Home Schooling - are you for or against?

In my opinion, home-schooling is a good option only in certain unpredictable conditions such as Covid pandemic, taking in the safety of children. Apart from that, home-schooling takes away one of the most important part of one's life: school life. Regular schooling not only provides academic information but it is a platform with opportunity to mingle with people of various culture, social class and religion.

Yes I tend to agree with you Rotoff but the ones I know of find that a threat - they want to protect their children from ‘bad’ influences. Quite ironical because maybe they are the ‘bad’ influences ??

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Parent competence is key and some will not be sufficiently competent at any level. Home schoolees need opportunities to socialise with other children.

The answer is quite simple. I am neither for nor against. It depends entirely on the circumstances.

Decisions have to be made on a case by case basis.

I am not sure.
I think I am glad it is available as an option.
And there will be some, kids that is, who struggle at school.

But on the other hand, I have seen about 9 families try and do it over the years, and I think only 1 family were anywhere near competent enough.
There have been several or many who were definitely nowhere near competent.

I think home schooling should be illegal unless a child is too ill to attend school, and then should be taught at home or in hospital by a qualified teacher.

In my experience, parents who attempt to teach their children at home, rarely have the necessary all round knowledge of all the subjects children are expected to learn. How could they have? After all, at school children are taught different subjects by different teachers.

To my certain knowledge there is little or no control in the countries where it is legal to teach your children at home that children are actually taught a syllabus that conforms to Ministry of Education guide-lines, and they sit no exams.

Another point to take into account, and it too is important, is that an important part of a child's school-days is socialisation.

We all, children and adults alike, need the society of people outwith our family circle if we are not to have a very limited view of the world, and to lack the social skills that should enable us to get on with people who do not hold exactly the same views as we ourselves do.

This aspect of a child's upbringing is totally lacking if children are carefully kept away from other people.

Home schoolers are checked in regularly by educational staff from the local council and, from my experience when such children return to the state system , they are well ahead of their contemporaries.

It is more complex with secondary aged children but most home schoolers work with groups like Education Otherwise to cover areas the parents are unfamiliar with. The resources available for home schoolers online is infinite.

Research from the National Home Education Research Institute found that, on average, children that are homeschooled scored 30% higher than public school students on their public exams.

Children who are homeschooled often have much more well-developed CVs than other children’s, due to the extra time available to them. Although some universities and employers might not understand homeschooling, many (including Oxford and Cambridge) are happy to accept homeschooled children, as long as they meet their grade requirements.
www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/the-homeschooling-debate/

I would ask, what checks are there. Knowing nothing about it whatsoever. Is it easier to give a biased education, re parental beliefs, or a broad spectrum curriculum giving all sides to a equation. Are parents mathematical genui, or English speakers, what do the lack of social skills, the daily rough and tumble of sports with your peers. Are you taught how to behave towards others, when others are not nice to you. So much for children to miss out on. I would say a no from me.

Unless there’s a genuine reason, e.g. SN that really can’t be managed at school, I don’t agree with it at all.

And I’d be particularly wary if children are home schooled for religious reasons.

Unfortunately the children I have come across home schooled have I believe not been done for the right reasons My next door neighbour had eight children Six choose to be home schooled which entailed pottering around the house, going out with other friends not at school, playing footie in the alleyway and the boys constantly playing video games, one child left home at 11/12 and got in with some very dubious older people, one chose to go to school and how I admired that girl getting on her bike everyday whilst the others stayed in bed They ve moved now but I truly hope that girl has got a good career.
Another large family nearby were home school on religious grounds they. seemed to do much more learning but they all ended up working for their parents from about 13/14 years old

More recently I had a girl of 15 come to help out in the shop her conversation and knowledge was very limited she told me she was home schooled I asked if her mum or her dad had schooled her and she said oh neither I just did what I wanted to learn myself, I wasn’t impressed with her conversation levels

This thread began in 2021.
I had hoped that some useful conclusions would have been reached by now.
Just shows what an emotive issue education is.

Generally for, but I think it depends on family and particular child.

It has been said on many occasions whenever the subject of home schooling crops up that going to school is preparation for life.
Well if this is true, then life needs to change.

(In fact quite a few things have changed) eg religious education in state schools from primary to 14 ish. Not the same as years gone by. Attitudes have evolved
The way that teachers behave towards their pupils now is quite different.

However classes continue to be too large, buildings are still unsuitable, poverty impacts attendance and it has worsened in that it is still a dog eat dog world of homogeneous curriculum with no regard for the individual child’s nature and where university is being promoted as the be-all-and end-all of life.

I agree with another poster above that an alarming amount of time is/was wasted on standing in line, queuing up, praying, sitting neatly with your arms folded and legs crossed (Is
that still a thing?), listening to others being told off for this that and the other and having to deal with fallout from other pupils with difficult home backgrounds.

I have to say that the world of work has moved on in so many ways and I don’t just mean the working from home culture. I mean the inclusivity compared to the past.

People at work are allowed to have higher expectations and you don’t usually have to put your hand up when you want to go to the loo, and for most jobs you can wear what you want.

It’s time education was rethought, but by experts NOT politicians.

