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?

That's not how home ed works. In younger kids, they're rarely in the house at all because a lot of learning can be taught through play (as happens with alternative educational styles like Montessori that aren't permitted in state education).

In older kids, it's more like the Alpha School chain of private schools in America. The kids do some studying at home (or in the library) and then socialise with friends, go to clubs, do community activities, do self-contained projects, and so on. My primary-age kids also work on that model and they probably do five hours of solid social activity every week - largely outdoors - and my children are on the less sociable end of home edders due to their SEND.

The reason everyone thinks home edders spend all their time at home is a) the pandemic and b) because schools deprioritise pastoral care and social development to such an extent no one sees education as anything but sat in silence at a desk.

@Doone22 No. Everyone I know who started home edding in the pandemic, it happened because their child usually had significant SEND support needs and/or mental health issues. Suddenly, their kid was learning on the computer, doing projects and spending time outdoors and, lo and behold, the 'significant support needs/mental health issues' disappeared during a time that was, for most people, one of the most stressful of their lives.

As a result, they... erm, got the memo on where the problem was coming from.

You're confidently wrong 😂.

What do you think gives you the credentials to make this statement? Or is it a statement you've "confidently" pulled out of your arse?

The thing is, I genuinely believe they can put in as much training as they like but when a mainstream class teacher, teaching five hours back to back a day, has a class of 30, of which at least a quarter have SEN, each with different needs to be met, this is an impossible task for that teacher and, with the best will in the world (and I've met very few teachers who don't believe they have the best interests of children at heart) some of those children will not get their needs met, no matter how much training the teacher has had and no matter how heartbreaking it is for that member of staff to witness.

Equally, it matters not how much training and knowledge of SEN staff working in education have when it comes to school systems and processes. Lunch and break times will always involve 100s of children occupying one area. Classrooms will always contain 20-30 children, some of whom don't want to learn, most of whom have the capacity to be pretty noisy. Schools will always need rules in place to be able to effectively blanket-manage the 500-1000 young people on site.

I just don't believe that the very vast majority of schools can operate without artificial (and, yes, I'd go as far as toxic, especially, but not uniquely, to children with SEND) processes in place.

I taught for 14 years in UK secondary schools. I'm not speaking from a place of ignorance.

I'm a parent who does have resources (financial and intellectual) to home educate, but I'm currently doing everything I can to avoid it on a permanent basis. It's a life changing decision, after all - and while I have the resources to do so, I don't have all the other necessary skills. I really do value good teachers and Covid taught me that I'm not really cut out for teaching full time.

My dd isn't currently attending school - like many thousands of other neurodivergent children. Believe me, I'd much rather that she had access to an educational environment that didn't cause her to shut down for long periods. In this context, I can see why so many are withdrawing their children from mainstream education. Very many of them likely feel that they've been forced into the decision by similar issues to the ones my daughter faces. That decision will negatively impact their parents' (usually the mother's) career, earnings and family finances.

The large increase in home education is largely driven by a SEN system that has crashed and burned, and a one size fits all education system that is fixated on academic performance targets.

“The insane rise of home education” @whyohwhy246

Why do you think this is?

As an ex primary teacher and home educator of several years who has personally witnessed this huge rise, I can answer this for you. Almost every family that come to the HE community, come due to a deep dissatisfaction with the school system and usually because the system has failed their child. The overwhelming majority are not hippy types who came due to a philosophical beliefs of ‘individualism’ or wanting a personalised education for their children. They came out of desperation. As the education system as become increasingly rigid and exam focused (even primary school) it has simultaneously become more and
more unbearable and toxic for many kids.

Now I don’t personally fall into this category, I took my children out of school because they lost their love of learning in school and were bored out of their brains. My reasons were more what you might call ‘philosophical’ in that we felt we could provide a better, more interesting, tailored approach. Which we do, and they now are enthusiastic learners again. But most of the newer families I meet have tried and tried to keep their kids in school. They are desperate. Home education has inadvertently become a SAFETY NET for many children.

As has been said on here already, I just want to also reiterate that resilience building is not exclusive to being in school! My kids are out in a huge variety of settings every week with a huge variety of activities, people, challenges etc. And so are all their friends. I can’t even begin to list all the opportunities they have to build not only resilience, but also confidence, working as a team, doing challenging tasks as well as obviously learning in a more academic way. My kids are the most confident, grounded, resilient, well adjusted, secure young people. They do things that I would never had done as a kid/teen.

