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?

You’ve literally spelled out the problem.

It’s a stupid system in which a teacher has to teach too many students, and students have to try and learn with that many distractions.

The optimal way is to learn from a native. You can find amazing low cost tutors online.

The above post brings up a really important point. What even is a ‘suitable education’ and how can you define it. Is that definition appropriate for ALL people? We are so brainwashed to believe that the school curriculum is the ONLY way to a good education and that that is the only way to ‘prepare’ you for life.

You only have to look at the people who did ‘badly’ at school who go on to become business owners, some incredibly successful and famous.

And another good point for discussion is, have school and modern society (including parenting) become of step with one another? Is this part of the problem? School hasn’t changed for decades yet our society changes so fast especially with technology and the rise of AI. The job market is changing SO fast and will likely continue to change at an even faster rate as AI and technology evolve. Is school preparing kids for a job market that doesn’t even exist anymore? I think so.

@whyohwhy246 , this is exactly what you said:-
“whyohwhy246 · Yesterday 12:03
I was bullied as a teenager too. This is part of the teenage years no? I’m sorry for what has happened to you and how it’s made you feel but I think it’s really normal for teenagers to experience some times in their life which are difficult. How they learn to deal with it at school helps them as adults. Home schooling just wraps them up in a ball of cotton wool which is not helpful in later years.”

What actual evidence do you have that being bullied as a teenager and dealing with it (whatever the hell that means) while at school helps teenagers in their adult life and that home schooling wraps them up in cotton wool and has a negative impact on their ability to deal with difficulties when they are adults?

I don’t know why I’m bothering to ask, I very much doubt you will respond just as you have not responded to my question as to in what capacity you have been involved in education for 20 years. We know you are not a teacher.
It seems to me you have started a subject about which you know nothing but your biased misconceptions.

@whyohwhy246 , you said home schooled children were wrapped up in cotton wool compared to those in state schools who benefitted from learning resilience because they had to learn to deal with difficult situations like bullying.

@nevernotmaybe , and on what evidence do you base your confidence?
Lets face it you really don’t have to be very bright to get into teaching.

Some of us are supportive of those fighting problems in schools. At the same time, the Children’s Commissioner, the lived experience of @AnneLovesGilbert and others show that a significant portion of children in ELE are not well served either.
For some children, it seems that school would be a better option.

It’s complicated.

@Leftrightmiddle , many people miss out on a good education for a variety of reasons; it does not mean they are unintelligent or incapable of learning. Perhaps their poor experience of their own education is the impetus to make sure their children have a more productive and positive education.
I wasn’t telling you school is great, sadly I think it is frequently very far from great.

I’m currently considering removing my kids from their school (Y2 and Y4). I have started volunteering at our school a bit, helping out across various year groups and what I have seen has dismayed me. Teachers having to constantly redirect chaotic behaviour, lessons covered are incredibly basic and the only kids completing worksheets are generally the ones who can block out the noise and just get on with it, so they’re often teaching themselves. They rely heavily on videos (often American) to cover subject information. The ones who don’t understand don’t get help because there is one teacher who is spending half their time trying to keep kids on task.

My youngest is scared of his teacher as they yell a lot, and he often doesn’t finish work because if he doesn’t understand the work he doesn’t feel comfortable asking for help.

The misogynistic attitude from a lot of boys starting in key stage one is alarming, and while the school pays a lot of lip service to trying to combat it, the reality on the ground is that boys are saying really offensive things which are going unchecked. Considering our school has a high male staffing level, I’m becoming increasingly disappointed in their lack of action.

I would just move schools but I honestly don’t see any better options in our local area. We have the funds for a private tutor once a week (which we already do for our eldest because we felt she wasn’t being stretched at school), so we are already spending time ‘home educating’ to enrich her learning and I am supplementing my son’s because he is capable of so much more than his teacher sees. I can’t help but wonder just how much more enriched and stretched their education would be if we had an additional 30 hours a week together by removing them from school.

Another way of looking at it is that we become what we are trained to become.

I'm not sure that being bullied is necessarily the wonderful training and preparation for life some pp seem to think it is - though it would explain much of the knife crime etc that seems to plague the news.

Some people want to lift children up to expect better - and the only way to do that is not train them in the art of bullying, giving and getting by miring them in it, but to help them see there is another way to live that is free from that. Yes, of course, they will come across it, but you can learn to deal with things without wallowing in them. I don't need constant toothache to manage it when it unfortunately happens.

@KingdomCome1 , good question; probably none.

@KingdomCome1 , definitely her arse!

