Do home-educating parents need qualifications

[SDeuchars]

ReallyTired wrote (in Letter from School Health Service - wwyd? on 26-Jun at 15:34):
I think that it should be complusory for home educators to have the equivalent of 5 GCSEs including maths and English at grade C standard or better.

I've home educated for 20 years and have NO GCSEs - because they did not exist when I was at school. I do have school qualifications but they are not particularly relevant to EHE.

There can be all sorts of reasons why people do not have qualifications but that does not mean that they are unfit to home educate. If a child of a home educator were not to achieve such qualifications, would that mean the EHE had failed? I would suggest not if the child became a useful adult member of society and enjoyed his or her life.

OTOH, if a young person achieved lots of A*s and became a doctor, does that mean their education (of whatever sort) succeeded? What if they could not stand the pressure and dropped out of society at 35?

Totally agree nmumto3, you have summed that up perfectly, and it is my dh's experience, too.

And that is what is so wonderful about he; it allows for 'just in time' learning. When they are ready, when they have a desire to learn it, the learning happens, seamlessly, easily, fuelled by the burning need to know. Watching that process happen with no need for rote learning, mind numbing repetition, or really any awareness of 'work' as part of it has been one of the biggest joys of he for me. As parents we are there to facilitate that process, but if we weren't they would find a way anyway, of that I am convinced, hence the complete lack of need for us to all have loads of quals.

And don't most of us he because we don't think that what school provides is ideal for our dc, so why then would we want to try and recreate that at home? My biggest learning curve has been to have the faith in my convictions, step back and let my ds steer his own learning path. Whenever I have a wobble from this, suddenly we are at loggerheads, things become spiky and difficult, and then I give myself a quick kick in the mental pants, back off, and lo and behold, the learning starts to flow again.

Sexbomb. Thank you for your post, you have given me faith that your philosophy will work for me. I was beginning to panic as my dd starts H.ed soon.