Home Education

pipkin71

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

I don't have children, but what would concern me is that, thinking back to my own education, neither of my parents had the necessary knowledge to teach me O level maths, physics, chemistry, biology, electronics (etc), indeed from when I started secondary school, I was learning stuff in those subjects they knew nothing about having both left school at 15.

A million fun activities won't make up for being unable to teach calculus, or thermodynamics, or Newton's laws of motion. How do home educators that were not good at STEM subjects cope with teaching these to seconadry school age children?

There is no legal requirement for home educated children to study the same subjects as school educated children.

Loz01

pipkin71 wrote: »

There is no legal requirement for home educated children to study the same subjects as school educated children.

How do they do GCSE's and A Levels/BTEC's etc then?

pipkin71

Loz01 wrote: »

How do they do GCSE's and A Levels/BTEC's etc then?

They don't legally have to sit any formal exams.

Loz01

pipkin71 wrote: »

They don't legally have to sit any formal exams.

So how would they apply for Uni? Or what happens when they apply for a job and have to list all formal qualifications? In my current job HR wanted copies of all my GCSE/A Level and degree certificates.

I'm not being rude Im just kind of curious what would happen if you home schooled a child til 18 and they had no qualifications to show for it. My neighbour "unschools" her two children and... yeah. Its quite something.

pipkin71

Loz01 wrote: »

So how would they apply for Uni? Or what happens when they apply for a job and have to list all formal qualifications? In my current job HR wanted copies of all my GCSE/A Level and degree certificates.

I'm not being rude Im just kind of curious what would happen if you home schooled a child til 18 and they had no qualifications to show for it. My neighbour "unschools" her two children and... yeah. Its quite something.

I know several children who were autonomously educated - so no formal studying towards exams /qualifications - who were accepted onto university courses based on their own merit. Having no formal qualifications didn't prevent from studying at a higher level.

With regards autonomously educated children I know who wanted to go to college at 16 without any GCSEs, they sat tests to see if they were capable of studying for the course they wanted to enrol on so it's not necessary to have qualifications at ages 16-18 to advance education.

I can't answer with regards jobs and what employers look for as I don't honestly know but those friends my girls are still in touch with all seem to be doing well.

onomatopoeia99

pipkin71 wrote: »

I know several children who were autonomously educated - so no formal studying towards exams /qualifications - who were accepted onto university courses based on their own merit. Having no formal qualifications didn't prevent from studying at a higher level.

The university I attended required a very high standard in Maths and Physics A level for entry into engineering courses, which is what I studied. The reason they had these requirements is that you needed to be that good at Maths and Physics and have the specific knowledge taught on the A level syllabus to have the foundations that the first year of the undergraduate course built on. Without it, one would be floundering. That is what I would be concerned about as a home educator and what I was trying to understand about how home education worked in those scenarios.

I met no home educated people at university during my three years as an undergraduate. I mostly talked to engineers and scientists though, so can't speak for those in humanities, classics and the arts.

Mela322

I have been home educating my children for the past 2 years. I have no qualifications to teach them but I certainly wasn't going to let that stop me seeing that our local school was failing them.

I learn right along with them, we get to have deep meaningful talks about our subjects, we can go off on tangents if we feel like it. We can get out to experience living history, nature, science, math, geography...so much hands on in real life situations. We are quite structured but I do leave out the garbage they don't need. My foundation child is doing year 2 maths, my year 3 child is doing year 4 maths, and my year 7 child is doing year 6 maths (he was very behind when I took him out). They are ahead in many areas just due to the one on one learning they get. My job is to keep the higher education doors open. You don't need to go to school to go to university.

For those that think home ed kids are weird, that's probably because there were already issues there such as anxiety or stress or even autism traits. Home ed doesn't make children weird but as mentioned before, what is weird? Just because they don't fit your mould?

Why does socialising always come up with home education? Socialising at school is forced socialisation. My child had so many friends at school and always had lots of play dates and birthday invites. The moment we left school, her "friends" never spoke to her again. Children socialise in so many other ways and in different places. I'm so happy that my children aren't forced to socialise at school. There is so much peer pressure and bullying these days, socialising at school is in a sad state.

I never thought I would home educate, I thought I didn't want to lose my "me" time. However, I've not really missed it. I really enjoy teaching them and spending quality time with them. I never thought I would teach my youngest to read! Or my oldest, algebra! I learn with them.

Don't judge people just based on your opinion or the few home educated children you have met. It doesn't represent the reality of the truth behind the scenes.

Doody

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

The university I attended required a very high standard in Maths and Physics A level for entry into engineering courses, which is what I studied. The reason they had these requirements is that you needed to be that good at Maths and Physics and have the specific knowledge taught on the A level syllabus to have the foundations that the first year of the undergraduate course built on. Without it, one would be floundering. That is what I would be concerned about as a home educator and what I was trying to understand about how home education worked in those scenarios.

I met no home educated people at university during my three years as an undergraduate. I mostly talked to engineers and scientists though, so can't speak for those in humanities, classics and the arts.

Many home edding families do work towards exams. It is possible to buy in courses, work from the syllabus books or swap skills with other families. Exams are then sat as external candidates in approved centres. There are yahoo groups and FB groups and probably more devoted to supporting families doing this.

Open University is a resource also used by many. Our family's experience was some time ago but am aware of an autonomous family who's eldest son entered Uni to read maths. Many other success stories with a motivated young person realising they needed the qualifications to get to the next stage they wanted in their education and doing what would take years in schools in a vastly sorter time scale.

pipkin71

Doody wrote: »

Many home edding families do work towards exams. It is possible to buy in courses, work from the syllabus books or swap skills with other families. Exams are then sat as external candidates in approved centres. There are yahoo groups and FB groups and probably more devoted to supporting families doing this.

Open University is a resource also used by many. Our family's experience was some time ago but am aware of an autonomous family who's eldest son entered Uni to read maths. Many other success stories with a motivated young person realising they needed the qualifications to get to the next stage they wanted in their education and doing what would take years in schools in a vastly sorter time scale.

Absolutely.

My own children took formal exams, sitting them at external exam centres then eldest went to college whereas youngest continued to study through the OU.

There are so many options available through home ed that I'm glad we got to experience it.

FBaby

I know several children who were autonomously educated - so no formal studying towards exams /qualifications - who were accepted onto university courses based on their own merit. Having no formal qualifications didn't prevent from studying at a higher level.

How long ago though? I would think it is much harder nowadays to get into any form of higher education without any qualifications, and harder to get into employment too. Of course, there is always the option of starting from scratch as an adult, but that is going to mean going through it all again in your 20s or 30s, which can be fine, but can also mean delaying a chance to a career or earning a living during that time.

I do believe there are a number of reasons when home education can be much better than state education. A child with some learning difficulties who is unlikely to ever do well at exams is most likely to benefit in an environment where learning is tailored to their need and their confidence and self belief can grow so that employment and even a career is still possible.

It might also be beneficial for G&T pupils whose speed of learning exceed that offered in school and is able to take on exams at such speed that they have plenty of time left to expand on further learning.

It might also be the right choice for kids who just hate school...depending on the reasons why they do so. If it is because they lack social skills to mix with others, don't like any form of authority, or are too lazy to apply any learning, then it won't do them any favour. However, if it is that they learn differently, are a natural crafter who need to be active with a flair of entrepreneurial aptitude, who can start a business at the age of 15 and the capacity to return to education doing evening classes at an older age, then again, that might work best for them.