Monday 30 May 2011

'It’s academically nearly impossible for one person to teach all that is included in a modern high school curriculum'


The above quotation comes from the Director of the Catholic Education Foundation, but is not of course an exclusively Catholic view of home education. Among many teachers and other education professionals, I would say that it is the standard model. How can a parent hope to teach every subject, from physics to history, mathematics to chemistry, English literature to music? The fact is of course that many parents do exactly that. We certainly managed it here without any great problems. Today I want to look a little at the whole business of secondary home education. I am not going to discuss whether a parent should teach in this way. I am aware that many parents think it wrong to decide in advance what their children should learn and so this piece will be irrelevant to them.


As I dare say readers know, my own daughter passed eight IGCSEs at A*. She also passed Grade 5 classical guitar and Grade 6 acting with LAMDA. I alone taught her these things. Now three possibilities occur to one here. The first is that my daughter is some kind of brainbox who can achieve wonderful things purely because she is so clever. The second possibility is that I am a Renaissance Man; a fantastically knowledgeable polymath with an amazing flair for teaching. The third possibility is that anybody can teach their teenage child to a very high academic level and that all it really takes is a lot of research and an enormous amount of hard work on the part of both parent and child. I will not leave readers in suspense any long; the third explanation is the correct one.


Teachers, like garage mechanics, plumbers, builders and the members of practically every other trade, wish to make it appear that what they are doing is very difficult and can only be undertaken by highly trained professionals. Obviously they have to do this. Where would mechanics be if we all started learning about engines and fixing our own cars? A lot of what teachers do is related purely to schools. The supervision and control of thirty children, the administrative paperwork, all the up-to-date jargon, the National Curriculum; none of this has the least relevance to a parent teaching one or two children at home. For this, all that is needed is to download the subject specification and find out what knowledge and skills are needed to pass that particular GCSE. If the topic is history, you don't actually need to be an historian, or indeed have any prior knowledge of any of the historical periods that the child will need to know about. When my daughter was choosing her options for history, she wanted to do Imperial Russia 1855-1917. My heart sank; this was not a time or place about which I knew much. However, a few books from the library and charity shops and hey presto; we were on our way. It was the same with other subjects. Even teaching the guitar requires no previous knowledge of the instrument. I literally cannot play one note on the guitar, but it did not prove a handicap in teaching the thing.
Many parents underestimate their own abilities. They have been subtly brainwashed over the decade by the notion that professionals know best. Teachers often manage to convey the idea that they know all about the subject that they are teaching, but this is seldom the case. If they are teaching about the First World War, then before each lesson, they swot up on what they will be telling the kids, make photo-copies, track down a useful video; all the stuff that any reasonably intelligent parent could do.


What is needed to teach a child at secondary level is the realisation that this will be a full time job. The key to academic success, as measured by GCSEs and A levels, is a lot of time spent studying. Unles your child is some sort of genius, then the more hard work undertaken, the better the results. The parent must study even harder than the child. In order to get the ideas across, the parent must read all about them before the lesson and thoroughly absorb what it is wished to teach the child . You don't need to know this stuff beforehand and you can forget it later, but during the lessons themselves, you must be prepared for any questions and if you can't answer at once, you need to be able to point out the book which does contain the information.


The standard government benchmark of a 'good' education is five GCSEs including mathematics and English at Grade C or above. This is such a pathetically low expectation that one is gripped by despair. That half the children in this country fail even to attain this hideously low standard is an indictment of the educational system in this country. I cannot imagine why 99% of parents continue to be satisfied with this dreadful situation. The remedy is really in their own hands.

16 comments:

  1. Simon said; "Teachers, like garage mechanics, plumbers, builders and the members of practically every other trade, wish to make it appear that what they are doing is very difficult and can only be undertaken by highly trained professionals."

    Just wanted to point out that a parent who spends a lot of time studying and teaches their child successfully *is* in effect a trained professional, though they might lack some of the skills needed by teachers and the accreditation one would expect to see before they were let loose on other people's children.

    The only reason trades and professions function as trades and professions is because they carry out tasks which most people don't have the time or ability to do for themselves.

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  2. "Just wanted to point out that a parent who spends a lot of time studying and teaches their child successfully *is* in effect a trained professional, though they might lack some of the skills needed by teachers and the accreditation one would expect to see before they were let loose on other people's children."

    How well could they transfer the skills to teaching children other than their own? It's a genuine question because I don't know the answer. I ask it because I have noticed how much easier it is to discuss many things with my own children compared to other people's children - simply because I know my own kids well. I can say,
    "you know, like in Roman Mysteries..." or "like Pagham Harbour" or whatever. Having lots of shared experiences is a real asset.

    On the whole I think you're certainly right. Someone in my extended family got into teaching back in the 70s (without a teaching qualification, she was a qualified social worker) and went on to teach very successfully for more than 20 years. These days that couldn't happen because everyone has to get a teaching qualification.

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  3. 'How well could they transfer the skills to teaching children other than their own?'

    Very interesting point. Most of us can tolerate irritating behaviour and awkwardness in our own children far easier than we can with other kids. I cannot imagine that I would have been as patient and thorough with somebody else's child as I was when teaching my own. Besides, I actually care what becomes of my own child. When I have been involved with other people's kids, I do my best, but it does not really matter to me in the long run if they do well.

