Anti vax

[Jennybeans401]

I have friends who home ed but they are all anti vaxxers and very much believe that the government is in a conspiracy.

I'd like to home ed but I find it really off putting, are all home edders anti vax or am I just unlucky that my friends are all opposed to vaccination?

IME home ed parents are very diverse. They have various reasons for opting out of school and it follows that they have a wide variety of beliefs. We're all used to mixing together and we mostly rub along okay. One of my first realisations of this came when my eldest was very young. On the way home from the home ed group, I was chatting with a mum who was HEing partly because she felt school wasn't strict enough. She had to valiantly summon all her tact to explain to her son - without criticising my family - why he wasn't allowed to remove his shoes and wallow in a mud puddle with my scruffy kid. She succeeded!

I'm amused when people say it's necessary to send children to school so they can encounter kids from different backgrounds. I guess you don't mind your children being exposed to people whose views are different from your own, as these anti-vaxxers are already your friends.

In most areas there is quite a range of different "types" of home ed parent. We all come together for certain activities, and then sometimes go into smaller sub-groups to hang out with others who share our views or backgrounds. In my area you can find home ed friends who believe in spending more time outdoors, Christians, those whose kids have special needs, groups focused on formal study and groups for unschoolers. It's just like the rest of life really.

In my experience yes, and I find it off putting too.

We home Ed. We are very pro-vaccination - my kids have had all the "standard" vaccines and we paid for extra ones for chicken pox and meningitis (and I think that if anyone doesn't vaccinate their kids without a good medical reason, social services need to have a good close look)

People home-ed for a variety of reasons and there has been huge growth in home education over the last 5-10 years. Significant reasons for this are:

1. cuts to the education budget, cuts to SEN and local authorities and discontinuation of the G&T programme mean that children with SEN or G&T or both do not have their needs met in school.
2. Some parents who might never have "made the leap" to home education were forced to do so during lockdown, found their children thrived outside school, and never sent them back.
3. growth in online learning providers has created an alternative option to bricks-and-mortar school.

As for "the government is in a conspiracy", it depends what you mean. Most governments at any time are engaged in multiple conspiracies - that's why the official secrets act exists. If you think governments don't engage in conspiracies on a regular basis then bless your cotton socks.
However, a great relief of home-schooling was to be rid of the "British values" propaganda, the continuing requirement for "acts collective worship" and the encouragement of one-size-fits-all approaches which ignore individual differences - all part of a system designed to produce a compliant, biddable workforce.

Michael Rosen's public letters on political interference in, and mismanagement of, the education system are often worth reading.

Home Edder here and whole family happily vax’ed - adults and children alike. Home edders quite like to think ( and occasionally choose ! ) for themselves and don’t necessarily see social media as an authoritative source of information. If you want to Home Ed find a large diverse local group if you can ( social media is great for that bit ) and talk to more like minded folk about it.

@Jennybeans401

We home Ed and our dc are all fully vaccinated.

Home edders are a very diverse group! Don’t judge an entire group off one family you know.

Whilst it’s true that home edders are generally independent thinkers I don’t think you can generalise at all.

Thank you! I'm really reassured too hear this, I think my friend has chosen people who share her feelings about vaccination. She is very much anti vax. Her whole friendship group (all home ed) are all the same.

I would hope to find a group of people who believe in vaccination. My dh is vulnerable and even though we are double vax I'd still worry.

What qualifications are needed to home ed?

I have never met a totally sane person that chooses to home educate their children, so this does not surprise me at all!

What qualifications are needed to home ed?

None.
This might correlate with anti vaxxers, in that they think they know better than experts. I don't want this to be an attack on all HE but I wouldn't be surprised at all if there was a big overlap with anti vaxxers.

I'm not a home-edder, but have several friends who do, and have worked with a lot of HE families over the years - and yes there were a large number of anti-vaxxers among them in my experience.

You will get a higher percentage of anti-vaxxers, as you will also within Steiner schools and other non-mainstream education providers. That is inevitable imo.

But... Not all home edders are anti-vaxxers, not by a long chalk.

Don't let this one thing put you off, it is an educational decision, you're not joining a cult.

@Mybalconyiscracking your post is really ignorant.

@Kendodd

What qualifications are needed to home ed?

None.
This might correlate with anti vaxxers, in that they think they know better than experts. I don't want this to be an attack on all HE but I wouldn't be surprised at all if there was a big overlap with anti vaxxers.

What do any old random can educate children

I'm shocked to read that. Surely must have to have a teaching qualification.?

Kids being educated by parents with no formal teaching education themselves must be seriously lacking a decent education

Can't see how that's allowed

So* not do

@Indoctro

Outcomes for home ed children are better than national average.

Hate to break it to you but large numbers of children leave school with no qualifications or even functional literacy levels.

Don't dismiss something you know nothing about. You are speaking from a position of ignorance.

Hate to break it to you but large numbers of children leave school with no qualifications or even functional literacy levels.
What percentage of these children come from homes where one adult is willing and financially able to be a SAHP for years and years and spend all day every day dedicated to their child's education?

