Home schooling is not much of a thing in the Netherlands. We have compulsory education (i.e. in a qualified school) from age 5 until age 16 (partialy continueing until 18 if you donât have some minimum job qualification).
For home schooling youâd need to apply for an exemption from compulsory education, and that may not be easy. You usually need a good reason to get an exemption, such as physical / mental / psychological issues, an itinerant existence or a mismatch in religion / spirituality / philosophy of life.
There are antroposophical schools that (claim to) nurture the things you are nurturing in your home schooling.
I also think that is the case here, but in practice itâs quite a challenge with large classes and overworked and underpaid teachers. Our shortage of teachers has been growing for decades.
Iâve never been sure about homeschooling (in countries where it is possible).
Even if we take the optimal parents, who know what they are doing, we canât substitute the âsociety clusterâ aspect of school. I always thought schools are not a place for learning, but for growing up.
The educational part of homeschooling can be excellent, if the right steps are taken. I am not as worried about that (the possibility, not the actual implementation). I am a bit worried about the lack of socializing with people who are not like-minded.
At school, you learn to cope with boredom and frustration, you learn to handle bullies, you learn to handle entitled people, aloof people, misinformed people, nice people, powerful people, rich people, poor people, smart people, stupid people, people who have no clue but they can ask you to follow instructions, people who are followers, people who are leaders.
I find it a nice way to mimic your future job and your future neighbourhood, also the futility of some obligations in life and to find ways to overcome and survive them. During the lockdowns, that was my main concern for school age kids. Not the alleged educational benefits.
This is the first thing Iâve heard about the Netherlands that I havenât liked I guess nowhere is perfect
Despite the name, these days a huge part of âhome schoolingâ is social outings and community groups. I would argue that modern homeshool kids learn everything you listed here. Many of their lessons come from âthe real worldâ rather than a âstructured classroomâ
In that case, homeschooling is a good option. I am not against the idea of learning at home, as long as it is not a cult-like experience for the child and that there is always the possibility of opt-out.
I suppose a group of like minded parents and educators would establish their own school over here that would adhere to their special interests, which they have a constitutional right to do.
FWIW, in Australia at least, unless you put a lot of work into gatekeeping, because there are SO MANY reasons one might prefer honeschooling over more formal options, you rarely see anything like âa group of like minded parentsâ with unified âspecial interestsâ.
In many ways, home schooling groups are some of my most diverse circles Iâm exposed to.
If a specific community is too small, or not concentrated enough geographically, it is difficult to establish a school.
The muslim community (5% of our population) has succeeded in establishing dozens of islamic schools here, but the efforts of the buddhist community (0.3% of the population) have not yet resulted in establishing buddhist schools.
The concept that âtheir little angel can do not wrongâ is amplified in school, but it, unfortunately, begins at home, by most parents, which is why in a lot of cases homeschooling doesnât really help with that woeful part of growing up.
I will totally agree with all this and I coundlnât have said it better. I am quoting them in order to add to those points that:
A social outing and a community group is not a real substitute for school, exactly because school is an inescapable environment composed by everyone, without choice or exception.
As a parent you are bound to avoid a âcommunity groupâ that has bullies, morons, kids that are prone to âpunch first, swear second and think lastâ, kids that are not smart, kids that might rely on your kids to do things and a dozen more other things that any parent - given a choice - would indeed like their children to avoid, since those things are unsavory.
Have your kids ever in those community groups been threatened, ganged upon older children, ridiculed, insulted, punched, shoved, having stuff stolen from them, had to fend for themselves, face adversity and injustice while the supervisors pretend to not see or genuinly not care?
Most probably not. But those stuff are par for the course for most schools everywhere (whether you are facing those things or inflicting them on other kids or both) because kids tend to be much more nasty than parents imagine
And if it has experienced those things, what would you do? Stay there and do nothing? Wouldnât you change the âcommunity groupâ you and your children attend to one that is more tame and appropriate?
Most probably yes.
However all those things are a good experience of the real world where you cannot always choose your group, neighbourhood, job or colleagues and you are bound to be surrounded by nasty people.
And then it is the timeframe issue. School is 5 days per week for 7 hours per day for months. There is no community group that I am aware of that lasts that long. The amount of interactions are different.
And then there is the proximity of parents issue. When you take your child in a community group, parents and supervisors usually tend to hand around or, at the very least, have their own kind of community meeting in some garden, lounge or nearby establishment. A lot of kids have different behaviours and reactions when supervised or under the threat of âparents are nearby, letâs tone this down a notchâ.
If you can combine homeschooling with school, Iâd say thatâs getting the best of two worlds, but there really is no substitute for the social (or anti-social ) aspects of school.
I suppose the educational part can be fine up to maybe age 10-14, depending on the education of the parent(s) responsible for the home schooling.
But at some point education tends to become more specialized, and parents canât be well versed in everything. So Iâd expect that home schooled children need to switch to formal education in a school at some point. Isnât that a huge culture shock for those children, going from a sheltered environment of home schooling to the very diverse environment that you tend to have in regular schools?
From what Iâm being told, homeschooling is not something that parents do, at least not if they are reasonable people.
Parents usually teach their own specializations and only up to a certain grade. There are specialized instructors and whole networks of instructors.
I donât mean the type of instructor you would hire for music or tennis or English or Go, I mean trained school teachers who are hired by parents and have to follow specific curricula (?) in order for the child to be able to claim a certificate and to have the right to attend state-wide exams.
Thatâs why I think the educational part should be ok, unless the experience is cult-like.
Itâs guided by a stay at home parent, most of home schooling is not about pretending you know everything, but helping your child teach themselves by helping them to find reliable sources. This is a skill that will serve them for life.
If this is your experience of the real world, I am very sorry. I will happily train my children that all such experiences are totally unacceptable and totally avoidable. I certainly find all you said present in schools, but practically nowhere else in the world (not the Australian world anyway, I canât speak for your country) which is precisely why I want my children growing up in situations that will more accurately train them for the rest of their life.
As long as parents are making sound, rational decisions about their child, based on their childâs needs and educational requirements, I do nor care if they homeschool or not.
Iâve seen kids in my classes that should not be homeschooled, and Iâve supported homeschooled kids that should not be in a classroom. (Homeschooled kids that should be in a classroom/classroom kids that should be at home are rare and, in my experience, have only been a result of parents that shouldnât be parents)
I initially thought that after COVID, parents wouldnât want their kids home all the time, but homeschooling rates went up. This is partly due to parental fears (which I do not think are good, and are passed on to kids), and partly due to parents seeing teachers burn out and not enjoy teaching as much these days.
The only real downside comes from social stigma imposed by other kids. âoh you were homeschooled? you must be a maladjusted individual with no social skills. good luck getting a jobâ or âyou went to school? you probably have no passion or intuition for learning, you just got force-fed the same thing as everyone elseâ. As long as parents do not encourage or allow these kinds of thoughts and behaviours, itâs all good.
Corporate America, which is what K-12 is designed to âprepareâ you for.