Homeschooling Triples in Britain
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007By Mimi Rothschild
At least 16,000 children in the UK are homeschooling, according to a recent Guardian article. According to parents, bullying is the primary reason that parents choose to homeschool. I’ve heard that bullying in Britain makes America’s average bullying behavior look tame. Children have committed suicide over it.
The UK’s increased religious subgroups such as Muslims, Gypsies, and Christians have also opted to remove their children from government-sponsored schools.
A DfES spokesman said: “Standards have never been higher and with record funding in our schools we believe the best place to educate a child is actually in school.
Not all homeschoolers are convinced. And why should they be? Funding does not equal quality.
“Some of the parents interviewed felt that standards of education had declined,” the report said.
This, coupled with a view that the current education system is overly bureaucratic, inflexible and assessment-driven, prompted some parents to home-educate.
Here’s hoping that this trend spreads throughout the rest of the European Union. Perhaps Germany would lighten its restrictions on homeschooling if they were to recognize that the rest of the EU had chosen to embrace it.