@SavoyCabbage

Hate to break it to you but large numbers of children leave school with no qualifications or even functional literacy levels. What percentage of these children come from homes where one adult is willing and financially able to be a SAHP for years and years and spend all day every day dedicated to their child's education?

Not sure how that is relevent to a discussion about whether HE parents should be formally trained as teachers.

If people are worried about national educational standards, the place to start would be campaigning for greater investment in schools (and other support to families) as that is where the major educational gains could be made.

But yes you are right, many home ed children are very lucky to have a personalised 1-1 education.

Not sure how that is relevent to a discussion about whether HE parents should be formally trained as teachers.
You brought it up!

My point is that you can't compare the exam results of HE children with those of children who attend school as their circumstances are completely different. HE children have steady home lives with a SAHP who is invested in their education. They will get a meal every night and have a bedtime etc.

@SavoyCabbage

Not sure how that is relevent to a discussion about whether HE parents should be formally trained as teachers. You brought it up!

My point is that you can't compare the exam results of HE children with those of children who attend school as their circumstances are completely different. HE children have steady home lives with a SAHP who is invested in their education. They will get a meal every night and have a bedtime etc.

I meant YOUR comment What percentage of these children come from homes where one adult is willing and financially able to be a SAHP for years and years and spend all day every day dedicated to their child's education? was irrelevant, that was your post not mine.

But I agree you can't compare home ed and school ed, which is why when posters worry about lack of qualifications for home educating parents, it is coming from a position of not understanding how home ed works.

@lannistunut

You will get a higher percentage of anti-vaxxers, as you will also within Steiner schools and other non-mainstream education providers. That is inevitable imo.

But... Not all home edders are anti-vaxxers, not by a long chalk.

Don't let this one thing put you off, it is an educational decision, you're not joining a cult.

This is my experience (as a previously home edded child). My mum was in fact anti-vax (I caught up on my vaccines as an adult) but most of the other families we associated with weren't. I'm not anti-vax (as I say, I caught up with vaccines as an adult, also DD has had hers so far) but almost certainly going to home ed DD.

I'm the interests of transparency, I have not yet had the Covid vaccine, but that's because I'm erring on the side of caution while breastfeeding, I do plan to have it later - I'm pretty sure that doesn't make me anti-vax, but others might differ.

When I say, "most of the other families we associated with," I mean the home ed families, obviously! What the others were like isn't relevant.

I'm the interests of transparency, I have not yet had the Covid vaccine, but that's because I'm erring on the side of caution while breastfeeding, I do plan to have it later - I'm pretty sure that doesn't make me anti-vax, but others might differ.

I wouldn't describe that as erring on the side of caution, I would say having the vaccine is erring on the side of caution.
This isn't having a go BTW. I think (?) pregnant women are the least likely group to have been vaccinated, and I really understand the nerves about this, I would be very worried as well even knowing expert opinion is very heavily in favour of having the vaccine.

@Mybalconyiscracking

I have never met a totally sane person that chooses to home educate their children, so this does not surprise me at all!

Many people withdraw their children from school as a last resort, after realizing that school will never meet their needs and that the damage done by keeping them in school made keeping them there unviable. Good reasons for which people choose to home educate include:

1. Bullying and sexual harassment in schools is acknowledged by Ofsted to be "normalised" ( guardian , bbc ). There are thousands of incidents of violence (including knife crime) in UK schools each year and funding to tackle this is completely inadequate ( independent, schoolsweek ). There have been hundreds of incidents of child sexual abuse in UK schools (guardian ). For any of the thousands of students affected by any of these issues, home schooling can remove them from a toxic situation and may be the best option for their safety and mental health.

2. A generation of students with SEN are being completely failed and some are waiting 5 years or more to receive an EHCP plan ( guardian1, guardian2 ). For many of these students, home education may not even have been a choice as they are frequently off-rolled, i.e. unlawfully excluded, from the school they attended. Students with SEN/G&T/DME/neurodiversity can be provided with a more bespoke, personalised education at home than the school can provide.

3. The largest funding cuts since the 1980s in state schools have left them unable to provide an adequate quality of education. ( guardian , independent ). Schools are forced to teach an inadequate, politically motivated curriculum (prospect, independent ). Parents may decide to home educate because they can provide a better, more suitable curriculum than their children would be offered in school.

Man. What a lot of highly ignorant comments about home education.

As has been said already, everyone I know who home Ed are the most dedicated (to their children) people you could ever meet. It is in no way the easy option.

Whilst for many it’s a decision made from birth, for many they have arrived there out if necessity. The current education system is highly flawed and fails many children. It’s Victorian. It is rigid, prescriptive and puts ridiculous amounts of undue pressure on children.
And that’s before you add in SEN as a factor.

I am an ex teacher. I know how unsuitable the system is for the vast majority of children. I quit as I hated being part of it all.

I think home edders get a bad name as in general they are independent thinkers who reject the mainstream way of bringing up children. And that’s ok by me.

I’m not an anti vaxxer
We home ed as our son was not treated well at school and went mute. We’ve been doing it just over two years
There are some anti vaxxers but not a lot. Most home edders I meet have kids with Sen or kids that don’t fit the system.