Now the parents can play truant
Rushda:
February 24th, 2007
Many children dream of being able to not go to school, be it because of boredom, fear of bullying, or simply the desire to experience delicious morning lie-ins. I shamefully admit I occasionally skipped school in order to do the latter, and often wondered how it would be not have to go to school at all. Little did I know, however, that thousands of children in the UK actually do not go to school and end up being home-schooled instead. Apparently it is getting more and more popular as three times as many children are being taught at home when compared to a decade ago.
Though studies show that home-schooled children perform better academically, personally I think parents should realise that there is more to school than pure academic education. Being with other children helps children mature socially as well as academically, and it seems a shame that a child may learn to do arithmetic but not know how to play tag in the playground, they may know how to read rhymes in books but never get a chance to chant them aloud with others. Apart from that, there also is the problem of how the education can be monitored. I find it hard to believe that all parents have enough willpower to teach everyday. I can easily imagine a sleepy parent who shoos his child away in the morning to go play with his toys.