I think you need to educate yourself on what HE actually is and reflect a little more deeply on the “insane rise”.

The average child is at school for 6.5 hours. Then have 1 hour breaks. Then allow 10 mins to move between lesson so less than 4.5 hours teaching time. Of that lets say 30% is helping the other children - realistically if your child is strong performer it will be much less focus on them. So it isn't really surprising that with home ed you can knock out the same amount of education before lunch and then use the full afternoon for enrichment.

We home educated from the beginning so we had time to plan and to adapt with our children. I strongly believe no one should be forced to home educate through the circumstance you describe, yet it has become a lifeline for children who are let down within the school system.

I admin a home ed group that covers a couple of counties and would say that the number of families joining because it's a first choice has only increased very slightly but those joining with absolutely desperate and heartbreaking stories, pulling their kids out as a last resort has mushroomed.

The advice we give is always the same. Learn what your responsibilities are and keep an eye on your child's future, though in the early weeks and months, just helping their children's nervous system to settle is the priority.

‘It’s not about you’ is the first thing that comes to mind. Some of what you have said shows that you don’t have insight into another perspective. Not all children experience school in the ways you have mentioned.
How easy will it be for you to adapt your practice in order to better support all children, not just the children for whom the way you do things now is working for? That’s the issue. There is inflexibility within schools and a lack of resources in terms of people to really be able to do things in a different way.
The Times have an agenda at the moment. If you look, their articles are biased. They are pro the changes that the government are trying to bring in under the pretence of safeguarding children. There are already safeguarding measures and laws in place. Separately to this. The new white paper seems to recognise what needs to be done but there is no funding for this. Again, schools will be asked to do more with less. that’s not going to be conducive to bringing about positive changes to support all children to access school based education.
If you look back to your own training do you remember the part that said it’s a privilege to teach? That responsibility for a child’s education lies with their parents and that most choose to do this in partnership with schools? That’s still the current law despite current efforts to change it. The relationship has broken down because families are being punished by the school system and needs are not being met. There is a lack of respect. Not every school but there has definitely been a shift. Parents are seeing that schools are not always able to support their children and are making their own decisions on how best to meet their children’s needs. Rather than really working to get things right in education the current government have decided to try to change the law to prevent parents from doing this.
There is lots wrong with education at the moment and it’s a wider issue, coming from cuts in health care, access to support has narrowed and the only option that some parents feel they have left to them is to home educate.

It worries me in the last few years the people who’ve started Home Ed, however I don’t believe all is terrible and when growing up knew several kids who were Home Ed. There seems to be a massive shift however, pre Covid it seemed to be by parents who were interested in their kids education and genuinely believed it was offering a better option.

Now the people I know who Home Ed are either major anti-vax conspiracy theorists who although they go on about questioning things etc are terrified of their kids learning any opposing theories at school; or (and I’m not making this up) at least one person who’s off rolled their kids so she no longer has to pay fines for going on holidays in term time. Neither of these are providing their kids with a balanced and rounded education. I’m also on a Farmers Wives FB group where home education is frequently suggested whenever someone mentions that there kid is bullying other children as “they’re farm kids, school doesn’t understand them”; with a dash of conspiracy theory vibes or “I never needed an education so you don’t need them to sit exams”. All of these groups are not providing a rounded education and opportunities for the child to decide what they want to do in the future.

These groups I do majorly worry about and also believe must cast traditional “Home Eders” in a bad light. I do think increased regulation of this sector is needed, not to wholesale prevent it but to ensure kids aren’t being left without and education.

I am mindful that I live in a rural area with good schools, no knife crime etc.

I have a friend who tutors. During the day she tutors home ed children. In the evening she tutors kids in school to make up for the shortcomings in their schooling. Not many home educators do all the teaching themselves.

All of this in spades!

