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Teaching Children at Home
Record numbers of children are being taken out of school and taught by their parents at home. Up to 100 children a month are leaving the classroom because parents are not satisfied with schools. Around 15,000 families now teach their children at home, a rise of 50 per cent from last year, according to the latest figures.
This present rise in home schooling is blamed on the nature of examinations, not getting children into the school of choice, and dissatisfaction with teaching methods. Some parents prefer keeping children home because of attacks by other students and a lack of discipline in schools. Researchers say, however, many families prefer teaching at home because they feel the idea of public schooling is not modern. They believe schools will be things of the past in 20 years as media technology, like the Internet, teaches children.
Under the law, parents must teach their children, whether at school or at home. Community officials are charged with protecting their schooling. Professor Meighan of Nottingham University says parents were fed up with the requirements of existing schools. For him, schools are an out-of-date concept from the days of the town crier (市政传令员), when it was difficult to get information and a central person was needed to communicate knowledge. He also thinks parents are recognizing education is moving on and don't want their children to be held back by out-of-date methods.
Meighan suggests children will be taught at home using the Internet, computers, and video(录像片). He thinks future schools will be small groups of children, sharing equipment in their homes. The teachers may become advisers who sort through the information.
Future  schooling was questioned by Sir Christopher Ball of the Royal(皇家的) Society of Arts. He thinks learning in the future will include an international curriculum and international standards. He sees some present models of schooling-community schools and home schooling, for example-becoming more central and other models, not yet existing, may develop.
How Personal Choice Brings O-Level Success at 13
Leslie Barson is already running the type of school that researchers think will teach children in the future. Based partly at a community centre and partly in family homes, the Otherwise Club includes some 35 families around north London. Professional teachers are brought in to help with special subjects, but mostly parents and children work together on units like studying the Greeks or the American Civil War, reading about events, making costumes(戏装), and learning how people used to live.
Parents choosing home schooling say the freedom of home learning allows some children to sit one or two GCEs by the age of 13. Ms. Barson's own children, Luis, age 12, and 7-year-old Lilly, have never attended school. She pays around 2,000 pounds a year for private teachers to help in special areas. She set up the Otherwise Club six years ago with just a few students. She thinks the purpose of teaching children is to develop their self-worth. Her son agrees. Luis, now teaching himself math, said, "I like the freedom to learn things that interest me, especially music. I don't feel I am missing out on anything by not being at school because I am a member of various clubs and have friends who attend normal school."
The 'Danger' of Separating Students
Home schooling could change children's relations with their peers and older people because of long periods spent with their parents. Most professors agree future learning will be more centred around the home, and fear children could become isolated and shy. Professor Michael Barber of London University said pupils could spend half their time at school, half at home as a way to solve this problem. He believes very strongly that children need the experience of school to ensure the quality of being taught the basics and being examined. He thinks children must spend time with peers to learn the rules of work in a democratic(民主的) society and to learn how to deal with relations with more people than just their parents. Margaret Rudland, head teacher in Hammersmith, also thinks children must experience actual peer relations.
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