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Free-range children
Regular columnist Claire Evans talks about home educating
Our children are now ten and seven years-old and we have been home educating all of their lives. It is something most parents do, without really appreciating the fact, until their children are four or five. When I had my first child, there wasn't a thought in my head about home education as an option. Like other mothers around me, I trailed around the nursery schools and later the primary schools trying to choose an appropriate place for her to be educated.
The Damascan moment came when I read an article in a natural parenting magazine (pre-Juno) about home-educating, which seemed to suggest that, far from having to hand over my daughter to someone else, I could actually just carry on doing what I had been absorbed in for the past four or five years.
I suppose that is the essence of home education, simply carrying on the natural development of your child. I started to seek out literature on the subject and soon came across Education Otherwise (EO) and the Home Education Advisory Service (HEAS), both umbrella bodies seeking to offer support and advice to parents wanting to home educate.
Even though I had been blessed with my revelation, I have to admit that the decision was not easily made. Swimming against the tide is not easy. All around me, friends were clamouring for prized nursery places. I did, for a couple of years, send my daughter to an embryonic Steiner kindergarten for a few mornings each week. I also secured a primary place for her at a Montessori school.
When she reached her fifth birthday, however, I finally took that necessary deep breath and didn't send her anywhere.
So, why? Isn't life challenging enough? What is home education exactly?
Home education is many, many things and I am sure that no two families approach their home education in exactly the same way. But then, no two families are the same, no two children's needs are the same. We started by looking at what we wanted to achieve from the education of our children. Every parent wants their child to grow up equipped for the challenges life will undoubtedly throw at them.
We wanted them to be happy and emotionally literate adults, who will be able to contribute and give back to society. We looked at our own experience in the education system. Between us we had experienced education at a large state comprehensive, at a minor public school and at university. Both us had a hefty list of qualifications from 16 + through to degree and professional qualifications. On paper, then, exactly the sort of middle class parents who would more than likely be applying pressure on their children to achieve, to pass those entrance exams and aim for university.
But actually, standing back from it all, we both realised that the most important aspects of our own education had come from our parents' input, from the interests we had pursued beyond the school timetable and during our post formal education years. Looking back at what we had done by way of compulsory education, much of it turned out to be, at best, irrelevant.
We wanted our children to be able to think freely and for them to be able to question received wisdoms and challenge accepted norms. What home education allows is the freedom for children to develop at their own speed, following their own interests, rather than being constantly tested and made to 'learn' facts that are of no interest to them. No tree ever grew any better by being pulled up in order for the roots to be inspected.
We want our children to approach examinations as a choice and to be able to have the confidence to gather the qualifications necessary for what they eventually decide to do, rather than have their adolescence blighted by the collection of largely pointless pieces of paper, which may or may not be of any value to them in their adult lives. We all suspect, deep down, that having an A* GCSE in Maths does not necessarily mean that you have a natural aptitude in the area.
I am still regularly asked whether home education is legal and, as things stand at the moment, it is. The 1996 Education Act, section 7 states: "The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school OR OTHERWISE." (My emphasis). The responsibility for educating children rests with the parents. We decided not to delegate that responsibility.
There is no typical day in the life of our home educating family. Some days are filled with sitting around a table working through workbooks, watching BBC school programmes, spelling tests, time tables revision, writing practice, quiet reading time and science experiments in the kitchen and garden. There are many more days spent playing long and involved games, drawing chalk pictures on the patio, writing scripts for a radio station the studio of which is in one of the bedrooms, bouncing on the trampoline, sitting in the garden bird-watching. Other days still we will have fellow home-educating families over for the day, or we will be out enjoying a history workshop at the National Archives, or a painting and drawing workshop at the Wallace Collection or in the basement of the Natural History Museum handling the skulls of sea mammals. And like most children of their age, my two are busy most evenings and weekends with dancing, singing, drama and sporting activities.
Like most home-educators, I have my days of complete panic and self-doubt. Taking on the full responsibility of guiding your children's education is a big deal. Every day of their education is an adventure, as much for us as for the children and every day I count myself utterly blessed that this is how we are doing it.
Claire lives with her husband and her two children in Surrey.
Resources
Education Otherwise (EO) is a membership organisation that provides information and support to home educating families.
EO is a grass-roots, self-help group mainly run by volunteers. Everyone is welcome to play a part. They offer:
- local and national gatherings and activities;
- bi-monthly newsletter with articles, letters, adverts, regional diary and contacts;
- discounts on a range of books, leaflets and multimedia learning resources;
- local contacts for social and educational groups and support in dealing with local authorities;
- handbook and contact list;
- free/reduced entry to various places of interest;
- Support/information on school anxieties, single parenting, special needs, GCSEs, etc.
For more info. send an A5 SAE to:
PO Box 325
Kings Lynn
PE34 3XW
Helpline 0870 7300074
www.education-otherwise.org
Home Education Advisory Service
www.heas.org.uk
Tel: 01707 371854
enquiries@heas.org.uk
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© Juno Magazine 2007 |
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