'...My 16-year-old son has just left comprehensive school ... In English literature ... he has read no single English novel. He took German but on a family visit to Germany last year found it impossible to order in a bakery...
'He has left school knowing no works by classical composers, has no idea how to cook a decent meal, hasn't visited any of the local museums or places of interest and struggles to find cities on a map of the UK. ...
'Rather than home educators being called on to justify their decision, perhaps it should be those parents who send their children to school, without questioning the education, or influences their child will receive, who should be asked how they will be making up the educational shortfall.'
Helen-Jane, I am blowing you kisses.
Letters The Independent Newspaper
5 comments:
I know, it's a great letter with a fantastic conclusion... but I'm assuming that she did make up the shortfall with her son at home, otherwise it's fairly self-damning?!
Ha.
I'm with Clare - I'm shocked the parents allowed him to get to that age with such shortfalls in his education and life experience. Very sad.
It would bother me to no end if my child fell that short of her basic learning abilities and I wasn't even aware of it. I mean, he never read a novel? Do you know any 16 year olds who haven't?
It would be good to think that all parents DID make up the shortfall in state education but that assumes that the child still loves learning and has a peer group that doesn't look down on knowledge/being clever and therefore he WANTS to read a book in his spare time, visit museums and so on rather than hang around on street corners etc.
School is not just about what children are taught (or in this case not taught) but about encouraging a love of learning and this is where home education has such an advantage.
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