What, exactly, do you feel is the purpose of school?

[Orinoco]

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Not sure think schools have lost the way under mass paper trails and other criteria rather than actually letting teachers do what they do best - teach

It should be to educate all children to the best of their individual potential. That education should be broad and rounded, covering academic, sport, and PSHE aspects.

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to provide children with the tools to educate themselves.

to encourage independence, self-confidence and empathy.

Our school's purpose is for every pupil to reach her own potential

To educate children to the highest standard their ability allows

To provide enjoyment in learning, in order to encourage them to independently seek out knowledge

To encourage social skills and self discipline

To give parents time to work/hoover/shop/sit on sofa watching telly

To fill up lots of paper and tick boxes. It seems

Thankfully the school we use doesn't follow this agenda.

To give working parents somewhere to put their children after child labour was abolished...

To encourage a lifelong love of learning

To prepare them for adult life (both working and leisure)

To give children a wider range of opportunities than they would otherwise have had

Should have added 'ideally'

In reality it seems the schools purpose is to achieve government set targets in order that a political party can demonstrate how much they have improved education since coming to power.

Free childcare?

lol.. I was going to put free childcare...

seriously my son thinks that the purpose of going to school is to play with his mates. As far as he is concerned numeracy or literacy just gets in the way.

What frankies said

Educare is Latin for for ?? This is what education is about in my very middle class opinion.

Is or should be?

The more I home educate my DD, the more I realise how school messes you up, stunts creativity and holds you back academically.

Gosh, Critter, if that is what school has done to dd, I think it's probably just as well she does go: not sure I could cope with more creative thinking

For dd school has been somewhere where she has been stimulated to learn new things, come across adults who are interested in new and different perspectives to her parents, met people from very different backgrounds- religious and social-, and made lots and lots of friends.

She has made friends who share her own love of reading and creative writing and she has also (equally important) made friends who cannot share her interests and whom she has to accommodate on their own ground (very valuable training IMO).

As she is disabled with mobility problems, as I can't drive and as there is nobody else in the vicinity who home educates, there is no way I could have provided all that for her through HE. She would have become isolated.

I did ask her if she wanted HE at a time when her chronic pain was particularly bad and she said a very unequivocal no. Her reasons were mainly social (wanting to meet her friends on a day-to-day basis rather than through occasional HE camps). She also said frankly that she doesn't want to spend her whole day with me (which would be a necessity as somebody has to push her wheelchair when out and about).

So social reasons were what she thought of- but I can see how much she has been stimulated academically, both by what goes on in the classroom and by sharing this experience with her friends. She comes home and discusses things she has worked on with us and it is clear that her mind is being stretched. The school experience has not been flawless (we did have a lot of trouble with accessibility in Year 5), but to her it has evidently been worthwhile.

This is a fairly standard state junior school, nothing that special. Some teachers are very good- others seem to spend part of their time talking through their hats: but even that hasn't necessarily had a negative effect on her. Doesn't hurt to learn to sort the grain from the chaff and to deal in a civilised way with the less competent.

That's a sweeping generalisation, critter.

My dd loves school, and is very happy there, as I was.

Shall I suggest all home educated children are lacking in life skills and unable to cope with difficult social situations? Or that it is unnatural to have no time to develop away from their parents?

Well, she needs to justify her reasons for HE!

MY DS is at a fantastic school (albeit a few problems, but nothing we can't manage) and he's doing really well and he loves it - and definately not being "messed up" - he's more likely to be "messed up" if we HE

I can't imagine how messed up, behind accademically and stunted creatively my children would be if I attempted to educate them at home.

They are both well rounded and sociable teenagers who enjoy school (except for getting up in the morning).

They have experience of teachers who have opened up interest in new areas to them and they have experienced teachers who unfortunately have put them off subjects.

Critterjitter you can only speak for your own child,school and experience. I think this, of all areas, is one where generalization and arguing from the particular to the general is dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.

Well, my parents did not have much of an education and both left at 14. They brought me up to believe that:

Primary is to learn to read, write, do sums, pass the 11+ if you can (I am that old)

Secondary is to pass exams and gain qualifications that will enable a pupil to get a decent job and have a prospect in life

With their encouragement I acheived both of those. I'd like to think that school is about far more than all of this, but I have to (sometimes reluctantly) admit that my parents' view is the bottom line.

I did ask the question "is or should be?" ie "what should the purpose of school be?" or "what is the purpose of school?"

Yes, I can only speak from the experiences that my DD has had. However, I think the perception that all HE children are locked in with their parents all day, whereas all children in mainstream schools are being happily socialised, is far off the mark, and perhaps demonstrates the lack of knowledge and myths that surround HE (and also what goes on in the classroom).

I've never felt the need to justify home educating DD, however if you'd like to know why we arrived at the decision, here goes.

It was an instinctive response, having stood by (perhaps for too long) and watched DD not recognising her potential in classrooms where behaviour problems and PC thinking dominated the teacher's time. (School was rated 'Outstanding' in recent Ofsted BTW )

If I'd had the chance (the money actually) to send her privately, I certainly would have.

DD had completely lost confidence socially, having been thumped, kicked, bitten, headbutted, spat and sworn at. Her school work consisted of reciting 1-10 and being told off for trying to go on to 11. She was told off for asking for a harder reading book. Her bag at night would be full of pictures of Cinderella which she was expected to colour in day after day. Its taken quite a while to get her to regain her confidence. However, it took only a short while for her to make significant academic progress at home.

I have given DD the opportunity to return to school, and we even toured around a few schools. However, she still wants to work at home. One of her main reasons being that she "learns lots of things." And I must admit, touring around these schools, and seeing 30 children crammed in tiny stuffy (particularly noisy) classrooms, teachers being pulled every which way, kids arguing and fighting (one was even bashing another over the head with a wooden box last week in front of the teacher showing us around)and other kids milling about looking lost and confused, confirmed to me that we had made the very best decision, given our circumstances.

Your post is very interesting, but I wasn't really commenting on your decision to HE.

I was simply reacting to your comments 'school messes you up'. A comment that offends me since I have chosen a school education ( as have the vast majority) for my daughter.

I too would have chosen a private education if finances would allow, and I felt the next best option is a fantastic local(ish) state school.

Sort of see HE as a 'last resort', and not a better option than a good state school.

Respect your decision, though. Every child is different in the ways in which they learn best. School may not be good for your dc but it is fantastic for mine.

Critter- you could have written our reasons for HE too. Though I enjoyed school, and they would given the right school for them, but for now we HE.