Homeschooling Rates Go Up, Is There a Sinister Motive?
Are homeschoolers trying to hide something?
Homeschooling rates in the UK are up according to an article from the Channel 4 news:
Channel 4 News Online reveals that the number of children being schooled at home has risen by more than 60 per cent in the past five years.
More than 80 per cent of education authorities reported hikes in the number of children being educated at home, according to the Freedom of Information (FoI) probe.
In one area the increase was as big as 800 per cent; with campaigners blaming bullying, special needs provision and too many school tests as reasons for the national hike.
But is there an ulterior motive behind this?
But Channel 4 News online has also learned that some schools and parents are using home education as a method of avoiding truancy prosectuction and poor league table standings.
There is a video that goes along with the story that is very interesting to watch. The homeschooled children are shown playing alone; one cooking, one on the computer, and one coloring. The public schooled kids however are shown playing and having fun in a large group on the playground. Two girls smile and hug their principle as they leave the classroom to go play. One homeschooled boy sits alone at the computer, not talking to the camera, while wearing a black shirt with a skull on the back.
The visual messge is clear. See how happy the kids in school are? See how depressed and unsocialized the kids at home are?
When the one mother tries to explain her choice to homeschool her youngest son she says that it was because she saw how her oldest were in school. “Why would I send him there?” she asks, and is immediately cut off with a sharp “Why wouldn’t you?” from the reporter. The segment cuts off with only her short answer on their personalities being better out of school. The next jump to a child doing school work while the reporter reminds us that while schooling is not compulserary making sure your children get an education is. Is there a message here that they are trying not to come out and say?
Then We have Ken Cridland of the National Union of Teachers explaining that homeschooling is an unexpected problem that arose from too many pressures being put on schools. We even hear about one teacher who tried and failed to persuede many parents from homeschooling. he claims that the children miss out on learning how to cope, yet his area has one of the largest homeschooling rates. I wonder what exactly he thought they needed to learn to cope with. Obviously it was something that many parents disagreed with him on.
It goes on wanting to know why. Why are all these children suddenly being pulled out of the schools? We learn that the misfit boy with the skull shirt is homeschooled bcause he mother does not want him to learn about evolution. They go straight for the stereotype here, the depressed boy sheltered away in his room with the religious mother dominating him and depriving him of an education. Perhaps the fact that she lets him wear that shirt is a small sign that she’s not as horrible as they would like you to think? But just in case you gt that idea they make sure to show you the religous imaes in the boy’s room to remind you of the real reason he’s homeschooling.
And of course, we end it off with the typical assumptons that parents are homeschooling as a way to be lazy all day. And there’s no way to prove they aren’t, since the story is quick to point out that unlike in schools no one is testing and grading and tracking the children with little red pens and thick folders. How could a parent know if their child is learning without a teacher to tell them so is the underlying question. Your child reading a book can’t mean that they know how to read unless the teacher tells you that they know how to read, obviously.
homeschooling, education, UK, schools, anti-homeschooling
September 27th, 2007 at 8:35 am
Interesting. I’ve heard the whole “parents just use homeschooling as an excuse so their kids can run wild all day,” right here in our own town.
I just saw one of those kids “running wild” this morning … as she walked many blocks to catch a bus … to take free IT classes in the town 20 minutes away … then she’ll waste her time walking back home (after getting off the bus), where she’ll laze the day away finishing her high school coursework … and blowing off a couple of afternoons a week as an intern at a radio station.
Hoodlums!!
Then again, we have a man in his twenties that attends our church. He graduated from our local high school … GRADUATED … and he can’t read. He has dyslexia. So glad the public school system worked for him!
September 27th, 2007 at 10:40 am
I think that the proponents of public schooling are getting scared. Imagine parents wanting choice in how their kids are schooled, oh the horror! Public schools are loosing money because the students and parents are opting out of the bloated and broken system.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:54 am
I don’t home school, but I am against the media making people out to be monsters for going against the grain.
The implication that I am getting from this story is that home schooling doesn’t have the same standards as “the system”, when in fact parents that home school (from what I have heard) have to make sure that they keep very strict records of their child’s work and progress and tests are design to check all of this. Again I don’t home school, but I am just giving my opinion from what I have heard.
Plenty of people who do HS are in support/play groups for themselves and their children so that they have like minded kids and parents to interact with.
Besides, anyone who takes anything the media has to say “hook, line and sinker” is deluding themselves.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I forgot to add… wonderful post!
September 27th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Government attacks on homeschoolers, cameras everywhere you go - they’ve taken most of your freedoms already, they’re down to what little they’ve left you and come back for that as well.
So sad we used to look up to the U.K. to lead for freedom in the 40’s and now we watch sadly and shocked as your government blindly follows the path of a Late German Chancellor….
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:43 am
Definitely sinister motives. I just found out that I am a part of a sinister plot right here in America for a hostile takeover of America.
I love being lumped in with people’s irrational fears of what they do not understand.
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Ha! So the media in the UK is just like the media here in the US…they tell us and show us what THEY want us to see and hear!
November 12th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Hi all. I’m happy to find a blog about this subject. My husband and I have been thinking to homeschool our children. At the moment I’m pregnant with our first child. I have loads of doubts. I am Portuguese and my husband half portuguese half english. I noticed that in UK something natural and normal, but In Portugal you don’t have this type of thing and if you try to HS your children you have the police on your door, just like that! I grew up hearing to study, to be someone. I study hard and went to university. I am a qualified veterinary nurse but not working within my course area because of burocracy with my portuguese papers. Last night I told my husband that I’m very confuse about this. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life at home teaching my children. What about my course? Did I spend time, money, patience for nothing??? What should I do???