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?

So you're calling every family who home-school their kids arrogant and entitled?? Nice

I’m a private tutor and I work with a lot of home schooled kids. Most of them are great and I have no concerns for them. One student who is ASD and home schooled is really advanced, probably the most advanced I’ve seen. I think for a lot of ASD children a good home school environment can be really beneficial for them, more than mainstream school. I’m sure that’s true for a lot of SEN kids but I mainly have experience with ASD.

However I have had some worrying encounters where kids have come to me well behind where they should be academically and socially and the parents aren’t willing to work with me / don’t see it as an issue. One got really offend and slandered me on the local facebook group because I suggested she get an ASD assessment for her son. I didn’t suggest unprompted - she asked me what I recommended. There is a minority of homeschoolers who give the whole thing a bad name at least that’s what I’ve experienced. These people are often the most vocal ones.

Your daughter sounds really really unhappy but you think she should just get used to it?? Why do you want her to have a miserable childhood when there are alternatives available that could see her thrive?

Exams cost around 160 to 400 each. The biggest fee is the exam centre charge. The exams themselves are 60-100 depending on number of papers. Private schools tend to be the most helpful and fairest when it comes to cost, though a dedicated exam centre only has the potential to earn twice per year so maybe this is why they have to charge so much.
Parents can find those costs are unexpected and do need a realistic idea of what their options are.

We have spread exams out. 1 in year 9, 1 in year 10, 6 in year 11.

I can't say it's been terribly cheap as at GCSE level we've done a combination of small group online, small group in person and a private tutor, plus books and workshops, additionally fuel for getting to classes, workshops, social activities, trips etc and the cost of those.

Absolutely. In my DDs cooking class they had to tie their hair up, remove any jewellery and wear an apron. My DD would tie herself in knots about whether her short hair needed tied up and how to do that. So much anxiety to make an apple crumble.

At home she learns to plan and cook meals in a domestic kitchen, no stress about jewellery and faffing about with hair.

books / articles by john gatto taylor are good read

GCSE's are pointless if your child ends up ending their life because school is so awful for them.

One of my kids could not attend mainstream school and I had to fight with everything I had to get her provided with an alternative option. She was a shadow of the person she is now, her behaviour was wild and she was awful to live with. Thankfully I know the system and how to access the help she needed, not everyone has that knowledge or the strength to fight for it. I know several families where the children are self harming because of school, have attempted to take their own life and 1 who succeeded. If home schooling works for some people then I thinks they should be allowed to get on with it.

Perhaps the social aspects cannot be replicated, but they could be improved upon.

Hair should be tied back though when cooking even when home. Otherwise strands of hair can get in food. And the no jewellery (like necklaces and bracelets - you would find earrings are exempt) is because if they're dangly that can get caught in cooking appliances like a blender.
Wearing an apron, well obviously so you don't get ingredients all over your uniform.
Both of those 3 make sense. And it worries me that your daughter will think good food hygiene like tying your hair back isn't necessary.

A lot of parents with neurodiverse children end up home educating them because they have no other option. Mainstream school made both my children ill and, believe me, we tried really hard to keep them there. Getting diagnoses and support for such children is incredibly hard and takes years. In the meantime, what are you to do? In my older son's case, we home educated him until I managed to get him into a specialist school. In my younger son's case, this wasn't an option so we home educated him throughout the secondary-school years. He took GCSEs online and is now studying at the local college.

I don’t tie my hair up while making dinner, nor does anyone I know. I also don’t take off my wedding ring while making food for my family. My food hygiene is just fine, thanks, as is my daughters.

And the jewellery rule was every piece of jewellery - rings, watch, necklace (not dangly and tucked under her shirt per uniform rules) and stud earrings.

Wellshes unlikely to be ever employed in a kitch/ cafe or similar even as part time job if timing hair back is such an issue

My son and daughter are home educated. Let me correct a number of your assumptions about us:

1. They have a tutor to teach them maths and English. My son has a processing disability - in school that meant he was left to fail because teachers didn’t have the time to help him understand or improve. My daughter, on the other hand, was so bored with being taught the maths aimed at her age. Both are thriving now with 1:1 support, and both working beyond their age level.
2. Sooooo many clubs. They go to at least one every day. Some are evening or weekend clubs that fit around our work, others are all day clubs that enable us to work. Lovely children, no bullying. You cite this as a disadvantage of HE - I see it as the opposite.
3. Other subjects we teach through a holistic approach. We visit art galleries and museums, and do projects. We go to (again) soooo many local home education days at brilliant museums, workplaces, factories. We go to actual volcanoes and Roman archaeological sites. We experiment. We research. We travel. My kids (10 and 9) can debate the advantages and disadvantages of AI and explain how to fact check. They can rationalise why screen time has to be balanced, and understand why I won’t get them a smartphone until they’re much older. They know.
4. I don’t have to teach them gender nonsense.
5. We both work. We have some family support, not loads. It’s hard work, but we do it because we want the best for our children.

I hope this helps to give you a more balanced view.

I think this is the wrong environment to bring this up. The user base of this site skews strongly towards educated posters, often middle or upper class (though not exclusively - like myself). But the people here who home school will be very loud in its defence without considering the very many socially deprived children who are being “home schooled” or worse “unschooled”.

