You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Why I’m quitting teaching part 11/11: Five ways in which mainstream education doesn't 'fit' society
Thanks for the very detailed comment, excellent questions, I'll reply fully later today, just wanted to briefly say thanks for now, I do appreciate dialogue!
I will quickly say this, the secondary enrollment stats suggest the US has 'third world' levels of school enrollment, I assume that's due to some states allowing parents the freedom to 'home educate' their kids - I know states vs Fed is a big issue with many millions of Americans, so it sounds like quite a lot of US citizens are already voting with their feet. In the UK practically every child (99%) attends a state school (or at least 99% of the 93% who aren't privately educated).
Great comment, will reply in more depth later,
Karl.
Sounds like the numbers are now up around 27,000 students being home-educated in England. (I didn't see what numbers might be in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.) I don't know what percentage that makes without further research. It also sounded like the numbers have doubled in recent years.
I home educated off and on while I lived in the UK.
My eldest wasn't ready at the age of (barely) 4 - August birthday.
Second wasn't ready at 4 1/2...
And thus it continued.
After my divorce, I did put them into school, but pulled them out again after our local catchment school failed an OFSTED and then a couple weeks later got flying colors from the C of E version - so, that was okay then, they didn't need to fix anything...
I dislike the GCSE system, as a huge pressure to get one test perfect - as the be-all-and-end-all about whether they did okay in school or not.
I'm glad that home education has picked up steam so much. (I started home educating in about 2000 for my eldest and was doing it off and on until I left the UK in 2013.) But I'm concerned about the constant attempts by the government to rein in all the rebels. I think they need to concentrate on fixing the state schools first.
Right now, I'm still home educating my youngest children, one of whom is not academically gifted. Her gifts are elsewhere - arts, computing, things like that. Not to mention that her personal schedule is incompatible with the "system."
Thanks for the stats. Oddly enough I remember being on an updating A level sociology course about 12 years ago and I met someone who was just starting her PhD on home education, I remember at the time thinking that was clever as there was a research gap in a growth market, checking up on her research is something I must get around to doing.
I know exactly what you mean about 'their schedule'... we're doing revision ATM, and I can totally understand it if a student wants to revise in their own way and totally ignore me. In fact, I let many of them do just that. Problem is, if I got caught doing that... why I've gtg!
I do wonder how the government get their teeth into the home educators....
I wish I could afford to do an online degree - problem is, I have too many interests and I can't stick to any one focus for long enough to get there! Had I gone that route, I'd probably have 3 or 4 totally unrelated degrees right now and still not know what I really want to do when I grow up!
Heck, I've even had research projects in mind that I would have loved to do! The thing that would have made the biggest difference to me as a student... had someone sat down with me, not give me a stupid aptitude test - I have too many aptitudes! - but help me work out a career path that would encompass 2/3 of my strong interests - and help me find that one career that I've still never heard of, but would have suited me better than anything else... like finding the passion, but better.
I once sat with a solicitor in Wiltshire who told me that he'd hire a home-educated person any day! His reasoning was that he wouldn't have to worry about what the person would be doing. Home schoolers are self-starters! I've taken that one to heart and carry it with me whenever I feel that I'm not "doing enough" - which is a common problem.
One of my sons is another that can't do the regular schedule. He would work best if I let him stay up past midnight and wake up near noon... As long as I worked with his schedule, he was a positive person and a real asset around the house. If you forced him to the normal accepted school schedule, he would be grumpy and confrontational... my most difficult child in some ways!
He's also the one who did the autonomous learning thing best...
When I first took him out of school, it took some time, but then he started reading... and reading... and reading... read through everything we had, pretty much. All of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings... and kept going! Then he started writing - and wrote about 100 pages! Another time, he decided to learn Algebra. He literally picked up a GCSE-level textbook and just plowed through it!
This child has recently been accepted at Bristol, to study law!
Yeah, the government in home education is a hot potato in England, especially - since that one seems to be done separately in Wales and Scotland, at least.
See, the LEAs like to do these annual home visits for home educated students. Part of the excuse seems to be child welfare related, especially in the aftermath of the whole Baby P thing. Yet, it's become just that - an excuse - and the people are now fed up with it and saying "no"- they're not legally entitled. Of course, the response is - "well, we'll just make it legal" (to poorly quote Darth Sidious.)
In the US, even the most difficult states to home school do not require a home visit!
Anyway, must go and get my students back on task. :-)
I know what you mean about the degrees - personally these days I prefer to look at specific topics in depth and just apply knowledge to them.
Interesting what you say about employers..... for a similar reason I'd be reluctant to employ privately educated kids - you don't know if they're intelligent or just hot-housed!
Yes - child safety as an excuse, it's all bullshit of course, we've no idea how much abuse there is or has been, so you can't tell whether it's increasing or decreasing.
Glad your kid got into Bristol, good university that, good alternative town for him as well.
Will come back and upvote the comment once my VP's recharged!
That sounds scandalous, and I had no idea there was a rural-urban divide in Oregon. Is that all those 'socialists' in Portland?