D Sarah

We made a conscious decision, long before they were due to start, not to send the twins to school. We realised that they would be sent away for their education, that we would say goodbye to them at half past seven and not see them again till something like half past four; just like business people. It just didn’t seem right for us to be passing the responsibility of bringing up our children on to somebody else. Maybe we’re just different from other people, but it seems perfectly normal and healthy to have our family ail together at home until they’ve grown up. I actually used to work as a teacher, so educating my own children is second nature to me.

Even as a former teacher I'm inclined to think that some of what children do at school, from a strictly learning point of view, is unnecessary. Like groupwork, for example. Cut that out by teaching at home and we can give our children the individual attention they need, and take short cuts towards what they really need to know.

The kids are happy, pleasant individuals, with plenty of friends. I couldn’t say if they’re more or less sociable than other kids, because I’m biased! It’s difficult to say how they’d match up with their friends if they took a school test. I think they’re OK as far as reading and writing are concerned, but they might not do so well in Maths. My husband and I feel that the kids are still too young, at 6 and 8 to grapple with mathematical concepts. So we do try and ration this old favourite, for the moment. At the moment there’s still plenty of time, and above all, plenty of time still to play and enjoy life.

6. You will read the text about home-education in the UK. Six paragraphs have been removed from it. For question 1-7, choose from the paragraphs A-H the one which fits each gap. There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

HOME-EDUCATION IN THE UK

It is estimated that there are now over 50,000 and perhaps as many as 150,000 children between the ages of 5 and 16 being taught at home by their parents in the United Kingdom – and there is every indication that this number is growing.

Home-education has always been legal in the United Kingdom and, thanks in part to the efforts of home-educating families, the right to home-educate has been reaffirmed in recent acts of parliament.

Why does home-education have such a low profile in the UK?

Home-education does not receive support and recognition commensurate with the number of children involved or the benefits that they are receiving. The reasons for this are complex. The majority of people who teach their children at home do so because they have been failed, one way or another, by the state-funded school system. Typically, they do not have the financial resources to be able to afford private education and settle for home-education because it is the only option left to them.

These factors combine to make home-educating families shy of drawing attention to themselves: parents are often worried that their own lack of teaching qualifications will make them open to criticism from education professionals; many parents have experienced situations of conflict with the staff of their local schools before finally deciding to home-educate; and parents that choose to homeschool on ethical or religious grounds may themselves suffer abuse from the majority population for the moral stand that they have chosen to take in their own lives.

In essence, home-education simply involves the time-honoured process of parents doing what parents are meant to do – taking responsibility for the upbringing of their own children. Not surprisingly, it works.

Advantages of Home-Education

This explains why home-taught children often feature in the headlines for having passed their GCSEs or 'A' levels at surprisingly young ages and for their high levels of success in gaining admittance to universities. There is, however, a more subtle side to the learning potential offered by the home environment which is often mentioned by home educating families but which is difficult or impossible to quantify in terms of exam success. Children working at home are able, from a young age, to develop a greater depth of knowledge. They are not restricted by the subject matter of a narrow curriculum or the content of school textbooks but can interact with their parents and other adults in a way that allows them to explore areas that interest them, at their own pace. This has the effect of making them enjoy the process of learning, it makes them more responsible and mature, it makes them more able to adapt to requirements of a rapidly changing world and it gives them a belief in themselves. This is one of the aspects of home-education that receives the least public recognition but which home-educating parents rate most highly.

Home-schooled children also find it easy to socialise with adults and people of all ages. Not being subject to the “us and them” syndrome that characterises school life, they tend to accept people as they find them. This has long-term advantages because it means that if they encounter problems in teenage years they are not forced to seek advice solely from people as young and immature as themselves, they are likely to have older friends, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbours etc. to turn to, as well as their parents of course, for a wider perspective on the problem that they are facing.

