Most of you probably know that from 2000 until 2008 I was home educated. This entailed reading books, browsing the internet and studying for my GCSEs. It did not involve being abused, and neither myself or my parents had to consult with a local education authority (LEA). I passed my GCSEs, went to college, got brilliant AS grades and I'm looking at attending university for 8 years in order to become a clinical neuropsychologist.
My few years of school attendance involved being bullied, completing work far too easy for me, helping my bullies with their work (I say helping, I actually finished their work for them) and tidying the classroom. For these reasons, my parents took the desicion to take me out of school and home educate me.
This is not a desicion that they took lightly, and many months of debate had followed. Things such as my social life and my future had to be considered, as well as how I would be taught. Once the desicion was made, I was formally removed from state education and embarked on eight years of education 'otherwise', as the law states.
Now, what annoys me is the fact that the government are pushing for home educators to register with their LEA and have regular inspections in order to ensure that "children aren't being abused". I'm sorry but, firstly home education usually arises due to there being some sort of problem with a child's state education. Secondly, there is barely any information about home education in the first place, so it's hardly the first thing anyone would turn to to sort out said problems. If so much research has to be undertaken in order to make an informed choice about this form of education, does it sound as if a parent would then abuse their child and simply forget about the kid's education?
I can understand that the government want to know how many kids are home educated, but this seems like an invitation for LEAs to stick their noses in and interfere with yet another aspect of someone's life. My home education was hardly formal, but I still got respectable grades in formal GCSE exams and I'm out performing state educated students in college! As many people have pointed out before me, why interfere with a system that already works?
I think over here it's not even allowed to be home-educated for you've got to get to school and kindergarden etc. to learn all the social skills.
The best you can when being bullied is change the school if things there aren't getting better.
But no home education. (Well at least in this part of CH)
About the registery: I think it might be a good thing, as the gov wants t"prepared" rather to feel sorry afterwards.
It's not an accusion at all those parents educating their children at home - but if there even is one that can be saved from that possible damage - a simple registration is not that bad now, is it? As normal teachers (at least here) get a check now and then, to make sure they're doing there job right, so would then those hometeachers/parents...I guess...
About the registery: I think it might be a good thing, as the gov wants t"prepared" rather to feel sorry afterwards.
It's not an accusion at all those parents educating their children at home - but if there even is one that can be saved from that possible damage - a simple registration is not that bad now, is it? As normal teachers (at least here) get a check now and then, to make sure they're doing there job right, so would then those hometeachers/parents...I guess...
That I understand, but it's not very likely that home educators are the ones who abuse their kids. The ones who are likely to abuse will not even bother with the registration. Why would you? If you're abusing your kids you're clearly not looking for their best interests anyway so you're not going to register. The fact that it's the innocent people who are being checked up on when they're doing nothing wrong is what myself and many others are objecting to. Kids who do attend school may suffer abuse once they come home, so why not extend the registration to every parent and child instead of just home educators?
Something i have never understood in the approach to dealing with bullying.
Why is it always the person that is being bullied is the one that has to move school , which no doubt is extremely upsetting in itself.
I moved schools twice in 4 or 5 years of school education. The first school never bothered with the bullying issue. The second school said we should work it out with the bully's parents. The third and final school told us that we were apparently making the whole thing up and the groups who bullied me were totally innocent. That's when I left.
Schools generally ignore bullying, as they believe that admitting there is a bullying issue will somehow make them look bad. However, not dealing with the issue makes them look worse in my opinion.
As you know, I'm very supportive of homeschooling and may try it at some point with my son and maybe my daughters, too. I've found out my state is great for homeschooling.
If they're looking for abuse cases, they might be better off investigating truancy from public schools, rather than homeschoolers. It's the kids who are supposed to be in school, but aren't who are more likely to have abusive or just non-caring parents, in my opinion. I wonder what is making them think that there are many abused homeschoolers?
They are taking a pro-active approach to bullying in our school district, starting right from Kindergarten. They have posters up all over saying, "Be a buddy, not a bully," and Rachel said they have a policy at school that says, "You can't say, 'You can't play.'" Being respectful of others is part of the curriculum. I really like that they are not just teaching academics, but learning how to deal with others, too. (This system they use actually has a name, but I can't think of it right now.) You can't force everybody to be friends, but you can at least learn to be decent. And yes, parents should be the ones teaching this at home, but obviously some don't.
