No place like home for going to school

(by Simon Midgley)

Jean Bendell chooses to teach her children at home rather than leave their education in the hands of a school.

She is one of a growing number of British parents – perhaps as many as 10,000 who are opting to educate their offspring outside the formal education system.

Mrs Bendell is a sometime art student with a "reasonable number of O-levels ... more than five," an A-level in English and a passionate interest in poetry. A born romantic, she left her Islington grammar school at 16 to elope with the man who was later to become her husband.

"Our major reason for not sending our children to school," she says in her book, was "what we call poetic awareness in life rather than specifically in literature. We felt this sense of wonder at the world would be lost very quickly with constant exposure to the routine of the classroom. We did not want our children to be engulfed by a mediocre, mass culture."

She recalls unhappy experiences with nursery schools and playgroups. "What really struck me was that I was forever having to take Hosanna away from things that were interesting and meaningful... a book, a snail trail gleaming in the sunlight, moss growing on a wall... and put her into an environment where things were set out in a structured way," she says.

When Hosanna was four, Mrs Bendell met another mum who belonged to a pressure group called Education Otherwise, which advises parents of their rights under the 1944 Education Acttohave their children educated "either by regular attendance at school or otherwise."

Mrs Bendell chose otherwise. Today, after initial hostility from the local education authority, she "facilitates" her daughters' education at home by way of informal conversations and more formal "school work" sessions in the kitchen and bedroom. These tend to take place in the mornings after the dog and rabbits have been fed and watered.

She feels that the family can cope with primary education – reading, writing and mathematics – and that secondary schooling will be challenging. The Bendells consider that their reasonably broad spread of interests should be sufficientto prepare the children for up to 10 GCSE* subjects and the children can always use correspondence courses, take part-time classes at local colleges and draw on the skills and expertise of their friends. Every now and then, the children are visited by the education authority's primary school adviser who, says Mrs Bendell, has become increasingly complimentary about their achievements.

"Educating children," she says "is not filling them up with facts and figures. I see it very much as drawing out their interests and abilities. I think that the absolute strength of home education is that it gives the child an education that is very rich in ideas, and enables them to grasp concepts very easily."

"When it gets to a certain point the children will have to take on the responsibility for learning themselves. Obviously I could not coach a child through GCSEs and do it all for her and another child and another child. They have to be self-propelling to a great extent.

"We felt: 'why was there a magic age when you needed experts to educate the children?'. Although the teachers may be better qualified to teach individual subjects than I am, what if the children in those classes are spending the time doodling and looking out of the window? What real use are those history or geography degrees? It is the learning the child does for himself that actually makes the difference."

"Educational qualifications will be picked up I hope somewhere along the way," she says. "They might be useful to the children. Happiness is the important thing. You can be a successful nursery nurse without doing lots ofA-levels, you can be a successful window cleaner. I would be disappointed if I had failed to equip the children to do what they wanted to do."

At the moment Fiorin wants to be a vet, Hosanna a doctor.

Assignments:

1. Give Russian equivalents to:

to opt to educate smb outside the formal education system, poetic awareness in life, a sense of wonder at the world, the routine of a classroom, a mediocre, mass culture, unhappy experience with nursery schools and playgrounds, to put smb into environment, to set out smth irt a structured way, a pressure group, regular attendance at school, to choose otherwise, initial hostility, "to facilitate" one's education at home, informal conversations, to cope with smth, broad spread of interests, to prepare smb for GCSE subjects, correspondence courses, part-time courses, to draw on the skills, every now and then, to become complementary about one's achievements, to draw out smb's interests and abilities, the strength of home education, to be rich in ideas, to grasp a concept, to coach a child through GCSEs, to be self-propelling, to pick up educational qualifications.

____________________

* GCSE– the General Certificate of Secondary Education

2. Give the derivatives from:

reason, passion, aware, expose, meaning, attend, correspond, advise, achieve, able, responsible, differ, qualified, use, happy, success.

3. Arrange A andВin pairs of antonyms:

A. part-time, formal education, to loose, quickly, meaningful, initial, hostility, sessions, broad, to cope with, sufficient, strength, rich, individual.

B. poor, final, friendliness, to fail, full-time, weakness, to find, slowly, insufficient, classes, narrow, senseless, group, home education.

4. Answer the following questions:

1) Are there many parents in Britain who are opting to educate their children at home?

2) What is Mrs Bendell's main reason for not sending her children to school?

