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School teaches a whole host of skills that you apply to life. Geometry. Percentages. Literature. Learning. Working in teams.
This I agree with very strongly, numeracy and literacy are the fundamental building blocks to communication.
Geometry, percentages etc are tools to use in life, and it's hard to argue that picking up such a variety of skills is more likely out of the school environment is a hard sell for me.
Having said that, the ability or willingness to learn new skills is probably going to be fostered better outside of a formal education. It depends on picking up the basics I suppose.
Backstop-
out of the school environment is a hard sell for me.
... ability or willingness to learn new skills is probably going to be fostered better outside of a formal education...
One the first, there is a bit of disingenuity to the HS argument in that by enlarge they still teach the curriculum. The basic framework as I understand it is still piggybacking off the national curriculum.
Re your second point it's hard to know isn't it? Parental attainment is the no.1 indicator of a child's outcome.
hugo7
Happy and interested to listen to differing views on education, but this particular statement really gets my goat. I worked with a non-UK carpenter who used to say this all the time (although with a different bias):
School teaches a whole host of skills that you apply to life. Geometry. Percentages. Literature. Learning. Working in teams. Coexisting with cunts. I feel people miss this concept as well as parents' responsibilities in learning.
The hours thing I do find interesting though as I was fortunate enough to go to private schools. The hours were much longer than state school. That said from the sounds of it there was a broader range of classes and SO much more sport. It's disheartening that price increases mean it's unlikely I'll be able to do the same for mini-H as I'd like them to have the same breadth and physical activities I had.
We want to take a year off at least once and travel and home school. A camper van is what we're thinking at the moment. People we've met who were doing something similar were doing half days and further ahead in the curriculum. What appeals most though is giving a different perspective on learning and being able to apply learning in a different and potentially more immediate way - geography and language being obvious examples.