To really worry about the future of homeschooled children?

[AgeingMillennial]

Please don’t think this is a goady thread designed to rile the masses about home education. I’m very much not referring to children with SEN whose parents are homeschooling because they’re desperate, or ‘serious’ homeschoolers who do an incredible job and produce very well educated kids by following a dedicated programme. I follow several such families on social media and their energy and commitment is way beyond anything I could do.

However I’m noticing a huge uptick in people ‘deregistering’ their kids to promote a kind of off-grid, traditional lifestyle on social media. Not because the child is struggling or unhappy at school but ‘I want to spend more time with them’, ‘the government want to create tax paying robots’, ‘I don’t want the state to raise my kids with transgender ideology’ etc.

The problem is the ‘homeschooling’ is then very substandard and then consists mostly of nature walks, crafts and visits to National Trust properties. All very wholesome but the sort of things most families do at weekends anyway. They might do a couple of pages of the sort of workbooks you find in WH Smith, but that’s it. Where there are siblings they all do the same basic things, none of it tailored to be specific to their age.

AIBU to worry about the future of these kids and to cynically wonder if it’s a ‘social media stream’ in many cases?

The reason parents are advised not to provide certain things to the LA is not because of it being "against their rights", it's about the LA overstepping the law.

The more parents let the LA overstep by providing things that are not required by law, the more the LA will feel they are entitled to. For instance, there was talk about the LA having access to inspect our homes, which in my view is a massive overstep and breach of our human right to private family life. And before anyone thinks this is a good idea - how on earth would you feel if you had a stranger walk into your home unwanted and start checking all of rooms in your home for the sole purpose of trying to guess if you are abusing your children or not. Sure look at wee Arthur in Solihull, his home was spotless, so SS had no concerns, then days later he was dead from abuse.

I suggest those of you who do not understand this take a read of the DoE EHE guidelines and familiarise yourselves of the UK EHE requirements, and also give yourself a good talking to yourselves if you think letting the government overstep and violate our private home lives if acceptable.

The whole hysteria in HE communities about telling the local authority anything was stoked by the charity education otherwise, a HE charity that was at the time literally run by paedophiles. I can't help wandering if those paedophiles were simply promoting a culture that protected themselves.

Very much so. We aren't entrepreneurial at all so have had to go the trodden route of qualifications and hopefully employment.

Someone with their own business and especially employing a number of staff probably sees a much wider range of possibilities than I do and may have the resources in terms of relevant work experience (bookkeeping, marketing, internet presence, plus whatever product or skill the business offers), contacts etc. that are capable of providing a buffer

School was introduced as childcare so parents can work and pay taxes.

I don't think many parents were paying tax in 1870. And the church schools which were founded before that had nothing to do with taxes either.

At that point the parent is often very busy attempting to engage with CAMHS and any other source of mental health support for their child and being totally rebuffed and gaslit.

Quite. School was introduced so children could grow up with the skills they needed as adults and could read the bible.

CAHMS remit is for children who have diagnosable mental health problems. A lot of families who approach CAHMS need help, but CAHMS is not the right organisation

Quite. School was introduced so children could grow up with the skills they needed as adults and could read the bible.

Reading the Bible - church schools possibly. Not in state funded schools.

Well, I personally know the people who run EO and can assure people here that they are not paedophiles. Not sure why you're trying to tarnish them in this current day, given the amount of teachers in schools who are caught having sexual relations with their pupils.

But sure children are always safer in school, right? 🙄

Me too!

My daughter is such a social butterfly though, unless it became a co-op with a few other kids I don't think she'd like it.

And she does so many extra curriculars that we both need to work to pay for them all.

I have no skin in this game as I don't have DC but I just looked at the #unschooling hashtag on SM and holy shiiiiiiit people are mental.

Judging by the shit level of education my child gets, I can’t see how homeschooling would be any worse to be honest so I think you’re being hugely unreasonable.

LAs have a strong influence on school policy and spending in LA-managed schools, and if anything SEN-related gets complicated (applying for EHCPs, part-time timetables, flexi-schooling) you and/or the SENCO often deal directly with the LA as well as with the SLT of your school.

If your child is rapidly entering autistic burnout and school avoidance and even starting to self-harm/express suicidal ideation (which can happen in KS1, not just teens), the common LA "well, let's give it another term and see how they get on before we do any paperwork, maybe Mum is just anxious, have you tried giving them a fidget toy?" approach looks like active and profound, potentially life-threatening, attack on your kid.

I used to think homeschooling was great but just not for me. Now I think almost no one is actually qualified to do it.

For reference, though, I’m American and despair at the rise of crunchy, anti-vax, trad wife, MAGA idiots who won’t send their kids to school because they’ll come out a different gender than they left the house and with autism from forced vaccines. (Yes, some of them really seem to think this)

I think they’re absolutely doing their children a massive disservice and by extension, the world and society that will have to deal with poorly educated adults who were raised in an echo chamber of nonsense beliefs.

@AgeingMillennial Yanbu..My son's new girlfriend has been home 'educated'. At age 19 she is now trying to do English & Maths GCSE so she can apply for apprenticeships.. He has been coaching her, but says she can't even do her times tables.

There’s no jobs anyway. What’s the point in going to school, working hard, getting an education and not finding a job at the end of it? May as well have just dossed it.

What’s the point in going to school, working hard, getting an education and not finding a job at the end of it?

Personal development. Develop skills, acquire information, discover new interests, for your own benefit. So you've got something inside your head.

Education otherwise was run by some paedophiles in the 1990s. Not now.

The first schools were religious schools

I believe in the occupational aspect. Routine, structure, getting up in the morning, doing something, making friends. The educational side? Not so much anymore tbh. I do have kids in state schools. My eldest passed his GCSEs this year, and is currently on a level 3 at college. Other kids also doing good enough. I’ve spent years working in secondary schools, often disadvantaged ones….and I’ve seen a lot. What is seen cannot be unseen. I just don’t truly know if it’s entirely worth it. We invest so little in our young people now and they have to jump through multiple hoops just to get on in life. I think it’s inevitable parts of society are just giving up.

I left school during record youth unemployment, much higher than now. Nearly all of us did work for most of our lives, even if there were initial delays in getting jobs

The first schools were religious schools

Yes, the monastic schools back in the Anglo Saxon and Medieval periods. Though even they didn't just teach the Scriptures.

The CofE schools founded in the 19th century, which survive today, provided a general education. Reading the Bible may have been part of it.

If you have nothing to hide, you should want to show how youre doing the right thing snd educating your child. Some HE children are at risk of abuse. Definitely. I think checks should be mandatory.

There will be some jobs 🙄

No shit. It still doesn’t mean what’s happening is acceptable. Many of the better jobs go to young people with lots of social capital and contacts. My son passed his GCSEs with 4s and 5s. A-levels not a great idea. Doing business at college, level 3. Not at all practical so hasn’t gone into a trade.

Excellent soft skills. Who knows what he will do after college with the invention of AI and the million hoops young people have to jump through to even get a foot through the door.

State Ed in this country, particularly in deprived areas really isn’t all that. My kids have coped fine because they’re street wise, sporty and socially aware. It’s absolutely fucking hell for plenty of others though.

But this is mumsnet - I always forget it’s an alternative universe.