Reasons I started Homeschooling - 4

I am a very proud and determined mum of one son who is now a graduate aged 28 years old. Born, raised and a native of Leeds in the UK and an ex-secondary school teacher, tutor, trainer and homeschooler. This blog gives my opinion, tips etc on homeschooling from 3 years old up to the age of 18 years old, in general and not just in the UK - where Iam located. These views will be unbiased and updated at least 5 times per week. If I think that something education-related is rubbish, excellent, angers or is funny or sad, I will say so in no uncertain terms. I will also give opinions not just on homeschooling, but on teacher, school, pupil and backup educational support and performances etc..... This is a blog for everyone that is interested in education a lot of content relates to the USA. So come in .. take a seat, relax and give us a read and give your opinions.

MY JUNIOR SCHOOL EXPERIENCE
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This is the 4th in my series of articles of why I decided to homeschool my son, based on my experiences as a child in the public school system. Please read my other articles in this series of why I decided to homeschool. The articles in order are:

ARTICLE 1 - My Reasons I Started Homeschooling
ARTICLE 2 - My Nursery School Experience
ARTICLE 3 - My Primary School Experience

Before I commenced Junior School in the 1960s – a school for 7 to 11 year olds, I remember taking a test, for reading, writing and arithmetic at the end of my last year in Primary School. This was to determine which ability class that I would be put in at Junior School. The higher ability or the lower ability class. I took this test at the age of 7 years old and was placed in the higher ability class.

My Junior School experience was again a bit of a culture shock. I naively thought that it was going to be just like Primary School, I remember we always use to refer to it as ‘the big school' – as it had 2 floors. This was because the Junior School itself was segregated by gender. The 2nd floor was for the boys and the ground floor for the girls, with separate entrances for each gender; instead of the 1 that we had been use to in Primary School that was mixed gender classes. The Junior School was actually located within the same grounds as the Primary School; the only way of knowing was a small dividing wall. At break times Primary school children would play on one side of the wall and juniors at the other side.

The centralized school kitchen that made and transported all the school dinners for schools in the area was located at the bottom of the Primary School playground and attached to that was a house with a ground floor and a first floor, which we always thought was the school Caretaker’s House, but it was actually the Housecraft House – more on that later.

On the first day at Junior School, all newcomers assembled and sat down in the hall, where you were introduced to the class teachers who took the first year pupils. When your name was called, you got up and followed your class teacher to your classroom with pump bag and coat in hand. You hung your coat on the peg that had already been pre-tagged with your name on it. You had to change into your pumps, as no one was allowed to wear outdoor shoes when walking in the school on the annually-maintained highly polished wooden floors throughout the school - that was the privilege of teaching staff who wore their outdoor shoes everywhere they walked in the school. I often asked other pupils and even other teachers why this was so, but never seemed to get a satisfactory reply.

You were issued with a different coloured exercise book for each subject area you would be taught in and 2 pencils (no pens were allowed to be used at that time) and 1 wooden ruler, all exercise books remained with the teacher, but you were allowed to take the pencils and ruler home with you and return with them for the next day. The class size was 40 pupils, but the school day had extended. We started at 9am and finished at 4pm with lunch from 12-15pm to 1.30pm daily.

The curriculum expanded on what you had been taught in the last year of Primary School and still the dulcet tones of ‘one two is two….one two is two….one two is two….’ could be heard. Arithmetic turned into mathematics for written work but still remained for sums and problems that you had to work out mentally without having the benefit of working out on paper – and two ½ hour classes per week were dedicated just to Mental Arithmetic. We had Mathematics everyday, one day it would be a ½ hour lesson and the next it would be a 1 hour double lesson. Mathematics and Mental Arithmetic I seemed to excel at, which led to very little one-to-one attention, that being reserved for pupils who for one reason or another, were not as adept as I was at these subjects and I was often told in my plea for assistance – "an example is on the board – work it out for yourself". Again, I felt neglected, but in another way I felt a sense of achievement. I completed my work all correctly at break-neck speed and constantly asked for further work, to which my reply was from the class teacher "you’ll have to wait until the rest of the class have caught up".
It was a matter of twiddling my thumbs or helping out, any other pupils that were sat around me that maybe having difficulties. Your class teacher remained the focal point, but now, only for the majority of lessons. Other teachers now taught the class some of the subjects.

We were introduced to writing classes, where we were taught how to do joined up writing. Which had to be precise and exact or a big red diagonal line was put through the whole page and you had to rewrite the whole page again.

We were also introduced to the practical and theoretical aspects of Music and were asked if anyone would like to learn to play an instrument on the start of each of the academic year. Some pupils remained with the one instrument and others chose different instruments for each year. I chose a different instrument for each year. This was a double lesson for 1 hour per week – 20 minutes on how to read and write sheet music and the other 40 minutes learning how to play our instruments and we were able to take the instruments home with us and was instructed to practice our instrument from the sheet music for at least 1 hour per day – every day. After Christmas, the music teacher formed an Orchestra of the most able players and we use to perform at assemblies 2 times per week. Another music-related class we took for ½ hour per week was singing – which was taken by the Headmistress.

As we had a very limited amount of PE Equipment, PE turned into Games, with English Rounders (an English equivalent of Baseball played with a smaller version of a baseball bat) and French Rounders (similar to English Rounders, but the ball had to be passed from the ball thrower, to the 1st base, who threw it to the 2nd base and so on, until it reached the 4th base, who’s responsibility it was to ‘tag’ the running batter. This class was also taken by your class teacher.

