To disagree with home ed

[Freshton]

Unless in extreme cases (ie SEN, extreme mental health or other complex needs) or parent is qualified teacher, I fundamentally disagree with home ed.

It's insular and doesn't prepare kids for the real world.

I've seen first hand some shocking examples that I can't go into for confidentiality reasons but common thread was parents arrogantly assumed they had same skills as teachers with masters degrees. Reality was kids were really behind, had no proper structure or routine.

It's worrying that so many people see home ed as a viable lifestyle choice. I know school system not perfect at all but isolating children at home or in small home ed group echo chambers isn't healthy.

How do you propose to force local authorities to provide an education to SEND children so families aren’t illegally forced into home ed?

Home ed is on the up and I fully support it. If you don't want that then you should be active in getting all the crap out of the school system.

Would you keep your kid in a school where they're shown books containing images of people in fetish gear? Or do I need to list all the many other problems?

That's before you even get onto the shocking lack of support for the kids with no SEN.

I agree with it ideologically. I hate the idea of being forced into an inadequate school whilst being bullied with a string of supply teachers.

I feel parents need the ultimate authority tk withdraw thier chikd and put something better in place.

I do think there shoukd be sime more regulations/expectation in place but there's not the money to do that.

I think it’s a brilliant choice if done properly. Mainstream school was not right for my dc and they’ve done so well being home educated. One would have had a breakdown and got no qualifications without the option to be de registered. It makes life so much calmer too removing typical mainstream school times and issues.

So much humanity has been stripped out of schools..It's not extreme to have SEN or struggle.to cope in an environment where the toilets are locked up, and gender neutral with the locks having been vandalised, learning to parrot 30 paragraphs is the accepted way to study for a language GCSE, and English lit consists entirely of memorising nano quotes and expounding on them. 30 min breaks at 11.30 or 1.30, tiny canteen for a school of over 1000 so they are all eating early or late and spending most of one break in a queue.

Too many are feeling forced to home ed because school has got so hostile and unrewarding.

I think home, for some, will be better than school. Especially if there are constant substitute teachers who aren’t really teaching content or able to handle a class who mess about because it isn’t their usual teacher.

A good teacher who can keep a class well managed and engaged will be better than a parent trying to teach at home but a parent might be better placed to teach if the child is pretty much being left to teach themselves at school anyway.

If you’re going to home ed though the people doing it through choice rather than desperation are probably better placed to do so and the children do need to have regular contact with the outside world.

Double post

Isn’t it awfully intense on family relationships? It’s natural and instinctive for teens to pull away from the family unit. With home Ed they are stuck in the family dynamic.

Im sure some do it well and some have no choice (like my poor friend she just hires tutors she hates it so restrictive for them both). I know I would hate it. During Covid I only taught what I enjoyed. Also if you are no good at a subject yourself how do you teach it?

I saw a post yesterday of someone home educating their child saying they can’t get their kid off roblox to learn and was roblox educational. Like what?!

A lot of parents disagree with traditional schooling. Yet they don’t tell everyone who’s kids are in school how they’re abusing them.
Unless you have significant worries about a child’s safety (in which case report to social services or the police), minding your own business might be a good idea.

I imagine it’s very stifling and an insular existence for both the parent and child. Personally I wouldn’t want to spend every waking moment with my child and him me!

I’ve had a taste of home Ed during lockdown and it’s not something I would ever want to repeat. Trying to teach your own child is exceptionally difficult in most cases id say

Also school isn’t just about academics. It’s also navigating relationships with their peers, being able to resolve conflict, building friendships, building resilience and independence, being pushed out of your comfort zone etc

I met a few home ed families in my time of doing it where that wasn’t the case. The teen had a lot of outside interests - one was an army cadet who had a whole life there, off on camps, meeting friends from outside the HE world. Another was a drama kid, also off doing stuff all the time, residential trips etc.

But I did meet a lot of teenagers whose lives weren’t like that at all and it was very sad. They would be sat at home ed groups playing Lego with their ten year old “friends” looking like they had given up on life.

I home educated myself for years so I not against it, but man, people who do it are never honest about its drawbacks. It’s all, everything is awesome, when it’s not.

We moved to a city and put my son in school when he was 10, but before that, he was at a music/performing arts place every evening doing drama, learning musical instruments, all sorts from 4-7pm. He made loads of friends there (who went to school), who we would see on weekends and holidays, so he had a great life. I was looked down on for that by some home educated families as they didn’t want their children socialising with kids who went to school for some bonkers reason.

There are drawbacks to everything and HE does attract some weird people.

