Great thread.
I’m a Brit, my wife and I home educate both our kids and it carries with it the same responses it seems to get in ‘merica. A lot of our home ed friends are former teachers who despised the system and didn’t want their kids to be a part of.
Sacrifices have to be made in order to make it work but it’s a sacrifice that is worth it to sleep soundly at night.
Regarding the problem of being adequately qualified to teach, I had always thought that if you leave kids alone they’ll teach themselves what they need in order to facilitate their natural inquisitiveness. Both my children have taught themselves to read. We facilitated this but there were no formal reading lessons. They figured it out.
This meant that they learned a little later than other kids but they learned at their own pace, without pressure or coercion. They also learned the VALUE of being able to read.
Kids will learn. They’re built to do that. A parent is responsible for what the children will learn, regardless of whether or not they send them to a school.
A lot of people don’t like their kids, that’s another taboo and probably why we here in good old Blighty try and ship them off to nursery ASAP so we can get back to work and pay those taxes.
For one, in the same amount of time I would spend remediation or undoing what they’ve learned at public school, I could just do it right to begin with.
Number two, we agree on the reading thing but I can tell you some kids despise reading and will only do what is mandatory to fulfill requirements. That is true of some highly productive citizens I know as well. It’s a personality thing to an extent.
HOWEVER, if they are interested in something AND have the skill sets to be self directed in their learning...sky is the limit!