French or German? On you go. Good luck 👍

You use very minimising and dismissing language. “Unkind”. My friend is currently homeschooling her daughter (looking at schools in the meantime). The bullying (which involved physical injuries, not just “unkindness “) was bad enough, but the school’s lack of action was wha tipped it over. At first they did nothing and dismissed it as playground squabbles, then they “dealt” with it by isolating the child that was being chased, punched, hit , kicked. She could stay inside to be”safe”, while the perpetrator group could happily play outside. In the meantime her DD started having accidents (she’s y4!!), being scared , being anxious, crying AND still being hurt!No real consequences for the other kids, no increased supervision , they refused to allow her to move to the other class. The straw that broke the camel’s bak was when a teacher told her “x is being mean to you because he likes you”.

How does that teach resilience or anything positive at all?

I’m glad you’re not a teacher , because you sound just as shit as the one that my friend’s DD had.

Totally agree OP and some of the responses I’ve read are worrying. Of course a child is not going to get the same education from a parent as they are from several highly trained subject specialists. School teaches you essential skills for the workplace such as how to resolve conflict, deal with bullying etc. Of course it’s possible for a bright teenager to study and achieve qualifications etc but it’s all a bit pointless if they haven’t learnt the skills necessary to actually hold down a job. I’m not saying that there aren’t situations where it can work but in the vast majority of cases I’ve experienced, these children are being failed massively by their parents in terms or quality of education and social skills. I’m yet to meet a home educated person in their 20s who is holding down a decent job and has a supportive social network around them. I know there are issues in schools at the moment but withdrawal is rarely the answer for your average NT child.

How many have you met?

Yes ,my daughter and I decided to remove her son from school after the damaging relentless bullying by staff and pupils ,and misrepresentation by senior staff within the school ...The final straw being that older kids were being allowed to bully him so savagely that they broke a bone
We agreed to many meetings with the school and tried to work with them. They were telling us how pleasant and affable he was and a joy to teach " with some manageable" issues ,he would then proceed to be increasingly put in detention or on report or finally excluded on a weekly basis.
We asked / begged for assessments , he does have various issues confirmed by other agencies but because the school wouldn't persue the issues and delayed returning various documents he is now at the point that school is causing more damage with all of the mixed messages he is receiving.
The only temporary help he received was to "share" another child's TA but obviously that could not continue.....
In the end it was decided that he would not be returning to that school supposed by a professional who told us that the school was not helping him and that if they were in our position they wouldn't let him go back.!
There were many things happening within the school that both the deputy and the headmaster turned a blind eye to or just completely deflected that we could not tolerate it any more
We now home educate at great expense to us but he is desperate to learn and is progressing.
Yes it's hard to keep friendships but we are trying to include him in other activities outside of the home..

I could tutor French or German, however my daughter decided to learn Spanish. At the school we looked at, Spanish was not an option but we were able to help her to learn and sit the GCSE in year 9.

To be fair, language assimilation would take more than 5 weeks. It took 4 years in my daughter's case. When we started it was more about the enjoyment and it was only after 3 years we figured she might as well try the GCSE.

I think a lot of people underestimate how easy it is to teach GCSE level when you only have one child to teach. The challenge for teachers is that they have to teach over 200 different children in a week with 30 at a time.

What work places are you all going to where the main benefit of school was that you learnt to be resilient to bullying?

We're not those parents and our kids are well behaved but they are definitely crushed by the way schools operate.

Also of various abilities.

Oh well that depends! There are teachers that went to Oxbridge. And there are some teachers who struggled to even pass their A level and got DDE (I know one).

Teachers form oxbridge are certainly not inherently better teachers, on the contrary actually.

It also depends on what you want to achieve. My kids didn't do history GCSE but we ensured they had a solid understanding of their place in time and location, which was something I felt I'd missed from my schooling. Can we class their understanding of history as a success despite the lack of piece of paper?

In contrast, we treated the statistics GCSE as a hoop jumping exercise. Having decided to do it, there simply wasn't enough time to bring in a massive level of depth. It was more about what is this question asking for. Consequently, they have a piece of paper that says they're quite good at it.

Daughter dropped out of school beginning of year ten, then went back to school November of year 12. She had no teaching whilst out of school but taught herself Japanese and anything else she looked at was her choice. in the June of y12 she sat Maths and English GCSEs getting a 9 and 8. When she started with EOTAS the tutor after a few weeks gave her a Japanese GCSE paper as she felt that she knew more than she expected from being self taught and without prep and having never seen the format she got a level 6 with "conservative marking".