So how is the School of Mum and Dad working out for you?
Are you diligently drawing up organised timetables of suitably challenging and varied subjects on a day to day basis? Or are you taking the ‘actually, I believe it’s all about freedom and play and learning life’s lessons so, you know, I’m just teaching them how to iron and climb trees’ approach?
I bet loads of people, on day one, thought it might be great to ‘be’ teachers for a while, dishing out homework, marking with a red pen and pretending to understand maths. I’m sure those same people on day two were driving desperately around the country looking for any school that was still open to beg them to take their kids.
Social media has been awash with parents admitting this has been trickier than they thought.
“Homeschooling is going well,” reported one mum. “One student suspended for fighting, one teacher sacked for drinking on the job.” One exasperated father wrote: “The first hour of homeschooling started out strong, with some great reading comprehension exercises, and concluded with an epic tantrum over the fact that she can’t watch Frozen 3 because it DOES NOT EXIST.”
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Kids too, have been less than impressed. One boy, whose mum posted his journal entry, said: “My mum is getting confused. We took a break so she could figure this stuff out and I am telling you, this is not going good.”
Most of us, apart from the idiots who think it is still okay to roam the streets and sunbathe in the parks with their friends, understand how necessary it is to stay home and stay safe. But there is no getting away from the fact we are asking a lot of our young people at the moment.
They are staying indoors for longer than they have ever had to in their whole lives. They are missing their friends. They are surrounded by nervous adults and distressing news reports and on top of that, they have to endure schooling-by-parent.
Actually, forget that. What we are doing is not home schooling. Calling it schooling of any sort is an affront to every teacher in the land.
Read more: Ann Fotheringham - When this is over, I'll never complain about hectic life again
As comedian Lucy Porter very neatly summed it up: “Everyone’s saying teachers should get a pay rise and I agree. After my experience of home schooling I also think they should be allowed to drink during school hours, send the kids off to play Minecraft for a few hours, and hide in the toilet when it all gets a bit much.”
Hear hear to all of that, a million times over.
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