Article - Social Aspects

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In fact many people are ready to accept that today's state schools are not necessarily the best place to receive an education. However they find it harder to accept that without schooling we can still rear a happy, sociable person, able to cope with the complexities of life.

There has been a limited amount of British research done, most notably J.Webb's interview/questionnaire research of 26 home educating families over a period of several years, and that within Education Now. The research together with anecdotal observations made by professionals within the education system, show that there is no evidence that home-educated children are not at least as socially competent as their school-going counterparts.

Many of the questions about isolation, peer group contact, number and variety of relationships, ability to integrate, creation of misfits and parental dependence are answered below.

The main concern appears to be one of number. People assume that it is necessary to mix with large numbers of other children as encountered in school. This argument is twofold in that it assumes that the home educated child will be isolated and that more benefit is drawn from larger groups.

In practice, except on the rare occasions when illness or the difficult location of one's home enforce it, the home educated child is far from isolated. A school teacher and parent of home educated children, Roger Rich-Smith said,

"When we look at the enormous range of social contacts (formal and informal) that our daughters have, that question (of isolation) falls flat. And when we see the diversity of community activities they have been involved in......."

In the opinion of one LEA educational psychologist, quoted in an EO publication, peer group contact was not a significant issue except where a home was very isolated, in that plenty of clubs and out of school activities are available to most people. Furthermore he suggested that some children were perfectly well adjusted with minimal social contact whilst others were without a friend in a whole playground full of children. He believed there was no evidence for the importance of social contact in school. The social contact of home-educated children has been shown to be varied and active, probably more than that of children in school.

"Social intercourse is not restricted to 'playtimes' and with people of like age who happen to be defined by some authority as peers." (EO News 34)

and

"..the whole world is now their classroom" (P.Rupik-educational writer).

On the subject of whether sheer numbers are actually important, Maire Mullarney, author and home educator wrote,

"In later life, unless we join the army or a large religious community, we hardly ever need to think of ourselves as one of a group of thirty. It is, on the other hand, extremely valuable to be able to do things by yourself, even to be comfortable alone."

Today, one of the factors ensuring that home educated families are not isolated, is the group Education Otherwise (EO) - a support group with an ever increasing membership - providing support, contacts, advice and resources information to it's members. Most areas have an EO network with regular meetings, trips and activities, organised by themselves or a local co-ordinator. There are also regular national meetings.

'Learning from their peer group', is another expression that is regularly used to reiterate the necessity of school attendance.

"People seem to accept that this has come to mean 'learning from the set of children born in the same school year'. Surely a child's peer group is not just confined to the thirty or so children who, by virtue of their dates of birth, happen to have been put together at school. A child's peers are her companions and equals..." "As adults we do not define our peers as those of the same age, but those who are equal to us in some respect, such as rank or merit or friendship." (Jean Bendell, author and home educator).

It should also be remembered that coping with social problems and learning to integrate with one's peers is not a situation exclusive to school life. Children have to learn to manage themselves in the park, home, streets, friend's homes, clubs, etc..

"Some people argue that keeping a child out of school will create an outsider, misfit, someone who is 'different', and that this should be avoided at all costs. This assumes that in order to live reasonably happily, usefully and successfully in the world, you have to be mostly like most other people." (EO News).

As the research has shown, home educated children are neither misfits nor outsiders. On return to the state system for higher education, which many in J. Webb's study did, they found...

"social acceptance at college to be uncomplicated; they appear to be able to relate sociably to other students",

and interestingly,

"Some children found they got on well, once out of school, with the very children they had not been friendly with in the school situation." (J. Webb).

One particular student who had been unable, due to health, to participate in outdoor activities, later went to college and university and

"had no trouble establishing a busy and enjoyable social life".

One student did say that it had been difficult to know how to react in the school type situation of college at first, but that he had made friends and settled down socially quite soon. Only one of those interviewed, continued to find social life difficult. There are children - school or home-educated - who become loners. (Loneliness can be as real in a school playground as in a big city).

"Experience has shown that loneliness occurs because the student wishes it, either as a confident expression of individuality or because of deep-rooted fears. In the former case, there should be little, if any, cause for concern. In the latter, school, with all but a few remarkable exceptions, could prove disastrous."

The point about class creed and colour is usually made to suggest that children need to attend school to mix with these groups, which in turn will ensure tolerance and not prejudice. For several generations most of the children in this country have attended state schools, yet this has obviously not eradicated prejudice. Schools in fact tend to be breeding areas for prejudice. Unless a school is very small, mixing is unlikely. Children are often grouped together according to their academic ability, either officially in classes, or unofficially in classroom groups around tables for instance. John Holt, author, educator and spokesman for school reform, talked of a survey in which teachers were shown to have made judgements about the children's future ability, and separated or taught their classes accordingly, within one week of the new school year. Academic ability has been shown to be very closely linked to social class and family income. Studies have also shown that mixing of ethnic groups is very limited within schools and that older children become more segregated. Conflict between ethnic groups is the cause of many arguments within schools.

Some parents and professionals suggest that keeping children at home will cause them to be over-protected and too attached to and dependant upon their parents. J.Webb found that home education, in most cases, gave children,

"The confidence and self esteem necessary to positive direction of one's own life....markedly so in some and they were the children who had been almost entirely educated at home."

Terry Bell, educator, said,

"After many years of involvement - mostly outside Britain - with home and other educational alternatives, there is only one generalised comment I would apply to home educated students; they tend to be socially more adaptable and outgoing, more mature, than their school going counterparts, and can for the most part mix more freely and confidently with people of varying ages and backgrounds."

