In 2000 as a homeschooling father and commuter, I often read the Evening Standard on the SWT Train traveling home from London to Guildford.
Below is an article which interested me and which I am republishing 13 years later, This article first appeared in the Evening Standard on the 14th of August 2000.
Homeschooling – Article
Evening Standard on the 14th of August 2000 > Politicians of all complexions think they can get our votes by promising to spend more and more money on schools. One hopes, therefore, that plenty of publicity will be given to the latest research carried out at the University of Durham, comparing the performances of the 150,000 or so home-educated children with those sent to school.
Sixty-five per cent of home-educated children scored 75 per cent in a maths test. The average for school-educated children? 45 per cent.
Home educated working-class children did miles better than school educated middle classes.
Home educated girls, freed from the pressure of competing with boys in classroom and playground, did as well as their brothers in all areas. In other words, school is proven to hold you back in your intellectual and personal advancement. Don’t say it too loudly, though, in the world where Cherie Booth is the role model of all those women too selfish to look after their own children, and who put their careers first.
Parents say they want good schools for their children as a way of appeasing their guilt. What they mean is, they can’t wait for their children to be old enough to have free child-minders – the so-called teachers.
We all know that in an average school there will be one decent teacher to 15 duds