Home Schooling - are you for or against?

Genuine homeschooling is a big commitment. We spent all our waking hours in “teaching” mode when we were homeschooling.

Boiling an egg was physics- apply heat and matter changes, shopping might be maths or geography or social science. All day every day we were on the lookout for educational opportunities.

As they grow, so does your own knowledge. We were facilitators rather than tutors and helped our children follow their skills, passions and dreams. We largely were led by them - so if they wanted to spend ten weeks on an electronics project we didn’t cut them off at three - though we did insist on Maths English and a language.

Now our oldest is homeschooling her boys. She is the same regarding her teaching though does buy into some “systems” that we never did. She, as we used to, meets with lots of other homeschooling families and they do lots of things as a group.

I am glad that home-education is not for everyone. On a selfish level it means that those who do choose it still have the benefits of empty museums and art galleries from 2.30pm, the option of children’s activities when the schools are busy, and the freedom to pick a route through learning on an individual-child basis using the skills of the whole community.

All of my five have more friends than I do, or ever have, some from when they were tiny. They were members of swimming, cricket, dancing, basketball, drama groups and some continued to play sports etc into adulthood. They have visited and hosted homeschoolers and other friends from all over Europe and beyond and two have moved from the UK to live elsewhere. They are all different, exactly as other children in a family are.

Educationally, they are a mixed bunch but all have either great or better than average GCSEs and Alevels. Now, two have their own companies. Four have degrees, two have postgraduate degrees. One works in medical research, two in computing and two the arts. All seem to be as happy and settled as the next person and, basically, “normal”. All, except the one with no degree, have a reasonable income - the one with no degree definitely is the most affluent. This one was my “party animal”.

So really, although I enjoyed our thousands of hours homeschooling I don’t think it’s right for everyone. We “fell into” it almost by accident and although we looked at schools and options pretty regularly, only one of the four thinks he would have “done better” at school - and yes, you guessed it, he is the one with his own company and the “best” income.

On the down side, homeschooling in our case meant one income (actually two part-time ones) for many years. It meant a too-small-really house that we rented rather than bought. It meant camping holidays rather than trips abroad and only old cars, and it meant lots of mending and hand-me-down clothes and growing our own veg. But what no one can take away is the abundance of time we had together. For that, I am truly grateful.

It wasn't a dismissal of the state system. It was a comment on schools which are not working. There ARE good state schools. And those that aren't good are that way mostly due to lack of funding.

Most state schools are good for high achievers. But for the 70%+ who aren't high achievers, they need more. And you can't get too much more out of a teacher who works 70 or more hours a week and has a classroom so full of students that they physically can't get to the back of the classroom to help those students.

I have seen some astoundingly good teachers. But if they're on their knees tired, they aren't going to perform their best.

As a measure of home schooling... My neice dropped out of school due to bullying. Her dad did maths with her, and I long distance tutored her (remote work and some online teaching). She got GCSE B's in English Lang and Lit and also in Maths. She was far from being a great student, but it was easy to tutor her outside of a classroom.

My experience of home schooled children was not positive. I accept some children do well but not the many I was involved with.

As Elliane said, school life provides much more than its educational component.

I find gaga’ s negative dismissal of the state system as one sided as my negative experience of home schooled children. I don’t claim that my experience ‘proves’ home schooling always fails and exposes children to negatives, just that was what I found. My experience of my own children and grandchildren in the state system was and is positive

Ellianne

^Silent work, which is when the class should be engaged in active learning.^
I think this is the big difference between primary and secondary. Silent work is probably the time when the younger children, certainly KS1, are learning the least!

True, Ellianne! In secondary though, individual work is where they apply whatever they have learned in the lesson.

Chardy, secondary, for some classes with every teacher they have. The same students go round the school, disrupting every lesson, until they are suspended. Even though some of them were over 10 years ago (some a year ago), I can STILL name the students. Not bad kids per se, but disadvantaged or undiagnosed/supported SEN (lack of money).

Yes, I have a grandson like your son and to be fair he has come on in leaps and bounds with his work at home. But he is desperate to get back to his teacher and his friends. It's all a balance.

Ellianne

^Silent work, which is when the class should be engaged in active learning.^
I think this is the big difference between primary and secondary. Silent work is probably the time when the younger children, certainly KS1, are learning the least!

That's why I would have loved to have been able to take my son out of primary school. He loved nothing more than to be on his own and just have time to think things through. He certainly did learn when he was allowed to work silently.

Silent work, which is when the class should be engaged in active learning.
I think this is the big difference between primary and secondary. Silent work is probably the time when the younger children, certainly KS1, are learning the least!

Sorry, I didn't expect you to name & shame, gagajo, I actually meant research, statistics, that sort of evidence.
You say you've seen it in 3 schools. Is that every teacher, every lesson?
Is this secondary, primary? Were you a teacher there, an inspector, an advisor? I've got no context.

A friend home-schooled both her children from the age of 5 to 16. They went to sixth form college and on to university (one to Oxford). I don't think either suffered from lack of socialising, as they belonged to all sorts of different clubs. The only GCSE they needed some help with was French.

It's a big commitment and it really does depend on the personal circumstances.

I wish I'd been able to home-school my son up to 11 because he really was very unhappy at primary school.

Exactly, Luckygirl. Overseas students take 4 or 5 good iGCSE's and still go on to do International Baccalaureate Diploma or A Levels. AND still get into Ivy League or Oxbridge.

Of course I am not going to publicly name and shame Chardy ?. But I have seen this first hand, in at least 3 schools.

