To find the homeschooling fad really braggy

[Kudosss]

Am I wrong to think there's something braggy and arrogant about homeschooling?

I'm NOT talking about the parents of SEN children who may not have been able to access a school, or feel it's in the child's best interest. I'm not even talking about the quiet ones who just get on with it. I do acknowledge our school system has it's problems but...

I'm talking about the loudly wholesome parents bragging about their lives and day, how much richer their kids are for being home schooled, outdoors yahdiya.

I mean I would love to be able to homeschool but the reality is I a) can't afford to and b) quite like the little bit of sanity I have left and c) I'm not so arrogant that I think I can undermine qualified teaching professionals with years of experience.

It's almost like these parents are basically announcing their wealth and privilege to the world without announcing their wealth and privilege and making everyone else feel inadequate.

It's going to be interesting in the future how well home schooled kids do in their lives. I hope for their sakes their parents have made a good job of it otherwise they could be screwed.

Hi

I home educate. It’s not a fad as such.

Which books around education philosophy did you read before posting?

I recommend John Holt on Unschooling; and also Changing our Minds by Naomi Fisher.

It just sounds like you have a real chip on your shoulder, op. My kids attend regular hours in regular schooling and it's no skin off my nose how other people go about educating their children. Personally, I found homeschooling during covid was enough to knock any gloss off the idea of it.

I met several parents who homeschooled their DCs through a hobby my DCs did.
I found their DCs did very well academically.
Where they fell down was in their social skills. They found it much harder to get along with others than children who attended school did.
They tended to pool their skills with other parents who home educated.
This was long before influencers whom I wouldn't trust to do quite as good a job.

I work part time around my partner so one of us is home. He works shifts and I do minimum wage care work around that. Even if she was in school it would be difficult for me to earn more once you take in to account fees for out of school care.
We plan for my daughter (she is only 3 currently) to do scouts, swimming and 1 organised HE club a week then free social groups so not massively more expensive than a lot of school parents and without the extra costs of out of school care if I was working full time.
We don’t intend to use tutors at this stage but yes will have to rethink that if she stays HE later on. Current plan is till 7ish

Hi
It’s usually child led so not about the parents doing a good job of it so much.

I also find it interesting to see how the schooled children turn out - I hope they won’t be too damaged by toxic systems and outdated curriculums.

There was a vociferous home schooler parent at a university open day that I went to with DS recently. They were waxing lyrical about how their dd would cope ever so well in university owing to their fabulous self study skills - not relying on others in group work etc.

We ended up in the same subject talk where it was explained that 20% of how the university ranks each application comes from their 8 best GCSEs. This girl had only taken 7 GCSEs and the loud parent was most put out that this would be a disadvantage- even going so far as saying it ‘wasn’t fair!’. The tutor calmly pointed out that it was only 1/8th of 20% but the parent was still on about it as we left the talk

To me that just smacks of poor planning - they’d not looked far enough ahead but the parent was still ranting about it being unfair!

Home educated kids actually often have better social skills as they start in the real world earlier. As opposed to inside an institution :) take care x

And this interaction proves my point. One poster things home schooling has worse outcomes and chooses school. The other thinks homeschooling has better outcomes and discards school. And never the two shall meet....

you already lost me at "unschooling". 😂

and yes, I have read a lot about education, and what is "homeschooling" in this country and others. People do what they want, but braggy parents are absolutely a thing.

You have to be wealthy enough to be able not to work, but to educate your child full time.
Wealthy enough to join all the clubs and activities so they keep a social life.
Wealthy enough to pay for tutors to add to your schooling when needed.

No, no and no

Working from home, shift working, working around each other - all possible and likely. 'Full time' does not mean 9-3 at tables education. It's so much more flexible than that.

Clubs and activities - don't need to cost much at all and may not be necessary - many home edders run co-operatives, meet up groups or just walks in the park - then you have churches, nature groups and just meeting in the playground - young children make friends everywhere. O

Tutors?? Why? As John Holt understood clearly (How Children learn) - it's about learning, not teaching. Once a child knows how to learn and given the wonders of the internet they only need resources and occasional help to learn whatever they need.

and here we go...

The "real world" being? what exactly?

It’s not arrogant or 'braggy' to home educate children; what a bizarre thing to say about a type of education. Also you don’t need to be rich to home educate, the people I know who do so are on average or lower incomes. It sounds like you are feeling very envious and projecting your issues onto home educators. You’d be best off not following these families on social media if it's making you feel that way. Or bettwr still delete social media! It seems to make people so bitter and miserable comparing themselves to everyone else!

I've no doubt that homeschooled kids have just as good if not better social skills...I'm sure there are many benefits to the home school education. It's just that many of us don't have the luxury of that choice.

I don't agree you can be "working from home" AND looking after your child, let alone educate them.

At best you are doing a poor job in both areas.

"shift working" great, and the child is where when you are at work?

Of course you need to be wealthy, we all have 24hours in a day, only so much working full time and educating your child full time you can do.

it's about learning, not teaching. Once a child knows how to learn and given the wonders of the internet they only need resources and occasional help to learn whatever they need. 😂
I am not even going there, I am not here to have an argument. Lets just agree to disagree about "learning whatever they need".

Who is pretending that everyone has a choice?

We home educate our 12 year old ds, as he was utterly traumatised by secondary school and was suicidal.
We are far from wealthy. He can't go to school, so we have to do our best with the situation.
Don't be so narrow minded.

Why on earth would you want the luxury of that choice, OP? I can't think of anything worse than teaching my DC math.

@ThisGentleRaven Parents come in pairs - so one works, one looks after children.

why would they have "better social skills" exactly?

You can think what you want about the school education system, but the one thing it does, is forcing people to interact with any kind of people, any social class and have social skills.

It's not an argument - it's a discussion - I disagree with you and state my point, you counter it.

It's communication.

I home educate.

I put things on social media because my family and friends like seeing about it and ask questions about it.

Its nothing to do with privilege or wealth. Im far from either- husband is on a minimum wage job and I do a bit of freelance work around my home educated child. In fact, we are almost certainly going to be homeless and in temporary council accommodation next year - hardly wealth or privilege.

School lumps children into same age groups from a similar geographical area.

If it's a wealthy area, they're likely to be wealthy.

If it's a deprived area, they're likely to be deprived.

It certainly isn't a wide social mix in all schools - some are better than others.

Do you object to private or religious schools who restrict severely and deliberately those children who attend?

None of the Home Ed parents I know are braggy about it. Most I know do it for religious reasons or because their child has struggled in school.
The braggers I know tend to be the ones whose children go to private/grammar/an outstanding school. Not all of them but some of them seem to think it elevates them to a higher state of parenting.

I am not here to discuss the merits of homeschooling.

From the comments and interactions I happen to have with homeschooling parents, MANY happen to be braggy.

Simply having to tell everybody that they ARE homeschooling, when no one asked and that wasn't the subject or the question, is enough to prove it.

Frankly, who cares, and why do they need to define their entire life by it?