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.

Is it a fad? I’m mid forties and have numerous friends that were home schooled.

All have good jobs and are well rounded decent humans. Most went into higher education but skipped the largely mediocre education on offer in local primary/secondary schools.
Most weren’t wealthy or privileged, they moved around a lot and most of the time weren’t settled for long enough to go to school. (Hey hippy parents).

I disagree about it being ‘braggy’, maybe you are mixing with the wrong people?

FWIW I didn’t home educate, I would have been terrible and couldn’t afford it. I admire people that can do this and don’t have a massive chip on my shoulder about other people’s choices.

“The wonders of the internet…” fucking hell that has alarm bells all over it! Who is taking responsibility for making sure the home educated child has sufficient critical thinking and analytical skills to learn effectively from “the internet” Digital learning absolutely has its place, I would argue it’s essential, but it is no substitute for guided learning by a teacher!

The word you're looking for is smug.

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.

In a working class area, there'll be mainly working class kids plus a few middle class kids, whether that's for school or home ed.
I recall a boyfriend being in halls with mainly privileged kids at uni and it must have been a steep learning curve to try to find some common ground.

Good home educating parents can do an amazing job. The problem is that the loud ones usually are not the good ones - but are often seen as examples…
Good home education is work intense, can get expensive (secondary school, but also groups and hobbies), and requires a parent with natural talent as a teacher and the ability to keep learning.
Mr and Mrs “my child learns without instruction, in daily life” will end up like the poor boy in my son’s class - learning to read in year 8.

It's still wider than being restricted to groups with other home-educated kids only, and only when approved by mummy and daddy.

Ok

I don't home school but I voted YABU

Some homeschooling does look like an amazing experience for some, I'm not surprised people want to brag

@PoliteSquid

Parental controls are the answer to your question - fairly easy issue to solve as well as having computers in common areas and an interested and available parent who observes what children are doing and manages any issues.

I know a few home educating families, and for the most part, they’re home educating because they have children with SEN who weren’t coping with mainstream schools. Rather than choosing home educating for ideological reasons.

There is one of those who also falls into the loudly wholesome and braggy category described by OP, but I do feel that, at least for this parent, that this is driven largely by a need to justify their choices to others. Especially as they’re like that with just about everything else they do as well.

So I think the pp who suggested that sort of behaviour is often driven by insecurity has a good point.

Actually my home educating friend’s children are far more widely socialised than my schooled children. They go to three different sports classes (only one of which is in school hours/for home ed children), cub scouts/girl guides, a church group for kids, the whole family goes to a midweek church group of mainly elderly people where the kids are expected to speak to adults and make conversation and they’re all part of two bands/orchestras. One helps run a rainbows group for little kids and one is part of a home education Forest school activity. And they play out with the neighbourhood children.

They are definitely not just hanging out with other home educated kids.

I'm not sure it's necessarily that. If there are influencers who are making their living that way, they will of course be selling a particular image of home education to get more followers. It may be less that they're bragging and more that they're doing what works to earn a living (in some cases - sure some are probably just bragging!)

“A interested parent” checking what they’re looking at isn’t actively teaching them critical thinking skills though is it? Parental controls restrict content, they’re not a means of fact checking or teaching balanced discussion.

Home education is fantastic when done well. But being able to offer that time and expertise is a position of privilege. Like private schools, the choice is there but not everyone can access it.

People who do it out of choice rather than necessity are generally pretty odd.

My child isn't only restricted to parent approved hone educated socialising. He goes to sports clubs, cadets, library club, the gym, youth club and hangs out with friends (none of which are home educated) like any non-home educated child.

I agree with a PP. It's the ones who are educating at home because their kids are unsafe in schools, lockdowns are a new thing and woke teachers are making kids trans brigade that bug me. Posts are often littered with spelling and grammar mistakes. I dread to think what these kids will do in the future.

But it surely means you are wealthy enough not to need to work.

I don’t know anyone who has home schooled their children, which isn’t surprising as, according to AI, only 1.4% of children are home-schooled.

But unless a child is totally exceptional in some way, it is an incredibly inefficient use of resources. Schools, like workplaces, were invented for a reason and also, by definition, socialise children, as they have to mix with other children.

And how does home Ed prepare children for uni or the workplace?

No I work around my partners shifts

I don't follow any influencers as they're, mostly, full of shit however find some homeschooling parents are a bit performative "oh we homeschool" when asked why they are on holiday with their kids mid term and then spend time at breakfast outlining, loudly, the day's plan to their brood ensuring we can all hear.

It's rather sad you're so defensive and insecure.

I was home educated. My parents were low income and worked different shifts to each other, and none of the other home ed children I knew had remotely wealthy or privileged families. It's interesting to see how people view home educators. They're either feckless and neglecting their children, who will never be able to compete with school educated kids because of all the disadvantages of home education, or they're wealthy and privileged, giving their children unfair advantages and rubbing it in everyone else's faces! Make your minds up...😄
When my parents pulled me out of school, they got a lot of very negative reactions. Many people we knew got very defensive and almost took my parents' choice as a personal affront. People made a lot of doom laden predictions about my future. None of them came true. Thankfully I did well educationally and (more importantly in my opinion) had a happy childhood with plenty of friends, which hadn't been the case when I was at school.

My dc are home educated and I don’t care how anyone else chooses to educate their dc - the vast majority of parents want their dc to be safe and happy and for them to have a fulfilling childhood - I don’t feel the need to judge or comment on their choices. I might get snippy if they do not show me the same courtesy. I don’t post anything about my dc on social media.

I don't get any homeschooling videos in my feed at all. On any network.
I do get endless videos about how to break in pointe shoes and lots of videos about cats.
I suggest skipping all the home schooling reels quickly and watching more videos on cats and hopefully they will fade away from your feed x

I only follow cats too.
I don't mind their bragging.