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?

Mine have been in both…. And nothing like as you describe 🤷‍♀️

I am working shifts and plan my own schedule. It would work fine for us.
My husband is a secondary school teacher . So is my mum and my best friend so I wouldn't worry a lot about level. We have a tutor anyway for modern language and DD is bilingual English/Scandinavian. A tutor could help with any subject needed or we could di an online school.

We choose to move so DD could go to school as she wanted to.

Tbh? None.
A lot of children are unhappy at school today and a lot of parents can't do a lot. Don't blame the parents who can. Blame the politicians for ruining schools with inclusion and cuts.

My experience is not unique, so you were lucky.

My experience isn’t “unique” either
obviously

Various ways. My daughter did some via zoom classes with other students, with a brilliant tutor, she also went to college on a 14-16 course two days a week & studied for Maths & English there. Because there's no obligation to take GCSEs at 16 (or the need to take 9/10 of them), sometimes people start taking them earlier, maybe 13 onwards. Some do other qualifications as well, particularly in vocational subjects. Some people choose online schools, or have a tutor for specific subjects, some attend in person classes in some subjects. It depends on what's available locally & what works for each child

But tutors are expensive too.

I never said they weren't?

You very clearly have an anti home ed agenda here so I don't really know what the point is in you pretending you're engaging in good faith.

You've got the opinion you've got and that's fine 🤷

Honestly? No agenda.

Just teasing out the issue
but it’s raised your heckles so I’ll leave you to it

although by saying I’m “lucky” that would indicate that having children happy and thriving at a state school is unusual. It really isn’t!

Schools aren't like they used to be.. it's all about numbers

The number of children who leave school illiterate in this country would disagree with you.

Yes but many pay tutors instead of expensive holidays. We do to pay a tutor and a private school.
We also chose a smallere morgage insted of a bigger house. People spend money in different ways.

To be fair, the current school system is shit even if you are neurotypical. After 20 years in the "system" as Head, Deputy, SENCO, year leader amongst other roles, it guts me what it has become. I am glad I am out of the system, and even more glad that my own children are proudly home EDUCATED. They luckily do not have to endure such a system. 1 has begun GCSEs already (year 8) and is also on an Olympic pathway for her chose sport, regularly competing on international stage already. Safe to say she not only is well socialised, but with people from many different backgrounds and cultures as opposed to the safe 30 for the village we live!
2nd is 2 years ahead of where she "should" be, thanks to a tailored education and who is also on a national team for sport.
3rd is 5yrs old and doing a fully play based and investigation based education that will fully prepare him for a more formal education. Thriving, just like his older siblings.
The OP is either A, not in education or B, quite frankly an idiot. Or maybe both.

I’ve been teaching for many years and would have said in the 90s that home schooling was generally a bad idea, but I think the education system is so fucked now, that I don’t blame anyone for doing it. The system works for a minority (NT, bright compliant children with no health issues) but even they often find it dull, repetitive and mindless and can’t wait to leave. My own kids fitted into this mould and did well but felt it was ultimately a case of learning mark schemes and regurgitating information to tick all the boxes for an exam board, rather than any sort of education to inspire and encourage creativity. It’s such a shame-I loved school!

I wouldn’t criticise anyone for choosing HE now.

Is this true? I don’t want to sound awful but I genuinely don’t think I could educate mine to GCSE level and I’m a primary school teacher so decently educated. When I had to try and help my daughter with her GCSE physics it was like I had undertaken a lobotomy! I find it really difficult to believe that you could educate them to a lGCSE level in lots of subjects. I promise I’m not saying you’re lying but I find it crazy!

I find it really perplexing that so many people are confused by this. Do you really think that we home educating parents are sitting down with our teenage children and teaching them all 12 GCSEs ourselves from scratch, the way they learn at school? I assure you that almost none of us will be doing that. I certainly couldn't teach Maths or Physics GCSE and I wouldn't attempt to.

Sir Ken Robinson delivered THE most watched Ted talk of all time https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms I would suggest you watch it for some insight into why many parents opt to home educate. I am one of those parents. My eldest DD had extreme separation anxiety & school would have really damaged her mentally. She has since been diagnosed with ASD. She did attend a small high school where we live and it was a disaster. She was bullied mercilessly. Same for my younger DD. She struggled socially as she wasn’t used to only mixing with her own age group, or sitting in one place for hours on end. That is not her learning style. I’m grateful that I was able to have it as an option. And yes I am qualified to teach to GCSE level.

So many examples here of people who are uncomfortable or upset by a concept or life choice they don’t understand and/ or can’t control. The fear is palpable. Stick the kettle on, go for a nice walk, stop reading sensationalist articles. You’ll feel so much better 🙂

The number of children leaving school illiterate is also because parents dont want to put the work in it at home and expect schools to be all encompassing. Much like toilet training. Its not just a schools job to teach your child its a team effort

I daresay, but it still doesn't give me any confidence that a school will educate my child to the level he is capable of, hence (partly) why I do it at home.

So who is teaching them? A tutor? Schemes? I assumed most people couldn’t afford that tbh. I think maybe both you and I are a bit blinkered although you seem to believe it is just I that is so. I think a LOT of people who are home educating are doing very little educating which will present itself as a problem soon enough and you are so proud of your home educating that you maybe don’t want to admit that you’re the home educating minority so to speak. Also, I clearly don’t know how some of you that actually doing a good job of it and getting them through GCSE’s with good results are achieving it. I’m not too proud to admit that.

And yet… we often get told “don’t worry, kids catch up”, “don’t bother with teaching them to read/write let the experts do it, you’ll be doing it wrong”, “research shows homework doesn’t matter” , “book bands don’t matter, the teacher knows best” and so on. Pick a lane.

It's not crazy.
We tend to use a variety of resources, both free and paid for, online and off.
eg With statistics GCSE we got the textbook for the exam board we were using and set off learning from it, then as the exam dates loomed, did past papers open book, then closed book.
For biology she goes to a small group lesson
Marine science is an online live lesson plus a field trip, which was a lot of fun..

Or maybe it's a lack of confidence from the parents in their ability to support their children in these areas?