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.

Ive never met anyone who brags about homeschooling. The truth of it is that homeschooling isn't as good for the child as being in an education setting with peers. Normally homeschooling is the very last resort after special tuition.

Some home educators are braggy and seem to think that the only way they can discuss the benefits of home education is to discussing issues in the school system. They tend to be the louder types online. They equally frustrate many home educators.

Many aren't, including the categories of families already listed as well as those in areas where education has fallen apart.

Quite a few home educators also have school educated kid(s). Last data I saw, most home educators start with their kids in school and withdraw after a series of issues. There is some discussion that since COVID and the rise of some home educating influencers that there is an upswing in more parents withdrawing faster, but still more come from issues with schools.

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.

John Holt died in the 1980s, his arguments have little to do with the internet - but really - given a child the wonders of the internet? The wonders are the internet are just a representation of the wonders of the wider world - and the horrors of it.

John Holt was an ex-teacher turned American conservative libertarian who was against the state being at all involved in nearly anything because he became jaded it could be changed. His entire argument for 'unschooling' was to treat children as adults, it was part of his wider framework on 'children's rights' and ~freeing children from the constraints of childhood~ that included arguing for removing the age of consent and that children's rights included them being able to enter into sexual relationships with adults. I'm sure he'd love the idea of children having free rein to teach themselves on the internet where his kind now love to prowl.

Parents are responsible for their children's education, entirely when we choose to home educate. Putting a child's education all on their shoulders to learn, with or without the wonders of the internet, is to put adult responsibilities on a child. This may line up with Holt's point of view, but his view never had much regard for responsibility.

I'm interested to know how this works from the class teacher's point of view?

Most schools I know hate flexischooling/part time schooling and treat it as a temporary last resort for a child really struggling or has exceptional medical situation.

A few schools I know have leaned into it, but the ones I know are private and/or small schools in areas with declining numbers who have found ways to accommodate it to bring in more numbers. The type doing it online have gravitated to those types of schools because it requires a headteacher's permission.

I had one child who was part-time during his GCSEs for medical reasons. He took a reduced load of GCSEs to account for that. Years on, we agree it was making the best of a bad situation.

Nope. She is 3.5 currently. I feel it’s a good
fit for us and I don’t like a lot of elements of the current education system. I also feel that children in the UK start school too young.
Reception we are definitely not sending her- partly for practical reasons, we aim to move within the next 18m and have no idea where we will be. Then if it’s working for us I would like to home educate until she is 7 then review including taking her opinion in to account at that point too.

This is what I hope to be. Nothing against people who make the decision to use schools. My sister and my best friend are teachers so I certainly have nothing against teachers who are trying hard to do their job in an almost impossible environment sometimes. I have just made what I feel is the best decision for my child and my family after researching the options, just as someone who chooses to send their child to private school has.
Thankfully no idea on the tik tok front as I have never ventured on there!

Maybe if people stopped claiming it was abusive/insular/restrictive/isolating/lazy/reductive yadda yadda yadda people wouldn’t feel the need to be so evangelical

The worst about the smug and braggy "home educators" is that they know EVERYTHING and their way of "home educating" is the only possible way, every body else (including other home educators") is wrong and doing home education WRONG.

They're exhausting (and highly amusing). Or they would be amusing if poor kids didn't have to be put through that.

Of course not all parents are like that, but the vocal and braggy ones are just that.

I'd be concerned about the lack of socialisation when it comes to home schooling, though I think some of the things being taught on and off the curriculum are ridiculous. Some teachers can't disguise their political bias and it reflects in their teaching, so I can see why some people don't want to have their kids exposed to it.

it's dangerous

How can you dare denying it? If there's no welfare check, how does anyone knows how the child is living? Why is no one checking that a child can at least read, write and count by the time they are 10 *and gosh I am large, they learn that in KS1. How is no one checking and making sure children ARE not isolated and kept locked in all day?

And such a fine line - mummy and daddy have a business/ a shop.. and children are "helping" to "teach them". Where's the limit? Who is around to stop child labour and child abuse?

It doesn't matter if you are home educating or even a parent, how can anyone pretend there's not something very wrong in the current system?

I would say it's better to be exposed to other ideas and taught by your parents about different opinions, fact checking etc, than being brain-washed by parents who claim their truth is the only truth.

It doesn't hurt children to learn to question what is being said. (it doesn't hurt parents to have to learn to justify and explain themselves either 😂, kids keep you young)

I think on the whole they're just new, excited, idealistic and not yet worn down by getting them thru GCSEs. In general if they join the support groups they'll be reminded to keep their eyes on their child's future (age dependent).

Well that is certainly the argument for it. Overall, I'd say the benefits of school outweigh the negatives, but brainwashing happens in schools too. My stepson's PSHE lessons often raise a conversation at the dinner table.

You sound jealous.
Home education isn’t a utopia for all, but when it goes well it’s amazing, and it’s good to hear those cases as they’re inspiring and show us what can be done.

FWIW having got to know many people through HE the majority are SN, diagnosed or otherwise, and the others are ex teachers who didn’t want their own children to be taught in mainstream schools….

I'm an 'accidental' home educator. Accidental because I was forced into it when my 10 year old boy had a break down due to undiagnosed SEN and school refused. I ended up then also home educating my daughter.

I don't think my children are exceptional but the classroom didn't suit them because of their additional needs. We had to adapt at home over the secondary years which was fairly easy because there are lots of resources available.

