If you are against Home Ed, can you tell me why?

[Bodenbabe]

I'm in the very early stages of thinking about HE and want to know all the pros and cons. If you are against HE, can you tell me why?

I know of families who home-ed where both parents work. The dad goes out to work and the mum childminds.

I would really have to question what sort of 'education' the kids were getting in that scenario Juules i.e. where the father wasn't there and the mother was childminding at the same time

I don't know the details of their lives obviously but they are both home at weekend and the evenings. A tutor is employed for a couple of hours a week leaving work to be done until next time. Other HE parents are able to take the children to some group activities during the week. The children also attend evening activities the same as they would if they'd been at school.
Seems to work for them.

In that case the kids are having about as much of a home education as mine are. Both dp and I are around and 'educating' our kids every evening and weekend. It's just that mine also go to school. That is abusing the term 'Home Education' in my view.

And I would imagine hugely frustrating for the kids if their mother is actually employed to look after pre-schoolers at the same time as 'home educating' her own kids.

I could take my kids out of school and take them into work with me. That in no way is the same thing as providing them with an education.

And you are entitled to your view.

I can see your points regarding the childminding home educating mum but lets not be too judgey here a teacher in a class of 30 children cannot spend individual time of any consequence with any one child so her attentions are shared amongst them all......assuming the mum who childminds doesnt have lots of childmindees then potentially this is no worse a scenario than any typical classroom?.

The Duggar mum home educates and she has many children of varying ages.

Who are we to judge if it works for that family or not?.

I'm not against HE in the least.

One concern I might have though is how you manage when the dc are in the throes of puberty. You are both teacher and parent and around them an awful lot. My mother and I got quite entangled when I was 15-16 and I would not like to have been at home with her as my teacher at that stage i don't think. Doubt she would have relished it either. When I was in primary, although I liked my schools, I think I would have found HE with my mum great.

I home-ed my 14/15yo and we seem just fine. Probably down to the personality of the teen as it always is.

I subscribe to the view that education goes on in every home, with the majority of parents choosing to send their child to school.

I am totally bemused by Takver's post, which claims to have knowledge of what I would consider to be a 'passable income'!!

Takver - you don't know me and have absolutely no knowledge of what I consider a 'passable income' so your post is completely illogical!

That's just silly Nickschicks.

Where you have a class of 30 kids in a classroom they are working towards a shared set of aims and objectives in a purposeful learning environment so they are all learning (from worksheets, from each other in group or paired work and from the teacher) even where they are not getting individual attention. This is hardly possible where the mother is actually being paid to look after pre-schoolers (most of us know how demanding and all consuming that is) and her older, school-aged kids at the same time.

And don't anybody use the argument that not all classrooms are purposeful etc etc. Just because schools aren't all perfect does not justify providing a very far from perfect scenario like this.

And, sorry, I don't really buy this 'facilitating' thing. All parents facilitate their kids' learning all the time. That's not the same thing as educating them. I can snd do quite happily create leaf collages and sing songs in French and go to art galleries with my kids but that's not going to get them through their Maths GCSE.

I suppose it partly comes down to whether the parents see HE as following a relatively conventional education in an unconventional setting (with a view to providing kids with a broad curriculum which will allow them to achieve qualifications in a variety of subjects and progress to higher ed and/ or a range of career choices) or providing an unconventional education which does not allow these things and is a very problematic choice for a parent to make for a child.

Sorry, violet, only that you referred to 'mortgages & bills' and 'needing two incomes'.

I don't think that you can assume that people who HE are 'relatively well off' unless you consider an income of say £2000 a year for a family to be 'relatively well off'

Where did I refer to mortgages?

As for bills, well, everyone needs food, warmth etc and many people have to pay things like council tax too.

All I have actually said is that many families cannot afford to have one parent not earning for the majority of the time their kids are being raised. And that's a fact.

I think that if a family opt for HE then it is central and the education comes first-jobs should be fitted it around the education and not education around whatever else needs to be done. I don't think it compatible with child minding.

Yes, that was sort of my point pisces. I don't think that scenario is fair on either the childmindees or the mum's own kids. Any more than it would be fair for me to have my kids sitting at the back of my classroom everyday.

One potential con with home educating can be the attitude other people have about it.

It can be quite stressful to deal with close friends or family members who do not agree with your decision and are openly hostile towards you.

The childminder is registered. Ofsted is more than happy with what is provided. The parents are happy. The LA is happy with the children's progress. GCSEs and college are being prepared for. It is working for them.

I think that you have to expect it Peabody-you are not doing what about 97% of the population do, and people will state their concerns. If you are confident that it is the best for your DC I don't see a problem. Do it well and show them they are wrong!! If it was me I would refuse to discuss it-print a little card to hand out with FAQ.

That may be so juule, but it wouldn't be good enough for me and I would be most unhappy.

Thanks Pisces. I wasn't really talking about myself though, just answering the OP (and I'm sure MIL will come around once she reads the book I've given her!).

HEers do themselves harm in the defensive stand they take-be positive and open and show the doubters they are wrong!

Presumably you've seen the OFSTED reports then. As pisces says I wouldn't be happy either for my kids to be minded by a childminder who was simultaneously HEding her own school-aged kids or to HE my own kids at the same time as childminding other people's. I really don't see how it's possible to do either job well simultaneously despite what you say or what she tells you.

Can I also add, Takver, that quoting raw figures such as 20k is always utterly meaningless without any sort of context.

An income of 20k would be perfectly adequate if you live in a cheap area of the UK, you are lucky enough to have inherited money and paid off your mortgage, and your partner can walk to work.

An income of 3 x as much might be very inadequate if you live in the southeast, have a mortgage or pay rent, and have a partner who whose commute costs £300 a month!

pisces - I agree with you about the FAQ card!

There is no way that my DCs would go to a childminder who was HEing her own DCs-whatever OFSTED say! I would want them central. If I was HEing my DCs would be central and I couldn't possibly child mind which is completely different.

Everyone asks the same questions so a FAQ card makes a lot of sense and is easy to do-then just be polite and say you are bored with the subject-read the card!