I think home schooling is more of a mixed bag than mainstream. Some are excellent and right for the dc, especially SEN as schools are not always good/right for these dc. But I’ve also seen a loving mum home school despite no qualifications herself. One I met was a trained primary teacher and clearly bright but my god was she smug, like her precious dc were more loved because she “sacrificed everything” for them. In contrast I work full time so you can imagine her view of me. I guess it’s a mutual dislike.

My DD has been home schooled for a year due to her SEN, anxiety and inability to cope with the mainstream setting. At only 7 years old she’s recovering from burnout.

We are slowly coming out the other side of it now and have obtained a specialist setting for her but due to the trauma of mainstream she is still too anxious to attend. We are desperate to get her back into an educational setting but it is a slow process. Mainstream settings can be very traumatic for children with SEN.

I’m not saying I disagree, but school isn’t exactly an accurate reflection of the real world either. As an example, at my dc’s school they can’t remove blazers without permission and when they do have permission they can’t store them in their bags as they move around the school, they have to carry them. Reasons for this are unclear but you never get such nonsense in a workplace unless it’s something like the military which most kids won’t go into. In some schools kids have very little agency over themselves, which doesn’t help them become diligent, confident workers that take the initiative to solve problems.

I’d say it largely depends on the family that is home educating, whether they make the most of resources available to them etc. Some will be great at it and their children will turn out to be well rounded individuals ready for the ‘real world’, others not so much.

I have been sceptical about home Ed since someone I worked with told me they were home educating because their son didn’t like getting up in the morning.

Another thing I do want to point out is that many children who are home educated have SEN. This is due to the woeful lack of support or education in schools.

If you are home educating a child without SEN, it can be hard to fulfil them socially for that reason, so you have to join clubs and classes and not be so intent on only knowing other home ed families.

I think there are two categories of home schooling parents and I have issues with one lot and not with the other.

There are undeniably children who have been failed by the school system and whose parents fpr whatever reason have withdrawn them. Additional needs, mental health, bullying or other problems. The parents then bend over backwards to help and educate their child in whatever way they can, they are engaged and connect with other homeschool families, organise things for their child and do their absolute best. Good on them, no issue with that whatsoever.

I do have an issue with parents who choose never to send their child to school in the first place, because that is about their ideology rather than putting their child first. Or parents who just want to be alternative or anti-establishment, or talk about how their child is too special or too precious to hand over to the "system".

I think home education is fine if it works for the family and children involved. However I do feel strongly that there should be some oversight to check on the kids, one that they are actually being educated (in whatever way works) and that they are safe. Of course the majority of home schooling families are good safe families but it’s also a great way to keep children away from outside influences and away from people they could tell (abuse).
I know some people disagree with this but I think it’s important.

I home ed my 4 kids - they dont have SEN - although the reason I didn't send my oldest to school was because he was reading fluently by 3 and would have been so bored he would have been incredibly disruptive.
As it is he now holds down a full time job, my 14 year old has already completed her English gcse and is on track to have 6 more done a year in advance of her peers.
Just because it doesn't work for some doesn't mean it should be illegal.
I think the last time I checked, admittedly some years ago now, 1 in 3 children left uk schools without qualifications and we have a huge problem with antisocial behaviour in teens so school isn't doing a fantastic job either in a lot of cases.

I kind of agree. A lot of home ed feels like it's more about the parent than child.

I know of one home ed success however.. tho it's a weird story. He was home educated in a Plymouth Brethren environment, complete with redactions from standard texts. Against seeming odds he has grown up to be a delightful young man (and has a Cambridge degree), earns well and seems happy and well adjusted. My son, who is a good friend of his says it the young man did well in spite of, rather than because of the home ed.

And - redacted texts??? <shudder>

I’ve watched Casually, ER, Doctors behind closed doors and am even old enough to remember Emergency Ward 10….but I’d never dare to take my child’s appendix out!
Teachers teach…parents parent.

A lot of weak parents who have kids then can’t actually parent use various excuses to claim
their kids won’t cope in school. When the reality is none of them can be arsed to get out of bed. By the time they’ve got up and dragged them round to Greggs there is little time left for “homeschooling”. When challenged they give the standard “ah but we’re not restricted to term time or school hours”.

What a wierd question. You do realise not everyone in adult life has office jobs in a large noisy building with disruptive coworkers? People who enjoy working on their own can do so eg trades people, lorry drivers, infrastructure engineers, farmers, wfh civil servants…. Indeed one might even ask how would school prepare them to cope in those roles?

The fact you lie that a 3 year old could read “fluently” 😂 so you decided, nah, this one will be so bored he’ll disrupt the class, says it all.