My kids did manage to keep up their sports/ friendships reasonably well.

My son did OK in his GCSEs then transitioned easily to college for A Levels and now is in his second year at university in London (away from home) and is loving it and has a part time job too.

In terms of his 6th form and A Levels the teachers said he was much more capable than his schooled peers to undertake the independent study needed to excel (he ended up with 3 A*s at A Level) and I think this is a real benefit.

Flexi schooling is a fab medium

A few days in school, a couple at home.
We do 1 home 4 in school.
I can afford to work and input into my child's life educationally giving them the 1-1 variety to follow interests interactively of just small scale focus and embed learning in a home environment.

School gets the full funding and teacher knows there's 1 less child in class on a set day.

It's a legal right to ask and is agreed on a case by case basis from the head teacher.

I'm a big fan and its my hope to do this the whole school through.

The problem is the amount of time wasted by the teacher who then has to catch up for what has been missed that day. When it's primary school and a day they learn about history mainly, it's not too bad, when it was a focus day in Maths and everybody has to wait, it's a waste of everybody's time. It should not be allowed, or teachers should just ignore the child - but they are educators, they care, and of course they wouldn't do that.

Kids finish at 3pm in England, theres more than enough time to follow private interests.

I can't see why an entire class has to be put on hold for one child, they are over-crowded as it is.

I'm going to start this by saying that I am a home educator who runs a blog and posts on Instagram about our "homeschool". On my blog I collate all of the educational activities put on for home educators by cultural institutions in London each term, as a resource for home educators in London. All of this information is available on the museum websites, but since I'm looking it up and sharing it with various groups anyway, I thought I would put it into a blog post, to make it easier for home educators to find it. It started for local friends, but is growing into something bigger. To add to this, I write reviews of those activities online, so that home educators have an idea of what they are booking on to.

On my Instagram account, I share reels of those cultural activities, as well as posts about what home education looks like for us. The intention isn't to brag, but as outreach for the home ed community, and also to dispel myths about home ed. There is a lot of misinformation about the home educating community and so over the years, there have been campaigns for home educators to show what their "homeschool" looks like.

As a community, we can often feel under threat, rightly or wrongly, and this is one way we try to approach that positively.

Like any community, we do have issues, one more recent one is with people trying to make a name for themselves and monetize their content as influencers, although I guess that is a wider societal issue.

We do have a lot of people in our community, whose children have been really damaged by the school environment. I have seen children as young as 5 join our community, who have been traumatised by school, and have a lot of issues to work through when they first leave school. They are often neurodivergent. I taught Reception through to Year 2 before having children, and it really does break my heart. I do wonder what the school was doing. There are many ex-teachers in the home ed community who feel the same. The numbers of home educators are going up, because of current issues with the school system, which the government seem reluctant to fix, because it would be expensive. The same issues are leading to issues with teacher retention.

This does lead to there being many home educators who are anti-school, which is understandable really.

Home education should really be a free choice. It isn't right that families are being pushed into something like this by a system that is failing their children. Right now, too often it isn't and as a community, we are left to pick up the pieces.

Not bragging at all and not rich
Partner is a highly trained and experienced teacher himself, I have a Masters in a very broad discipline

I've aupaired and taught SEN kids to read and write by sheer determination and will. They were failed in school. How about that

I can ‘dare’ quite easily.

Because I know the stats.

And the majority of children who slip compketely through the gaping holes in health and social care are doing so in complete plain view, and they’re under 5x

You clearly do not. Nor have you considered the fact that children aren’t off the radar just because they are not in school….i’ll leave you to have a stab at exercising your imagination

I can tell you that as two highly educated parents, home educating was actually the last thing that ever occurred to us that is going to happen to our child. But it did. No one is vaccinated against life events

Ha! I think I know who you mean. Agree it's the most annoying.

What also annoys me are parents who can't afford it and yet they moan about mainstream not providing individual teaching, vegan food and all sorts of things they chose for their kids. The expectation mainstream would fully cater to their choices is frankly bonkers.

I think we're going to have a struggle of so many poorly adjusted individuals in about a decade for so many reasons, including fad 'homeschooling', it's pretty bleak.

I've been a secondary teacher for over 15 years.
I am very happy with my choice to send my own children to school, but I can see quite clearly how the education system isn't a great fit for all families. Since having my children I can understand more how important it is to make that right choice for your own children.

The only element of ehe that makes me uncomfortable are the parents that have limited parenting skills, very low education and yet withdrawn to ehe so that they can avoid the school system. These aren't the ones with the wholesome Instagram posts of outdoor play though!

Thankfully the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill is a start, and the sign that things ARE finally changing, it will be slow, it wont' be straight forward, but it's a sure start of better things to come.

It was about time and finally the government is starting to step up.

Name begins with R?

Yeah I dread to think what this future generation will be like once they enter the working world.

I also feel like these faddy homeschoolers aren't really considering what happens when the kids grow up. It's all very nice and cutesy when kids are learning basic 2+2 and making artwork from autumn leaves but what about a few years down the line when they need to be taught algebra and quadratic equations? I was really good at maths but there's absolutely no way I can remember any of that stuff to teach now!

It's up to the headteacher to decide how to operate so I assume they would discuss it with the teacher in order to manage workload.
For example some schools might designate particular days as core days where everyone is in school, and then have others as available for flexi.