Friday 22 April 2011

Supposed reasons which prevent people from educating their own children

In the last few days, people commenting here have put forward several possible ideas as to what might be stopping other parents from home educating. One of these was that very few people do it and that it involves going against the trend. Another is that some people might not be aware that home education is a legal option. Both seem pretty feeble explanations of anything!

When we embark upon a new enterprise, whether it is buying a car, doing electrical work around the home or arranging for our children's education; the onus is firmly upon us to establish the legal position. if I fail to insure my car and when caught, I claim that somebody in the pub told me that I didn't need insurance, this will not be a good excuse. It is up to us all, when starting a new enterprise to look into the matter and find out the facts and legal situation. From that point of view, arranging your child's education is no different from any other project. If we can't be bothered to check out the legal situation beforehand and simply take the word of friends and neighbours for what the law is relating to this, then we can hardly be surprised if we end up in a muddle and don't get to the facts.

That other people send their children to school, therefore some people feel that they too should send their children to school, is an even worse reason for not home educating! My neighbours go to the pub and also drink wine with their meals. This is very common; one might say everybody does it. I am a temperance man though; I do not drink alcohol. By the sort of reasoning that has been used to explain why parents go ahead and send their children to school without thinking about it, I suppose that I would be joining the man next door at the pub of an evening and drinking alcohol with him. After all, it's what everybody does. Remember at school when you tried to justify some foolish action by saying, 'Please sir, Smith did it first and I copied him?' Do you recollect what the teacher used to say? 'If Smith jumped out of the window, would you jump after him?' Precisely. If, as adults, we see our friends and neighbours engaged in a foolish or harmful activity, we really are not obliged to copy them. Somebody said here that most parents don't even think about possible alternatives to school; if true, this only compounds the felony, it is not a mitigation at all.

Quite apart from all this, I don't really believe for a moment that many parents in this country have not heard, even in a vague way, about home education. Almost everybody is aware of cases like Ruth Lawrence, even the popular papers carry bits about various child prodigies who have not been to school. It is generally known that some children do not go to school, but are instead educated by their parents at home. The real reasons that people do not choose to home educate have little to do with either peer pressure or ignorance. It is a lot of trouble and generally means remaining poor. Add to this the fact that most people would not wish to spend all day with their children and I don't think we need to cast around any further for an explanation of the popularity of schools and the fact that few people educate their own children. Occam's Razor triumphs again!

13 comments:

  1. I agree with you the onus is on us. I do believe there are people who haven't heard of home education, even if they are the few.

    The amount of times I hear, is it school holidays already? Are you allowed to do that? Do you need to be qualified? Tells me some are ignorant to the fact that home education is an option. Others ask how do you cope I need a break from the kids. These people make me think they are using the school system as a glorified childmindng service, I don't believe these parents are questioning what type of education their children are even recieving.

    Others who had on purposely chosen school,see school as big part of their childhood that shouldn't be missed due to the fun factor or feel that only a 'teacher' is able to educate their children properly.

    Anyway these are my views :)

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  2. 'Quite apart from all this, I don't really believe for a moment that many parents in this country have not heard, even in a vague way, about home education. Almost everybody is aware of cases like Ruth Lawrence, even the popular papers carry bits about various child prodigies who have not been to school.'

    But isn't that the point. If parents have heard of home education at all, in what context have they usually heard it described? Is it not within the context of the highly educated ex professor of maths, chemistry etc, who intensely hot houses their very precocious son or daughter, who usually in such cases becomes a university graduate or world chess champion at a very early age? These sort of examples of home education along with the tales of the unhappy outcomes of the children involved, do not in my opinion, serve to actually inspire people to think of home education at all. If anything, it is more likely to reinforce the idea for many that they do not have the necessary skills to teach a child at home and should send their child to a school to be taught by a trained professional.

    Overall I think you are wrong in your assumptions that many parents have heard of HE. I get asked too many times about what we do and whether or not it is legal for me to believe that home education has entered mainstream conciousnes in anything approaching the level the school option has.

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  3. Anonymous said...

    "When we embark upon a new enterprise, whether it is buying a car, doing electrical work around the home or arranging for our children's education; the onus is firmly upon us to establish the legal position."

    If you go and look for information on local or national government web sites though, you should be able to trust that it's an accurate representation of the law. It was easy enough to tell that wearing a horse riding helmet is only a legal requirement for children under 14, for instance. Many web sites made this obvious despite your apparent lack of knowledge (much like many people and their knowledge of HE).

