Via CILIP's news briefing (available to members only) I read that over two million children in America are home educated (I'm too Scottish/Yorkshire to pay money to The Economist to read the whole article), and are described as 'George Bush's private army'. Teachers should apparently be frightened.
Quite right too. I hated school and am a big advocate of home education. I wouldn't particularly wish to be part of Bush's private army but I'm guessing that that refers to the large number of Christian parents home-educating. I recently watched a Louis Theroux documentary about modern day Nazis in Texas, one family home-educated to bring their children up with their beliefs. Even home education has it's dark side I suppose.
Schools seem to lack any creativity, and doesn't really allow the child to pace their development to suit them. It isn't necessarily the fault of teachers (although there are some bad ones around). With the government's obsession with testing, league tables and the literacy hour is it any wonder it's all going wrong? Unless something happens I will probably join the many people in Britain home-educating when I start dropping sprogs. It's easy to say that it helps if you are educated, middle class and have a spouse to go out and earn money for you, but having read testimonials in the Education Otherwise newsletter, it appears that anyone can do it.
There are loads of organisations out there, if you are interested in learning more, Education Otherwise, Home Education Advisory Service and Free Range Education. The BBC also has a very interesting article that includes looking at the social side, I urge all to read it.
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