Is it mainly in America that children are home schooled or is it as common in the UK ?

Question

I was juast looking at a question asked about senior school and a few people suggested home schooling .I live in the uk and don't know anyone who does this I just wondered was it more a continental thing.

Answer 1

its probaly more common in us but Idk

Answer 2

It is very popular in the US and Canada.  However, I know that homeschooling is becoming more popular in the UK.  It's just starting to gain moment there though.  I'm hoping that it'll just keep going!

Answer 3

It definitely occurs in the UK. The percentage is probably only slightly higher in the US (something like 1% vs. 2% of the student population; it might even be more than 1% in the UK, I can't remember), but because of the population, the numbers will be a lot higher in the US than in the UK.

Answer 4

It's not that common in the US, but it is more popular here (and increasing in popularity) because of a few fundamental problems with the public school system.

First and foremost is that (unlike virtually all other systems in the developed world) children can *only* attend the school in their district. The only exceptions to this are for private school or an occasional 'magnet' school (or even rarer charter school). That means that, in order to change schools, the whole family has to move. It also means that if your children have different needs, you either have to find a school district that can handle both of them, pay for a private school or get lucky and get one into a specialty public school.

A second major issue is that teachers get tenure in as little as 3 years. After they have tenure, it is virtually impossible to fire them unless they commit a felony. In NYC, there are special rooms designated for teachers that officials do not trust in classrooms (e.g. a teacher who admitted to sending inappropriate sexual emails to a student), but cannot fire until they finish a multi-year process. Oh, and the teachers continue to get paid during that time. And you certainly cannot be fired just for being a bad teacher. In my very good school district, the teacher for 10th grade honors English was a terrible teacher (and everyone knew it) but, according to the union contract, 'subjective judgement of teaching ability' was not an acceptable reason for firing a tenured teacher...apparently even something that everyone agrees on continues to be subjective. Good teachers get fed up and leave, bad teachers who couldn't get a job elsewhere get to stay forever.

Between those 2 things (not to mention all of the other reasons why parents might want to homeschool), even those who are predisposed to give their kids a public school education may get disuaded.

Answer 5

Its becoming a world wide movement but it's really popular in some areas of the US