When I tell people that I was home schooled during a majority of my high school years, I think most of them believe this involved my parents educating me whilst sitting at the kitchen table after having decided to teach me themselves, instead of me being involved in the ordinary secondary school routine. However in reality, it was a completely different experience to this for me and many others too. Of course this is just one of the stereotypical views of being educated at home as seen on TV, and although there might be a vast number of children that are in fact taught under these circumstances, I believe that more recently this has changed among those of secondary school aged pupils as more often than not they do not have much choice in the matter, mainly due to personal problems.
The second well-known 'stereotype' is the idea that families who either choose this for their children or are put into this schooling routine are either rich or very wealthy. I have to admit that before I left high school I believed this idea also and it seemed to make sense, as it's thought that parent's who have a home schooled child have decided on this experience for them and then with that decision, pay a lot of money for a tutor to come out and teach them. Again, this is sometimes the case with a number of families but for me it was the complete opposite - my parents did not want me to be home schooled and they also did not pay anything for me to have the education, they understandably wanted me to have what was considered to be an ordinary teenage life, which they believed included independence whilst also having an aspect of social interaction. However, after realising there was no other option and that I could not return to a regular school they accepted the fact that this was the road that I had to head down.
The last home schooling stereotype that I can think of is the idea that families of children who are educated at home are 'hippie' or earthy and believers in natural ways of living. This is again true in many cases (typically on Wife Swap it would seem...) but guess what? That wasn't the case for me either! By this I mean the parents that believe their own teaching and home environment would be better for their children, therefore one of their parents, usually their mother, will stay at home instead of working and will be their teacher. My Mum at the time and still is, working and happy in her job so there was no way that this approached would have worked for us anyway.
So, when I was first absent from school and was having psychological help (ooer, makes me sound crazy!) the school sent me bits and pieces of work to complete from my subjects in an attempt to stop me from falling behind everyone else. This was difficult at times due to the fact that I had no teacher present to explain any of it to me apart from my mum who tried her best to understand what I had been given. After a while this routine went downhill because of the fact that I couldn't grasp most of it and it was decided that I would have a home tutor come out and teach me for a couple of mornings a week.
The home tutor that I had initially was fairly average and did bits and pieces of work with me but soon she was changed for another lady for an unrelated reason to me. The second lady however was extremely nice and she took the time to do cooking with me in order to make subjects that I struggled with such as maths a whole lot easier, something that I appreciated. However after getting used to this routine and this tutor the government ran out of funding and so my tutor had to be returned to the centre she was sent from to work there. This situation would have been less aggravating if we hadn't of found out that the tutor was in fact being sent back to the centre to teach those that had been expelled. This meant that somebody hard working and determined was missing out on a better education that was being used on pupils that had been chucked out of their own schools for not wanting to learn, a little unfair?
Anyway, after this incident I remember different members of the council coming out to our house as they were trying to decide on what type of education I could have whilst still remaining situated at home. Somebody suggested 'E-Learning' which is an online learning system where students are taught their chosen subjects by ordinary teachers by the use on online communication only. To start with I remember me and my mum especially feeling apprehensive as to whether this concept would be successful as it would of course take a great deal of drive in order to actually get anything done due to the lack of interaction with those in authority! Despite these first impressions of the idea, we eventually as a family agreed that it was worth giving E-Learning a try and it was in fact an effective way of being educated as I was taught through to Year 11 using it.
The second well-known 'stereotype' is the idea that families who either choose this for their children or are put into this schooling routine are either rich or very wealthy. I have to admit that before I left high school I believed this idea also and it seemed to make sense, as it's thought that parent's who have a home schooled child have decided on this experience for them and then with that decision, pay a lot of money for a tutor to come out and teach them. Again, this is sometimes the case with a number of families but for me it was the complete opposite - my parents did not want me to be home schooled and they also did not pay anything for me to have the education, they understandably wanted me to have what was considered to be an ordinary teenage life, which they believed included independence whilst also having an aspect of social interaction. However, after realising there was no other option and that I could not return to a regular school they accepted the fact that this was the road that I had to head down.
The last home schooling stereotype that I can think of is the idea that families of children who are educated at home are 'hippie' or earthy and believers in natural ways of living. This is again true in many cases (typically on Wife Swap it would seem...) but guess what? That wasn't the case for me either! By this I mean the parents that believe their own teaching and home environment would be better for their children, therefore one of their parents, usually their mother, will stay at home instead of working and will be their teacher. My Mum at the time and still is, working and happy in her job so there was no way that this approached would have worked for us anyway.
My Experience:
I just thought that to round this off I would explain my home schooling experience as it may inform others on the process that I went through. If you have read my previous post on Anxiety then this will all make a lot more sense to you I would imagine! From the very beginning, or near enough the beginning, is probably the best place to start with this explanation.So, when I was first absent from school and was having psychological help (ooer, makes me sound crazy!) the school sent me bits and pieces of work to complete from my subjects in an attempt to stop me from falling behind everyone else. This was difficult at times due to the fact that I had no teacher present to explain any of it to me apart from my mum who tried her best to understand what I had been given. After a while this routine went downhill because of the fact that I couldn't grasp most of it and it was decided that I would have a home tutor come out and teach me for a couple of mornings a week.
The home tutor that I had initially was fairly average and did bits and pieces of work with me but soon she was changed for another lady for an unrelated reason to me. The second lady however was extremely nice and she took the time to do cooking with me in order to make subjects that I struggled with such as maths a whole lot easier, something that I appreciated. However after getting used to this routine and this tutor the government ran out of funding and so my tutor had to be returned to the centre she was sent from to work there. This situation would have been less aggravating if we hadn't of found out that the tutor was in fact being sent back to the centre to teach those that had been expelled. This meant that somebody hard working and determined was missing out on a better education that was being used on pupils that had been chucked out of their own schools for not wanting to learn, a little unfair?
Anyway, after this incident I remember different members of the council coming out to our house as they were trying to decide on what type of education I could have whilst still remaining situated at home. Somebody suggested 'E-Learning' which is an online learning system where students are taught their chosen subjects by ordinary teachers by the use on online communication only. To start with I remember me and my mum especially feeling apprehensive as to whether this concept would be successful as it would of course take a great deal of drive in order to actually get anything done due to the lack of interaction with those in authority! Despite these first impressions of the idea, we eventually as a family agreed that it was worth giving E-Learning a try and it was in fact an effective way of being educated as I was taught through to Year 11 using it.
Now and Then:
Now that I'm at college I can definitely see the difference in having a teacher who is there for you in comparison to what I had and that is probably one of the website's downfalls. The fact that you cannot get help as easily as when at a physical school or college was difficult and so most of the time it was considered that I taught myself most of what work I was sent. In terms of what you learn, I guess you could say it was quite basic as there just wasn't enough hours of lessons in a week to grasp everything I was given and the cramming in work before my GCSE's wasn't there, whereas before my AS exams, it sure was!That is basically, my home schooling experience in a nutshell in comparison to the stereotypes seen by other people! I hope it helped you understand the process and everything, I know this post might not be to everyone's taste but I felt the need to write it anyway. If you have any requests of posts you would like to see then please leave me a comment, thank you! x
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