Education is being rethought all the time.
The curriculum is enlarged, adapted, expanded and refined; technology has enabled the use of a much broader range of resources and wider possibilities of creative working. Pupils can be more proactive; their social behaviour and beliefs are considered, and home and school are encouraged to work together.
But the same problems remain; too many pupils per class and school, substandard buildings (frequently newer ones), problems with discipline and attendance and teachers increasingly taking the role of social workers.
Lack of money is a constant complaint; facilities in private schools are good but provided by eye-watering fees; their results are good but not brilliant when compared with state schools and their inherent problems: poor resources, large classes and exhausted staff.
That said, I firmly believe that children benefit from working in a school with other children as a preparation for life. Those who are home-schooled and succeed do so because, for a variety of reasons, they cannot flourish in a more challenging environment.

I don't understand, easybee, why you and others see school as a preparation for life.

Can anyone say where else you have to do exactly the same as about 30 other people whose birthdays fall within a single year? What in life is this preparation for?

In my life I've only ever been in a group like that at school.
I haven't experienced anything like it before or since - not even at university.

We should be fulfilling the aims of the education act whether at school or not. Every child deserves (and should have) an education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude and to any special educational needs he may have
The law in this country is that this is the responsibility of the parent - but it can happen either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.
I think we shouldn't mind how this is achieved- so long as it is.

A woman in our village had a child who died at birth. A few years later she had a son and she could not let him out of her sight which I fully understand. As he got to school age she decided to educate him herself although her Mum was really against it.

She kept saying he would go when he got to high school age but he never did. She told people he mixed with other kids who were home schooled but her Mother said he never did. He is now an adult and works a bit part time for his Dad but never leaves his Mum’s side. He has no friends at all and no social life.

I can understand how this happened as she was terrified of losing another child but the Mum has done him no favours keeping him at home all those years. Sad all round.

In any form of schooling desperate cases occur, as you highlight Primrose, but circumstances like those you describe are very rare.

However I do think parents home schooling should need to register and the home schoolers visited once a year by a competent person who understands the sector because there are occasional cases like that you describe that come to light now and again and there have been children who have died in homes where parents have extreme beliefs and who have rejected conventional medicine and opted for home schooling so that the children are never seen by anyone who would raise alarm bells.

I sometimes wonder, if I could go back, whether I would have home schooled my children in the infant/junior years. Both had social lives and their was very little change in the children they socialised with before or after starting school.

M0nica there are also too many children in dire straits/abused/neglected and worse who do go to school as well.

As I said-
Every child deserves (and should have) an education suitable to age, ability and aptitude and to any special educational needs they may have.

They also deserve to be loved, cared for and cherished.

There is a Register for Home-schooled children and they are visited, more than once a year, but the parents are forewarned and everything is set out as it should be. In some cases it is obviously a set-up but very difficult to disprove; the gaps in education show up immediately when/if they return to full-time education.

Some children flourish in home school education but what is discounted is that they have had intensive one-to one education which helps them to do well in exams; their lack of social experience is often concealed because they are comfortable with study and taught by very supportive adults; they generally do well academically. The problems appear when they have to work with other people and encounter sometimes unfair office politics, having had no previous experience of classroom rough and tumble to draw on.

If parents think they have the ability and knowledge to do it then let them. One less awkward parent to deal with at parents' night or unsettled disruptive child in the class.
It may reward the parents with their achievements but does it benefit the child?
I know some who are home-schooled they find it difficult to mix and how to act appropriately in situations out of the home. There are groups that you can join who arrange activities and outings and often get concessionary discounts at educational or historical places.
You can go on holiday whenever you want to places that would be very expensive during school holidays but they are only mixing with other homeschoolers.
I think it is up to the parents if they believe they have the ability to provide everything academic and social school does, why not?

The experiences during Covid showed how difficult it is to deliver an education at home.

Few parents achieve it successfully, but some think they have, because they don't see their child in context with all the others.

I home educated both of my children from ages 5/6 till 14/15. And I only stopped then due to my own ill health. They were taught a vast range of subjects, by me, in line with the NC, and they had advanced socialisation skills, with both adults AND other children. They took part in many extracurricular activities both with children of their own age, and with people of varying ages, from child to adult. They also had private French and German lessons, as I'm no polyglot. When they finally had to attend senior school they fitted in well, made many friends and their educational level was deemed as being excellent by their headteacher, with just one slight gap; they didn't quite have the same level in history, as their peers. I fully own up to that, history was never my strong point. Both are now fully grown, well rounded, polite adults. My daughter is an accountant and a chef, my son is a programmer/analyst leading his own team. Both have good friendship groups, and can talk to anyone about anything! If home education had been illegal, I don't think my children would be where they are today, not by a long shot.

M0nica, I agree, neither 'for' or 'against' (as a retired teacher). It depends on the child and the parents. Teachers don't have some magical superior capability. Parents do tend to credit us with improving/enhancing the learning - when kids just do it themselves, given the right conditions.

My grandson will be a part-timer at school (mornings only) for now. His autism makes a full day impossible. Most of the school day is taken up with organisation, socialising, eating, playing etc. (childcare in essence) anyway, with two hours quite sufficient to cover the curriculum.

The benefit of home schooling is all the extra time gained by kids to follow their own, particular interests. For parents, the time and effort saved is advantageous too. No school runs and the opportunities to visit places at quiet times during the day.

I used to be very against home schooling. Now I believe differently.

The primary curriculum is so pressured, dreary and regimented and has nothing to offer in terms of real intellectual development.

I quit because of the very poor early years curriculum that was imposed from above. I was aware that if I followed it, I wasn’t just not doing any good, I was actually doing harm.