Can anyone suggest a good book about HE for my very sceptical DP?

[Callisto]

It needs to be balanced, well-researched and not too lentil-weaverish. Also any arguements that I can use when discussing with him why school at 4 (and possibly at any age) is a terrible idea for DD.

Many thanks.

Dashing out again I am afraid, but there is a whole thread here on Books about home education
Sorry it is so long, I keep meaning to restart the thread with all the info put together.

Will get to it one day.

I'd have a close look at Alan Thomas' Books. Alan is a Visiting Fellow at the University of London, Institute of Education. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.His has been looking at informal home education or 'autonomous home education' as it is called in the UK. In his latest book
'How Children Learn at Home'
he has followed up on previous research and looked at autonomously home educated young people and discovered how amazingly effective it is. Well worth a read (although I am biased as my family took part in this research)

There is some research by Paula Rothermel here
Some on the EO website here
I found this research from the Frasier Institute in Canada interesting.

I'd also strongly suggest, you and he see if you can meet some home educated families near to you, for a chat.

Thanks so much Julie. I have seen the books list, but the thread is so long and I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

I shall get a copy of How Children Learn at Home for him (and me) to read. I have got the Paula Rothermal paper bookmarked and have pointed him in that direction, though he has questioned how qualified she is to be carrying out this sort of research, whihc I couldn't answer, though I assume that she is attached to Durham Uni in some official capacity?

I am also planning on a lunch date soon with a local HE family I know (subject to the family agreeing of course!) so that he can see first hand how lovely and well-adjusted HE children are.

Thanks for the other links, I'll have a read of them.

Anything by this guy is great

John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing us down the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling is quite a good read, it certainly puts a different slant on secular schooling. He himself was a teacher for 30 years & he calls classrooms cells.
Shame I've just sold one on ebay.

John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing us down the hidden curriculum of compulsory schooling is quite a good read, it certainly puts a different slant on secular schooling. He himself was a teacher for 30 years & he calls classrooms cells.
Shame I've just sold one on ebay.

Thanks everyone - I shall have a look on Ebay to see if there are any there.

Chatterbocs - is the John Taylor Gatto quite conspiracy theory or is it all backed up with facts and figures? I only ask because hard facts about the state of the education system seem to be almost impossible to find.

Julienoshoes - rather than clutter up the books thread, I'll say on this one thank you very much for de-cluttering and reviving it.

There are loads of books there that sound interesting. In fact, the one about school refusal sounds good as DD hates the thought of school and gets very teary about it despite the fact that she hasn't been yet. DP thinks that 'she'll get used to it' etc etc. But I don't think she should have to and that it will be very traumatic for all of us, so any book that backs me up would be brilliant!

Gatto is quite conspiracy theory IMO. I blogged about him a while ago here (and then another couple of posts following on from that one)

I admit, I was disappointed by the anti-capitalism conspiracy elements of it, though his diagnosis of what schooling entails resonated with my own views.

Thanks for that Ommmward - it makes interesting reading and I do see the logic of most of it, though I'm rather sceptical about any deliberate attempt to school generation after generation of children into a lifetime of drudgery behind the till at WalMart. I think I might try to convince DP with a slightly less contentious arguement than this one...

My main problem is that DP went to a very good boarding school where the teachers were more interested in student welfare and love of learning than institutionalisation and passing tests, so he has no first hand experience of how soul destroying school can be.