I think victims tend to get the blame in a lot of bullying cases. "The kid needs to learn to stand up for him/herself!" "You need to learn to handle those situations." That's a lot to expect of a kid who is probably insecure already, especially if the bullying is done in groups.
What do you think causes insecurity within kids? is that down to the parents in some respect?
Its a question that always comes to mind , that i myself have no answer for.
Were you bullied over the same things at all times?
Yep. I was bullied because I was perceived as more intelligent as the other kids in my class. This still happens at college but I can handle it now I'm 17. When you're 8 it's a lot harder to accept. It's pathetic the things that you're attacked for when you're a kid, it really is.
As you know, I'm very supportive of homeschooling and may try it at some point with my son and maybe my daughters, too. I've found out my state is great for homeschooling.
If they're looking for abuse cases, they might be better off investigating truancy from public schools, rather than homeschoolers. It's the kids who are supposed to be in school, but aren't who are more likely to have abusive or just non-caring parents, in my opinion. I wonder what is making them think that there are many abused homeschoolers?
They are taking a pro-active approach to bullying in our school district, starting right from Kindergarten. They have posters up all over saying, "Be a buddy, not a bully," and Rachel said they have a policy at school that says, "You can't say, 'You can't play.'" Being respectful of others is part of the curriculum. I really like that they are not just teaching academics, but learning how to deal with others, too. (This system they use actually has a name, but I can't think of it right now.) You can't force everybody to be friends, but you can at least learn to be decent. And yes, parents should be the ones teaching this at home, but obviously some don't.
I think victims tend to get the blame in a lot of bullying cases. "The kid needs to learn to stand up for him/herself!" "You need to learn to handle those situations." That's a lot to expect of a kid who is probably insecure already, especially if the bullying is done in groups.
It's great that they're trying to combat bullying Kayte! Like I said before, the schools here try to sweep things under the carpet.
Personally, I think the governement is pushing the registration thing in order to try and keep an eye on what every kid is doing at any one moment. Truancy is probably the biggest problem, but home education and truancy are completely different!
Gladly (the cross-eyed bear) wrote:
What do you think causes insecurity within kids? is that down to the parents in some respect?
Its a question that always comes to mind , that i myself have no answer for.
I think the insecurity may come from the parents- I don't exactly live in a nice area where a child's parents are nurturing and loving.
I was amazed at the difference between school kids and home educated kids when I first went along to a home ed meet up. The kids there were so friendly and accepting, whereas I'd had nothing but abuse from the school kids. The difference in the parents went along the same lines, so I have no idea where the government got the idea that children who are home educated are more likely to be abused.
I think a certain amount of insecurity may be in-born. I received nothing but love and encouragement from my family, yet I was a very shy, insecure child (and adult, really).
A little bit of being picked on makes a bigger impression than a whole bunch of love, for some reason.
A couple of girls used to pick on me in middle school. I never did anything about it. Just sat there and endured the agony until the semester was over. Even looking back, I don't know what I could have done to remedy the situation, aside from something that would end up getting ME into trouble.
I have no idea what this registration involves, but I think I agree with Nell. I think it's reasonable for the government to want to keep track. I think that's better than not caring at all and letting anyone do their thing when there might be child abuse.
Of course there wasn't any sort of abuse in your case, Moo, in fact quite the opposite, but I'm sure the government must have done some sort of research to know that there might be cases of abuse going on. I doubt that they're basing all this on mere prejudice.
I don't think it should necessarily be seen as a policy against home education. Just because they want to have a register, it doesn't mean that they want to control everything or that they think home education is bad.
But again, I'm just talking from what I've read on this thread. I know nothing about UK's policy on homeschooling.
I believe in Argentina there's no such thing as home education. It really wouldn't work here, being a third world country.
Well, I always thought that being home-schooled is not the best idea. I mean, you have to learn how to deal with mean or even cruel people in your life. They won't just disappear in your adult life. And how do you meet new people at this age if you don't attend any classes?
I had a really bad time in the middle school. I was bullied because I always got the best grades and was really rubbish at sports. It was tough but now I'm grateful for the experience because it certainly made me stronger.
Still, you can't be home-schooled in Poland so I'm not an expert.
And how do you meet new people at this age if you don't attend any classes?
Girl or Boy Scouts, sports teams, ballet lessons, music lessons, 4-H Club, church youth groups, summer camp, kids in the neighborhood, or one of the many homeschool groups. Plenty of places to meet new people.
