in the guardian: Ten years of bold education boasts now look sadly hollow
Even more fascinating comment thread. So, home educators, are there any ways that schools could be changed in such a way that you would consider using them for your children?
fascinating article
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17 responses to “fascinating article”
A friend (of several of us) moved to New Zealand, and her reports of the school her daughters attend sound fantastic. Physical exercise every day, loads of freedom to choose activities, happy teachers, etc. Plus the whole barefoot thing, which I just love. I don’t know how much of it is to do with it being a small rural community and how much is government-dictated though.
I don’t think the barefoot thing would go down well here.
I’d just like schools to be opened up fully to communities. Not community groups, just the ordinary people. So you didn’t have to sign up to attend avery day from 9-3 in order to be able to use them. Or sign up to any time at all, come to think of it.
I agree with Gill. I’d love to be able to attend school alongside my children, and yet choose not to sometimes! But I guess you weren’t talking to me, Jax 😉
Sarah, I was indeed talking to you as well, just because your kids have chosen a different path doesn’t mean you have 🙂
I am convinced that the thing that really makes the difference is parental commitment and involvement. Involvement doesn’t mean interruption, direction and intervention, necessarily, but it does mean caring and taking an interest.
Flexibility doesn’t hurt at all, either, in fact, letting your children decide for themselves that they want to go to school is a form of autonomous education, isn’t it?
PS Ours weren’t given much choice when we inserted them into Montessori – but I think we would have to drag them out, probably kicking and screaming. 🙂Hmmm… I wonder if there’s such a thing as autonomous dragging… 😆
I think you are right, it is parental support which makes a difference, whatever form of education one uses (as a parent or as a child, lol!).
At what age does the Montessori school finish, incidentally? How long is it before you have to make any decisions about the next step?What – make them drag themselves? 🙂
Sarah – it finishes around 11, and plans are already underway 😉
Yes Gill, my lot drag me to school every day. Come on Mum, walk us to school. I tried to get out of it today because it was Victorian Day for Children in Need (I’m sure chimney sweeps and servant girls didn’t even go to school let alone get walked there by their mothers) but they weren’t having any of it.
Tim (comment 6) I totally agree with you. And actually, I think that home ed kids (on average) would fare far better in school than the average schooled kid because (on average) the parental interest and support is stronger. Which is also a major factor (of many) that explains why privately schooled children do better (on average) too. It’s not just the school. It’s primarily the parents.
For me, I think that with the resources they have, state schools do just about as well as they could possibly hope to. I can’t think of any change that I would make that wouldn’t cost huge amounts of money to implement. Except maybe giving teachers more power in the classroom to exclude disruptive pupils and therefore forcing parents to accept their responsibilities when they have to stay home to look after their little ‘darling’. Maybe then teachers can get on with… err… teaching.I’m not sure I do agree tbh. I don’t remember getting homework when I was at primary school, and somehow they muddled through getting me to read, write and add up. They managed it with all my sisters as well, despite the fact that books were not a feature in our house until I started buying them with my pocket money. I agree that parents have some influence, but the whole point of mass education was to ensure that everyone got the basic skills, so if they can’t achieve that without blaming it on the parents, it’s time to take the system down.
Barbara, I think we are spending relatively much more on education and getting far less out of it than in the past.
The performance of the system overall was probably never great, but we are spending a huge amount of money on primary schools which have children for six years and are failing to equip them at the most basic level to move on to secondary education.If there were free Monte schools I’d certainly give it a go with Aprilia. I like the idea that the children learn at their own pace, guided rather than taught by the staff. I love the idea that all facets of development are given equal value, little ones are given as much support learning how to do basic “practical life” activities as they are to more traditional “educational” activities.
I do think though that this whole teaching to the test and mountains of paperwork that primary teachers need to deal with is very counter-productive. Ditching that lot would probably go a long way to improving teacher morale and hopefully then class morale.I thought the whole point of mass education was to ensure that everyone got the *opportunity* to get the basic skills. I don’t think it was ever supposed to be able to do it totally independently and without any support, even if that support was just moral.
I think parents of schooled children generally have more influence than their teachers, and more influence (positive and negative) than they themselves or society credit them for.Not sure I’m following you Barbara, at the point when mass education came in surely a large number of the parents wouldn’t have been able to much to help their kids, and the law made it compulsory because otherwise the kids were being sent to work by the aforementioned parents (a distinct lack of moral support iyswim). I’ve no real idea how successful it was though.
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