School is more than just learning it’s a social thing to I have meet some kids and young adults that where homeschooling and all of them have been really bad in in the aspect being social and working in groups
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That is the reasoning behind this law.
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The school starting age in Finland is also seven - and you’re right, it is regarded as among the best school systems in the world - everywhere, not just in Sweden.
Swedish schools are really bad now days
Most of my friends have their kids in Sweden in private schools now
Thank you, everyone, for your comments.
The proposed legislation was part of a number of measures to restate various principles, and to try to halt the creeping separationism that France suffers from. The reason he gave for the home-schooling change was that he wants to ensure children are brought up with an understanding of French principles.
It seems like a good idea to me. But then, I could never understand the idea of home-schooling anyway, though I have friends who do it.
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Not sure I understand the advantages of home schooling, but in general I disapprove of faith schools, as opposed to home schools.
I never noticed the effects of my C of E primary school on me, but the 5 years I spent as a boarder at a secondary school attached to a Minster did not endear the Christian religion to me.
A good secular education in a social atmosphere is what kids need, they can make their minds up about life choices later when they have the equipment to do so.
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As with everything it depends on circumstances. Locally we have a moderately sized (850 pupils) CofE school - it takes 50% non-church, got an Ofsted “good” rating at its last inspection and I would have had little problem sending my son (he didn’t go there but for other reasons than it’s church association and quality of education).
A little less locally, in Birmingham, Ofsted rightly tore apart some of the very small and very questionable single-faith schools. Quite rightly as they were awful and out of touch with the needs of a wider society.
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Most parents that home-school do so, I think, for two main reasons:
- Schools tend to be normative. This is fine for most children - but some kids are extraordinary.
- Schools tend to follow a particular educational philosophy, which not all parents share; there may be a nearby school with an alternative philosophy - such as the Montessori Method - but this is unlikely.
But my main concern (as with most political policies) is the apparent weakness of its evidence base. For example, there is indeed evidence that faith schools, particularly if they are informal or unregulated, are damaging in various ways - but as far as I know no evidence at all that proper home-schooling has any ill effects - indeed, just the opposite.
The problem with dealing with possibly harmfull or extreme faith schools is that you have to be impartial, and not appear to favour your own particular religion.
My 5 years next door to the Minster did not damage me or influence me one way or the other (I think 
) and I did make my own mind up in due course, but I know that I did deeply resent being forced, under pain of punishment (corporal), to attend at least one of the many services each Sunday.
My friends and I tended to go either to the first one and get it over with, or put it off till the very last minute at evensong. 
Ok, that is a reason!
I think it would be difficult to come up with a policy that prevented faith schools, but allowed unsupervised home schooling. A lot of the worst example of illegal or restrictive schools are in people’s homes.
If I have understood this right (which is not a given!) then if you are subscribed to a programme of home schooling then that will continue to be allowed.
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I didn’t read that in any of the articles I have read.
I saw it on the news, tf1 or france2 the day it was announced but nobody’s talked about it since, I think everyone’s convinced it’s a good idea and nobody mentioned letting it continue for those already underway. The big problem is the coranic schools, taught in arabic, girls in full burkas, complete brainwashing in some cases (no not all and don’t bother having a go, I’m just saying how they’re considered by French people. I’ve got plenty of “non gaulois” male customers who are married but you hardly ever see their wives as they’re kept “under lock and key”. I’m not making a generalisation but giving an account of what happens in more multicultural towns and cities (what you don’t often see in the countryside!)) PS this is certainly not a poke to start a racism debate.
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Well it hasn’t even gone to the Assemblée yet, so no guarantee anything would ever be passed. But to me any school that restricts open learning is wrong - whether on religious or gender grounds, or even creationists. And I include talmudic, koranic and christian so-called schools in this.
I think I made my assumption from an article in L’Obs, to quote: “ Le président a évoqué des parents d’élèves qui refusent de mettre leurs enfants au cours de musique ou à la piscine. Ces enfants ne vont pas au Cned [enseignement à distance, NDLR] mais dans des structures nullement déclarées”. Which I read as mean that those children who are educated via CNED schooling at home are not included in this prohibition.
(Oh, and we have a significant muslim population in our tiny rural town, it is not just in big cities)
the kids are being schooled in schools that aren’t registered - read “indoctrinated” in some cases. I’ve got over half a dozen barres d’immeuble HLM within a couple of hundred metres of my tabac with a very mixed population ; I’m the only legal drugs dealer in the quartier… witnessed a réglement de compte not long ago with guns, one dealer bundled into a car, another fled past me, within a metre, as another chased him pointing a pistol at his head 
they don’t ever show things like that on a place in the sun or whatever it’s called 
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I don’t want to get into a crime competition, but I think if you lift up the carpet just about anywhere in France you will find some violent crime these days. We are 39, not 93, but a small but steady rate of nastiness, drugs, violence and aggression… the rural idyll is a bit ragged round the edges in places, especially as drugs gangs do set up shop in deep countryside now.
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There will be confusion over this as there are two types of CNED, the regulated, which isn’t classed as Homeschooling as such, rather its distance learning and all progress reports and exams results are logged by CNED directly with the academic inspectorates. It’s all monitored and follows the correct and age appropriate curriculum exactly the same as a French school. No risk here of the Republic’s values being eroded! Then there is the ‘free’ CNED courses which are classed as Homeschooling (although the content seems to be identical, there is just no official regulating paperwork sent out to inspectorate) and declarations of Homeschooling need to be filed with both local Mairie and academic inspectorate - and then they both do inspection visits to ensure learning is on track and safe. Of course, there is currently no legal obligation to follow a curriculum, but once registered with the authorities children are assessed annually by teachers and inspectors to ensure they are learning the right things at the right level, and there are robust procedures to ensure the child is enrolled in school and the parents fined and/or imprisoned if there isn’t proper progress or if they don’t conform. Doesn’t therefore seem much of a need to change things for those families homeschooling, as the system is already strict in ensuring education is appropriate in these situations. The unregulated schools that shun French curriculum and values are an entirely different issue - would be sad to see a small percentage of good homeschoolers lose out due to a sweeping change in the law rather than targeted action.
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This is how I feel as well. Thanks for the explanation regarding the CNED.
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