common complaint is that their DC have the bare minimum (if any) GCSEs and are therefore struggling to progress into further + higher education. To me this is the height of parental irresponsibility - knowingly putting your child’s future at risk should count as neglect.

Before anyone asks - the only reason I follow these homeschooling pages is that we briefly considered it for DD when she was 15/16 due to severe medical issues at the time that rendered her unable to attend school for a year. Thankfully now resolved.

A psychiatry degree no less! When some commenters pointed out you can’t do anything with a psychiatry degree she said “well she’ll be done by 19 so she can catch up with her peers if she wants a more useful degree then” well, yeah… she’ll already be in £27k debt too, presumably?

State schools are diabolical. If we couldn't afford to send our kids to private school we would home school before we would resort to using state schools. They are not fit for purpose anymore sadly.

Well that’s just silly. In most of the country there aren’t grammar schools. And going fully private isn’t an option for many as to afford fees of £15k you need to clear a wage of 25k with taxes to pay the fees with no change. If you’re not a high earner, it would make more sense to not work (and get some benefits) than work for free to pay fees.

Regardless

many reasons people may home school. Sure there are some mad / irresponsible hippies out there. Many more where they may not like schools in their area. Or super gifted kids who’s needs won’t be met in mainstream school.

Weird you say the parents ‘aren’t teachers’ - the people I know who have homeschooled are qualified teachers. That’s why they’ve felt able to take the decision to homeschool?

On a purely practical level in mainstream schools up to half the school day is crowd control - settling down, lining up, assemblies, kids getting told off. If you homeschool you can massively condense the day and cover more in 4 hours than a kid would cover in a full school day, leaving free time to do fun stuff like going swimming or to galleries with other homeschooled kids.

I’d never homeschool as I am a terrible teacher but I totally see the appeal.

I am studying an OU degree. I am not on my computer 24/7 and the modules only run from October to May/June, with breaks at Easter & Christmas. They’re very doable.

I think reasons are often more complex, or at least matters of opinion, and it often does come from a good place. There is not only one answer to the question of what is in the best interests of the child. Cramming 9 GCSEs into one isn't the only way to set them up well for life.

None of us should sit in judgement dividing a group of parents into those with acceptable reasons and those without. Ultimately nearly all of them will be doing it in sincere belief it is in their child's best interests. And as parents that is all we can ever aim for.

The law requires parents to provide a suitable standard of education. Sometimes that is better done at home for many different valid reasons. Sometimes school simply isnt a good fit for the child or the family.
The children still have the option of sitting GCSEs and increasingly they are not even required for jobs.

I think there's a bit of this, but the answer is complicated.

Home schooling has been 'normalised' to the extent that parents pull their kids out of school and think doing an online homeschool lesson once a day is a good substitute without perhaps putting a lot of thought into it. I don't get that at all. If you homeschool, you need to properly be your child's teacher.

Plenty of parents who don't want to do the school runs, or have their time messed up by the school schedule.

Plenty of parents who see bullying not sorted out by schools and feel they can't keep sending their children into an environment where they'll be targeted.

There are good intentions and also lazy intentions. It's difficult because plenty of kids get messed up at school. Personally I'd only do home school as a last resort having tried other schools if my child was unhappy.

Well even if you got some low quality group tutoring for half the price it’s only 4 hours a week isn’t it?

I have some home schooling acquaintances and they were / are at groups and home ed school type settings all the time, not sitting at home doing nothing by themselves!

One of them was an ex teacher so was very good at using her skills to give her kids a good grounding at primary level.

The other seems to have a lovely life following her child's interests, alongside groups and lots of trips and luckily doesn't have to work. Yes they might not get loads of gcses but lots of children who go to school don't get many / any either.

Having said that I am aware of other families "un schooling" where they seem to let their children do whatever they want all day with no intention of any academic work or even learning to read etc, I hope these are in the minority

Also - different kids learn differently. Some kids learn well in a group, others not. I personally am not SEN but just couldn’t concentrate in a busy classroom, ever. I used to stay home a few days a week to catch up on schoolwork as i needed the quiet at home. Thankfully my mum let me and I did well academically, if i’d been forced to go to school every day I’d have done worse, as I took nothing in in lessons. I’d have definitely done way better being full time homeschooled.

"You only need 5 to get into college"
You don't need any. You can take a Functional Skills class and get into college.

This is always young kids though. It’s not common for 14 year olds to be traipsing round the local farm experience in their wellies or singing in the library on a Tuesday morning with their mum.

There is still the issue of what happens when they’re older and you finally admit “learning to read by reading the shopping list” or “learning maths by making cakes” isn’t actually very educationally enriching past 6.

Many areas are no longer grammar areas. For some people the option will be state or homeschool if they can't afford private.

GCSEs can't be that important since loads of school kids mostly fail them anyway. I think the pass rate at my local secondary school is 50% 😂

We've been doing college open days this month and there are plenty of options for kids leaving school without any GCSE passes.

You don't even need A Levels for uni - most courses accept a range of other qualifications like BTECs and Access courses.

Nearly every job no matter how basic requires a minimum of a pass at maths & English GCSE.

So what do all the school children who fail maths and english do?

My experience is that those homeschool children who do them get on well with GCSEs because they just do one at a time from the age of about 14, which is easy. The challenge of gcse is doing 9 over 3 weeks 😂

They go and study level one courses at FE colleges alongside Maths & English GCSEs.

Not an awful lot until they can pass!

So no different to home educated children who don't have GCSEs by 16 then.
I don't really see the problem?

This is our situation. Local state schools are utterly dire and not the right setting for DD at all. No grammars in the area. Definitely couldn't afford a prep school.

Exactly. This OP is just really against Home Ed so is pretending it’s all doom and gloom when there are multiple opportunities for all youngsters to get their GCSEs, both the ones who fail to achieve passing grade in mainstream and the ones who are home educated.

You can't have looked into it beyond a brief, judgemental flick through given you refer to it as Home Schooling. It is known as Home Education in the UK. At least try and get your facts right if you're going to try and spout authority over something you clearly know nothing about.

Getting functional maths at a FE college at 16 is a bit shit if you were actually capable of more in a professional school environment though isn’t it? How many of those children have been let down by their parents decision?

I doubt she cares enough about the language home schoolers insist on to fall into step with that one. Why would she unless she was some fan girl type?