Would any teachers on here consider home educating their own children?

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Whether yes or no, why? And if yes, at what age/stage? I'm curious.

Many thanks.

janeite and fivecandles Your responses show a distinct lack of understanding of how children can learn, which teachers ought to know, really, and also about how home education works. Too few do, sadly, which is one of the many reasons we do HE.

Children do not need to be taught in order to learn. Please, for the sake of your pupils in school, read some John Holt or Alan Thomas!

And income? We are so far from being rich it's not funny, but because we had children, we are responsible for them. Not just for their education (which all parents are responsible for in law, even if they send their children to school) but also for their emotional well-being. Both of these things would be very poorly managed in a school environment so we, as a family, have decided to live on one income, because we know that being home educated will be a million times better for them than being school-educated.

My children have loads of friends of all different ages so the socialisation argument for not HEing is a load of rubbish!

Don't know if I count as a university teacher, but here's my pennyworth:

I did ask and dd said she didn't want it. Being disabled with a condition that makes travelling painful, she thought she would get very isolated if home educated, particularly as we don't have a car.

She felt that a home education that would give a decent quality of life (ie not just staying at home) would put too much strain on her body. School is convenient as all the things she wants- teachers, learning materials, social life- are gathered in one place not far from her home.

She says she needs something like a workplace, somewhere she can go every day to meet the same friends.

(I can relate to that; I don't really enjoy working from home)

She already does a lot of autonomous learning anyway, so she feels school and having different teachers adds an extra dimension; they can point her in new directions.

She doesn't want to spend too much time with me

no, seriously, we love each other, but I can see what she means, I am already quite a dominating person in her life; if she spent more time at home and I took her to HE meetings etc there wouldn't be any part of her life that I didn't know about and didn't have an input in.

I feel my job adds value to the family in a way that is nothing to do with money- it's an exciting job and I have good stories to tell at the end of the day; also a good inspiration for dd who wants to go to uni herself.

So, I think it depends on the circumstances and the personality of the child. I imagine many people who do decide to home educate have children who really want to get out of school. When you have a child like mine who is prepared to endure severe pain to stay in school, then it's different- I felt I had to go with that.

Lindenlass I wholeheartedly agree with your post. Particularly the bit about children's emotional well-being.

Cory I agree with your post too, in that you need to be listen to your child and be aware of their needs. Being the child's choice to go to school makes a big difference.

Lindenlass - I was talking about MYSELF and my own children and saying that, for us, school is better than homeschooling for so many reasons. I don't have a particularly wide social circle and without my work it would be smaller. Please don't patronise me or suggest that I am an ineffective/unknowledgeable teacher when all I was doing was explaining why I made a PERSONAL decision to not homeschool.

I am very annoyed indeed by your post - and I don't say that lightly, or often.

I would do it as a last resort if my DC wasn't coping with school or I was faced with a dreadful school and no alternative.
I wouldn't do it as a life choice because it is about so much more than the actual learning. I wouldn't want to deny them the opportunity, I only teach because I loved it when I was small!
I agree with cory's post.
My DCs have all liked school so it hasn't been an issue, except that they have recoiled in horror at the idea! Their cousins are HEd so it has come up in conversation.

Totally agree that choosing to work as a teacher is about so much more than money. I love my job: I would be a far worse mother without it because I would feel that I was denying something which helps not only to define me but also to motivate and inspire me. It gives me perspective, allows me to be myself away from my children and allows my children to be themselves, away from me.

I love teaching-when it is going well there is nothing better! (I'm not keen on the work load that goes with it but love working with the children). I find it motivating and inspiring and there are so many things that you can do with a class of children, they spark off ideas from each other, that I would miss with only 3 DCs at home. I am not confident that I know what is right for my own DCs all the time so prefer them to come across other adults and find that they can show a different side of themselves and shine in very unexpected ways. I also think it is good for them to have to cope without me and come across adults and children that they might not get on with and learn to live with all sorts.

janeite Sorry! Msg was mostly directed at fivecandles! Please accept my apologies.

Thank you. I am really not against home schooling but, for me, it wasn't an option as I LIKE going to work and my children have been happy in school. Had they not been, or had we not been able to find both a primary and a secondary school that we were/are very happy with, I may have felt differently, although it would have been a sacrifice for me.

I have worked with children who have done part home-school, part school, as well as travelling children etc who may only be in a school for a very short time each year, or even as a one off. I feel I do actually know quite a bit about engaging the different needs of different children, and that different children often need very different experiences.

My school, although mainstream, is "unique" according to OFSTED, so I hope we do a pretty good job of supporting all of those "square pegs" without trying to force them all into the same round hole. For most of the children in our school, home schooling would not be an option, as the parents are often not literate in their first language, let alone English.

Sorry - that was a fair way from the point of the OP but I have been feeling as if I need to justify myself!

