Thursday 14 December 2006

REASONS I STARTED HOMESCHOOLING - 2

MY NURSERY SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

In this second of four articles on my reasons why I chose homeschooling for my son, I initially recount my personal experiences within the UK educational system of the 1960s and the early 1970s and society’s perceptions on education and the teaching profession. Firstly, just to explain the educational system in the UK. The UK, unlike the USA, is at present and always has had a mandatory educational system based on age and not grade or passing a GPA and remaining in and repeating that grade until the GPA had been passed or attained and in exceptional cases a child in the UK may be placed in a class above their actual age because their ability may be of a higher standard – so a child no matter what their ability or grades were like, would move up to the next year - however, a higher ability child would have to remain in that class and repeat the class, until they actually reached that actual age of the class they were in.

Schools do and did exist for gifted-children, however, these were fee-paying schools, with no funding available for scholarships etc. and there was the additional living costs, essential clothing and equipment costs, extra curricular costs etc. So to working-class families on a limited income there was no possibility of a child, even if tested and shown to be gifted, that they would ever get the opportunity to attend a school for the gifted, as the cost to attend would be prohibitive.

We need to look at the past for answers to the future of education, academic and skills for life training. It is the responsibility of Headteachers, teachers, local and national government, parents and pupils to ensure that a national curriculum that is focused, builds academic, business and life skills that have a content that is interesting, balanced and relevant to the individual child. There were a few negative (that if modified could be turned into positive) and many positive experiences, all supported by a regime of discipline, structure but fun in a loving and supportive environment.
My education started in the late 1950s at the age of 3 years old, I went to a Nursery School. Unlike the Nurseries, Day Care Centres, Kindergartens etc. of today where it seems 90% of learning is based on play, and only 10% based on learning the academic basics of the 3Rs (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic). The teaching was in a prefabricated building with 2 classrooms and 2 teachers, no Headteacher and you stayed in the Nursery School for 2 years and the places for Nursery School were open to all children free of charge. The classroom was the basis of all activity, including school-dinners. The learning was centred on the teaching and learning of the 3Rs and social life and behavioural skills for 90% of the time and 10% art and music. You were sat around tables - 4 to a table and 5 tables to a classroom. The school day started at 9am and finished at 3.30pm. At lunchtime you either stopped on the premises for a school lunch or went home under the supervision of a parent or other adult that was responsible for you and returning you to the Nursery School for the afternoon session. No packed lunches to eat either on the premises or off the premises were allowed. All school lunches were prepared in local centralised school kitchens and transported in sealed steel containers with catering cutlery provided. Your class teacher was the focus of all lessons and activities (including an improvised canteen at lunchtimes, where the teachers were actually the servers of your meals) and taught you all subjects.

If your class teacher considered you competent enough, you were allowed to attend the Primary School at the age of 4 and was additionally assessed by the Headteacher of the Primary School as to which grade of class you would be in, the basic ability class or the higher ability class.

1 comment:

Robin said...

Very interesting articles! It's cool to read about school from a UK perspective. I live in the United States in Virginia. But it sounds as if things are quite similar over there as well. Keep blogging and I'll keep reading. Welcome to the blogging world! :)