Tuesday 5 July 2011

Home education

I sometimes find listening to the debates of home educators in this country rather like the conversations at the Mad Hatter’s tea party; incomprehensible and lacking in all logic and coherence. Take the exchange yesterday on one of the home education support lists. A woman whose home educated son plays the cornet, wishes him to take music examinations. There were three main suggestions. Two of these were that the mother should contact a school or use a private teacher. The third was from a man who felt that taking examinations in music were unnecessary. This is all very strange.

I am not at all musical, to say the least of it. Nevertheless, I thought that music should be part of a balanced education and felt that it was worth my daughter learning to play a few musical instruments. I accordingly taught her the recorder, piano and guitar. My only knowledge of all this was that I could read music; an ability which anybody could teach themselves in a week or so. I certainly cannot play the guitar or recorder! I mean literally cannot play a single note on either instrument. This does not matter at all. In the end, my daughter dropped the recorder and went on to get Grade 5 at classical guitar and Grade 2 at piano. This was easy enough. One can send off to the ABRSM for the syllabus and then buy the music for the pieces for the examinations. It is also possible to buy a CD of the pieces being played, so that one knows how they should sound. Scales will need to be learned as well, but this is just donkey work and rote learning. No musical ability is required. Anybody can teach any musical instrument at all without any prior knowledge or experience.

Why then all the talk of schools or private teachers? Surely the beauty of home education is that the parents take control of the process and wrest it away from professionals? This minor exchange on a list which has over one and a half thousand members seems to me to shed some light upon the state of home education, at least in Britain. As soon as something slightly out of the run-of-the-mill crops up, the natural impulse seems to be to turn to a professional, rather than to tackle it one’s self. I have been thinking a lot about this business this morning, wondering what it says about the mindset of many home educators. Have they been indoctrinated into believing that anything in the way of formal education must be conducted by a qualified teacher? If so, why are they home educating?

11 comments:

  1. The issue was that the OP didn't know she could enter her son for the exams directly with the board. She was asking if she needed someone else eg a teacher, school etc to do it for her. She doesn't need a teacher for her son as he's learning the cornet on his own.

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  2. And the reference to a school was tongue in cheek, the OP will have understood the reference.

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  3. 'And the reference to a school was tongue in cheek,'

    This does not sound entirely tongue in cheek!

    'Our county council's music service provides school-based tuition to HE children on the same basis as schoolchildren. This includes free tuition for children who would qualify for free school meals.

    HE children can join in any group sessions at any school where there is space.'

    Simon.

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  4. Aren't you usually the one who says that we shouldnt avoid going to a professional to get advice when necessary? I am going to fail to think of an example but no doubt someone can help me with this. Several times you have mocked parents who have avoided professional 'interferrance' of any kind.

    My point would be, I dont think it's wrong to acknowledge my own inabilities to teach certain subjects and then to out-source for the subjects I cant teach for whatever reason. It is not because I am a wimp or a failure, it is simply that I am acknowledging my own limits.

    I cant teach music so I enlist the help of a tutor to teach my girls. I was unable to tackle English GCSE so my daughter attended a nightclass.
    By choosing to get help with what I cant manage, I am ensuring that she is not missing out on a well-rounded education. And its better than failing her because Im too stubborn to admit I cant do some things.

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  5. "This does not sound entirely tongue in cheek!

    'Our county council's music service provides school-based tuition to HE children on the same basis as schoolchildren. This includes free tuition for children who would qualify for free school meals.

    HE children can join in any group sessions at any school where there is space.'

    Simon. "

    Ok it wasn't that reference I was referring to.

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  6. 'I cant teach music so I enlist the help of a tutor to teach my girls. I was unable to tackle English GCSE so my daughter attended a nightclass.
    By choosing to get help with what I cant manage, I am ensuring that she is not missing out on a well-rounded education. And its better than failing her because Im too stubborn to admit I cant do some things.'

    You sell yourself short, C. Anybody can teach music or English. Believe me, nobody is less musical than I and yet I found no difficulty at all in doing it. I have known others in the same case.
    Simon.

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  7. Simon wrote You sell yourself short, C. Anybody can teach music or English. Believe me, nobody is less musical than I and yet I found no difficulty at all in doing it. I have known others in the same case.
    Maybe it is down to confidence? Certainly for my part.
    In the case of music I didnt feel I could possibly do as well as my HEer friend who studied and passed Grade 8 piano. In the case of English it was down to the coursework as we opted for GCSE not igcse.
    I guess if you are confident to teach a subject then you absolutely should, but I didn't want it implied that HEers who outsourced were necessarily failing especially because it could be better to employ a professional than to to teach something badly. I hope that makes sense.

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  8. Well from today's costly education many parents decided to educate their children at home. In our area lots of children take education at home.

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  9. 'You sell yourself short, C. Anybody can teach music or English. Believe me, nobody is less musical than I and yet I found no difficulty at all in doing it. I have known others in the same case.
    Simon. '

    Not true.

    I tried teaching music theory and failed miserably. I'm happy to admit when something is beyond me and pay for a professional or ask a friend.

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  10. I'm just looking around, starting to consider home educating my daughter (she's only 2) but I'm also a professional musician. I'd happily teach her the basics, but I have to say, if she showed an aptitude on an instrument I was not a specialist in I would cart her off to someone else immediately. In something technical such as playing an instrument, early bad habits are soo difficult to change it's often not worth the bother so more people give up than need to. I feel confident in teaching pretty much any subject but I'm compiling a list of friends who are experts (at all sorts of things) who I can consult personally & send my daughter to occasionally to check we're on track. e.g. I'm ok at french, but she could skype with my neice who's fluent to improve her accent...

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  11. I could have taught my daughter the flute, but she wouldn't have done nearly as well as she has with her flute teacher. It's one thing to play an instrument, another to really master nuances of tone and technique. A non flute playing parent can't just wing these, although, I suppose, you can look it up on youtube.

    She was going through her grade 5 pieces with her accompanist, and he could tell who her teacher was, because of her fantastic tone. DD didn't just want to play the instrument, she wanted to play it well.

    I personally don't see the problem with outsourcing certain subjects. At least they get one to one attention and don't have to deal with the distractions of constant chatter in the classroom.

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