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?

I think your prejudice is showing…

Perhaps it’s those people in the “general public” who need to learn the social skills and not simply demand that everyone conforms to their codes of communication and behaviour.

In general though people are expected other to make allowances. If you can deal with all your issues without expectations of others making allowances more then good for you

Doesn't mean so many people ( especially on here it seems) want the world and his wife to be making allowances

Interesting idea.

Do you think it would help if home educated pupils - NT ones, at least - had to achieve certain milestones?

What difference does it make Many pupils attending school are not reaching milestones

PS I am not suggesting the above, just throwing it out there for opinions!

Can you punch someone in the face, or use sexist/racist language in your workplace? Can you throw a a computer monitor across a room and scream, then go in the next day? Can you slash someone's coat and it's ok? If your Mum died, could a male colleague square up to you and tell your he's 'going to dig your ma up and shag her', then stand on a desk shouting 'let's get those bones rattling'', then still be allowed back, to smirk at you every day? If not then allowances have been made that aren't made in a lot of schools. As an adult you can choose were you go and the company you keep, there's rules and laws, that kids in school don't have enforced.

I realise that. At least they are not off the radar.

Removing them but slowly putting them into other supportive environments where they can flex those muscles could be more helpful than repeatedly putting them back into the same environment and letting them flounder.

Gotcha. And what do you imagine would happen if a child punched someone now?

What if it wasn't a group of girls saying 'mean things' but boys with knives? What if you were being targeted day and night on social media, messaging etc?

Your enid-blyton good old-fashioned tale of the feisty-underdog-triumphing-and-then-you-all-had-a-ginger-beer-and-went-fishing is as outdated as your understanding of modern schools.

I can’t imagine anything worse

Yeah, they do.

i have a child with AuDHD.

she had a meltdown in the middle of Liverpool Street station a few weeks ago,

you’d be amazed how many members of the public gave a large adult sized girl in a wheelchair visibly crying and shaking a very, very wide berth just in case it was catching.

I wanted to home ed my kids. Because I cannot and will not send them to somewhere where they are giving a detention for not conforming. I also strongly disagree with homework. Fortunately moving to rural Scotland helped. Very small school, no uniform, no homework and no detentions. My boys are thriving. One is about to leave with an unconditional offer for uni.

I believe academies have been the downfall of the education system in England.

I think you will find many children who are home educated have also been in school education, some for many years.
It's also quite common that many home educated children also have sibling attending school .
Parents who have children struggling with SEND cannot wait years on the waiting list doing nothing.. The clock is ticking, they have to become very resourceful, proactive and put other things in place. For many parents it's not a choice, it's something that has been forced upon them to the lack of help and support.
As for the ridiculous notion HE kids are isolated, they are out and about in the community living a far more interesting life than stuck between four walls all day.
My son was 13 when l deregistered him. Oh my goodness the amount of judgement from people like yourself who haven't a clue what it involves was overwhelming.
However my son still passed all his exams, he got better results than his older brother who was at school, got a part time job in a supermarket aged 16, passed all his A levels, self taught at home, got a sponsorship to a local university, now studying and also working part time remote for an American AI company.
Throughout it all l carried on working as normal, he didn't need my help, with anything.
The most important aspect is l no longer have a son with a suicide plan in mind.
That's how damaging school was for him.
He is genuinely happy and living life.
You really need to open your mind and educate yourself regarding Home Education, just because the majority are herded through school like cattle, taught what to think, say and do, to fit in rather than stand out, doesn't make it right for everyone.

Than what?

Seeing as I'm self employed none of that is an issue thanks Less time to put up with idiots in the workplace

And that's typical assumption someone working in an office due to your description.

Yeah I didn't get away with the punch at school either and was in detention but sorted the bullying issue much faster than other girls who were running to teachers / mummy so well worth it

Why do you think schools are the only place to build 'resilience'? You can build resilience through online groups and offline group activities with meet-ups with other homeschooled children.

Unsurprising really. We have a very underfunded one size fits all system.

Looking at this issue from the outside, could the increase in homeschooling be because of the lack of options? As I understand it, if standard comprehensive state school does not suit your child and you cannot afford private school or if there isn't a suitable private school locally therefore even if you can afford it the choice is to relocate the family or board your child. What it comes down to is accept something that is VERY unsuitable or opt out altogether. I went to an all girl grammar school when we were taught by dinosaurs. The social life structure was very different, we didn't walk home together, some of us did meet up outside of school but most of us kept our out of school friends. We did date and discuss boys but obvs few of us dated fellow pupils. I don't think my life experiences suffered as a result. I also understand that there are many groups for homeschooled parents and children to offer group lessons and activities.

I don't know that any of that has to do with home schooling? People do expect allowances, sure, but being in school or being out of it makes no difference at all.

If we had given my daughter no other option when she was in yr9, I don’t like to think about the potential outcome. Her mental health was rapidly declining.

A couple of years out of mainstream education helped her so much, and she is now much happier, doing a full time course in a college. She has made friends, and life is brighter for her.

So, you can see why I’m in full support of home educating when there is the need for it, and no one should judge parents for choosing that option.

And there are so many great Schools not! My DD was badly bullied and we all were much happier when we home schooled .I think many parents have woken up to the facts now .In School there is often bad behaviour ,and many teachers time is spent dealing with this.On a recent trip to a beauty spot nearby, there was a School party with several boys .One boy was sitting alone and looked upset .The Teacher told the other boys off roundly for bullying the boy.Then looking stressed stroked our dog and went to resume a problematic morning! Unless Schools improve there is no incentive

School was the worst time of my life. Especially secondary school.

Yesit taught me things - how to survive in hell, how to survive physical assault, sexual assault, constant verbal abuse. Day in day out for the entirety of secondary school, the to the extent that I thought this was normal life. The teachers turned a blind eye, not just to in kindness, but to knife carrying and drugs. They watched as I was threatened with a knife one day. The boy didn't even get told off, they were scared of him.

Academically it taught me little. I passed my GCSE's, went to university and got my postcgrad, but that was in spite of school not because of it. The only reason I passed my GCSEs is because I independently researched the curriculum and taught myself it in the evenings. School stored me in the day until I could learn in peace.

I expect schools have improved since then, but I still see elements of toxicity. My children are currently at school, but if it would be in their best interests they're not at home then so be it.

I think that there are 3 things here all relevant to what schools should be teaching alongside high quality academics - all linked to emotional intelligence - firstly, teaching children emotional intelligence allowing them to make the right choices for themselves, as @Theqa has done; secondly teaching emotional intelligence leading to tolerance of others, giving children the right foundations to allow them to treat others well and be tolerant as you say, and thirdly teaching children on a daily basis about what behaviour is required of them verbally (not with punishment which doesn't work) so dealing with bullying and allowing more children to attend mainstream school happily.

I had a similar experience, bullied by a succession of bullies throughout my school life. Was then bullied by a colleague at work in my 20s (civil service).
I was a good choice of victim, never fought back and never told, not sure why so many different females chose me as their target.

Having said all that I am alarmed by the number of children being home schooled. Of course no-one on MN home schools for the wrong reason , (can't be bothered to get them to school / don't want the scrutiny) but many, many of those children are hidden away and being failed by a society who allows this.

YABU
Where is the vote?