Ban homeschooling- it leads to intolerance!

Oldest Daughter is running a little magazine for our homeschool group and she asked me to contribute an article on bullying. She has given me a deadline-she can be like a proper little editor at times!! LOL!

Now I was vaguely aware that for those parents in the UK who are registered as homeschoolers with their Local Authority the most common reason given for pulling a child out of school was bullying, but I wanted to do a bit of research.

I was interested by what I found as I pottered around the net looking at bullying and homeschooling. There are a few very keypad happy people out there who want homeschooling banned. THEY personally disapprove of the system and said parents who homeschool are 'fundamentalist', 'biased' and children brought up this way would be...wait for it...intolerant of others. There was some mockery over a home educated child reintroduced to mainstream education who found a lesbian couple's rather unpleasant behaviour difficult to handle.

I know a lot of homeschoolers. I can assure these dictatorial people that most of the children I know who are homeschooled are very well socialised thank you. Research from the USA and Durham Uni here in the UK would suggest that on average homeschooled children are better socialised than school children.

When it comes to 'tolerance' I have to say that while there seems to be a lot of people out there ready and willing to BAN homeschooling and force parents to send their children to school no matter how damaging that might be to the child; I have yet to meet a homeschool parent or child demanding that schools be banned, no matter how bad those schools might be.
So, I just have to wonder, who the intolerant ones are.

The gentle art of learning

I have started term and we are well under way now. I have decided to treat myself to a set of Charlotte Mason books to help me with what she called the "Gentle art of learning". Many homeschoolers use her lovely approach with their children. If she had been a Catholic I think we would be looking at making her a saint.

She believed in what she called 'living books' and encouraging children to read and narrate about what they have read. I have used this approach a lot with my two older children and it has been an immense help with overcoming their dyslexia.

She had a profound understanding of the way children both learned and behaved and shaped her views on education on that.

She recognised the special role and dignity of the mother and her place as primary educator of her children alongside the father of the child.

Her method gives both mother and child a love of learning and an interest in stories and in the beauty of God's creation. Her whole curriculum outlook is Christ centred. He is not a perifery subject, relegated to assembly prayers and RE.

Even at the begginning of the 20th Century when Charlotte was writing she saw the damage state interfernce in education was causing-and that was before the horrendous dumbing down and banality of the National Curriculum and the appalling standards offered in GCSE subjects.

I have one child in school at the moment and am praying I can have him home.

I had to undo a whole lot of damage with the two I pulled out and my oldest son has survived rather than gained from school.

My younger son's girlfriend has left the school I pulled my daughter out of. It is a 'good Catholic' school with high academic achievements and is even listed in the top schools lists. But it teaches Icons and hands out Holy Communion to all the pupils at compulsory Mass. It has teachers that are rude and bully the ones with difficulties and the girls there are abusive to one another on a regular basis.

My daughter's friend still attends and hates it. She bides her time until she can get out.

My son's girlfriend has gone to college now-glad to have left the culture of spite behind. She retains her Catholic faith thanks to her parents who are quietly devout.

Charlotte Mason puts CHrist and Scripture and moral teaching at the heart of her 'school'. She is not in the business of making kids look good acedemically but in making them fit for heaven.

When Home Education pays off

There are many reasons to home educate. But it is hard work sometimes and a parent (like me) can get a bit dreadful-fretful that we are making a pigs ear of things.
So it is a lovely thing when it appears to pay off.
My 15 yr old son has just completed 2 weeks work placement at a shop and cafe, where he served customers, made drinks and cooked and prepared food.
It is a small but growing business and the owners have had a number of school pupils on work placement. While they were kind enough to take my son they admitted to him on Sat (his last day) that they had not really been looking forward to it as their usual experience had been pretty bad.
They were so impressed with ds that they even paid him for some of his hours there and are writing him a reference for his portfolio. They have also offered him the next job that comes up there-which should be soon.
The owner spoke to me and said she was impressed by how quickly he learned, how hard he worked and by the fact he could actually cook. His skill with customers, including young children (lots of experience there lol) was also noted.
This is the boy who was bullied, and failing in school. He was certainly not considered a quick learner by staff, and his anger and frustration meant he was sorely lacking in some social skills.

It's been just over 2 yrs since I had him out and he has blossomed.
I hope he will do well in college next year.
So to any home ed parent out there wondering if it is worth it-in the end, yes it is.

The BBC attacks home education

The BBC is a strange organisation that seems almost allergic to telling the truth.
Now they seem to be out to get home schoolers. Our kids are apparently missing. There is a petition set up to ask the BBC to change the wording of their ridiculous article. Surely journalists know enough about the law to know that children do not have to be registered with a local authority. Quite frankly with this kind of weird propaganda going on it is hardly any wonder that so many homeschooling parents choose not to register their children.

Mine are registered, simply because I pulled them out of school, and I am fortunate enough to live in an area where the LA seems pretty supportive of home education, but many parents are up against bullying and just plain ignorance from those who are supposed to know better.

It seems to me that if the BBC want to get people to 'have [their] say' it would be better asking about the failure of schools to offer a reasonable, let alone safe, education for our children.- But that doesn't seem to be on the agenda for some reason.