It seems that children who are allowed to move away from their parents at their own pace, not having the decision made for them by virtue of their age, develop the confidence and security to become socially adept, often to a greater degree than their school going friends.

Therefore, children do not become socially inadequate as a consequence of their absence from school. Some of the most probable reasons are outlined below.

The social life of school is 'unreal'. Author and home educator, Jean Bendell, said,

"This belief in the socialisation aspect of schooling - held by many people to be one of it's indisputable benefits - is one of it's greatest delusions. We only need the socialisation that schooling brings because we have schools".

John Holt also pointed out that,

"Not one person of the hundreds with whom I have discussed this (social life of school) has yet said to me that the social life at school is kindly, generous, supporting, democratic, friendly, loving or good for children".

Another home educator said,

"It seems to me that the social habits acquired at school are only necessary for that particular situation and that when one leaves it is necessary to unlearn them as rapidly as possible, which can be a painful business."

This is very apparent in many school leavers when they start their first job and find themselves thrown into a world very different from the limited and contrived social situation of a school. In comparison home-educated children are doing their learning in the real world, mixing and socialising with a more balanced social group of children and adults from varied backgrounds, social classes and ethnic groups. They communicate readily with their own age group and also with adults. They have not learned to see adults in the authoritarian, oppressive way that adults in school are often viewed.

The other major factor influencing these children's ability to integrate, is that the imposition of artificial barriers to social contact, mainly age and school hours, are avoided. There is an enormous variety of opportunities for meeting people and sharing common interests available in all but the most isolated places, when home educators get into the habit of looking out for them. One family said,

"We found far more interesting opportunities for all kinds of shared activities, both in and out of school hours, than we could possibly make time for."

Examples of the kind of activities involved are - Young Farmers, St John Ambulance, CB club, scouts, guides and woodcraft folk, science groups, amateur dramatics and musical groups/bands, church groups, youth clubs, peace groups, horse riding and other sports, tutored lessons, project work or a serious hobby, shared classes-e.g. adult education classes(when accepted), trips/visits to special interest festivals/events - e.g. folk festivals, and voluntary work in various areas. This is obviously not an exhaustive list but it highlights a few of the areas of social learning available to home educated children. As teacher Roger Rich-Smith said,

"A well thought out home based education (and quite probably any home based education), provides many opportunities for social contact."

Roland Meighan, Senior Lecturer in Education at the university of Birmingham and consultant on home-based education for Education Now consultancy and publishing co-operative, said

"After a little thought, it is clear that learning activities out and about in the community give children more social contacts and more varied encounters than the restricted social life of a standard school .... "

and

"Where families have one child in school and one out, they have always, to date (1992), reported that it is the social life of the one at school that gives them most concern, contrary to the predictions of most people."

Some of the other social aspects which Meighan's home-based education research highlighted were that confidence-building, co-operative and democratic learning, non-sexist education and flexible learning producing flexible people are more likely to happen at home. Also that the 'tyranny of the peer group ' is reduced (Meighan R, Anatomy of choice in Education 1992).

Meighan also quotes in some of his research a letter written by the undergraduate admissions director at Boston University, USA,...

"Boston University welcomes applications from home-schooled students. We believe students educated primarily at home possess the passion for knowledge, the independence, and self-reliance that enable them to excel in our intellectually challenging programs of study."

This marks a trend amongst the higher academic institutes in the USA.

Chris Shute, a teacher with more than 20 years experience now working outside the mainstream system, writes that

"...homeschooling families allow their children to make close relationships with a manageable number of other youngsters and adults in safe conditions...Schools base their attempts at socialisation on the premise that fitting into a large group is a skill which everyone needs to acquire early, and that all the conflicts and competitive relationships attendant on large group experience are valuable in themselves......many homeschooling parents...have found that their youngsters mature quite adequately among a small group of friends with whom they have had chance to form deeper relationships. If they need to make a larger circle of companions they arrange to do so in their own way...they become impressively self-confident, self critical and sociable."

For more extensive scientific research on all aspects of home education including socialisation, the work of Dr Brian Ray and the National Home Education Research Institute of Oregon USA is extremely encouraging. The research is mainly based in Canada and in America where in 1994 an estimated half million children were being taught out of school, with the figure increasing at a rate of about 15% a year...alone a testament to it's popularity.

Although home educating families have usually spent a tremendous amount of time considering their child(ren)'s present and future happiness, they are often considered by friends, relatives and officials alike, to be putting their children at risk. This has occasionally even led to court actions, where again these worries have proven to be unfounded and legal precedents have been set. The judge ruling in the court proceedings brought by Hereford LEA against the Harrison parents, in it's efforts to enforce a school attendance order on their children, said,

"They are mature, confident, well-mannered, at ease in all sorts of company. They are lively minded, have good general knowledge and are intellectually athletic..."

The results of research, observation of those receiving a home based education and court cases such as this, leads me to conclude that the socialisation of young people educated out of school is more than adequate.

This work was prepared in response to my personal need to answer the "socialisation" question when I was first considering home education and is a collection of quotes and anecdotes from various sources. It is not intended as a definitive answer but I hope it proves useful in dispelling some of the myths.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Education Otherwise Newsletters (numerous)
School is not compulsory..Education Otherwise
Children learning at home..J. Webb
Teach your own..John Holt
Anything school can do you can do better..Maire Mullarney
Schools Out..Jean Bendell
Learning from Home-based education..Roland Meighan
Anatomy of choice in education..Roland Meighan
Education Now News Bulletin
CAM 1992/1996