I’m sorry if my comments were deemed inflammatory, I will try to be more moderate in future. Politicians know exactly what they are saying and who their audience is. Macron will have an eye on the next election and his most serious challenger. He will, therefore, I believe, want to ease up a notch or two on the populist rhetoric. It might not be as extreme as Patel and Johnson but he is a bit more subtle. However, for me, subtlety does not disguise his intention.
Sorry, I’ve just re-read this and it is still highly inflammatory. Of course, I want a reaction, that’s why we post isn’t it?
Why did we always go to have a fag behind the bike shed? It was always the first place that got checked, and we always got caught, at least until we found a much better place
But a child’s life in which the only friendship or social life, or escape from family, is through school is an impoverished life anyway, isn’t it?
Again, we have the bizarre assumptions that:
(a) not going to school isolates kids entirely (whereas for some it is in fact school itself that isolates them), and
(b) that home educators haven’t thought about all this, and put in place arrangements for socialising, etc.
My own experience, during the admittedly brief periods I came into contact with home educators, is that they generally have a far deeper grasp of such issues than parents who thoughtlessly follow social norms.
@vero I so agree. i remember being shocked at a school reunion to learn about contemporaries of mine for whom school was an escape from what was happening at home.
But then also, there were others for whom school was purgatory.
One size does not fit all.
I always reckon I should have gone to my brother’s local secondary mod/“tech”. I think I would have thrived in an environment where I was learning about practical stuff.
A similar experience for me Sue, I went to a former grammar school (separate boys and girls) It morphed into a modern mixed comprehensive when it moved to the town i lived in. The issue was it still had the fluff of its former life with prize giving at the end of the school year, teachers wafting around in their gowns, awarding the best in each subject. I was unfortunately put into the ‘lower band’ upon joining and was stuck there for the rest of my time, I am a practical person and it was a very academic school. I would have benefitted by being sent to the ‘other’ school in the town but it had a reputation for not being very good, but it had better engineering, woodwork, metalwork facilities etc and that is where i should have been. No sixth form or A levels for me, I ended up at a college, did a BTEC in computing and had a very successful and quite well paid career.
And clearly did in the past too - but to repeat, it’s not something I saw in the home education world, so - to repeat once more - is there any relevant evidence here?
I was home schooled myself, along with my 2 elder brothers.
I made most of my friends through sports, I was passionate about sport and I made friends with other kids through that. Plus a few who lived nearby or I met through friends or family.
I did all the things you listed (apart from the smoking) with my friends in the afternoons / evenings / weekends. Well I guess we didn’t jump the fence at lunch time either but I remember jumping the fence into a school after it was closed to play in the playground with a few friends once, so maybe that counts.
My brothers made friends in similar ways and we’ve all grown up to be happy adults doing what we love to do.
Because I got kicked out of my school just before A levels I did them at an external examination centre. And university applications were as normal I recall (it was a while ago).
I know in the UK it’s usually (ie. covid-permitting) relatively straightforward to take A-Levels as an external candidate nowadays - there are indeed a number of exam centres that only take external candidates. There are also many distance-learning or online A-Level courses, and I know this is preferred by many home educators - their general home schooling continues but in their A-Level subjects they get access to specialist tutors, etc - and of course the predicted grades for the UCAS form (though in fact these are not strictly necessary).
I also know many UK universities (I have close friends in the UK academic world) prefer home educated students, as (despite the generally negative views in this thread) they often are high-achievers and/or exceptional in other ways (home education is often linked with exceptional family background or talent in areas like music, art, languages, etc, beyond the range/capability of schools).
It’s also possible to do International A-Levels outside the UK, though in France for some subjects there are only 2 exam centres - in Paris and the Dordogne - not surprising as most Brits live in these places.
Of course the above are exams in English - I believe here in France most home schooled children - if they don’t go to school for the last 3 years - take the International Bac. I don’t know much about this, but I do know in the fist year of prepa at grande écoles (at least at my daughter’s) the students are put into ‘International’ and ‘French’ groups, though you can choose which you go into - my daughter went into the International group even though she has a French Bac, because she felt she would meet a wider range of interesting people - indeed among her friends now are high-fliers from 4 continents.
I accused a teacher of molesting me on a school trip, and was not believed. For context I did my sixth form years at a boys boarding school that was taking girls for the first time. There were 7 of us, 3 of whom were children of teachers, and 600 boys. Only one teacher was female.
Do you mean IB or Bac mention internationale or AbiBac/BachiBac/EsaBac? I examine people every year who do their Bac via the CNED - some excellent, some less so, much like other candidates in fact. A lot depends on how much support they get really and why they are doing it that way in the first place (I am also involved in a national anti-drop-out scheme where teenagers can go and study in a safe non-school non-home place, often they are homeless and live in a foyer).
Oh it has just occurred to me you may not mean French children, wrt doing the IB.
and live in a foyer).