Many children have no learning difficulties at all before starting to attend school but are then diagnosed as having reading difficulties, behaviour problems etc. When this is the case, any perceived problems will disappear when the child is removed from school. They can learn at their own pace, at home, and are usually able to successfully re-enter the school system some years later if they wish so.

In addition to everything else, the home provides the ideal environment for a child in which to achieve academic excellence. There are innumerable examples of mathematicians, artists, musicians, writers, linguists, philosophers and scientists who are self-taught or who were taught at home. It is a well-established tradition and one that continues today.

Support for Home-Educating Families

Given the manifest advantages of home-education and the government’s commitment to excellence in education it might be supposed that home-schooling families would receive generous support from the state but sadly this is not the case.

Conclusion

Home-education is the simplest and most accessible alternative to school. When school starts to fail a child it makes sense to educate them at home – at least for a while.

A Homeschoolers do not get free computers, they do not receive a book allowance, they do not get special tax incentives to encourage them to stay at home with their children, they are not given subsidised travel on public transport, there are no well-equipped, well-staffed community centres dedicated for their use so that they can supplement work done at home with specialist lessons in another setting. Perhaps all these things will come in the future – when parents demand that a real partnership be created between the state and private individuals to ensure that children really do get the best education that it is possible to provide.

B It gives them a chance to find their feet; to build up their self-confidence; to enjoy themselves; to rebuild relationships with their family and to get a clear perspective on life before diving into a new situation. Beyond this, the home can provide the ideal base for a child’s education from start to finish. It allows flexibility, encourages initiative, fosters self-reliance, gives space for creativity and, nowadays, provides access to an unlimited world of knowledge.

C This applies to parents of children who have special educational needs, children who experience stress at school, children who cannot adapt to the school curriculum, children who are bullied or subject to racist abuse at school and also to parents who wish to provide their children with a level of moral or religious education that cannot be guaranteed by schools in their area. Only a minority of home-educating families are aware at the outset of the educational advantages of home-educating.

D Home-education also has social advantages. School creates an artificial and highly stressful social situation that young children in particular find difficult to deal with. Home-schooled children are not subject to this stress. One of the immediate advantages of this, often remarked on by friends and family, is that home-schooled children get on very well with their brothers and sisters. They do not squabble and fight in the way that has become accepted as normal sibling rivalry in cultures where school attendance is universal. The resulting peace in the home goes a long way to compensate for the extra time and trouble required to home-educate.

E The ubiquity and availability of schools mean that many people have forgotten that, for young children at least, home education was the preferred option for anyone who could afford it for up until quite recently. The reason for this is simply that children learn better when in the comfort of their own homes. The home is a better environment for learning than a classroom.

F Though education is compulsory in the UK, school is not. Many families prefer to educate their children otherwise than at school, and it is their right under UK law to do so. Home educating families do not have to follow the National Curriculum and there is no single ‘right’ way to educate a child at home.

G Even more significantly, there is no money or status to be gained through home-education. It is not possible to be a professional in this field, it arises out of being a parent and is part of a twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week job that is only ever undertaken out of love and never for monetary reward. This means that there are no university departments, no teachers unions, no head teachers, no research institutes and no government officials promoting home-education. The only people who are fully aware of its benefits are the families involved and they are too busy doing it to have time to promote it in a way that does it full justice.

H Home-education is particularly beneficial for any child who, for whatever reason, does not fit in the mainstream school system. This applies especially to children who have special educational needs. All young children thrive under a continuity of care: children need to be able to build up long-term relationships with any adult who is caring for them and those adults have to be available at all times. This requirement is even more imperative in children who have severe learning difficulties; a succession of teachers, however well-meaning they may be, disorients the child and impairs their tenuous process of learning. Home-educating these children requires a huge level of commitment from their families but it is the tried and proven method that works best.

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A. Sarah and Ken are having an argument. Read what Sarah says and complete the dialogue with Ken’s answers from the box below. Then try to guess his last answer.

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C Diane	\|	INNOVATIVE TEACHING

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