Home Schooling - now also long

[dfrankiswork at netscape.net]

Interesting responses...

Amy:

> In my case, one 
> of my reasons for wanting to hs my theoretical children is for them 
to 
> have =more= contact with the 'real world.'  IMO, spending 6 hours a 
> day with one's own age cohort and almost no adults or older and 
> younger children, while very rewarding in its own way, lacks many 
of 
> the benefits that come from spending those same hours engaging with 
> members of the community of all ages, one's family, etc.  Also, 
while 
> there isn't a lot of data on the subject, studies indicate that the 
> socialization of hs-ed children is on a par with public- and 
> private-schooled kids; in many ways hs-ed kids are more mature, 
> well-adjusted, etc. etc.  The most common objection to hs-ing I 
have 
> heard here is the one you raise, but I have my own thoughts on the 
> socialization children receive in school and they are not generally 
> complimentary.  There are lots of opportunities to learn to 
interact 
> with others besides the schools.

I sit corrected.  I hadn't really thought through the distinction 
between hs-ing *in order to* keep your children from other cultural 
influences (which I feel has been the case with some I have known - 
it was before the days of HP, but I reckon hs-ing would have been a 
defence against its unwholesome influence for them), and hs-ing 
recognising the issues.

That said, you are partly making the best of a poor schooling 
situation (and Tabouli got the worst of it).  When we lived in 
London, my children went to a racially and culturally fairly mixed 
primary school in Lewisham (Stillness, Neil, do you know it?), with 
British white, black (as well as W Indian and African), Turkish, 
Pakistani, Greek, Chinese and others (still fairly unexciting 
compared to, say, Southall).  Of the dozen or so teachers, one was 
black, one Iranian, and one was specially employed Turkish to deal 
with children for whom that was their first language.  The school had 
a very strong anti-racist policy which AFAIK was enforced.  One of 
the things we liked about the school (and miss here in whiter-than-
white Surrey) was the opportunity for the kids to get to know such a 
variety of cultures.  That would have happened far less with hs-ing, 
IMO, as the hs-ers we knew were all white middle class British or 
American.
> 
> Many people turn to hs-ing because their local schools don't meet 
their kids' special needs 
> (U.S. schools have to provide for kids with learning disabilities 
and 
> such, but special education, as it's called here, varies 
drastically 
> in quality from school to school, even from year to year).  

Again, our oldest is slightly dyslexic, and our youngest dyspraxic.  
We would not have known how to begin to deal with these issues, even 
the diagnosis. SN education here is far from perfect (we are 
considering putting Ben into private education, if we can afford it), 
but schools have been supportive and brought our kids along.

Also, I have doubts about our ability as parents to contribute much 
on the teaching front, even with specialisation in a network.  We 
have had plenty of posts here pointing out that contrary to popular 
opinion, teaching is a very difficult and skilled job.  There are 
also some psychological issues about the roles that our children 
perceive us in - it's nice as parents to say, I'm sorry, I know you 
don't like your homework, and I didn't like it either, but our hands 
are tied, we have no choice, it's the system.  In theory that's true 
for hs-ing too, but I think the practice must be difficult.

Ben's education brings me to the main issue - money.  Most families 
here simply can't afford home schooling.  They need two incomes to 
survive and, while that isn't always incompatible with hs-ing (one 
family I knew were musicians who could schedule concerts, music 
lessons, and hs-ing around each other), for most it is.  Schools are 
free, of course.  I guess some of the socialisation criticism may be 
sour grapes from people who feel they don't really have an option.

Mike the Goat's reply raises some other issues I will try to get to 
separately as this post is long enough.

David