Madam, – It was a refreshing change to read your article on home schooling (Education Today, April 14th). The article was insightful, interesting, and an excellent advert for home schooling. In my experience many parents, and teachers, would be proud of any 15- year-old who produced written work of similar quality to the home schooled, student author of this article. The article highlighted one of the issues in our society that holds back excellent practices such as home schooling, a reluctance to examine any practice that would be seen as, “off the wall”. Even the opening words and title of the article, “In defence of home schooling”, hint at the anticipated reaction that one would receive from others.
As a parent looking at home schooling for our daughter I’m used to reactions ranging from, “Why wouldn’t you send them to school?”, to, “They’ll miss out on so much!” When I also add that we don’t want our child to watch television the reaction is even harsher. Often I find this particularly ironic, coming from ardent parent adopters of the 12- hour creche culture. We have a tendency in Irish society to regard difference, especially in parenting methods, as something to be ridiculed and shunned.
This is despite excellent examples of such methods working, as in your recent article.
Maybe as the last roars of the Celtic Tiger fade into distant memory, we’ll re-examine our lifestyles, especially how we parent the next generation of Irish society.
I would rather put my faith in those would would make the sacrifices and put in the time to home school their children, than those who took the option to work every hour in the day while delegating the upbringing of their children to a creche, local school, and any other willing institution.
Schools and teachers often get blamed for the many ills of society, crime, poor skills etc. Perhaps we should all accept that we take some responsibility for the education and development of our children and that we can’t delegate it all to the State, or other school system. After a fashion, all children are home schooled. – Yours, etc,