I talked yesterday a little about the National Curriculum and how any structured home educator was liable to be viewed as following it slavishly. Another popular misconception about those of us who work systematically with our children towards certain educational ends is that we are doing 'school at home'. I have never really understood what 'school at home' means. It conjures up, for me at least, an image of me sitting on a raised dais at the back of our kitchen. In files my daughter and I say impatiently, 'Come on, come on, settle down now. Take your seat'. When she is seated at the kitchen table I take out the register and begin checking that my pupil is present. 'Webb?', I call out. She replies, 'Here Sir'. Now it's down to business. 'All right, come on, stop the noise. Open your book at page three hundred and ten'.
Is this the sort of thing, do you suppose, that those who talk about parents who do school at home have in mind? Probably not, but it is hard to understand what they do really mean. Is there any home educating parent in Britain who operates according to a strict timetable? Are there any who have rigid hours for their child's education, starting at nine and finishing at three or four, with weekends free? More to the point, do any parents, even the most structured, really follow a curriculum minutely and refuse to vary it at all? Are there parents who will not strike off in a completely new and unlooked for direction as a result of some random interest which their child has picked up? What does 'school at home' even mean? I think that it is worth trying to find out just what is meant by this expression, because some home educators draw a sharp distinction, an opposition even, between home education and home schooling. They seem to feel that what they are doing, home education, is almost the antithesis of home schooling and they get quite ratty if some newspaper refers to them as home schooling.
I am hoping that since a number of people who comment here seem to be pretty much against 'school at home', one of them will be able to explain to the rest of us what they mean by it.
Simon says... "Is there any home educating parent in Britain who operates according to a strict timetable? Are there any who have rigid hours for their child's education, starting at nine and finishing at three or four, with weekends free? More to the point, do any parents, even the most structured, really follow a curriculum minutely and refuse to vary it at all? Are there parents who will not strike off in a completely new and unlooked for direction as a result of some random interest which their child has picked up?"
ReplyDeleteI actually do know of one family. Only one. In our homeschool group of 16 families she is the oddity rather than the norm- the rest of us fall somewhere between structure and complete auonomy.
Simon Says ...
I am hoping that since a number of people who comment here seem to be pretty much against 'school at home', one of them will be able to explain to the rest of us what they mean by 'school at home'.
I cant really say what others mean by school-at-home but it has been applied to us on the basis that we do the following things.
- do actual subjects rather than cross-curricular work (though we do lapbooks and projects which are cross-curricular)
- Work at set times and days; usually mon, wed and thur 8.30 - 12pm. We dont always though, sometimes its more, or less, or longer. Plus there are clubs, groups etc
-Use workbooks and some curriculum. We use ACE, Sonlight, Singapore Math, Galore Park, Schofield and Sims plus loads of other ones.
- We make plans and aims. I have a rough idea what I want done within set periods of time, I make plans and organise activities.
These things seem to be what means school-at-home even though I personally dont feel that is what we do, or who we are.
Alan Thomas describes a family who rang a bell for the start of lessons. I certainly knew a family who had fixed lesson times in subjects and a test on the weeks work on a Friday. If they did well, then they had Friday afternoon off. I also know a family who wear school uniform for their lessons and change their clothes when "home school" is over. To me these things a re a bit school at home, but I agree there is a huge middle ground where people do some planned lessons.
ReplyDeleteI know a home educating family which refuses to vary from its curriculum, works for set hours every day and has time off at the end of its 'home school' and in its holidays where it refuses to do anything educational at all. They're happy to be thought of as doing 'school at home', and why not? It's their choice. My family does the complete opposite, but we're all good friends.
ReplyDeletePeople really get their kids to wear uniform? As I listen to my machine chugging away I can only think of all that needless laundry!
ReplyDeleteWebb says-I have never really understood what 'school at home' means.
ReplyDeleteit means doing home education like a school would siting at a table starting at 9.am finshing at 3 15 pm and studying the same subjects a school would study the only difference is those parents would do the school at home bit better more attention for the child!
just how crazy Badman wanted it done of course he want the register called as well LOL who here? me im here Mr Badman! today we going to do a flow chart! oh joy! i tick the boxes you do the flow chart! can we do a pie chart as well?
C wrote,
ReplyDelete"the rest of us fall somewhere between structure and complete auonomy."
I think this is accurate and agrees with research carried out by Mike FW. He found that 17% of home educators were completely child-led, 11% completely parent-led and 72% used both. Given that Mike is an autonomous educator it's likely that the results would be biased towards child-led if they are biased in any direction (if only because Mike would probably have more contact with AE biased forums). This also agrees with my experience of various HE groups. I think we, home educators, fit the usual normal distribution or bell curve.
He also found that nobody in his study followed the NC completely, 39% followed it partly and 61% not at all.
I see nothing wrong with people doing formal organised education at home. But having worked in schools I fail to see how 'school at home' can be achieved. I don't require my child to line up before entering the house, raise their hands before answering a question, ask permission to use the toilet, do morning assembly, have a star chart or do a yearly assessment and allocate them into aptitude bands.
ReplyDeleteI do however, have an overall idea of what we will cover for the year and buy resources to help us achieve that. I like to start at a set time and finish by a set time (on a good day 9 - 1) bad day (10+ to 2+) After this they can do what they like for the rest of the day, or we go out to the park or something. I like to keep track of what we have covered because I find I lose a sense of what has been achieved otherwise, and often we get immersed in something and get carried away and end up only covering that one thing for the day.
I think it's important to test my children once fortnightly, as it helps us see what has been retained and what has been forgotton. It is also in my opinion good exam preparation, which is where we are heading. I do expect my children to try hard: if I feel that they haven't I may not go to a group that day. But equally if something is too difficult for them we can drop everything, relax and come back to it all another time, and we go on plenty of trips.
So I guess I could be accused by those who don't live in my house of being a 'school at home' person, but I see no reason why home educators should use the word school in this derogatory context. Certainly there are problems with many schools, but equally some home educators have one or more of their children in school. This is very anti-school terminology and says more about those happy to bandy it around and apply to those who go about HE with a more organised approach than themselves than it those of those accused of doing it.
than it does.
ReplyDelete"So I guess I could be accused by those who don't live in my house of being a 'school at home' person, but I see no reason why home educators should use the word school in this derogatory context."
ReplyDeleteHow often is it used derogatorily? I've often seen it used descriptively to differentiate between informal education. I suppose if someone extolling the virtues of informal learning it will appear to be derogatory rather than just a different approach.
I've even known autonomous home educators who have used it (the school at home label) about themselves because that was what their child wanted. It involved set hours and a timetable of subjects. I think this is what people generally mean when talking about school at home, though I've even heard of an autonomously educated child choosing to have a school uniform! Don't think it lasted long so it was just as well they managed to buy it second hand.
Samantha is concerned about the possibility of 'only covering one thing' in a home school day. However, if the subject is exciting to the child, surely one of the advantages of being at home is that you can accommodate little whims and digressions if the need arises? As a formerly home educated child, I remember spending nearly a day on maths... or art. Also, our school fitted in with the weather - sunny days were holidays. Oh joy! What an incredible childhood.
ReplyDelete