B. Homeschooling in UK. Pros and cons

Why I homeschool

This week, pupils across the country are heading back to school after the Christmas break. But my children won't be among them. That's because I've taken the decision to teach them at home, and I don't regret it one bit.

I was a schoolteacher for 15 years and generally it was a very positive and fulfilling experience. However, one thing that really grated on me was the repeated mantra, "black boys are failing". Yes, statistics have shown that at GCSE level black boys may not be performing as well as they could be. But this blanket statement does not recognise the many examples of outstanding successes, and I fear that too often the general story can be inadvertently imposed on individual black boys to undermine their progress.

This came home to me after I sat through a school inset meeting. The visiting trainer asked: "Which group of children are failing?" In chorus my colleagues erupted: "Black boys!" The trainer corrected them: "No, it is now white working-class boys." And these teachers' perceptions came at a time when the few black male pupils at our school were not performing worse than others and were, in some cases, excelling.

Shortly after, my eldest boy received five out of 20 for a maths test, and we began to see a downward trend in his grades. So, my husband and I arranged a meeting at his school. The teacher was somewhat surprised at our concern and said: "Your son is doing well." What? Did the teacher really think that only knowing answers to 25% of test questions was acceptable? Was this really the expectation for my son, and could it be part of the "failing" legacy?

I decided there and then that I was not prepared to have my boys in a system in which they were exposed to such low expectations. Taking our children out of school was a huge step. I realised that the buck now stopped with me – I could never again attribute success or failure to the school system.

The journey has been challenging. To teach my youngest son how to write often caused us both a great deal of frustration. But I remember the morning I put my hand over his to start writing his name, and he shrugged me off saying: "I'll do it." I smiled all day thinking, yes, I have achieved something.

Being mum, teacher, dinner lady and friend to my boys would at the end of most days leave me frazzled. At times I would even resent my husband as he left for work because I knew he was going to have "adult" conversation and the next eight to nine hours was me and the children alone. And each year I still nervously prepare for our annual inspection from the department of education by getting all of the boys' work ready and making sure my marking is up to date. I have held my breath many times as she questions the boys one by one about whether they still enjoy being home schooled: I once cringed as my son said he "wasn't allowed to play or do anything fun", which, of course, was a slight exaggeration.

Despite this, home schooling my sons for the last three years has allowed me to appreciate my time with them. I can teach them about their history, who they are and where they fit into this society. If one of the boys doesn't grasp a concept, I have time to patiently go over and revisit the problem, free of the demands put on teachers in school.

Do I get fed up and annoyed? Of course! Is home schooling difficult sometimes? Yes! But the joy of reading the email that told me that my eldest son had got into one of the top selective secondary schools in our area was priceless.

I certainly don't believe that Britain's school system is broken. I have enjoyed many years teaching in the primary and secondary sectors and it has excellent teachers and practitioners who give pupils a good education. However, I would have been doing my children a disservice to remain in a system that is so quick to tell them they are failing.

I have found the transition of teaching in a classroom to teaching my children at home relatively smooth, but I recognise that this is not an option for everyone. However, I do believe we must do whatever is necessary to protect our boys from the dangerous failure mantra, and start speaking about the success of black boys.

Source:adaptado de Deborah St Cyr en The Guardian

Homeschooling is a bad idea, says expert

With teachers on strike, many parents wish they could fill the gap by teaching their own children. Provided there is a clear enough programme of work to follow parents will do just as well as a nonexistent teacher. But this itch to teach is not confined to strike periods. It goes on all the time. Hardly a day passes without a request for a work programme, recommended textbooks, teaching machines for home use, and so on. All over the country there are parents trying to turn their homes into schools. It is a move which the Advisory Centre for Education has always resisted. Parents and teachers have their separate roles. By keeping to these roles parents and teachers satisfy two essential needs of children.

Most readers are probably happy to be parents to their children without any desire to take over the complex and exhausting job of being a teacher. Such readers may be more than a little surprised at some of these examples.

The one that sticks in my mind most concerns a professional man with several children under 5. Somehow he had heard that children of this age need pre-school education, so he wrote for advice. But not any advice. He wanted films to leave running while he went about his business. This is what I call the sponge theory of education. The brain, so the theory goes, is a clean empty sponge to be filled by mere contact with any material. Incidentally, this theory gives rise to a common misconception about learning: namely that we absorb all that we are exposed to, undisturbed, uncensored.

The theory is wrong on two counts. First, we only absorb a small portion of what we see and hear. Second, we distort information as we learn it. We colour it with our prejudices, we censor it with our conscience, we adapt it according to our previous knowledge and experience.

Fortunately, for the children concerned, there are no such films available, and what the children do need is available, if only in limited supply: playgroups. Children of 3 to 5 need contact with other children; they need carefully selected junk to play with; above all they need to do things.

Another case came to us too late. The damage was already done. A boy of 11 had very determined parents. They had suffered from the ravages of Europe by war and were determined to make a new, successful life in England. So, too, would their son. To make sure he was successful they coached him at home in five subjects - regular lessons on top of a five-and-a-half-day school week with homework. The saddest part was that the boy had a nervous illness which the parents didn't connect with this high-pressure life.

Both these cases are extremes, but they illustrate the principles well enough. In the pre-school period children are not bookworms or film-goers. They are active, inquiring doers. They need to play and to chatter. It is unlikely that a child of this age will learn much just by observing. Once a child is at school there is a second principle. That a full school day is enough for anyone. School provides a certain range of activities, home provides the rest. If home is all schoolwork this leaves a child no time for playing football, watching television, reading, or helping mother with the cooking.

Another important point is the total disregard for school work shown by most cramming parents. A few days ago I received a one-sentence letter which asked me to recommend a maths textbook. No more - no age of child, no mention of the child's ability or achievement, no mention of the course used at the school. To suggest any book in such circumstances would be quite irresponsible. Such a parent must consult the child's maths teacher for advice.

There is, however, one type of teaching which most "Guardian" parents offer their children: teaching a child to read. Whether or not children should start learning to read before they go to school is debatable. There is no easy answer. We have had letters about pathetic cases of good pre-school readers being forced through "Janet and John" Book One by rigid teachers. In these circumstances only the most determined parent can reach a satisfactory solution with the school. Many children are capable of reading before 5; quite often they demand to be taught to read. I cannot see how a parent can refuse such a demand but I do see the difficulties created by pre-school reading. Will the school use the same approach? Will the teacher make allowance for the 5-year-old's reading ability?

But whether or not parents should teach their children to read before they start school, they should certainly help with reading once reading is begun at school. This seems to me to be the only clear-cut case for home teaching. All other forms are invariably cramming and pushing and are rarely in the child's interest

Source: adaptado de Richard Freeman en The Guardian