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UK study
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Quintessence
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Aug 09, 1999 03:58 PDT
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I just got this from another email list. I copy it here below. It's a
study by Paula Rothermel, School of Education, University of Durham.
Ben Mettes
Quintessence
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"All's well on home front
While the political spotlight remains fixed on schools, one group of
young
learners is invariably forgotten - the children who are educated at
home.
Although there are no precise statistics, it is estimated that the
parents
of about 50,000 UK children have opted out of the school system. How are
they faring - educationally and socially? Rather well, it seems.
Paula Rothermel, a researcher at Durham University, who has surveyed 900
families who have rejected schools, found their children appeared
"self-confident, self-motivated and demonstrated good levels of
attainment". They also seemed to benefit from the concentrated attention
coupled with a flexible curriculum that reflects their interests.
Some critics of home education will argue that these findings are
predictable. After all, such children experience the best pupil-teacher
ratios and a super abundance of parental involvement.
Furthermore, is it not true that parents who tutor their children at
home
tend to be academics or middle-class professionals?
Not really, judging by Paula Rothermel's study. A relatively high
proportion of parents were teachers (23 percent) but the parents
surveyed
were not confined to any social group.
'The sample indicated travellers, those on very low incomes, religious
families, single parent families and same-sex parent families," says
Rothermel, who interviewed 1,000 families and is still analysing her
data.
"There was more or less an equal spread between parents who did and did
not
hold professional qualifications. Parents in manual employment, however,
outnumbered those employed professionally."
Rothermel found that parenting styles varied from libertarian to
autocratic. Their teaching approaches also differed greatly. Fourteen
per
cent of families followed the national curriculum, 58 per cent said they
did not use it and 28 per cent referred to it occasionally.
The range of children's reading ability was very wide, too. The children
from religious back-grounds were often among the earliest readers.
However,
even the "non-reading" seven to 11 year-olds tended to enjoy books. And
analysis of the National literacy Project assessments completed by more
than 50 children suggest that they are considerably above the national
average.
The only negative finding related to four-year-olds. Rothermel tested
more
than 30 home educated infants and found they made slower progress than
school pupils during the reception year.
Home Education: a critical evaluation, by Paula Rothermel, School of
Education, University of Durham."
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