Home Education: School is (always) out for us

Not all children go to school. Some are taught by their parents at the kitchen table, says John Hearne

Five days a week, the mother sits with the children at the kitchen table and works through a full curriculum

SORCHA Arnold is learning Swedish. Her father, Dan, who gave her books and internet resources, says of the home-schooled 14-year-old: “We would never say, ‘Tell us why you want to learn Swedish’. That’s none of our business. But if, for her own reasons, she wants to learn it, I’m delighted that we’re able to afford her that opportunity.”

Arnold says the term ‘home-schooling’ covers so many approaches to education that it’s meaningless. He knows parents who never formally teach their children. Everything, from reading to maths, is taught “experientially”. There’s no structure, no lessons, just an environment “rich in learning opportunity”, driven by the child’s curiosity.

“At the other end of the spectrum, we know another family where, for four hours a day, five days a week, the mother sits down with the children at the kitchen table and works through a full curriculum. Every possible combination between those two is being done in Ireland and around the world.”

Arnold’s approach is informal. Of Sorcha’s day, he says: “She does what she wants. She’s not an early bird. She might get up at 9 or 10 o’clock, or later. At that age, she needs her sleep. Then, she does whatever she wants to. She loves writing and reading and art. The three of those combined could take her entire day.”

What about Swedish? “It won’t bother us in the slightest if she never again opens a Swedish book, or never again says a word of Swedish,” he says. Won’t this encourage the child to quit easily? What about finishing what you’ve started? Arnold says it’s important to finish tasks, but says it’s better to learn a language because it appeals, than to be forced to study it, as in school. Nothing turns you off a subject faster than being forced to learn it, he says. His methods have not adversely impacted his children’s academic performance. Sorcha’s older sister, Joy, enrolled this year in a local secondary in Fermoy, Co Cork, and has had no trouble adjusting.

Tracy Jones and her four children have a structured programme. Jones, who lives with her husband on a small holding near Kanturk, Co Cork, says her children weren’t happy in their local school. She teaches them in a converted office. “I’d already purchased all their curriculum books, anyway, because they’d already started school. We would spend two or three hours of core time on their curriculum. Then, after that, we would often move it outdoors and learn things by doing.”

This wasn’t an easy choice. “But it’s important to say this isn’t set in stone. A lot of the home-ed mums I speak to have had one child go back to school and the other one stay at home. They have had times where all of the children go back into mainstream for secondary. You have to be flexible and you have to go with the children.”

If they’re not in school, how will they learn to socialise with other children? “I make a bigger effort with play-dates,” says Jones, “and staying in touch with people. I make sure that the children see their friends a lot.”

For parents considering home-schooling, there are more resources than ever. In addition to educational material online, the Home Education Network, or HEN Ireland, supports home educators. Ciara Webster, of HEN, says it has 120 families. The centrepiece is the annual conference, at which home-schooled families mix, and don’t endure the scepticism of conventionally schooled people. It’s an event that helps to normalise home education for everyone. Webster’s first conference sold her on home-schooling. “I remember talking to the teenagers there and thinking they were fantastic, they were all so happy in themselves.”