Autonomous education and getting qualifications - how does that work then?

[PassTheTwiglets]

I love the sound of autonomous education but I also want the DCs to have qualifications of some sort (do universities still require certain exams results for entrance?) But how does a child get those qualifications if you aren't actually teaching them that subject? Is the idea that they find a subject they are interested in and then study for the exam later by themselves when they're older?

Yes, could be.

My DCs story is on the Home Education Exams site. We did Open University courses instead of A levels (although that route is closing down).

What most people seem to do is look at doing Maths and perhaps English (I)GCSE from about 14, once the DC decide that they need qualifications to get into college or university. Often, colleges only require 5 GCSE-level quals for entry to an A level course, so people get IGCSEs or GCSEs and then gain higher education entry quals in college.

It is pretty difficult to do A levels from home, especially in subjects that contain a practical component.

Some subjects (e.g. languages, IMO) are better done over a long period of time. Others can be "crammed" for the exam when it is important to the young person. Some people have done science or maths GCSEs in as little as three months.

That's very useful, thank you! So it is possible then, phew :)

There's no fundamental clash - the autonomous bit just means that you let the child lead the way on what they find interesting, rather than starting from a list of what you think they ought to cover. And as they get older, if they decide they'd like a qualification, then they have the choice of looking at the syllabus for that qualification and deciding that they want to do it. You don't have to teach them "history" as a subject at age 7, for instance, but if they are always picking out history books or wanting trips to museums, then that might be a subject they'd like to take a qualification in later on. It develops organically, and as they get older and you have conversations about how they'd like to progress, you can bring up the fact that qualifications exist and that they might (or might not) want to do something like that at some point.

It would only go against the concept of autonomous education if you insisted on them doing certain subjects, or taking qualifications, when they didn't have any interest or see any value in doing it

Autonomous education doesn't mean they always have to go it alone. A child could be taught a subject (by parents or tutors for example) while being autonomously educated, or equally well could study for it alone. The key is that she wouldn't be doing it against her will.

Thanks again for replies. I suppose that, being in the school system at the moment, I am just nervous of that 'but they need to start studying for GCSEs when they are 11' thing :)

Hi

I've got info about how home educators take exams here

edyourself.org/articles/exams.php
edyourself.org/articles/examshomeedexp.php

It's not easy. But forewarned is forearmed and it's better to make an informed choice wherever possible.

The standard thing that people say about autonomous education is that if the children choose to study for qualifications, then that's still autonomous. I would agree with that.

However, you might get a child who chose NOT to study for qualifications. Perhaps EVER (or at least till a hair-raisingly late age)

So you'd have to decide how you felt about that.

My autonomously-home-educated nearly 19 year old hasn't taken any qualifications. This is fine with me because we've always explored a range of options and established to our own satisfaction for our own situation exactly what is gained and lost by doing exams. (His website is here btw tpn.lowtech.org/ )

Wow, Fiona, that's a really useful resource - thanks so much! I would definitely want my DC to take exams, assuming that universities require them, because I'd want them to have the option of uni. If they didn't want to go then that'd be fine but I'd like them to have the option. But perhaps universities don't (or won't by the time it's relevant to us) insist on exam results and look at other factors instead. That's something I would research later. At the moment I'm just running through all the things that scare me about HE before taking the plunge :o

"I am just nervous of that 'but they need to start studying for GCSEs when they are 11' thing"

Not 11. 14 is more usual for children at school. The schoolchildren I know say that when they start doing their GCSE study at 14 the class goes back to basics at that point. Possible exception: if doing a language at school, there's some advantage to having studied it already at an earlier age if all the rest of the class has done that. (The 14yo schoolgirl I was talking to this evening said everybody in her GCSE French class started French at age 11 or earlier, but everyone in her GCSE Latin class is new to Latin this year.) I don't think that it matters with other subjects. And of course if the kids are doing GCSEs outside of school then they can start working on them at any age they want.

So you could have the backup plan of sending your kids to school from the age of 14 to do GCSEs. Personally I think it very likely that by that time you will feel quite confident of HEing through GCSEs and will see more clearly how it can work and you won't need to make use of the backup plan. But perhaps having a backup plan would make it easier to take the plunge into HE now.

I forget how old your kids are, but you could have a good few years to relax and HE in whatever way suits all of you before thinking about GCSEs later on and coming up with a plan for that.

Mine were totally autonomously educated, with no structure and no formal work, right up until they chose to go to FE college/do an OU course.

They got on really well at FE college academically and socially and all three are in Uni level education now.

I know hundreds of autonomously home ed young people and the majority of them are doing really well in FE College/University.....and the ones who aren't are working successfully for themselves or someone else.
All are gainfully employed some way or another.
Not a NEET amongst them!