    I recently needed to know if employers liability insurance is a legal requirement or just recommended. Public liability is not a legal requirement so it seemed reasonable that employers liability may not be a legal requirement. I knew already that we didn't need this insurance if we employed family members. Again, this was very easy to find on government web sites. The wording made it very clear which insurances were recommended and which were required. This is often not the case with information about HE.

    "The real reasons that people do not choose to home educate have little to do with either peer pressure or ignorance. It is a lot of trouble and generally means remaining poor. Add to this the fact that most people would not wish to spend all day with their children and I don't think we need to cast around any further for an explanation of the popularity of schools and the fact that few people educate their own children."

    Or they see benefits for their children in attending school? Or their children choose to go to school? Or they think home educators are middle class/hippies/extremists/hot housers and don't identify with these groups or want their children to have them as their main source of socialisation?

    Why so negative about people who make different choices to you? Do you not think it's possible for a parent to love and care deeply for their children, love spending time with them, and still think school is a better option than HE?

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  4. " Anonymous said...

    "When we embark upon a new enterprise, whether it is buying a car, doing electrical work around the home or arranging for our children's education; the onus is firmly upon us to establish the legal position.""

    Sorry, that should have been, Simon said..., not Anonymous said... I copied and pasted this from a previous attempt that Blogger chose to delete for some unknown reason. Strangely Blogger now sees fit to allow the same comment!

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  5. "Add to this the fact that most people would not wish to spend all day with their children and I don't think we need to cast around any further for an explanation of the popularity of schools and the fact that few people educate their own children. Occam's Razor triumphs again!"

    Only if the 'simplest' explanation involves thinking the worst of anyone who happens to make different choices to you.

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  6. "Add to this the fact that most people would not wish to spend all day with their children"

    I think the truth of this is pretty much indisputable, and I've found that people are shockingly open in admitting as much. The usual reaction to discovering I'm a home educator is something along the lines of, 'I could never do that' or, 'Doesn't it drive you mad, being with the kids all day?'

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  7. "The usual reaction to discovering I'm a home educator is something along the lines of, 'I could never do that' or, 'Doesn't it drive you mad, being with the kids all day?'"

    I've had the, 'I could never do that', type of reaction a few times. What they usually mean after further discussion is that they couldn't do school at home - i.e. they couldn't see themselves teaching school subjects for 5+ hours a day and cover age appropriate school type curricula with several children. They have usually had a vision of hot housed children with intensive one-to-one teaching. I've only had one person say that they wouldn't want to spend that much time with their kids in 17 years of HE.

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  8. "Overall I think you are wrong in your assumptions that many parents have heard of HE. I get asked too many times about what we do and whether or not it is legal for me to believe that home education has entered mainstream conciousnes in anything approaching the level the school option has."

    I have never got that at all. When people ask if it is a school holiday, and I say no, I home educate, they say something along the lines of oh, of course, sorry, I didn't realise. I have never had a really negative reaction. Everyone has taken it as a very matter of fact state of affairs.


    Maybe it depends on where you live, but around my area I have never got to do the whole speech about how HE is legal etc, because everyone already seems to know about it. Maybe it is because we often have articles in both the local and regional paid for newspapers.

    SEN mum 1

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  9. "I've only had one person say that they wouldn't want to spend that much time with their kids in 17 years of HE."

    You must hang out with nicer parents than me, because it's by far the most common reaction I get! Over the school Easter holidays alone, I've had four mothers tell me they don't know how I do it because just two weeks with their kids is driving them mad. It's not that they don't know how they'd do the 'education' bit - they just don't enjoy spending all day with their kids. (And the weather's been beautiful, and there's five parks and four libraries within walking distance of my house...)

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  10. "Over the school Easter holidays alone, I've had four mothers tell me they don't know how I do it because just two weeks with their kids is driving them mad."

    Did you tell them that it's different when you HE? Kids behave very differently in school holidays compared to the same kids who are 'free' of school all the time and haven't just been released for a limited time.

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  11. Yes, I think that's true, and if I think someone is genuinely interested then I do say something like that. And I think that what makes a lot of people think they couldn't cope with HE or don't want to HE (which are two sides of the same coin) is that they find coping with their kids before/after school and in the holidays so difficult. They're so out of touch with them, and at loggerheads so much of the time, that they can't imagine how much fun HE can be. (Then they get defensive when they meet home educators because they think we like our kids more than they like theirs and feel judged.)

    But then, where I live, it's the done thing, even if only one parent is working, to send your child to part-time private nursery from about two so that you can get on with the housework or have some time to yourself. The receieved wisdom is that not to do so is just being a bit of a martyr or over-protective and will eventually cause you to 'burn out'. I'm not sure these parents have the same excuse as the parents of schoolkids - they just don't want to be with their kids!

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  12. or even 'received' wisdom

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