    Simon.

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  4. "When I have been involved with other people's kids, I do my best, but it does not really matter to me in the long run if they do well."

    Well, the family member I mentioned is one of those people who is very patient and also cares a great deal about how others do in life. That's why she initially trained as a social worker. She always felt that her training in that was extremely valuable in teaching. Thinking back to some teachers I have known I suspect that caring about people is at least as valuable as knowing your subject well. I think we can all remember teachers who knew their field but were so cold and dismissive that it didn't count for much.

    For myself, I couldn't bear to spend all my working time trying to motivate other people into doing things they hadn't chosen to do. It would drive me mad. I much prefer being there to help when asked - both in my job and my home life.

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  5. "I will not leave readers in suspense any long;" from the halfwit that dares to criticise other people writing.

    Proof reading old man, even waffle demands proof reading!

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  6. I've been reading your blog for a couple of months now but never commented before. I started reading it because everyone on the main HE lists said we weren't to read your blog as it only encourages you, well that's a red rag to a bull for me. Tell me not to do something and I'll do it! Anyway, I've found it very interesting and enlightening. I wanted to thank you for this one as it's told me what I needed to know. We have decided that our kids need good GCSE's to get on in life so now it's just a case of how they're going to get them. Can I help them do that at home being as how I work part time at home and have, at most, 3 hours per day to spare for home ed? Or do they need to go to school? I wasn't that confident about being able to do it myself and now I read your post I can see that I wouldn't be able to do it.

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  7. 'everyone on the main HE lists said we weren't to read your blog as it only encourages you'

    Lord love us, I need no encouragement!

    'Can I help them do that at home being as how I work part time at home and have, at most, 3 hours per day to spare for home ed? '

    We never spent more than three hours a day on academic work. The rest of the time was outings and having fun. If I can help with anything to do with GCSEs or any other aspect of home education, Anonymnous, feel free to contact me at simon.webb14@btinternet.com. Don't worry, I won't out you to the rest of the Home Ed community.

    Simon.

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  8. 'from the halfwit that dares to criticise other people writing.'

    I think that my criticism has been directed more towards grammar and syntax than typographical errors.

    Simon.

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  9. 'from the halfwit that dares to criticise other people writing'

    I take it that the omission of the apostrophe and letter 's' after 'people' was intentional and meant ironically?

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  10. I've been reading your blog for a couple of months now but never commented before. I started reading it because everyone on the main HE lists said we weren't to read your blog as it only encourages you, well that's a red rag to a bull for me. Tell me not to do something and I'll do it! Anyway, I've found it very interesting and enlightening. I wanted to thank you for this one as it's told me what I needed to know. We have decided that our kids need good GCSE's to get on in life so now it's just a case of how they're going to get them. Can I help them do that at home being as how I work part time at home and have, at most, 3 hours per day to spare for home ed? Or do they need to go to school? I wasn't that confident about being able to do it myself and now I read your post I can see that I wouldn't be able to do it.

    Ah ha - so your long lost sister has come back then Webb

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  11. "I started reading it because everyone on the main HE lists said we weren't to read your blog as it only encourages you, well that's a red rag to a bull for me."

    Ditto!

    Simon, I'm interested in your comment that teaching your daughter at GCSE level was a full-time job. I'm currently home-edding three much younger kids and doing paid work in the evenings - do you think this arrangement is going to become impossible if I/they want to do GCSEs?

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  12. To those asking about time constraints for preparing for exams - I think there are 2 main issues which affect this....

    a) the number of exams being taken in one sitting - I belivee that Simon's daughter took 8 of her IGCSES in one sitting. This is not a frequent choice (although more popular with tough unis)- many home educators take them in smaller bites (we did!) If you doing that number in one sitting, it may well prove to be a very time consuming couple of years.

    b)How well the student can learn without parental supervision. Some children learn differently from others, and can work through a textbook without much help, others need more gudnace. So it must depend on your child.

    Another factor is whether a family are using external courses too - correspondence or online. That must make a difference.

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  13. 'Simon, I'm interested in your comment that teaching your daughter at GCSE level was a full-time job. I'm currently home-edding three much younger kids and doing paid work in the evenings - do you think this arrangement is going to become impossible if I/they want to do GCSEs?'

    No, not in the least. We nver did more than three hours or so work in the morning.

    Simon.

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  14. Thanks, Simon. I'd misunderstood and thought you meant that you did three hours of teaching with your daughter, but then lots of preparation outside of those three hours. Three hours total seems much more manageable!

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  15. Anonymous said...

    Thanks, Simon. I'd misunderstood and thought you meant that you did three hours of teaching with your daughter, but then lots of preparation outside of those three hours. Three hours total seems much more manageable!

    Yes, that's what I thought as well

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  16. 'Yes, that's what I thought as well'

    The fault is mine. I mant to suggest that one would need to mindful of what was being planned for the education outside the time spent actually teaching. It is more about a mindset, keeping an eye out for opportunities and kicking ideas around in one's head rather than sitting with textbooks, planning the next lesson. Sorry for not making this clear.

    Simon.

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