rae

meh. was a bit jokey and lighthearted for a bit, then someone came on throwing her weight about all serious like.

move it to TIO if it worries you iain, though i would say mostly its been in good part and reasonably discussed.

Butch Cassidy

Just to maybe change direction a little (and in my opinion this not an argument for or against Home Schooling)..................

The Mennonites in Alberta will often employ 'English' as teachers in their schools. The reasoning (supposedly) being that although the curriculum is ULTIMATELY approved by the elders the children are exposed
a) to English speakers
b) outsiders with whom they can freely interact.

Alan2005

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8310/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/107)

This thread has been interesting. I have this view of home educators based on my own prejadices and assumptions (that they are middle class arty types who think they are unconventional but are actually the same as everyone else like them). This thread has not challenged this it has reinforced it. Way to go stereotypes!

ExKiwilass

I think it's a version of competitive parenting, in a way. Ultimately the idea is that your kids are better off/more likely to succeed than those poor, brainwashed idiots in the public schooling system who are being bullied, ignored, dumbed down, abused by their teachers etc in overcrowded classrooms of 56 kids with guns and knives.

I spend a bit of time on a crunchy parenting board and that seems to be the main theme, at least here in north america, though it also seems like some homeschoolers are reacting more to memories of schools in the '70s and '80s than schools now.

Oink

That's sort of what the research shows. The growing demographic trend is more likely to be middle income, white, from larger families, and from two-parent families with one parent not working. And, while not a unified agenda, ideologically they tend to lean towards more conservative nature. These are parents, (with little to no real data or analysis to support their claims) who believe in some form, that the public system is failing, that standards are falling, that there is overall learning environment is poor and more specifically, their children weren't being challenged at school. I don't doubt that for some, the motivation is to try and gain a competitive advantage over other children, it's just that its not something people readily admit to on questionnaires.

acer rose

In most of the developed world, family income is not a barrier to getting a primary and secondary education. I'd have thought that parents who can afford to have one stay at home are largely self selected to not be at the lower end of the income scale <delicately trying to avoid the use of the dreaded "a" word>. There may be exceptions of people who live in remote areas and can't even afford to get their kids to school but I've rarely heard cost quoted as a reason for home-schooling/unschooling.

As a product of the state school system in a less affluent part of Britain I did OK. Many of the people I was at school with were anti-role models but that worked too. You have to be able to get along with people in the real world.

If people are travelling the world for a year or so I think "home"-schooling along with the experiencing of new cultures and places is a great idea, otherwise why not leave it to the professional but get involved in the school through parent committees and the like?

Oink

Income level or cost is not a major motivation, its just we see the increase in home schooling coming from middle income families rather than the more traditional demographic that is rural, religious and lower income.

Novocastrian

Do you have links to the statistics on home-schooling which might inform this discussion (which I am actually finding to be interesting)?

acer rose

Yeah but take out the special reason folk (religion, special needs kids) surely you have to be reasonably well off to even consider it? Among the people I know (mostly professionals) none can afford to have one parent stay at home full time, much as they would like to. Even moving somewhere cheaper wouldn't help if the one income could not be maintained to do so. Unless they home-school in the evenings and have access to free childcare during the day it is not going to work even if they wanted to.

Oink

Because it's such a small percentage there hasn't been that much consistent analyses but rather an ad hoc approach. I suspect if the trend in the US increases there will be more focused research. And, it is an interesting subject.

Hope this article is of help.

Home Schooling in the United States

Novocastrian

Thanks. I've just given that a speed read so far but it is informative.

However, I'm off to the pub to meet some mates, so it'll have to wait.

<The mates are not cradlers. >

lcar

I can see reasons both for and against home education.
Before you ask, all four of my children go to school, 3 to the local mildly church in wales primary, and one to a local private school which she can only go to as she got a scholarship (and free schooling).
But, I did home school one of my children for about a term, when he was fading fast, and needing extra tuition in reading and maths, in a very large class of disruptive boys. After a term at home, he rejoined his class mates near the head of the class. And no, I'm not a teacher.
When you think about it, a class of 25 to 30 children all the same age is not very natural.
In families, there are rarely more than one or two children of the same age. In an average family, younger children would learn from their older siblings, and the older siblings would learn to care for the younger ones - a spirit of give and take.
As long as a school encourages the same spirit of give and take - older pupils having some kind of caring relationship with the younger ones - schools can work very well. Where the school environment turns a blind eye to bullying, and the 'big kids' look down on the 'little kids', I don't think it works at all.
I think it's the same in families.
Sometimes, one or other child needs a bit of extra attention. If they aren't getting that attention at school, maybe they need to be home schooled, at least for a while.

Alan2005

This is a recent phenomanon (the two parents working thing).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A

(long but interesting)

Partially discharged

I would have thought that goes w/o saying.

scrubbedexpat074

What a thread, wish I had time to check in more often these day...

I'm a teacher, we left the UK 4 years ago, my daughter was 4 and my son was 1, she is now in grade 3 French Immersion, he is in grade primary French Immersion. (atheist if anyone's interested, but not that worried about what spirituality my children choose). I sit on the School Advisory Council for my children's school. I think I have a reasonably balanced view on what they are getting at school and whether it's the best option for them...

In the last couple of months or so I've started to consider private schools and more recently still home schooling at some point in the future for several reasons...

It now seems to be unacceptable to celebrate academic achievement or (the dreaded concept of) "winning" in any way. The greatest compliment my children come home with is a 'Gotcha' award where they have been 'caught showing respect' - frankly I don't give a sh*t about them being 'caught showing respect', I want to know when they are caught NOT showing respect so that I can do something about it. They often tell me that winning is not important as long as you have fun, well that's going to take them a long way in a life which gets harder by the year. My daughter's primary teacher, who I consider to be the best teacher I have ever encountered both through results and volunteering in class when we first arrived, describes the current doctrine as "Celebrating mediocrity" and suggested that my kids would be best served by leaving the state system... Through the Student Advisory Council I learned recently that the Department of Education here is considering reducing the required learning outcomes AGAIN to make them more achievable. Combined, these factors tell me that state schools will not give my children the best opportunities of a successful life.

So the other options are home or private - I have a family full of strong willed (but loving!) characters and have in short time concluded that home schooling would result in a rapid meltdown and is not for us, not to mention the lack of socialization mentioned throughout the thread. I think to call it competitive parenting is a little fatuous though, we all have an obligation and (thankfully still) a right to do what we believe is best for our children.

Anyhow for me, it's a personal choice which works well for some; right now it looks like they will be going private sometime between grade 4 and 6.

My $0.02. FWIW.

I'll get my flamesuit.