Would your child choose to be home-educated?

[emkana]

I read an article about home ed today and I find the idea in many ways very appealing. Dd1 started school in September and I think she would be horrified if I suggested to her to take her out of school. She is totally in love with her teacher and she likes being with her friends all day.

But if things change and she becomes unhappy I would take her out, I think.

Oooooooh! I don't know if I dare read this thread. I'm likely to get all fired up about and inspired by home education again, just when I thought I'd leave it for the time being.

I'm not doing it yet, but it's just a matter of time. The more I read the more convinced I am it'd be best for the kids.

Can I just say that it is true , you do get a souped up library card, and no fines, if you HE.

And if that doesn't tempt you, nothing will.

Ooh Mymble, that is such a fab thing, isn't it? It is worth the joining fee alone, just for that, for me. And I didn't even realise till recently that you get free CDs and free DVD hire too! I told the librarian I felt a bit of a fraud as the ones I was borrowing were just for my own entertainment, but he said he thought The Kinks were very educational

oh mymble it's so nice to find another john holt fan - he's been my hero for years!

I love "Never Too Late" - a beautiful book, by a very good man. What a shame he died so young

What an odd question Kama. Why wouldn't they if called upon to do so?

Why is that important?

If you're wondering whether home edders can cope with large groups of people, I'd say at least as well as anyone else could.

It would be more than likely that any presentation would be on a subject in which the presenter had gained some expertise, which would quite probably have been gained through a personal passion for the subject(as opposed to an enforced curriculum) and learned autonomously, at his or her own pace.

I know a home educated child who takes part in drama presentations for large audiences if that is of any use. Not really sure I understand the question.

Nor me JM.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does it come from a belief that home educated people can't cope with large numbers of people?

If so it's another part of the myth that home educated people are less able to socialise. School isn't the only place where we come into contact with large groups of people. Though there aren't many other places where one is forced to be with a large, indescriminate group of others. (The army springs to mind).

Sorry Kama. You weren't around to expand.
I assumed wrong by the looks of it. I just thought it an odd question as I didn't see how a home edder's ability to speak publicly would differ from a school educated person's.

one of my children would 2 wouldnt. the one that would is a bit strange and doesnt fit in at school. despite having rotweiller brother and sister for protection. hes just an odd case.

i coudl do it too.

but we would starve and be homeless. so he will have to muddle through, not get on socially, expand his class clown persona to cover for his social inadequacies and in 4 years time leace school with no qualifications to join his brother in the building trade ( as brother will get him a job no doubt)

i don't have to be a fotune teller to know how its going to turn out. he would most definatley be happier and better educated at home.

i think the social aspect is being dismissed rather lightly - and i for one cannot urge the discussion to have more depth becuase of my lack of knowledge.

but i firmly believe that in most cases at infant and junior school children learn masses of information about people and structrues and pecking orders and how life is unfair and how people are mean and how things are rubbish sometimes, how you get told off for doing something wrong and the learning that doing certain things are socially unacceptable. kids learn so much with the social aspect of being in school that i believe they would not learn from being at home and seeing groups of friends and family as that is a different form of socialisation.

socialisation is IMO probably one of the most important things our children should learn.

obviously there are the exceptions and i think in extreme cases of bullying the better option is infact to have the child at home if poss, or else your child is learning only fear.

just read harktheherald's description of being home educated for 5 years. Thanks for that, really enjoyed seeing another side to the debate, from someone whose parents were HE-ing her.

Agree with those who feel HE usually better as a practical short term choice.

Mind you, there was a boy in my oldest sons class who had been mainly home educated during his primary school years. His parents were missionaries and the family has spent years living abroad. He joined my sons class for 18 months, fitted in fine AFAIK and did really well (he was very clever). The family are now abroad again and he will not join a secondary school for another year or so. Mind you, when I say he was home educated, I mean he had a private tutor. His parents did not teach him everything, so he still had a teacher figure in his life.

My main gripe with long term home educating is to do with the socialisation aspect, but I am thinking of it in terms of the parents.

How will you feel if you sacrifice your career, or the prospect of your own training and education, in favour of teaching your child? How do you feel if your whole life is bound up with home and family? What about your identity, your own goals, your own sense of fulfilment? Where is the space for that?

I have to say that frustration and responsibity of being my children's main educator as well as parent would do my head in over the long term.

And in the interest of balence, not every child who is home educated comes out of it well. I have taught a child who came to secondary school functionly illiterate who had been home educated....it also happens with some primary chool educated kids I know, but not every child/parent in suited to HE. (justl like not every child is suited to school)

I have also had children removed to be HE because their parents did not want the to learn about religions other than Christianity.....somthing I was rather uneasy about if I am being honest.

I agree with those who have pointed out that some parents choosing HE are motivated by "dodgy" or eccentric reasons - I'd say that choosing HE is still an extremely unconventional thing to do, so it's likely that many of those that choose to do it are unconventional people (this category wouldn't include those who have chosen it as a last resort because of bullying). Our society isn't set up to make HE a practicable choice for most people, but you could argue that it's only by people making that choice, even though it is difficult to put into practice and entails sacrificing many conventional ways of being, that society will change to the point that it becomes practicable.

I certainly don't see "alternative" as a negative, but it takes a lot of courage (and willingness to sacrifice attachments to culturally-defined notions of "success") for an ordinary person to go down the HE route.

And I put my hands up - I've long believed in HE, but didn't have the courage to do it with my own children. I was too worried about the effect it might have on them in terms of possibly ending up as outsiders because they had not shared in an experience which most of us share and which forms a large part of our initiation into our culture. I didn't think I'd be able to cope with doing it at primary school age, and in my case it would have almost certainly meant long term survival on state benefits. I chickened out basically. I'd be happy to do it now that my children are of secondary school age (and in fact did withdraw dd from school last year when she was having problems), but they want to go to school. I think that if I have any more children I might do things differently though.

Is public speaking a huge part of the curriculum though? It's certainly not part of the national curriculum and I cannot imagine why it should be important. I certainly never did any at school and it didn't prevent my being able to address groups of students or even a paying audience in adult life.

I think that kids have to give a prepared 'talk' as part of theor GCSE english.

I do know they have to do this for MFL GCSE