3) She had unhappy experiences with nursery schools and playgrounds, didn't she? What really struck her about them?

4) What does a pressure group called "Education Otherwise" advise parents?

5) In what way does Mrs Bendell teach her children? Is she successful?

6) How will her children be prepared for their GCSE examinations?

7) What are her ideas on home education?

5. Speak on your attitude to home education touching upon the following problems:

a) parents' reasons for choosing to teach their children at home;

b) advantages and disadvantages of home education;

c) the probability of its spreading in future.

13. A QUALITY EDUCATION? YES, FOR A PRICE

Thousands of Moscow parents, long accustomed to the notion of free education for all, are now having to dig deep into their own pockets to get all there is to offer from the capital's state schools.

As hundreds of city schools try to develop a modern curriculum on a limited budget, they are turning to parents to pick up the slack left by the government's limited coffers.

At state school No 1102 in southwestern Moscow, the student body is divided into two groups: A and B. Group A and Group Вboth arrive at 8:30. They both devote their mornings to studying all the basics: Russian, math, natural sciences, English. But by lunchtime Group A pupils slam shut their textbooks for the day, while the students in GroupВ– approximately half the class – face a full line-up of information technology, English conversation, physics, world culture, even ballroom dancing.

The parents of school No 1102 are lucky. They are paying the paltry sum for the supplementary programme. It may be a pittance, but it is enough to give Lida Studenkova, the school's director, the flexibility the city budget does not allow. "This money means I can pay quality teachers a little more," says Studenkova, adding that her teachers' salaries were "laughable."

While some school directors hire outside professors to teach supplementary programmes, Studenkova relies heavily on her own staff. Keeping quality English teachers on staff, however, is a particular problem. To give them the incentive they need to stay in the classroom, she dips into the extra funds.

Supplementary education is not new. For years parents have paid extra so their children could receive the afterschool instruction they needed to help them through a difficult subject, or to pass college entrance exams. But until recently the fee for these classes was within the means of any family. As the new system evolves, it is creating two distinct structures within state schools: one for students who pay, and one for those who do not.

While supplementary classes are by no means obligatory, they are becoming more popular for parents who worry that their children might otherwise be denied a proper education. "It doesn't mean that your kid will not get into university," says Jan Golf of the Institute of Public Education. "But for a good education these days you need money."

While the standard curriculum is still the same for all students, the supplementary programme varies from school to school, covering anything from computer science to marketing to etiquette. Just as programmes vary, so do fees.

The parents of school No 465, for example, have to dig a little deeper into their pockets. They pay the equivalent of $40 per month sotheir children can study computer science and German after school. And, according to Golf, fees may climb as high as $100. Even for the courses they share in common, Group A and GroupВremain separated in different, classrooms.

While educators recognize that some students may be shut out of studying on the fast track because of their wallet and not their intellect, they consider this to be a natural development. "Before we all used to be the same," says Studenkova. "Now I've got some kids in Cadillacs and others in torn boots."

Since state schools first started offering these classes three years ago, they have been gaining in popularity. But Svetlana Korovi-na, of Moscow's Department of Education, has no idea just how many of the city's 1,336 schools have supplementary programmes. "That is their affair," says Korovina.

Studenkova claims the practice is widespread. "The demand is ripe," she says, adding that the parents association now plays an active role in developing new curricula. "If we don't fulfil the parents' demands," she says, "they will take their children to another school."

Assignments:

1. Read the text and decide if the following statements are true or false and explain why:

a) In trying to develop a modern curriculum on a limited budget city schools turn to government for help.

b) There is no difference between Group A and Group B.

c) To teach supplementary programmes the school director relies on her own staff.

d) Supplementary education is new.

e) Supplementary classes are not compulsory but they areverypopular with parents.

f) The standard curriculum is the same for all students.

g) Parents association plays an active role in developing new curricula.

2. Express your attitude to fee-paying schools as an alternative to state-maintained schools.

3. Speak on the growing popularity of supplementary classes.

INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION

(From "Individual Psychology" by Patricia H. Elkins)

Individual Education (IE) is a new concept in schooling. The basic premise of IE is that education is a privilege and not an obligation. An IE school directs but does not demand, leads but does not drive, persuades but doesn't force, suggests but does not require. John Holt suggests that an alternative to authoritarian systems is to have schools in which each child can satisfy curiosity, develop abilities and talents, pursue interests, and obtain from adults and older children a glimpse of the great variety of richness of life.