Friday 15 December 2006

Reasons I started Homeschooling - 3

MY PRIMARY SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

In this my 3rd article in this series of why I chose to homeschool my son, I recount my personal experiences of attending Primary School at the age of 4 years until the age of 7 years old.

Primary School was for pupils aged 5 to 7 years old, if they had not attended Nursery School. At the age of 4 my reading, writing and arithmetic skills were assessed by the Headmistress of the school and she placed me in the 2nd year(usually reserved for 6 year olds) where I had to stay for 2 years. This was achieved because even though both of my parents worked full-time, there was a strict regime. Bedtime was at 7.30pm prompt. I had to read at least 2 pages, write 1 page and do 1 page of written sums, as well as answer 10 questions on mental arithmetic, to each parent on a daily basis. If I answered the same question incorrectly three times, then I would have to start the whole exercise all over again. If I got all questions right for each parent, then this would take about 1 hour in total for both parents. As a result, by the time I went to Primary School at the age of 4, I could read competently enough to read a newspaper, I knew all my times tables up to the 12 times table and could write legibly by printing (enjoined writing)in straight lines of the same size.

It was a bit of a culture shock for me to go from a Nursery school of 40 pupils, to one of about 200+. The day started at 9am and finished at 4pm, you had an Assembly every day, and did 1/2 hour each of Art, P.E. (physical education), Music and R.E. (Religious Education) per week. I remember that reading was from the Janet and John series of books and then you went onto the Ladybird series of books. It was estimated that this would take you 2 academic years to complete both series of books. I remember starting Primary school in September and by Christmas of the same year, I had completed all the books in both the Janet and John and the Ladybird series, completing 1-2 books per day. You had to read a minimum of 2 pages per day to your class-teacher (who was still the focal point for the teaching of all subjects) and 2 pages per week to the Headmistress in her study (which also doubled as the School Library). In my first year after the Christmas break, I started reading the Secret Seven and the Famous Five series of books (written by Enid Blyton) and on my weekly visits to the Headmistress she would lay back in her chair, clasp her hands together and close her eyes whilst I read her a quite extensive article in that day’s daily newspaper.

My arithmetic ability was too advanced for the class, as to virtually bar me from the majority of class-based activities as my class teacher said that I led the class and they would just follow and not really learn anything. The teaching method for learning your times tables was by repetition. I can still hear it now a class of 40+ pupils dulcet tones "one two is two....one two is two.....one two is two" and continuing on that until the teacher was satisfied that every pupil knew that one two is two and this continued onto "twelve twelves are one hundred and forty four......twelve twelves are one hundred and forty four......twelve twelves are one hundred and forty four." During this repetition the teacher would pick out a pupil at random and fire a question at them, if they answered incorrectly, they had to go stand in the corner where they had to wear the dreaded black pointed dunces hat with a big white D painted upon it, face the wall and had to keep repeating the times table they had answered incorrectly, until someone else got one wrong and came to the corner to replace them.

In Class Reading again I was barred from that activity as well, as my reading was too advanced and I was by then reading Enid Blyton books, when the rest of the class were on Janet and John or Ladybird books. However, I was given the privilege of reading between ½ and 1 chapter of whichever Secret Seven or Famous Five or other Enid Blyton book that I was reading at the time to the rest of the class. The school day began at 9am and finished at 4pm. Again the follow-up work at home continued, which put me in good stead for when I commenced Junior School at the age of 7.

In my next article (my 4th in this series of why I chose to homeschool my son), I recount my personal experiences of attending Junior School at the age of 7 years until the age of 11 years old.

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