Insane rise in home schooling?

[whyohwhy246]

Has anyone else noticed a huge increase in home schooling? Someone I follow in IG has just deregistered their child and I just can’t believe how many families are choosing to do this.

Of course it is sometimes the right choice for the child but it seems that more and more children are being allowed to opt out of formal education.

Teenagers need to learn that life is hard and school will throw challenges at them. How they learn to deal with this impacts how they handle things as an adult. What happens when they enter the work place and they can’t just opt out of the difficult things? Where do they learn that resilience?

I have worked in education for 20 years and whilst I agree that some aspects of the system are broken, I don’t think home schooling is the answer to this.

The social aspect alone is impossible to replicate (walking to school together, having your first crush, a detention, school trips I could go on and on…) but I also don’t see how all of these parents can have the skills to teach their children to GCSE. I also find it so insulting to teachers who spend years learning their craft. It’s not just something you can pick up and do effectively.

Has anyone else noticed this?

School is shit unless you are a compliant, neurotypical child.

My high functioning ASD and ADHD child will be home schooled in September, the local secondaries have a dreadful reputation for SEND and I cannot afford a private school. He’s not disabled enough to warrant a specialist school so home education is our best option.

It’s not the fault of teachers who, on the whole, work hard for the good of their students but the school system is not fit for purpose anymore. It works for churning out standard, compliant fodder for a world of work that hasn’t really existed since the 90s, and just can’t or won’t adapt to the future which is going to be very, very different.

I think the home schooling offer has really improved as well. With online learning there's a viable alternative to parents having to be educators, so pupils can still make progress and gain qualifications without needed to be in environments which don't suit them.

home school is a fantastic option when parents are engaged in providing academic and social learning for
their child. In my admittedly anecdotal experience of several local families nearby, they’re homeschooling because they don’t seem to agree with formal schooling at all and have very alternative anti mainstream views
on everything (anti vaxxers, restricted diets, anti establishment)

As PP stated, schools are dreadful places for many children, especially for children with additional needs/ sen.

You don't build resilience by being forced to attend an unsuitable environment.

Labours education plans are going to make things worse not better.

Both of my children were home educated for secondary. I have zero regrets.

The eldest is now in his second year at UCL and has done better than most of his schooled peers. He wasn't learning anything at all in school because the environment was so dreadful for him.

Have you seen this piece in the Times?

It’s my job to check on 700 home-school pupils. What I see is alarming

www.thetimes.com/article/950ffbb8-7d9a-437a-b6c0-039f171ea8cb?shareToken=ab3bf39914571ea3fdbc335eb4dc06b8

It’s a side-effect of very other child now apparently being neuro-diverse and needing special accommodations, which of course the schools can’t meet.

The second factor, is probably the ubiquity of Technology, meaning parents don’t actually need to personally do anything to homeschool - they can just park their kid in front of a computer.

Much easier to opt for home schooling when the input is ‘I’ve signed up for an online course’, rather than ‘I will be personally teaching a wide variety of academic subjects to GCSE level’.

Well OP i completely disagree - teachers skills seem to mainly be related to crowd control.
My 14 year old is self studying for GCSEs and took a functional skills english exam last week which she aced (and I mean aced she got 100% in one exam and 95/96% in the other two) - shes never been to school.
Schools are a one sized fits all, bullies rule environment where management seem to hyperfocus on things like the correct shoes and a few days off rather than important issues - probably because they have no control over anything else.

@Prooooo

School is shit unless you are a compliant, neurotypical child.

I agree. The "one size fits all" approach only works for the average NT child, i.e. probably just over half. Those at the extremes are alienated from education because of the antiquated way that schools are set up. Those who aren't particularly "academic" struggle with the over-academicized nature of most lessons and those who are highly academic struggle as they're not being stretched. Add in to the the behaviour problems, bullying etc - particularly the bullying of everyone who is "different" for whatever reason. The subjects taught hasn't changed for decades despite the World changing beyond recognition. Sports are a nightmare for all the kids who aren't "sporty" for whatever reason and the "team" sports put off many kids from exercise for life due to the bullying etc and mean they fail to make proper friendships, become scared of "team work" etc.

I was bullied mercilessly for my entire teenage years at a crap comp. Not just verbal abuse, but also physical, i.e. being assaulted, burned, kicked, punched, and had personal belongings damaged/stolen. Teachers did bugger all about it except told me to "toughen up" - i.e. the usual teacher's lazy "victim blaming". One of the worst bullies was next in line alphabetically and of course, lazy teachers put us into alphabetical groups meaning I spent lots of lessons having to sit with or work alongside the worst bully. No wonder my results were poor! Teachers who knew who was bullying me still put me with the bully! Insane!

I'd have home-schooled my son without a doubt had there been the first inkling of problems at his school. I'd certainly not have made him stay in mainstream education if he'd been bullied anything like I suffered. Luckily, he was "middle of the road" and "normal" looking, acted "normal" etc., so basically didn't stand out, i.e. the perfect "comp" pupil.

