Comments (2)

By Little Mummy, April 24, 2007 12:02 am

I’ve been fascinated and curious about homeschooling for a while, how it works, and why some parents choose to abandon the state system altogether.

A blog I found just today and am currently delving into provided me with a link to this article from the Guardian.

School’s out, for ever

For all the pitfalls and complaints we have about the education system the crux of the problem can be found in the following two qoutes;

She added that, “Common to all families involved was their flexible approach to education … Children benefited from the freedom to develop their skills at their own speed.”

“The choice of subjects they cover may be dictated by, well, anything. A key principle seems to be that the boys learn from what life presents to them rather than their lives being organised around a pre-determined programme.”

The teachers we have are (for the most) great, the problem is that class numbers and lack of resources prevent the somewhat tailored, child-led learning that I seem to be championing so often here. More money equals more teachers, smaller class sizes and better resources. My recent meeting with a teacher really opened my eyes to the challenges faced with managing the entire education of over 20 children. Smaller classes could easily facilitate a more open curricular with learning that could be led as a group, although the group would all need to be at a similar standard for it to work at it’s best.

I guess it comes down to money because some parents are already buying this kind of education, for the rest of us we must either make do or do it ourselves.

Food for thought on a Monday morning. What are you thinking?

Comments (5)

By Little Mummy, July 2, 2006 11:29 am

Following on from some observations in Part 5 of the Authentic Living series ‘Authentic Education‘ I would like to have a look at the alternative to conventional education. I have been doing quite a bit of research into homeschooling recently and hope to invite some guest articles on the subject very shortly.

Homeschooling in the UK currently keeps a very low profile, much of this is due to concerns over authorities interfering (my previous article mummy state covered this).

It is legal to homeschool.

They just don’t broadcast it. Why? I can only assume they are worried about losing their control? The government like to have a hand in education so that they can influence cultures, beliefs and behaviours. Just like they have a hand in everythingelse especially when it has to do with our children. No doubt you have heard about the new ‘big brother’ style database also dubbed the ‘5 a Day Database’ they are developing. A database that will cost millions and that will hold vast amounts of data on our children which supposedly includes whether they are getting the mandatory 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

So could homeschooling be a viable alternative to conventional schooling?

The drawbacks would obviously be the money aspect and time factors. Some may also add here that they are not ‘qualified’ to be a teacher. Well for a start studies on homeschooling have shown that the level of competence of homeschooled children not only beats the school average but that there was no difference in that level whether you are qualified or not.

Consider for a moment that some of the teachers at school have gone from school, to university to teacher training college, and then straight into teaching. Some of these ‘teachers’ are still shy of their 24th birthday. They have spent 16 or so years in education being taught to teach. What are they teaching, words from a textbook? if not then when and where did they gain the knowledge, expertise and most importantly life experience to teach, talk and set an example to our children. I am not blaming them, many of them are very intelligent, and very passionate about teaching but surely they should have been asked to go away, get a job (other than teaching), live a little and then become a teacher, when they can be the well-rounded and life hardy individuals that could go on to teach the kids a little something about life, work, relationships and the dynamics of living and not just the words from a textbook.

The positives include being able to offer your children more variety in what they learn, going on more field trips, and not being stifled by an overly rigid structure. There will be many more that I have not thought of due to my lack of homeschooling experience (yet?).