I am a primary school teacher, who also has children in KS2. I have to admit, I have not fully read all the postings on here, so excuse me if I do repeat what someone else may have written, but I would definately home ed my kids if we could afford it financially for me not to be working. I think the discipline (or lack thereof) in this country is appauling-I have taught in Scandinavia and was trained as a teacher in Canada, both places have a much better system of dealing with issues of bullying and discipline of children is much more evident than it is here. IME, teachers get in trouble for keeping children in at play due to behaviour or not finishing their work, so what real consequence is one left with?

God no!

You can't generalise melissa-I supply teach and don't go to schools like the one you mention, there are lots of good ones around so I choose.

Absolutely NOT. They are my children, I am their mum, I don't want to be their teacher. For me it's as straightforward as that. I don't want to be getting them to work so the curriculum is delivered, they can do that at school, with better resources, more fun and with their friends. I wouldn't even consider it .
Oh a different point I don't think my understanding would hold up at higher levels of maths and science.

JSM - you dont have to teach the curriculum - it only applies to children in state school - not private schools or home educated children.

I do home ed mine.

I send them into school to give me a bit of a break, and to have some time to earn money, but their real education happens at home.

Even if you are not teaching the curriculum (which I imagine is one reason for getting away from school) I can see what JSC means. I just want to relax and do the fun things with mine-happy that someone else, I don't want to be the one who has to show them how to write speech marks etc.

Precisely Pisces. Also for all the bad press there is alot of VERY good content in the curriculum and obviously the vital building blocks of literacy and numeracy which all children need but don't necessarily always enjoy! (full stops, capital letters for a start )

Yes I would consider it if I felt it was in the best interests of my child. If for some reason she was unable to get on at school then I would look at all my options and HE would be amongst them.

Fortunately this has not arisen and, as DD is an only child and likely to remain so, I do fel that school and the social aspects that go with it are very important for her. Luckily she agrees and adores school. She is happy and thriving in the school environment, so we are happy too.

I attended a training on safeguarding children recently and the trainer, a social worker and educational expert, who works for Lancaster University said that the biggest number of home educated children were the children of teachers.

pisces, I am not generalising, I am saying that their is no allowance for discipline in this country, it does not matter if it is a "good school" or not. You do not know what the intake will be like next year or what the behaviour will be of the children you are getting, and with the world being the way it is at the moment (children bringing in knives and guns to secondary schools), the discipline needs to be looked at, because there is none. Is it going to take the situation that has happened in the states where children have been shot and killed before someone takes notice? Columbine was listed as a "fantastic school with great staff, students and parents" but yet there was a shooting spree that killed many students and some staff. So, the term good school no longer is a given...sorry.

However, what I have written above is not what this topic has to do with, it just irks me when people think that 'because I work at a good school, nothing bad can happened'

'the discipline needs to be looked at, because there is none.'

melissa, you also claim that you are not generalising.

Can you not see the irony?

Melissa - the shooting incidents are to do with stray children with real problems, NOT to do with a lack of discipline in schools. Using that as proof that discipline in America is slack and that Britain is following is just plain silly imho.

And anyway, an incident like that could just have easily have happened in the street, in a shopping centre (Hungerford?) so do we keep our children away from ANY potential danger?

perhaps I did not explain myself and what I mean clearly.

Unfortunately, I know of secondary school teachers who have teenagers bringing in guns into school, and knives, so when is it they are going to start using them? I cannot beleive that you would think that Britain is not following in the footsteps of the states, that amazes me. England is becoming more Americanized by the year. They are adopting more and more American traditions etc...its interesting, because the number of people I know that have come over from North America in the past four years, have all had the same comment, entirely independant of one another, that England has become so Americanized.

You are entirely right janeite, we cannot keep our children away from any potential danger, unfortunately the society we live in today does not allow that, or they would be kept in a bubble indoors! You could be hurt or killed crossing the street, but we cannot live life thinking that way.

My basic point is that, things like bullying are not dealt with in this country, to the extent they need to be. Children who are bullying others are told "don't do that, it is not nice". If someone can please tell me how that is going to stop the child from bullying another, then, well, you could likely make a lot of money teaching Heads and LEA's! This is what I mean by the lack of discipline, other countries have a zero tolerance policy, first time and your out the door, not an "oh dear, I am very disappointed that you have not been nice to DS or DD". And, with the bullying in mind, this is what I meant by the point on the good schools, a "good school" is just as likely to have a bully come into it as a "bad school". I teach in a highly respected (for their results etc...) school, but the issues we have with bullying are atrocious, and nothing is done about it, not because the Head or the teachers do not want to, it is because they are not allowed to.

So what happens to the pupils who are "out of the door" then? We punish them for perhaps something that is brought about as a result of poverty/poor parenting by not offering them any support with their problems and shove them into ghetto-situations?

I didn't say that I don't think Britain is becoming Americanised - of course it is. However, the British education system, as far as I can see it, does not really follow America's, so we can't blame that.

There are schools like the ones you describe Melissa because I have taught in one. While I dont agree with HE in general, I could understand why a parent may choose to HE when that is the option. However most schools are not like that.
I teach in a "good" school and there is very little bullying because of the way the school is run. I am not naive, there is some, because sadly that is human nature.