Maths, Eng Lang, Eng Lit, Double Science (or 3 individual sciences), hist/geog/humanities, a foreign lang, a creative subject, a technology, some kind of ICT qualification is considered to give a balanced education, and preparation for A levels and university as appropriate. Plus PE & RE

Evidence gagajo please

A parent has neither the depth of subject knowledge nor the interest/passion in the subject to provide an education in 10 subjects. But why might they need 10 subjects? Collecting GCSEs like charms on a bracelet is neither necessary nor desirable.

Home-schooled children do have the opportunity to learn a variety of subjects at secondary level - they use written and online resources designed for home-schooling; and groups of parents get together and share their skills and knowledge with a group of children. One parent might be a music specialist, another have a physics degree, another be a skilled carpenter or a plumber, another an artist.

These parents and children are pursuing knowledge for its own sake, going off at tangents where the pupils' interests lead them, exploring what is out there to be learned. They (both adults and children) are not shackled by Gove's diktats - they are pursuing real education.

Chardy

gagajo I'm horrified that you think a 60min lesson means 20/25 minutes of active learning. I have taught tens of thousands of hours, and observed hundreds. Unless you're talking about a weak student teacher, what you've described is just not true.

No, I am talking about a standard lesson in an inner city school. It may not be what you have seen but unfortunately, it IS true. In some classes, there is barely any active learning.

My original question was how can anyone teach a secondary curriculum? A parent has neither the depth of subject knowledge nor the interest/passion in the subject to provide an education in 10 subjects. They don't have the experience in exam preparation in those subjects. They don't understand different styles of lessons in 1 subject, never mind 10.
Teaching isn't just transmitting information.
Obviously if the child is recuperating from hospital or some other temporary issue, an enthusiastic parent is great. But we're talking about 13 years from 5 to 18.

gagajo I'm horrified that you think a 60min lesson means 20/25 minutes of active learning. I have taught tens of thousands of hours, and observed hundreds. Unless you're talking about a weak student teacher, what you've described is just not true.

I am very pro home schooling when it is done properly, following an accredited curriculum.

The myth of home school children not being socialized is greatly exaggerated in a healthy home school environment.

adaunas, it seems some parents never change. In the 1960s, my mother asked the children she taught, to use books in the school library to fnd out certain things. One child's parents came rampaging in to say, that they were not paying fees for their child to have to find things out for himself. It was the teacher's job to give him the information he needed.

I don’t agree about the two hours in every school either Lucca. All the schools I’ve taught in, even in the middle of big cities, weren’t like that.
I do agree that behaviour has become an increasing barrier to learning though.
Home schooling? I did it for several children in lockdown 1 via Zoom or Teams when I wasn’t actually in school.
Apart from DGC I helped where a couple of parents said things like “I can’t get him to settle.” “She won’t do anything when I tell her!”
This second lockdown has been different- in school with EW and SEND children and at home preparing and delivering online lessons.
There’ll be a big difference for me and other teachers to cope with when children return. Some parents have been willing/able to do over and above what was provided with their children. Some have done their best with the limitations of working from home, other children and equipment problems. Some parents have flatly said that teaching is not their job so they’ve done little or nothing, even in one case complaining that we were not providing physical activities like PE or the daily run!
If parents were already homeschooling, their children won’t have missed out but I’ll be watching to see if the number of children withdrawn from school and home schooled goes up after Covid.

She is not looking forward to going back to her chaotic year 6 classroom which contains several disruptive boys.
Have her parents had a word with the teacher if they are concerned seamstress?
She will face even more trouble in this last part of year 6 when the disruptive lads have demob fever.

Think of an hours lesson with 35 students. Dependant on the class, obviously. But the average, middle ability class. Lining up outside. Waiting until they're quiet. 5 minutes? Getting them into a room, that really, is too small for them. Bags, coats etc off. Another 5 minutes. IF you're lucky. Starter activity while the teacher does the register, 5 mins if there are no distractions. Which there will be. Talking, bickering, Miss he did this, I never did etc etc. 5 mins.

Ideally, teacher explains the task without interruptions. Which rarely happens. Waiting for good behaviour, implementing the schools behaviour policy, warning the disrupters. 5 mins IF you are VERY lucky. Taking questions. 5 mins. Silent work, which is when the class should be engaged in active learning. Which isn't silent and at least half of them will be quietly or not so quietly doing other things. Which requires teacher intevention, because if the teacher doesn't intervene, they can escalate into louder disruptions. Obviously, allowing packing up time.

But altogether, probably no more than 20 / 25 minutes of active learning in there. Those in there that cause the problems are not the majority, but they prevent the majority from concentrating.

Of course, with a top set, focused class, yes, there will be 45 minutes of learning. But those idyllic classes are the minority.

This might be an unpopular viewpoint, but it is the reality of a state school classroom these days. And that isn't a bad class. Just a lively one.

AND on top off all that, try keeping masks on them!

I think someone said the curriculum could be covered in 2 hours a day. Maybe, but there is far more to learning. Especially where younger children are concerned. We spend time in the school day on plenty of other valuable tasks.
All very productive activities.
- learning how to dress and undress for PE
- learning how to eat with knives and forks
- learning how to sharpen pencils, tidy our trays
- learning how to use the library
- learning how to share and consider others
- learning how to play fairly in the playground
- learning to care for our school environment
The list goes on. Not everything should be measured by academic achievement and those who aren't cut out for the desk and chair should have other opportunities at which to excel.

I can’t agree with those who say children only have two productive hours per day. Surely not in every school?

Agree with whoever said it’s not a case of for or against. Some children are totally unsuited to the school environment for example

This idea that children are loosing out on so much learning by not being in school is OTT in my opinion. One of my Gds does not like her school and with 2 hours a day home schooling has improved phenomenally in her reading, handwriting and maths. She is not looking forward to going back to her chaotic year 6 classroom which contains several disruptive boys. Her parents are seriously considering keeping her at home for the rest of the school year.