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?

Completely agree - my year 9 AuDHD son is always being praised/commented upon by his teachers about his huge knowledge in so many subjects - how has he learnt all this? Youtube and TV documentaries - he has a huge thirst for knowledge and information and once he has seen/heard it, he remembers it.

He also comes home from school most days complaining that he has not learnt a thing and is wasting his time at school!

What has helped my ND son cope in school is flexischooling. He spends one day a week at home doing an hour's coding with a mentor on Teams, and then doing some homework (won't do it any other time as home time is for him not for school work) and learning real world studies with his dad. It also gives him a break from the overwhelming school environment, allowing him to cope better with the 4 days he does go in.

I don't know its probably complex and multicausal. A woman I know in her late 40's who I would describe as the most neurotypical person I've ever known very on the ball and sorted was a PA to a high court judge and has worked as a professional organiser has just been diagnosed with ADHD. I'm not saying she doesn't have it now but she didn't have it a few years ago and they say that its a lifelong condition but I do think there are very modern environmental factors at play especially in regards to children. Obviously at her age perimenopause is probably a cause. She has a prescription for stimulants now and is quite happy.

I think many, many homeschool children are receiving the best education for their situation.

There are some parents who home educate who can’t or won’t do this. I know one family who took the whole forest school stance to home education and haven’t adapted now their older children are teens. They don’t have friends (mum is autistic and doesn’t socialise), they are doing no exams and short of Lego and making spoons from wood they do not have any skills to get a job in the real world. I think families like this are in the minority but they’re the worrying ones when people are left to get on with it. I know another family whose 14 years olds have done half their GCSEs and they do extra curriculars every day etc. Of course the main difference between these families is money.

Are you always such a snob?

School is not a necessity. Education is a necessity.

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?

Not very nice are you. Totally thoughtless too.
Children have been and are subjected to horrific bullying at school. They have even taken their own lives and even if they haven't, they've been left with mental scars.

@whyohwhy246

It would be informative to the discussion if you were clear on what your role is in education. You've made some sweeping statements about the efficacy of home education so it would be useful to know what perspective you are viewing this from.

Instead of trying to change children and trying to keep control and the view that everyone should be a certain way, the schools and curriculum need a complete overhaul. Schools are bringing our children down. I am now more bothered about the lasting mental effects of school than anything else.

If you do not have children in schools at this moment in time, you have absolutely no idea. You cannot compare your own school time to schools right now.

What about when your kid hasn’t had an education for months on end due to having daily sanctions, isolations, suspensions and teachers just seem to banish them out of the classroom for every little misdemeanour? Because my DS hasn’t had an education since September because of this constant rigmarole. The issue with schools is they seem to dish out draconian punishments without looking into why kids might behave in certain ways.
You say neurodiverse kids aren’t going to learn skills to cope in the outside world if they are being isolated but my son has spent more time in school ‘isolation’ and at home due to suspensions over the last few months for behaviours he cannot seem to control (he’s ADHD). You cannot punish the ADHD out of a child by giving them sanctions and isolations which end up being counterproductive and actually worsen the behaviour. To the point I’ve seriously thought of pulling him out of school and home educating him. The reason I haven’t is because my DS has begged me not to…. Because he actually likes going to school and he likes some of his lessons and wants to be among other people and be social. But when the school is threatening permanent exclusion and he’s not getting an education because of their ‘system’ it’s not as simple as “well you’re isolating your neurodivergent child”. He’s spent more time being isolated by school if you ask me!

I mean i made mine. I was one of these kids too, we just didn’t know it back in the 70s/80s.

I was too.

Honestly, people live in their own little bubble nowadays.

Haven't a clue about the real world right now because 'back in my day...'

I know of about 4 children who are home schooled,due to bullying. Another has taken their child out because of his anxiety. I wonder how they will do once they need to work? I doubt they'd go to college or uni. I'm not convinced HS is the best thing if you're not dealing with the underlying issues 😞

Threads about home education always go the same way on here.
For what it’s worth I would class myself as an experienced home educator. Have been doing it for over ten years, admin the local group online, run groups for the kids etc and yes OP the numbers have increased hugely, particularly since the whole situation with COVID.

Do I have some concerns about this huge increase? Yes I do. I worry that people who don’t actually want to do it and aren’t equipped for it are feeling forced into it. There is a stark difference between those who have made a positive choice to home ed and those who feel they have no other option.
The majority of children I see being deregistered in my area are those who have been failed by the school system in some way and it isn’t a choice parents have wanted to make. I’ve met kids with all kinds of needs who have been let down, kids who have been so badly beaten at school that they’ve ended up in hospital and are terrified to go back because next time the other person may be carrying a knife, kids who just can’t cope with the horrendous places that some schools have become. I have watched some of these kids blossom once out of the school system, others are so damaged by their experiences that they struggle but I suspect they would struggle even more if forced back into school.

Overhaul the school system and you would see the numbers of people deregistering reduce.

What do you think needs to change?

What skills are not being taught that the kids should be learning?

