Home education

September 13, 2007, 12:45 PM

Ive just watched a news report about a mother who teaches her 2 daughters at home. She said she would rather teach her children then hand them over to the state and she made some good points:

She said:

* They would not be bullied.
* She knows if they have attended school instead of bunking off.
* She knows they will both be helped, whilst some teachers may ignore them and not help.
* She knows they are eating their lunch.
* She knows the homework has been done.

Her children seem happy about the idea of not attending school with other children, however there are downsides:

* The children wont have a social atmosphere. They wont know what to deal with others in their enivorment.
* They miss out on making more friends and after school activities.
* When it comes to exams, how will they recieve GCSEs?
* They may not do as much work as other children cover in school.
* Some days the child may want to stay in bed and do no work.

What do you think? Should people be allowed to let their children have home education or would it be best they interact with children their own age and experince the "best days of their lives"?

September 13, 2007, 1:01 PM

I think it's perfectly fair to school children at home, if you have the time. There's no reason why they should have to go to school and learn, if they can receive the same (or close to) education at home.
I think home schoolers can apply to have GCSE examinations sent to their home, but there are strict restrictions in place on it. I'm not sure about that though.

September 13, 2007, 1:16 PM

You instantly assume that these kids have no social life/don't know how to interact with other kids just because they don't go to school.

It kinda helps, but being homeschooled doesn't mean that they dont know how to interact - you can make friends in clubs/church meetings/next door neighbours kids/anything not schooly that involves a lot of people.

Quote:

They may not do as much work as other children cover in school.

Proof? A friend of mine who attends my martial arts class has made lots of friends and he was homeschooled before recently starting college - he had made friends through other means, and is always a bright, cheerful, if sometimes a bit nutty lad. He even took some GCSE's early (not sure what he did take). I know my friend is just one example, but it's proof enough that homeschooled kids do not always suffer. If the tutor/parent teaches well, which I'm sure is this case these days, otherwise all homeschooled kids would turn out terrible, then there is no problem.

Quote:

* Some days the child may want to stay in bed and do no work.

...So? There are kids who do that who are at school - they end up twagging, and the ones who stay in class misbehave. So to use that as a downside for homeschooling is a tad unfair. If anything, kids homeschooled, have a far better chance of learning more, as they have one to one tuition with the parent/tutor. That child cannot escape work by staying in bed - if the parent is teaching them, and not going to work so they cant keep an eye on their child, they can make their child get out of bed and start their learning for that day.

September 13, 2007, 1:22 PM

Maybe you should watch the news report before almost jumping down my throat. Im only typing what occured on there. How can I give you proof they dont cover as much as schooled children? Asking for this is unfair. I dont know anyone in that boat, everyone I know was taught at school.

As for the child not doing the work, thats letting themselves and their parent down if they chose to stay in bed. Most children may take the piss with this and decide they dont want to do work that day and want to dosoemthing else instead.

Im not saying that teaching children at home was a bad thing, was merely asking what would be best for a child. Personally Id rather my children go to school and be with people their age instead of being stuck with me at home all day cause Im sure after time that may bore them. Plus Id also want to be working.

September 13, 2007, 1:29 PM

My apologies I guess. I read it as though they were your downsides after watching the report

September 13, 2007, 4:07 PM

I'm not really big on this, to be quite honest. I'm a bit more leniant if this becomes a last resort, but not a precaution. The given reasons just seem like some thought-out worries of a parent, which the authorities have justified.

I tend to see this as a way of stripping someone of their independance [although I DO accept that it can vary from person to person]. The child(ren) who has been homeschooled just wont have that extra bit of independance you can only learn from ... well, going to school. They wont have to get changed or get washed, or run for the school bus, or change from class to class, or GET any homework, or have equal oppurtunities [careers meetings and such like] and it just generally promotes a 'lazy' atmosphere, to be honest. There's also the fact that said parent needs to have some kind of equal teaching qualification for the standard of input/output to remain unchanged. What if said parent doesn't fully understand the work themselves? They're teaching waffle. Let's not forget that sitting exams will be a beast of a challenge.

Mummy wont be there to hold your hand all throughout life.

September 13, 2007, 7:18 PM

I was about to make a topic on this too. D:

Anyways, my stand on this thing is in opposition. The points you made ~SS~ are basically what I believe are the things wrong with this whole thing. I suppose that if parents really do believe that homeschooling children actually helps much more than it does with children actually going to school, then I would suppose that they don't plan on releasing their children to the real world --- how are they supposed to survive if mum or dad aren't there?

I agree completely with Riku's points. It limits independence and more than anything impairs the child's ability to make decisions for himself or herself. The social thing is really big too since every single career out there rely on it.

September 13, 2007, 7:25 PM

I think it's fine apart from the sociality the children are getting. Maybe they should take the kids to someone else who is home-schooled for a day or something.

September 13, 2007, 11:37 PM

In my friend's family, they're all home-schooled until high school, then they attend. He says that socially it wasn't bad and all his experiences weren't as different as compared to mine(a K-12 student). So home-schooling can have those downsides and upsides, but just as long as someone is succesful, that's all that matters.

Oh, and my friend that was home-schooled, graduated a 1/2 year early. Just something to think about.

September 14, 2007, 4:17 AM

Honestly, I think it depends on the child and the parent. I was homeschooled until 5th grade when my parents got divorced. When I went to school in 5th grade, I found that we were learning things that I had already learned way before. I didn't really have trouble adjusting and making friends. Even when I was homeschooled, I still had plenty of friends.

My half-sisters and brothers attended homeschool their entire lives. My youngest sister graduated when she was fifteen and she had no trouble with getting into college or anything like that. My younger brother, however, is another story. He is very lazy and never wants to attend school. But I doubt that can be blamed on homeschooling as there are plenty of people in public school just like that.

Like I said though, I think this depends a lot on the parent. If they let their children lay about and do what they want then of course they won't get a quality education. My mother and my step-mother were quite rigid. We had to get up and get dressed. We had homework. We had tests. We had exercise. We had required reading. School should be school no matter where it's taught.