SCHOOL OR HOME EDUCATION?

Elective Home education

Over the past twenty years predominantly in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, home education has significantly developed with a new interest of research into this area. The attention has previously rested on the historical development, legal and political issues and communications with the educational authorities however the question of how parents educate their children at home has received little research (Thomas and Pattison 2008).

‘Elective home learning’ is the term officially used to portray a situation in which parents would rather take full accountability for their children’s education without the aid of schooling. Parents that choose to home educate their children are not entitled to any funding from the local authority (Arora 2006).

Home education is something that most of us are unaware of, including myself, which is why I chose it as an area to discuss. Although we as traditional learners may find home learning slightly unusual, there are many families both in the UK and worldwide that educate their children from home; research has provided evidence that the number of families implementing home learning has grown significantly (Arora 2006).

Interestingly, the legal pursuit of home education states that although education is compulsory, schooling is not (Arora 2006). Under section 7 of the 1996 act, it prescribes that parents have an obligation to guarantee that when their child reaches the school age, they must receive ‘efficient full-time education, suitable to his age, aptitude and ability and to any special educational need that he may have, either by regular attendance at a school or otherwise’ (A The National Archives 2011).   

In order to home educate, there are no specific qualifications required by the parents or any other individual wishing to educate. The law currently states that in England and Wales, families wishing to home educate are not obliged to formally advise anyone if there child has not already attended school (Rothermel 2002).  Additionally, there is no set format of teaching, or legal requirement for the child to adhere to the National Curriculum (Rothermel 2002). Although, Thomas and Pattison (2008) have suggested that previous research provides evidence that some parents try to follow a formal timetable, however they tend to gravitate away from this later on.

So why do families choose to home-educate? There is no one answer as there are a variety of factors behind this decision. There may be philosophical, religious beliefs, or heritage elements to their decision or a child may have started in school, and other factors such as bullying, school phobia or special educational needs have caused this decision to be detracted (Education other-wise 2010). An article by Webb (2011) states how he personally educated his daughter and suggest reasoning’s for home schooling; these may be due to schools not educating effectively, which can have a detrimental effect of children; furthermore it is suggested that using teaching methods such as natural learning, informal learning and everyday cultural curriculums are far more successful.

One major concern of home education that has been argued in the literature is that children fail to be part of a social life, resulting in children developing fewer social skills. Research however has contradicted this argument with findings indicating that home educated children are well accustomed and confident and convey higher self-esteem than children of the same age that have attended school (Arora 2006). 

A short video clip of a teenager who has experienced home learning. I chose this as it is a real-life situation.