Raising kids in a respectful, caring home environment turns them into teens and adults who view bullying behaviour as abnormal and something to not be tolerated. Both towards themselves and others.

It does. And I don't think you need to be facing it constantly in order to learn how to weather it when it happens.

The more you are exposed to something, the harder it is to view it as abnormal.

Of course there are, in fairness, plenty of schools where it isn't such a constant day to day problem. But that varies depending on the child and the school, which I think makes blanket statements about school being "good or bad" in that respect a bit meaningless. Parents need to deal with whatever situation applies and I think we would all do well not to try to make blanket judgements about the way other people educate their children.

@Calliopespa , entirely agree.

Great insight.

So parents need to parent their disabled child, find their way through miles of paperwork, negotiate the supports they need with the school - continuously too often resulting in the child either being unofficially excluded or removed from school meaning parents then need to educate their own kids as best they can. And we also need to do more to change the system. And not blame the adults in schools daily letting our kids down?

It’s not the government who treated my DD badly, it was teachers in her school. It wasn’t the government that ignored her sexual assault, it was teachers in her school. It wasn’t the government that excused the boy concerned, it was teachers in her school.

Im too busy protecting and supporting my child to also campaign for structural change. The laws already exist to enable provision of support, no amount of legislation will change the fact that resources are scarce and teachers overwhelmed. No amount of legislation will change teachers who find children with complex needs a complete pain in the arse, because they need extra help. The whole system is a skip fire, and won’t be helped by giving parents yet more to do.

You have a very narrow minded view of home education which is what I think you are talking about. Home schooling is what happens when a child remains on the school role but is educated at home i.e. what happened during covid or what happens when a child is to unwell to attend school.

I deregistered my son at the end of year 9 and home educated him through gcses. He had been home schooled due to being unable to attend through most of years 8 and 9. This involved a small amount of tuition provided by the LA.

I decided at the start of year 10, I could do a better job. My son went on to get enough (i)gcses do do his chosen Level 3 course at college where he never had a day of sick. He is now living away from home at uni and thriving.

I didn't teach him btw although I am educated to Level 6 (despite having left school at 15 with a c in maths and english). I acted as facilitator and motivator and he studied using online courses and resources and a lot of past papers. We did PHSE mainly through discussions, with lifeskills alongside like cooking and budgetting. He also self studied art and went to a couple of clubs. I worked full time from home and used annual leave and parental (unpaid) leave to be more present. I worked flexible hours.

Had I tried to make him go to school or kept him in school with the limited support that was available, I think things would be very different and he would not be where he is now.

You know hundreds of home educated adults unable to manage socially or hold down a job? We must know very different people.

I wonder how many school attending now adults also struggle socially and are unable to hold a job down? Do you think it's less than hundreds?

@illbetheresunorrain did you by chance have a horrific time at school? Do you HE?

For many of us, and many of our children, the experience of school was much more lonely, isolating and depressing.

However, I can't imagine there are many home educated kids who are sat home alone all day doing worksheets.

No it’s not very nice if you’re NT and compliant either. I swear some of the children I teach are traumatised from challenging behaviour in class.

My year 3 class. Chair launched into the class. Either they didn’t look up or they did to see where the chair had landed.

You clearly have no idea how challenging it is working in schools in the current climate. I taught for 20 years in different schools and I never met a colleague who didn’t genuinely care about the children they taught. Teachers in your average secondary school are responsible for hundreds of children every day. They do not find students with ‘SEN’ a pain in the arse, they simply don’t have the time or resources available to support them.
They do the best they can with the limited time and resources they have available. Any decisions on consequences are made at a higher level which ultimately is the government. Schools are unable to punish effectively and face consequences for too many exclusions etc. Teachers have absolutely no say in this.

As you quite rightly put schools do not have the time or resources to teach SEN kids which is why many of us have be forced to home ed.

I don't think anyone is trashing individual teachers but the point remains SEN children aren't recieving anywhere near an adequate education in schools.

Honestly I think the whole concept of schools as we know them is becoming obsolete.

He would have been like that anyway, had he attended school instead, I'm sure. A lot of former school attendees are probably like him. I would have been, and I attended school, decades ago.
Our adult, (elective) home - educated DD is extremely organised, always has been (unlike me) and is a line manager in a high powered job where colleagues seem to love and respect her.
We have to be careful not to generalise by assuming that that all home - ed children will grow up as particular types of adults and usually the assumption being that socially they will be inadequate. In my experience, such children/adults are very sociable (though I realise I must not generalise).