Alison O’Connor: Micheál Martin was right to speak up on homeschooling

Depriving your children of the opportunity to play, to socialise, to make lifelong friends, to prepare them for real life, has never sat easy with me

The idea of keeping your children away from a school setting points towards an obsessive need to keep control of your child’s/children’s environment. Picture: iStock

It’s a word that brings me out in a bit of a rash. Recent events have simply cemented my negative views towards the homeschooling of children.

Tánaiste Micheal Martin was bang-on when he said he wasn’t a great fan of the practice, referencing the importance of socialisation for children, the idea that children should be educated in schools. “I think children need to socialise,” he told this newspaper last week.