This comment was posted after an article was put in the Bournmouth News about home educating. www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/search/display.var.2032367.0.schools_out.php The comments have (no a surprise) been deleted.
"What an excellent way to ruin your childs natural social development.
Going to school isn't just about learning how to read and write. It's
learning how to interact with others. It's about forming peer groups,
realising the people you should respect and those you should avoid. I
feel terribly sorry for any child who is taken out of school. They
will grow up as an outsider and it will affect them for the rest of
their lives"
This is the reply made by a parent in an e-mail through eo@yahoo. I believe it is quite succinct.
This is just pure ignorance!
There is absolutely nothing natural socailly or otherwise about a government institution built to hold large groups of children all of the same age and keep them together for a number of years surrounded by secure fencing! It's a prison of education.
It's the children in school we should be feeling sorry for.
If a child has learnt that a particular child or group of children should be kept away from then where do they go?
Our children can walk away from undesirable company.
Where do the school children go? they are 'locked' up with these peer groups inside the classroom and in the playground. Peer groups should be 'socially' formed I agree, with children seeking out the individuals in which they share a lot in common, not by being forced into the group by an adult who probably knows very little about the children personally. This is how 'bullying' is formed, in school a child may well learn who to stay away from, and what do they do about it? They still have to fit into the peer group else risk being ostracised by the group.
The safest and most common form of behaviour among children in this situation is deciding to fit in at all costs, thereby manifesting the well known phrase PEER PRESSURE of which we are all so familiar.
The children who learn about the world while enjoying it, being a social part of it throughout their childhoods interact and socialise far more.
The people they socialise with are 'real' friends they have bonded with, they may or may not be the same age, however they share commonalities and values, they are not forced together and they can part from each other at any time.
I teach my children to give respect, but also to expect respect!
Education is about learning, it's about exploring children's natural curiosity to learn. It's not about timetables, Ofted reports, school procedures uniforms.
Home educators have regular get together's with other kids, groups, outings, get-together's, and camping trips, at home and visits abroad!
I feel it's such a shame that so many parents miss out on the enjoyment that parents who home educate enjoy every day.
I wonder if inaccurate views like these are spawned more form fear and jealousy because it suits their lifestyle, it's hard work actually raising your own children without having a government agency sharing the load for 6 or so hours of the day...especially when their young, but the mum's who home educated love being with their children and educating the child is not rocket science, it's almost like saying "GOSH , how did you manage to teach your child to walk? and talk?"
Learning is something that children do naturally - until they are grouped and pressured into endless tests and practises that are for the good of the teachers and Ofsted reports not actually for the good of our children's education.
I find it so hard to understand this way of thinking, but very grateful I am more enlightened.
I see these teenagers pushed out by society for not being grown up a day after they have finished attending and institution where they still had to put their hand up and ask 'Miss' if they could go to the toilet.
Suddenly they are 16 yrs and flung out by the government because they needed more time than was given and have not done well enough to have support into the next stage of their life and apparently this is fault?
We don't judge the school or the government do we, we're told that the child just didn't listen or was not interested. Isn't it their responsibility to ensure they want to listen and get them interested, isn't that what a teacher is for? It's the child that learns not the teacher that teachers, the teacher makes the information available in the most appealing way they can and waits to see if they can spark some interest in the child.
Instead the child is left at fault, unhappy, low self esteem which leads to a lack of confidence in communication so they are unable to speak about their feelings.
The best thing about home education is our children get to learn what they want, they enjoy it and they gain confidence and self respect. They don't' have to worry about all that social stuff, they just learn.
The social stuff is the fun stuff that they control!
I urge anyone who wished to comment about home education to at least EDUCATE themselves on the subject first.