We need a complete and utter re-think on secondary schools, root and branch reform. Start again with a clean sheet, when it comes to literally everything from antiquated uniforms and other illogical rules, through to the subjects taught, through to exams, through to teaching methods, etc.

I'm not surprised at all at seeing the dramatic rise in numbers being home schooled!

But learning is so much more complex than simply accessing an online course. Yes your child might be able to learn a syllabus but what about all the other skills and life lessons they learn along the way.

See there’s learning to deal with other kids and then there’s a few kids I’ve met who say they’re used to it and it’s fine about bullying (moved schools three times, he was small for his age with a high pitched voice, he had a whole class play a prank on him), another who had someone call out about how big he was in a canteen so he stopped eating because everyone in the class started calling him the name the person shouted.

I personally think in the most ideal of ideal worlds they would have extra staff at schools whose only job are to be present and watch out for bullying. I also think there should be more art, music, group projects where teachers look at personalities so they can help quiet kids fit in or struggling kids achieve at anything so they don’t act out but they don’t because they have no time. So kids that are anyway different or have special needs are just left to be miserable and alone. Not the teachers fault btw.

But not all jobs are the same, so why should every education look the same.

For instance a neurodiverse adult who struggles with crowds but is great at hyper focusing on detailed projects, isn't going to look for a job where they would be working in an office of 30+. They'd look for a WFH type job, where they need to work mainly independently, probably linked to an area of expertise.

So why would that same neurodiverse person need to have spent their childhood/teenage years in a class room of 30, that will almost certainly overwhelm them and prevent any learning happening.

I share all of these concerns. This article rings so true and the children that I work with are exactly the same as discussed in the article. Thanks for sharing.

I agree. Due to intense bullying for five years, I left school without a single O level, after having left primary school a straight A* pupil.

I did a mix of self-study and adult education evening classes to first get my O levels, and then get my A levels. Then I "self studied" accountancy for five years (17 exams), to become a qualified accountant.

Not bad for someone who didn't get a single O level!!

Schools are toxic environments for a significant minority of pupils.

Schools can work well for many children, not so well for others - it depends on the child, the school, and often dependent on individual teachers and their experience/knowledge.

Home education can work well for many children and not so well for others - dependent on why it has been chosen, the resources of the parents - both financial and educational, what is available locally and of course, the child and their abilities/needs.

Both systems can and do cause harm to children. I think the harm that school cause is ignored quite often whereas the harm home education causes is highlighted.

Nail on the head again!

What skills and life skills can only be taught in school that can't be learnt elsewhere?

My home educated children learned other skills through hobbies, sports teams etc.

When my son attended sixth form for A Levels after not being in school since year 5 the teachers said that had a maturity that was not shared by his school peers and an ability to self direct learning that was above and beyond those who had been taught everything in a class room setting.

I would love to homeschool my SEN child who struggles at school but how do you navigate work and homeschooling? Unless you have a husband who earns enough to support you then I don’t see how it can work financially.

I think covid and lock down learning gave children and parents a taste of what home schooling could be like. I know a lot of people realised that home schooling would work really well for their child when their child thrived when the schools were closed.

Also with budget cuts for children with SEN and budget cuts in general a lot of parents feel that home educating is their best option.

I think a lot of people who home school realise full well that they are not able to teach their children to the same standard as school. They feel forced to make a choice between education and mental well being. In a lot of cases, I don't blame them.

@whyohwhy246 , in my opinion a homeschooled child has the opportunity to have a wider and far superior education than those confined to that offered in our state schools. You sound at the same time both threatened by the parents who are doing a greatly better job than you and horribly arrogant in your elevated opinion of your own abilities.

Yep the rise directly correlates with schools (and parents) not making children avid, confident learners. State schools don’t have the resources to challenge every child, possibly they weren’t designed to, some parents rightly seize control, whether that is paying independent school fees or taking it upon themselves to home school. The state school crisis is one that must be tackled.

I couldn't disagree more. I loved school, my kids currently love school - but when they're older I would homeschool them in a heartbeat if school wasn't right for them.

The normal social experiences you've described re only 'normal' because that's the way it's been for years. Doesn't mean it's good. Kids can be socialised and experience trips without being locked in a school with hundreds of other kids.

I'd love to avoid bullying, fads, bitchiness, comparison, disruption peer pressure etc - as a parent why wouldn't you?

Two words: Gender Ideology.

Parents want to protect their children from being brainwashed and told they can change sex and they should keep secrets from their parents. Also some girls are staying home when on their period because they have no safe space to change their pads/tampons. Boys in the gender neutral toilets giggle when they can hear plastic in the cubicles. It's been mentioned in the media that the boys kick the sanitary bins over and go through them. Some girls are absolutely busting for a wee when they get home from school because they can't use the toilets at school. Risking a urinary tract infection.

That's why. Until girls have a safe place to attend to their toiletry needs and policy is changed whereby children aren't being encouraged to think they can change sex and keep secrets from their parents, more and more and more parents will be homeschooling.

Home schooling is totally fine... as long as your children are going to be home-employed.