I suppose the parents of kids who have been bullied live in hope that once they get in the work place, other adults should be grown up enough not to bully! Although many work places also have bullies. I was bullied at school but found the work place a more grown up place to be with far less bullies around. Surely a parent who is home educating for this reason isn’t going to just force their kid into school and sit by and watch while their kids gets bullied/ threatened/ beaten!

I am a homeschooling parent and I withdrew my dc’s from mainstream education so that they could find a better balance between education and pursuing their other talents. The endless homework meant there was little time for hobbies, family. and downtime which I think is so important. That coupled with increasing class sizes, an increase in pupils who had little to no English, and quite frankly a poor standard of teaching from some teachers who are just counting down the days until retirement. Don’t get me wrong there were some lovely dedicated teachers too that deserve commended for their commitment to trying to provide the best for their pupils in what can be a dire situation. Then there were the budget cuts that led to a lack of text books in the school and homework being sent as a barely legible photographed page of a text book. I would much rather have spent money on providing the appropriate textbooks for my dc’s than on an expensive school uniform if it came down to it.

My oldest dc went on to do a degree in her chosen specialism and is now working abroad in the talent that she pursued. My middle dc is on track to achieve the A level results she needs to pursue her chosen degree and my youngest is doing her last few GCSE’s this year having got all 8’s & 9’s in the ones she sat last year. Both are still pursing their talent and regularly compete abroad. Socialising was never an issue for them as they have so many friends within their hobbies and all 3 have fantastic organisational & time keeping skills as a result of homeschooling.

I think school Is great for children that cope well in that environment but because of the large class sizes, disruptive behaviour, lack of support staff due to budget constraints, lack of equipment etc more and more children are struggling.
My eldest struggled throughout primary, was socially excluded as wasn’t sporty, struggled with friends and was often on the fringes. He struggled academically which resulted in loss of confidence, and he doesn’t look back on primary school with any fondness at all.
We paid for extra tutoring for him in the subjects he struggled with, and he is now in secondary school in the top 1/3 of most of his classes.
I worried so much about him going to secondary because of the issues of primary but he is flourishing now he’s been there for a couple of years. There is a 0 tolerance on disruption in the classrooms and because there are quite a few rules he knows exactly what is expected/will happen.
Our middle child loves school, is very bright, popular and sporty and our smallest struggles a little academically but has lots of friends, so have never had to worry about them/consider pulling them out of school.
If my eldest had started to refuse to go to school due to his struggles, I would have home schooled him until secondary, and then tried again with mainstream schooling, it’s heartbreaking when you have a child that doesn’t fit in.
With flexible working etc it means there are more options for parents who want to consider other options.

This is an interesting and balanced response. The school system clearly needs overhauling and lots of work needs to be done to make children feel ( and be!) safer in school.

What concerns me is seeing parents who do not have the resources- financial, intellectual etc make these life changing decisions for the their children.

I imagine alot of the home schoolers on here do have the above resources but that isn’t a fair comparison.

Lovely victim blaming of bullied kids here.

When you have a adult job you can actually opt out if the workplace is actively harmful to your physical and mental health - you can go and find a different job. It would be silly to do that just for being a bit bored or having an annoying colleague, but people generally don't withdraw their children to home ed for that level of reason either.

Socialisation isn't a problem - and sport teams, music/drama groups and productions, crushes and even residentials can still be accessed during home ed (I'm personally fine skipping over detentions for not having your shirt tucked in etc tbh).

A large part of teacher training is learning to control a class of 30 students, differentiate work to their varying needs whilst delivering it simultaneously, and how to do the required paperwork. Home ed doesn't require any of this. Most parents are capable of facilitating their child themselves - you don't have to do it from memory of your own distant school-days, there are many books and resources available including most of the ones that schools use - but there are also many many specialist tutors/recorded lessons etc etc on the market, the majority of which are provided by school teachers who have left the profession to home educate....

@whyohwhy246 , interesting. Did I hit a nerve?

@whyohwhy246

I really hope you do answer the question about your role in education because it would be really interesting to see how you have reached the conclusions you have.

Well OP i completely disagree - teachers skills seem to mainly be related to crowd control.

As an experienced teacher with a range of pedagogical and subject-specific skills, I find your view extremely sad and insulting. 😔

Removing them from an unsafe situation is dealing with the underlying issue.

My dc are no longer school age (though one is still in some kind of education). School was awful for my eldest, she was bullied so much and just didn’t fit in, she loved uni though. My youngest is severely autistic and I spend the whole of her primary years fighting to get her out whilst being told ‘being around NT children is what she needs’. At the time homeschooling wasn’t really an option as there wasn’t much support in place or local groups. Now it’s very different. I know several people homeschooling, attending group activities locally and accessing lots of support, their children are doing great and are further ahead than most children their age who are in school.

The school system has so many flaws, especially for children that don’t fit in the box (and many don’t), thought who are not academic and are being constantly reminded of how far behind they are.

Being academic isn’t the only way to be successful but in schools children are constantly being told they need to be hitting milestones in maths and English, being told they need A levels and to go to uni to be successful…..there are many ways to success.

If I had young children now, I would definitely be thinking about home schooling them.