Sunday 26 June 2011

Caring and creative children

Many of our friends have children who have not done brilliantly at school from an academic viewpoint. I have noticed that this is, at least according to their parents, because they are sensitive and talented in various areas and so unable to knuckle down to study like all the other kids. None of these children are home educated and yet I have noticed the same attitude appearing frequently on the home education lists and forums; my kid may not have a bunch of GCSEs, but boy is he creative/compassionate/caring/sensitive/talented/concerned. It is almost as though they regard these things as being a consolation prize for failing to pass all those GCSEs and A levels!

As I say, none of the parents I am thinking about here in my personal life are home educators and it is odd that they should have such a similar mindset to many of the home educating parents one encounters on the Internet. I think that this might be more a matter of background and class, rather than schooled or home educated. I have noticed that when the children of working class people I know muff up their GCSEs, their parents usually attribute it to their children’s laziness or lack of intelligence; this never happens with middle class parents. For them, it is because the child is too artistic or musical, loves animals so much or was too busy doing voluntary work. I don’t believe that middle class parents ever have lazy or stupid children; these traits are definitely confined to the working classes.

Now of course I value characteristics such as altruism, honesty and compassion very highly in my daughters. I regard a good ethical system as being at least as important as a grounding in academic subjects. I did not send my daughter to school for two main reasons and both were equally important. One was religious; I wanted her to grow up knowing the Lord and following his wishes as revealed in various scriptures. The other was that I did not trust the local maintained schools to provide an adequate education. An education without a moral code is a terrible thing. Almost as bad as religion which is not backed up by scientific knowledge! I would have been dismayed had my daughter not grown up to be honest and caring, but I certainly did not regard this as a substitute for having academic qualifications. Quite a few people have commented here telling me how wonderfully kind and caring their children are and hinting that this is more important than the kids knowing how a nuclear power station works or understanding the nitrogen cycle. I cannot quite agree with this point of view. Compassion and caring for the environment which are not backed by solid facts can easily be misplaced. There is no point getting involved with campaigns to stop the export of powered baby milk to less economically developed nations unless you know the facts and figures. Similarly, one cannot be opposed to nuclear power unless one fully grasps the difference between ionising radiation and all other types of electro-magnetic radiation.

I am fascinated by the fact that so many parents on the lists and forums speak of their children in precisely the same way as the parents whom I know whose children did attend school. Do more middle class people hang out on these places? Do some of them choose to home educate because they already suspect that their children will not do well at school and are lining up an alibi? Are the main ideologies of British home education shaped by parents whose children are not academic anyway? Could this be why there is often an implied disdain for GCSEs and SATs tests? Do I detect the faint tang of sour grapes in the air? There is no doubt that there is a strong trend of anti-school feeling in the home education scene in this country. I shall explore this idea in another post later this week, because I am sure that there must be a rational explanation for it.

8 comments:

  1. "Are the main ideologies of British home education shaped by parents whose children are not academic anyway?"

    I thnk this is a hugely important question. It makes perfect sense to educate your children autonomously if they were never going to pass any GCSEs anyway. It also makes sense if your kids are exceptionally intelligent - if they decide they want to do GCSEs, they'll be able to catch up pretty quickly and easily. I do worry about the kids in the middle, though.

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  2. "I have noticed that when the children of working class people I know muff up their GCSEs, their parents usually attribute it to their children’s laziness or lack of intelligence"

    Or alternatively, they don't value qualifications at all. My parent's didn't give a damn about qualifications so I suppose that has rubbed off on me to some extent. I've gained plenty of qualifications over the years but don't see them as the be all and end all. We home educated autonomously and our children have all found their own paths to further/higher education and employment. Not sure why taking bunches of GCSEs at 16 is an issue to be honest. It hasn't prevented anyone in our family from following their desired course in life.

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  3. I don't think people regard it as a consolation prize, or as a reason that the child didn't do so well academically. I think often, when a child doesn't seem to be academically driven or succeeding at formal exams, parents will make statements like the ones you quote, to show that they are still proud of their child, and expect them to have a good and worthwhile life.

    My son is far from being academic. His achievements in this direction, are by most people's standards, very modest indeed. I would hate him to think that I didn't value the huge effort he put into achieving those things, though, or that I had little hope for him having a worthwhile life because he doesn't have the magic 5 GCSEs. I want him to take pride in developing useful skills that are within his reach and worthwhile qualities that will enable him to play a useful role in society. I'm sure that others feel similarly about their children who are not achieving a string of qualifications but are developing other skills and qualities.

    Christine

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  4. "Are the main ideologies of British home education shaped by parents whose children are not academic anyway?"

    Maybe they are. A lot of my HE friends are very very artistic, have no intention of putting their children though GCSEs and plan to encourage them to start up their own business as artists, herbalists, writers etc. This isnt a judgement, just a fact that these are the people I know.
    I know fewer HEers who are structured and have a plan for their childrens exams and future education (unless the children develop their own plan)
    Who knows why this is! I am more in the middle ground. Oldest ds is heading for 10 GCSEs A-C in school as he is fairly good at academics. Meanwhile Oldest dd (HE'd) is looking at C or D in English and Math, a Science portfolio and then an animal care course in college.
    I guess part of te reason for HE in dd's case WAS that she wasnt headed for academia and her other talents were better nurtured in a non-pressured environment.
    I don't feel it proves anything either way though. We HE'd because she couldnt cope at school, she couldn't cope because she wasn't academic and no amount of drill seemed to sink in, thats a personality thing and it wouldnt have helped her for me to aim higher than she could manage.
    I dont think its wrong that she wont get her 5 A*-C grades. Whereas if ds didnt get at least his 5 A*-C grades, I would be far more disappointed.

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  5. "It also makes sense if your kids are exceptionally intelligent - if they decide they want to do GCSEs, they'll be able to catch up pretty quickly and easily."

    They don't need to be exceptionally intelligent to catch up quickly and easily (unless mine are exceptionally intelligent I suppose, but I don't think so). One of my children learnt to read at 13 and recently gained a place at university. Yes, they're a year or two older than usual, but part of our philosophy is allowing them to work at their own pace. We didn't avoid the 'handful of GCSEs' because we didn't think they could achieve good grades (and the grades they gained in English and Maths GCSEs at college after a year showed we were right not to be concerned), they just didn't interest my children and were unnecessary, so why waste the time?

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  6. >>>>A lot of my HE friends are very very artistic, have no intention of putting their children though GCSEs and plan to encourage them to start up their own business as artists, herbalists, writers etc. This isnt a judgement, just a fact that these are the people I know.
    I know fewer HEers who are structured and have a plan for their childrens exams and future education (unless the children develop their own plan)<<<<

    That's interesting, C. In my kids' cohort, of friends a few years above and below them in age, that is what we ALL said when our kids were still young. However, almost without exception, when age 13/14/15 came along, we changed our minds and did IGCSE's or something similar. Unless our kids had SENs, in which case, we were pretty creative about finding suitable alternative ways to progress. (I agree with what Christine said.)

    None of us were 'structured' when we started out. Most were gung ho autonomous. It's not necessarily proof of 'structuredness' to see the usefulness of IGCSE's etc in moving forward.

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  7. "Are the main ideologies of British home education shaped by parents whose children are not academic anyway?"

    I don't know if it is the main ideology but in my experience there are more artistic HE families than science ones. Either that, or we "geeks" are just well hidden! Maybe we are too nervous to come out of the closet, feeling too overwhelmed by the number of artistic types?

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  8. Plenty of science geeky types (parents and children) in our local groups. Some of them moving on to uni soon to study more science geeky stuff :-)

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