Homeschooling - Thoughts as a parent or child with experience?

Look, it's really simple:

If you have a typically developing child, and you are reasonably clued up parents who are sensitive to both the educational and 'wider' needs of a young person, you can probably have a decent crack at home education - though it's by no means a certainty that it will be 'better' than a school.

If you have a child with a learning difficulty, schools have better resources, more established protocols and -often- more expertise to support these difficulties through evidence based intervention. In these cases, education at home is likely to be detrimental.

It is ultimately a parental choice - do as you please - but ensure that you are aware that schools don't just provide academic learning...for what it is worth, I am mostly positive in my experiences with different educational settings (obviously there is a spectrum) and, where I'm not happy, I inform the schools and we set about developing practice. Schools don't want to fail children, and are often more than willing to do what is necessary.
 
When a pupil fresh from 6th form goes up to university and the lecturers have to unschool them, that is when you know there is a problem. The transition should not be that difficult.
 
If my choices were british government school and home schooling my child (if i had one) and i was in the position where i could home school, then i would definitely home school.

I've watched a fair amount of lectures on people who home school and there is this movement called unschooling i think its called, which is essentially turning the traditional schooling system on its head.

Another lecture i watched the guy was going on about how most of the stuff they teach in schools are not actually relevant for the person to get by in life. For example geography, why do we teach children about the details of geography or biology if they are not going to go in to that field? forcing a child to memorise all the labels to the cell for example is pointless because its not used in life unless you go in to that field and then if someone wants to know about that they can look it up when they get older.

It would be much better to focus on written language, maths and more practical studies and life challenges than forcing children to memorise rubbish that they will never use.

As for social aspect, unless you live in a nice area they are not going to benefit socially from the other children at school, any more than they would if they were to attend groups or sports clubs and similar. Plus there is many arguments against the structure of the school system and how it does not promote learning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling
 
Last edited:
anything I don't mind said:
why do we teach children about the details of geography or biology if they are not going to go in to that field?
Click to expand...

It's true that some of the details, formulae etc. rarely have a use later in life but it's important, no, crucial for everyone to know some geography and biology.

If there are issues such as being unable to pin point Iran on world map without labels or not knowing that all the species on this planet evolved from a common microscopic ancestor, one probably lacks the general knowledge needed to contribute in civil society, they cannot ascertain the significance of an event nor can they form an opinion based on commonly accepted norms and facts.

Ignorance is much more destructive than spending a few dozen hours per year learning some facts about geography or biology.
 
anything I don't mind said:
As for social aspect, unless you live in a nice area they are not going to benefit socially from the other children at school, any more than they would if they were to attend groups or sports clubs and similar.
Click to expand...

To add to what Zethor just said, it's also important to come into contact with people from a range of backgrounds. Limiting your child's experiences to only meeting people from a 'nice area' isn't beneficial to their development.
 
Interestingly people coming out of these homes that have practised unschooling tend to be more knowledgeable and have better life skills and more ambition. Of course it depends a lot on the parents and to be frank most parents are not suitable to be parents let a lone educating them.

Its obviously a big difference and a lot people can not handle the idea of childern not being in school because they are just used to that system and don't know any different.

These days with the amount of information available, if you teach your children from a young age to have a passion for knowledge then half the battle is done, they will seek out the information and enjoy learning it. Its when they sit in a class with people who make fun of them when they don't understand that you can realy notice how effective unschooling can be.

Unschooled schildren start working at a very young, the earlier the better as a lot of the most successful people say that you learn more from a job than they ever did at school that helped them to get ahead in life.
 
Irish_Tom said:
To add to what Zethor just said, it's also important to come into contact with people from a range of backgrounds. Limiting your child's experiences to only meeting people from a 'nice area' isn't beneficial to their development.
Click to expand...

There are many ways for children to socialise without going to school and even at school its not the best place to socialise anyway. You don't have to go to the extreme and lock them up in a room and shield them from dangers in the world, but at the same time you don't have to force them in to the same room with children who may lead them down a path of drug abuse and gangs etc.

If you are interested to it ill try hunt out some videos/lectures on the topic, if nothing else its an interesting idea and i am all for changing the current education system.
 
If unschooled children want to go to a university they usually will have to complete examinations. But if they do not want to go to university then there is no need to do that, whether teh state will come and force children in the uk i am not sure. I know in germany they will take the children away from their parents and force them in to state schools. While in the US they are much more flexible on unschooling. I am not sure on the british laws surrounding unschooling but i can imagine its not like the Us, its probably more like the germany. Especially as uk school system was based on the nazi party schooling system of the 1920s. It was designed to make better factory workers and that is why a lot of the current school system has a lot in common with industrial factories from the 1920s.

At the moment there are some families fleeing to the us from germany because they want to home school.
 
lol
Grammar nazis do make me laugh when they use the lack of it as some sort of benchmark of intelligence :rolleyes:

Some of the greatest minds to have ever walk this planet had shocking grammar!!

Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
Nikola Tesla
Michael Faraday
James Clerk Maxwell
Pierre Curie
Willem Johan Kolff
Alexander Faludy
 
C.R.A.Z.Y said:
lol
Grammar nazis do make me laugh when they use the lack of it as some sort of benchmark of intelligence :rolleyes:

Some of the greatest minds to have ever walk this planet had shocking grammar!!

Albert Einstein
Alexander Graham Bell
Nikola Tesla
Michael Faraday
James Clerk Maxwell
Pierre Curie
Willem Johan Kolff
Alexander Faludy
Click to expand...

Where have claims been made in this thread regarding intelligence and the correct use of grammar?
 
anything I don't mind said:
For example geography, why do we teach children about the details of geography or biology if they are not going to go in to that field? forcing a child to memorise all the labels to the cell for example is pointless because its not used in life unless you go in to that field and then if someone wants to know about that they can look it up when they get older.
Click to expand...

Without a basic introduction to all these fields how do you expect people to choose a field to go into?

You can't just ignore all these subjects and then say 'well if they want to be a biologist they can learn biology when they get older' because virtually no children would ever develop an interest in it without the initial exposure.

I think the broad range of education topics we expose children are beneficial to being well rounded people when we get older who have been able to make sound rational choices on what they want to do with their lives based on what they've experienced in education.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Schools may have an outstanding OFSTED report due to bringing many lower ability children up to standard, but that doesn't help a parent with a high achieving child.
Click to expand...

Have a look at the detailed stats for a school and you can see the value added score for various parts of their cohort, including Gifted & Talented.

Ofsted is only part of the information freely available. Of course the very information parents crave is also one of the problems with our education system. Parents want league tables and yet don't want teachers to teach to the test...

My worry with home schooling would be a lack of understanding of good teaching practice, AFL strategies, exam technique, controlled assessment requirements, etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom