HOME SCHOOLING

Photo's: Home Education Network meeting (HEN) at Glendalough Co. Wicklow

(Click on the title for a link to the HEN website)

I must confess that I was a bit dubious about going down the home school route. Personally I had a very entertaining time when I was at school, although in reflection it wasn’t because of the textbook education I received. It was more because it introduced me to many friends and after school activities such as youth clubs. I realise more and more in hindsight that my own education was for the benefit of the local industry than my own personal growth as an individual. I grew up in a mining town in central England in the 1970’s. I attended a comprehensive school that had about 1500 pupils, which is a pretty large number to deal with on an individual basis. The school had very modern facilities such as a language department and a technical drawing department. I loved technical drawing but unfortunately the teacher had a habit of falling off of his moped and spending considerable amounts of time in a hospital bed in traction. What happened under these circumstances was that our class spent many house being looked after by teachers that wouldn’t know a compass from a T-square. I made the most of the time by doing what I did best in class and that is sleeping. The desks were at a very ergonomic 45 degrees, which was comfortable for precision drawing, but even more so for resting the head without being spotted by the substitute teacher who probably was fully aware that I was sleeping and wished the rest of the class would follow my lead. The language department was another fine resting place. It consisted of small booths where pupils would sit in isolation and listen to a tape through headphones. Depending on which year you started school you either listened to French or Spanish. This exciting method of learning was called Listen and Repeat or ecoute et repetee as it was known in French. The only contact that you had with the teacher was when you were overheard and you were told that the pronunciation was incorrect. The teachers voice would boom down the headset to remind you that you were doing it wrong. It served me well as an alarm as I was usually asleep in this lesson too. Some things never change. I still fall asleep in the daytime if I sit down. If you attended the Home Education Network weekend in Glendalough I was the person fast asleep on the back row. Usually waking up when the room was empty after the event or there was a round of applause, which startled me out of the slumber. It isn’t because I am bored, quite the opposite. But put me in a hot room with low lights and the gentle buzz of the computer, someone taking to me, and the kids out playing, what else am I going to do?

My school, I realise now, educated the local boys to either work in the coalmines or engineering factories for the rest of their lives. If you were a girl then you were trained to work in the textile factories until you fell pregnant. You were then expected to stay at home where the sausage plait that you learned to make in domestic science would feed your man when he got back from the pub in the evenings. I sound a bit critical here but do not mean to be. Life did resemble an old Hovis advert after all!

This was the education system that I remember. At no time at school was I approached to stay on in further education, so at sixteen years old I left school with very few qualifications, a 100% attendance record and a very large work ethic. This work ethic led me to various jobs away from the chosen local professions. Mining was far too hot and dirty and I hated the screeching noises in engineering factories. I spent my time dutifully taking on menial office jobs that at the time seemed of great responsibility. (When I wasn’t asleep at the desk I might add). It was when I was thirty in 1990 and constantly coming home to Julie, my partner, and moaning about another day at the office that she asked the question “What would you really like to do?” Without hesitation I said that I would like to work outdoors and be involved with nature and plants. I used to garden as a hobby but never thought that I could do something I enjoyed for a living. This wasn’t something that I thought was an option in my life. This was a revelation to me and within a month of being asked the question I was attending a full time college course in horticulture, working at something that I loved. This suited me well because it was outdoors and practical so I stayed awake for most of it.

Since giving up the 9-5 I have been free from the feeling of obligation to employers and I am now thankfully in a position to choose what type of work I want to do at a time scale that suits me. This method of working, like some attitudes to home education, can be seen as selfish and lazy as this is slightly different from the normal work ethic. I do hope that I am neither of those things. I feel self motivated and energised by this way of working. Being aware that you have a choice in aspects of your life is where the home school idea appeals to me for my own children. It sounds a bit corny but I would like my children to benefit from my rather drawn out path to realising that we all have the ability to realise our potential. It could backfire on me of course. I remember my mother telling me to get a job for life and keep my head down until the pension is due, which was the ideal at the time. I rebelled against that and so might my lads from my influence. I am reminded of an acquaintance that kept her young son away from toy guns and frowned on any play that included conflict. The son is now grown up and holds a high position in the army. He is also a marksman, holding many awards for being a sharpshooter.

Pat Farenga, the main speaker at the conference in Glendalough, commented that you really do not know how your life will turn out and where your experiences will take you. It is impossible to join the dots up before your life has unfolded it can only be done afterwards to show how you came to where you are. None of us know where these experiences lead us, but hopefully it will be an enjoyable journey.

On Julie’s insistence, we started our eldest lad with home education a little over a year ago. I was reluctant at first and to be honest I sort of hoped that the idea would fail. I initially felt that I was losing the hours in the day when the lads are at school. I used this time to work and do domestic chores. What I did initially was to totally ignore what I thought was home education. When we started home scooling I thought that I had to teach the school curriculum. I did what I did at school and totally ignored this and chose to include my lad in my work and domestic life. This appears to work well was most things that are done in the house such as cooking include maths, dexterity and co-ordination, teamwork, physics, chemistry, art and probably one or two things that I haven’t even thought of. As it turned out it has seemed to work out well as my lad is now very self motivated and sorts himself out with his other studies and interests. After saying that, Julie is very good at the more structured types of education. I have made changes to my weekdays, but the changes are slight and it really only needed a slight shift in my daily schedule and approach to the situation to adjust. I am lucky that I can incorporate my work into the home education process. We also have a younger lad who we feel is now benefiting greatly by doing flexi schooling. This idea isn’t widely publicised, or legal for that but Michael seems to be thriving on it.

It has taken me a year to adjust and I still have moments (quite long ones) where I feel as though I am not giving my kids the best education. I know I shouldn’t but I find myself making comparisons with people who appear to be far better and well equipped to do this that I am. Am I a positive influence? Are my lads watching too much television? Am I making their learning fun? Am I too controlling? Do they do enough in the house? I really don’t know. But I do know that I feel very upbeat about our decision to go our own way with education and do what we feel is best suited to our circumstances.



“The day the child realises adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent; the day he forgives them he becomes and adult”. Alden Nowlan a self educated Canadian poet.