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What Are They Doing Now?

What do electively home educated young people do when they grow up? Use this page to tell us! Will this be a page of commiseration or celebration? I put my bet on the latter ... read on below!

Who can contribute?

Home educated young people of 16 or over and parents with a home educated child over 16 - adult are invited to add to this page.

You can remain anonymous if you like with only an initial and a town under your story.

Success!

Success can mean anything at all, and it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they are succeeding. To me, if your child gets to adulthood happy, confident and able to make choices about their own life and then carry them out, then they are successful.

Cal.

A Life of Our Own

Barbara. Nottinghamshire.

Adults who did not go to school because they were home-educated are in the world living their lives like the rest of the population. Maybe there is nothing spectacular about them, not to you or the person who passes them in the street or serves them at the supermarket. Maybe they are serving you at the supermarket or teaching your kids at school! And as long as they are law abiding, their lives are their own to live as they see fit.

Children who do not go to school because they are home-educated are in the world living their lives like the rest of the population. Maybe there is nothing spectacular about them to the passing eye except, perhaps, that you are surprised to see them in a public place in "school" hours. It is simply that the family has exercised their choice to provide for the education of the child outside the school system. As long as they are law abiding, their lives are their own to live as they see fit.

Here is a pic of my daughter, Claire, who was home educated for eleven years. (She is holding her daughter.) The methods we used were not in the least like school. There is so much more to life than schooling for us. She is 32. She did not like academic studies or exams as a child and so she chose to take none. She is self motivated and followed her own interests most of the time. All of her later qualifications for work have been through her work. As a young person entering the world of work, she reported the extra interest of prospective employers when they heard that she had been home educated and what a positive effect this had in interviews. She has worked in retail management for a department store chain. Managment skills led her to the prison service as a prison officer with Adult males which led her to taking up a position as a social worker with young offenders and for children and young people with challenging behaviors. Currently, she is taking a sabbatical and is working as a legal claims advisor.

She is also a wonderful daughter, a dedicated friend, and a loving mother of two beautiful children. All we want to do is to be responsible for our own lives and families. That is all I wanted as her lone mother in subsidised housing trying to do what was suited to the needs of my child. That is why I believe that parents from all walks of life want what is best for their children, can home educate and that the government should have faith in the people. We have cherished our freedoms to live our lives as we see fit.

Being who you are

Leslie, London

My Son, 24

A friend of mine said, in the early days of my home educating, that she was doing it so her children could try out lots of things and then know who they were and what they wanted to do when they were 20. Too many of us have breakdowns at 40 saying I never wanted to be a .... but went into it due to pressure from others or because I didn't know what I wanted to be. Then we have to re-think our lives dramatically.

My son, who has never been to school, seems to be a good example of someone who knows himself. Through a series of coincidences our family is very close to Japan and spent 6 months living there when he was 11. He did Maths GCSE on his own at about 14 and then went to Southgate College for A levels. He found college difficult as most people did not want to be there and he nearly left to do the exams externally. He also found the writing difficult as he had choosen not to write much before this period. But he got two A's and one B. One of the A's was in a written exam. He spent his gap year in Japan teaching himself some Japanese before he left, travelling to gain experience in Japanese drumming. Although a good musician he decided to do a degree in Philosophy. He got an unconditional acceptance from King's London where he attended, gaining a first. At King's he started and ran a taiko drumming (Japanese drumming) including making the drums.

Through his own initiative he found a scholarship from a Japanese bank to live in Japan studying Japanese intensively for 12 months and then studying Japanese philosophy for 6 months. He had to go through a number of interviews with all sorts of people to get the award.

He has now finished that scholarship and is teaching English to make enough money to stay in Japan until he goes to Hawaii to do a PhD in Eastern Philosophies. He is fluent in Japanese as a speaker and reader.

He is someone who knows what he wants and seems to be able to make the world work for him.

My Daughter, 18

My daughter, who has never been to school, is her own person. For example, she gave up maths at 9 as she said she knew all she needed. At about 14 she did a maths book we had around the house called 'Maths for Life'. The book was relatively easy for her. She wanted some GCSEs so she went to college at 15 and did, in one year: English Literature, English Language, Art and French at home as an external candadate.

She got into a popular sixth form college and has been accepted unconditionally to a very competitive college, part of London Art's University, to do an art's foundation course for one year. This is what she really wanted to do.

I am most proud that she had something she really wanted to do. At her age I had no idea of anything I wanted to do. Even if she changes in the future away from art, she is still able now, at this young age, to know who she is, pursue what she wants and then compete with others for places and be accepted.

Both my children exemplify a successful outcome of what I think of as real education for life; finding out who you are and making changes in the world to that effect.

Ruth, Norfolk, aged 22

I was home educated through all the "compulsory" years. Despite not being interested in reading until the age of seven, I am currently a finalist at the University of Durham. I am glad that I was home-educated because it has meant I value education in the broad sense rather than just learning to pass exams.

I've always been encouraged to take charge of my own education and follow my interests instead of allowing the government, (which thinks it knows what is best for me despite never having met me,) to dictate what I should learn.

If you are reading this wondering if home-educated children turn out as "freaks," then don't worry - I'm pretty sure I'm not! Home-ed children however do end up being freethinkers with brains they are not afraid to use. What is in store for me post university - who knows? the world is my oyster and I will always be "different" in the eyes of an employer as I was home educated, something which will make any job application stand out from those fo the usual "bog standard" graduate.

The Right Decision?

My son came out of Primary school, just prior to the transfer to Secondary, and has been Home Educated ever since.

He went to college last Sept on the spur of the moment, and has had no problems whatsoever in 'fitting in'.

The college are continually raving about his self motivation and his ability to inspire and encourage others (this in  spite of him having Asperger syndrome), - not only have they snapped him up for another course he wants to do, but have offered him a job as TA on the course he has just completed - which will cover the days he isn't on his own course!

As far as I am concerned Home Education was definitely the right move for him!

Debs.

(Patrick, is 17 yrs old and lives in East Sussex)

Family of four.

My daughter is 20 and has been home educated from age 5 years. She has 3 C grade gcse's;  Maths, English and  Geography; a first aid certificate,  health and safety certificate and certificate in child care and education (CCE). She is now sitting a diploma in child care and education (DCE) and is almost at end of year 1 of 2 year course. She works in a nursery half terms, spends evenings on the computer chatting with friends or watching TV, has no children and is not pregnant - lol! She is the eldest of 4 all of whom were HE till 16 and decided to try college then.

Not bad for a child who's parents are on benefits due to hubby's health. Hubby is dyslexic too and I left school at 14, so, no we're not  teachers.

My sons, aged 18 and 17 are both in college, don't drink or smoke, spend evenings and weekends at home mainly on the xbox with college  friends or socialising with us and friends.  The older lad is now doing computer programming and networking. He did a 10 hour exam in 2 separate 5 hour sessions in the last 2 weeks and is continuing to a higher level next year. The younger finishes gcse's in next few weeks, is on a mechanics course next for a year.

My youngest child is 13 with special needs and hopes to become a cook.

I get soooooo fed up with media tosh about Home Education not working or creating uneducated teenage yobs.

Question for the media: When you walk past a group of yobs how many are home educated and how may are in school?

Pat

Free E Book - great website:

 http://www.wisechild.org.uk/#!home/mainPage