“It is very concerning that a lot of our young people are not being introduced to subjects by teachers with the necessary expertise in them,” he said.
I found this quite interesting given that the frequent objection raised by teachers to parents who homeschool is, "Do you have a teaching certificate?" They hold the belief that in order to teach your own children a parent needs special training and a piece of paper 'certifying' the ability to do so. Seems, though, that the school systems are quilty of committing the same offense - utilizing non-subject experts to teach. Knowing that this is occurring both in the UK and US education system, how do parent who have students in the system, deal with this?
Based on my conversations with parents I advise as they search for supplemental and core academic resources, parents have taken to schooling in the after-school hours. While not formally recognized as 'homeschooling', because the child is counted on the public school's roster, my impression is that this is an increasingly common occurrence. I'd love to see research that accumulates the number of hours parents spend teaching or re-teaching content their child is supposed to be mastering at school. Anyone know of research that looks into this?
What concerns me is that the children never seem to come first. Shouldn't parents be encouraged and taught how to be effective in supporting and, yes - even teaching - academic content? What if we trained parents in techniques for tutoring their own? Granted, many take the position that they are paying for the school system to educate their child, so why should they need to? Those are not the parents I'm thinking of. I work daily with parents who are desperate to find ways to help their child, and because the 'system' carries a belief that the parent isn't 'qualified' to teach, they don't engage them in the education process involved with the transfer of academic knowledge. Yet, that same system staffs math and science classes with individuals who have no more, and frequenly less, education in those subjects than the parents.
If you are a parent interested in learning more about how to support your child's academic success, including identifying worthwhile resources for use at home, contact me directly if you'd like to begin to benefit by being coached by a 15 yr veteran homeschooler and parenting coach. Visit our Thinking To Learn website to explore educational resources in use by parents at home and homeschoolers.
Post a comment to share links to other websites that you've identified as carrying good resources for your children and why you think they are good.
Let me know whether you are a parent who schools in the afterhours, how many hours you do so, and what subjects you teach. I look forward to hearing from you.
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