I work in one of the most deprived areas of our county as a tattooist and I know so many people who have chosen to home educate when they unfortunately have no ability to provide that education, they’re not accessing any resources, they’re not taking their child to groups. They believe that taking them to the supermarket is learning maths and that they learn “more on Roblox”. These people had a bad relationship with school themselves and have no trust in the system, and their voices should be listened to, they should be engaged with respectfully. But that doesn’t mean that they can provide their child an education and there has to be someone stepping in to ensure these kids get an education and are afforded opportunities in life.

I agree with the proposal that parents who want to home educate should have to provide a written plan - not by AI - which describes how they will meet their child’s needs and demonstrates that they have an acceptable grasp of English and Math themselves.

For what it’s worth, as an adult with Asperger’s I had a terrible time in school with bullying. I was obviously very “different” in my social skills despite being academic. I still feel glad I wasn’t home schooled because then my social skills would be even worse, and I also value to this day some of the wonderful teachers I met along the way who gave me their time, their understanding, their knowledge and support.

If i had it in me I'd 100% be home schooling my kids! School is absolutely awful for a lot of children.

And comparing it to work is just nonsense. There are a million different jobs out there and people choose their job based on what they want. Wfh, travelling, self employed, part of a large team etc.

What's sad is that people feel like they have to homeschool because the system is such a failure.

Find an exam centre and book and pay for the exam
It is true that subjects requiring course work are harder to achieve and very expensive. These subjects would be mainly drama, art and music.
There are of course alternative qualifications to GCSE for all of these.

My daughter is doing a subject that requires a field trip. This involved a £20 fee to join in with a group and have it signed off, plus a night camping as it was 3 hours from home. There are ways!

I have a daughter on year 8 who is exactly the same, she is in mainstream school but it isn't going well at all.
LA have refused to assess for EHCP as are saying a school should meet her needs. But her in a ball sobbing in the mornings and a 52% attendance and falling. The attendance officer even asked if I have considered home schooling.

My daughter is not naughty, academically she can do it (if she attends), but she cannot cope with the different teachers, classroom to classroom, different kids and sesting plans in every lesson, the dinner hall..... the list goes on.

Having said all of that, I do actually agree that it should be more regulated, and that those of us who home educate well should be accepting of this and understand why it is needed to find those who do fall through the cracks.

It is easier to get a higher rate of PIP and other benefits if you claim your child can't cope at school and needs one to one care.

Absolutely agree with this!

This

Tell me you know nothing about home education without telling me you know nothing about home education.

No-one gets DLA (under 16s) or PIP (over 16s) just because their parent claims they can’t attend school. You need actual evidence.

Not yet RTFT but you are completely indoctrinated by your own career and experiences. I taught for 14 years in secondary schools. I now electively home educate (the correct term btw) my 4yo DC.

It's utter nonsense that teenagers learn how to handle life's challenges from things they experience in school. Children learn how to navigate life's challenges by going about their daily lives. They learn many other things that way too. Perhaps ask the bullied child, the excluded child, the neurodivergent child, the anxious child, the introverted child, whether school "toughened them up" and helped them deal with life or whether actually the experiences of being persistently told they were worthless, of not being good enough to join in, of constant overwhelm from noise and busy corridors, of living life in fear of getting your name on the sanction board or being pulled up for forgetting a pen one day, of being "cold called" in l lessons or made to do team sports or made to work with someone who didn't want to be there or being told they don't contribute enough to lessons as if they ar deficient in some way - maybe ask some of these children or resulting adults whether they feel what didn't kill them made them stronger or whether they look back on their school days as the best of their lives?

The very fact that you so sincerely believe that that a school education is the best way and that opting for a different experience for your child is insulting to teachers only goes to show how very brainwashed and institutionalised you have become. I say this as someone with a similar background who saw the light.

If you spent any time with EHE children (and they spend plenty with each other, so you needn't worry about their social opportunities) you would probably notice that they greet adults respectfully and hold conversations, in direct contrast to many of the young people being educated in school. EHE children can pursue the learning they are interested in at their own pace and level. They are not limitrd by an oppressive school curriculum. And trust me, they do learn and many go on to post-16 and higher education very successfully. My own DC is streets ahead of school attending peers already, not that it matters. EHE children don't "opt out" of difficult situations either. They are opted out of a toxic and harmful culture. The very fact that you truly believe that needing to be in a classroom with swearing, chair chucking Jonny or geet detention for forgetting their book or learn to manage being teased and bullied makes them better equipped for the workplace is just further evidence of how completely indoctrinated you are.

Re the being insulting to teachers, your are labouring under the common misconception that EHE means school at home. It doesn't. The absolute beauty of EHE is that it can be done in myriad ways to best suit the needs and aptitudes of your children. Parents don't need to be qualified teachers because EHE isn't school.

By all means, look into EHE properly and then decide that you feel school is the best place for children to be educated. That's your prerogative. I don't judge anyone who feels that EHE isn't for them or who feels school is the right environment for their children to learn. By the same token, perhaps you could consider not being so judgemental of those who EHE and open your mind to the fact that there are other ways of educating children which aren't wrong or insulting to teachers?

I’m still stuck on the sheer cost of it, and how parents say they can work full time and do it?

Does anyone want to share rough costings: annual household income and cost of materials/exams etc?