Art, I believe was much neglected at this period in my school life and we only took one ½ hour lesson per week, again given by your class teacher.

Another new lesson we were given was social etiquette and manners, but only for ½ hour per week and you were expected to have that followed-up and expanded by your parents for the next week’s class. Your mother was also expected to teach you different household management skills – cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing. Which when you were in the 4th year of school, you would spend a full week (with 2 other of your fellow class pupils) residential in the housecraft house, performing a variety of everyday tasks on which you were assessed on a daily basis, with at least one teacher to be invited every day for lunch and for tea, with 1 item of laundry and ironing to be done daily for each teacher. This was strictly for the girls and any boy who remotely expressed an interest in the activities in the housecraft house were bullied relentlessly by the other boys.

This is where the bullying seemed to start and if you were different even in the very slightest way – school life could be made hell for you. If teachers were informed of the bullying, this made it even worse for the victim, as they would additionally be tagged, targeted and bullied as been a ‘tell-tale’. The victim given a cursory punishment and the victim received no counseling whatsoever. When many of the pupils had to walk home after school, much of the bullying and physical violence happened then. Teachers would throw up their hands and say it’s not our fault, they are off school premises. Pupils whose parent/s worked often went round to see the bully’s parent/s, who would often say, that the problem wasn’t there’s as it had been caused by the school environment.

I believe the school environment did cause bullying where competition and individuality academically were nurtered and the pupils that were just left behind because the class teacher did not have sufficient time to explain the subject and topic area in detail to each and every class pupil that required it, some teachers adopted an attitude of ridicule and cynicism what the teacher saw as ‘attention-seeking’. The most-able pupils were been bullied for been ‘the teacher’s pet’, for gaining a lot of verbal praise by the class teacher who often made comparisons to other more-able pupils by saying ‘why can’t you be more like…….. Bullying within school time was very rarely made public to the parents of pupils and swept under the carpet and never was made public through the media.

In my last year at Junior School, we took a formal examination called the ’11-Plus’ with all the pupils taking it in the school hall. This exam at the time was the most important exam you had to take and would shape the whole of your life, as it would determine what type of senior school you would attend. A secondary modern school (where you would not be entered for any formal academic exams) or a Grammar School (where you would be entered for and take formal academic exams and with the possibility of staying onto the 5th and 6th forms to be entered into and take Advanced exams – which were necessary if you wanted to go to University). If you passed the 11-Plus, then you would be allocated a place at one of the two Grammar Schools within our catchment area. If you failed the 11-Plus you would be allocated a place at one of the 2 secondary modern schools within our catchment area. Rumours were rife in our community that the 11-Plus was a sham and that even if you did pass the 11-Plus and resided in our community, you would be failed because you were not considered to be suitable socio-economically to be a pupil at a Grammar School, even though a child may have been one of the most brightest, gifted children in the city.

The day of the 11-Plus exam arrived and unfortunately I contracted Measles (for the second time, even after I had received the combined vaccination against it) 2 days before this important exam. Armed with my GPs letter and medical certificate to state that I was medically unable to sit this exam at the stated time and date, the Headmistress insisted that I took the exam on the stated time and date (or I would be given an automatic fail) and that I would be isolated with a class teacher in an empty classroom to ensure that I had peace and quiet. My mother did take me on that day and time and I was dreadfully ill and feeling quite sick with a high temperature. The exam paper was already awaiting my arrival and the rest of the pupils were made to move to the other end of the hall whilst I entered the classroom.

In this large classroom a teacher sat at one end of the classroom where she wore trousers (which was unprecedented as the Headmistress always insisted that the female staff wear skirts), a coat and gloves and I was placed at the back of the classroom. I started my exam and felt absolutely ill throughout (a steel waste paper basket was placed at the side of my desk in case I wanted to be sick) but remarkably I answered all the questions fully, which were on all academic subject areas that we had been taught.

After finishing I remember my mother taking me home and putting me straight to bed and I slept for around 2 days. 4 weeks later, the dreaded letter arrived from the Local Education Authority (LEA) informing my parents that I had failed the 11-Plus. My father was absolutely furious and demanded to know what the pass score was and what score I had attained. The LEA informed my father that he had no right to know as both the pass score and my score were both confidential. After 5 weeks of communicating with the LEA and getting nowhere, being given excuse after excuse and been told that he didn’t know what he was talking about and that they were the professionals and knew what was best for me; my father gave them the ultimatum, either show him my test paper and score or he would make a public scandal of the whole situation, through the national press (which my much older cousin worked at the time) and through the television (which a friend of my father’s worked at, on the News desk). The LEA finally relented and showed him my actually 11-Plus exam paper and score. I had scored 97%. The actual pass score, to get a place at Grammar School was 65%. My father enquired to why they had failed me and the answer they gave him was that it was an error on their part and the paper had been put in the Fail tray by mistake.

Needless to say, an amended letter arrived a few days later, saying that having after reassessed my results that they have reconsidered their decision and considered that I had obtained an adequate enough mark and had passed the exam (how much more adequate did they need!). What a cheek, there was no apology and nothing to say that it was them who had been in error in the first place. So, I had been awarded a place at the local grammar school. The question then for my parents was how they were going to find the money for the mandatory school uniform, books and equipment that was strictly enforced by the Grammar School.

I was going to the Grammar School, the final hurdle I thought, into entering adult society, what a shock I would get.

Please revisit for my next and final in this series, on the reasons why I chose to homeschool my son based upon my recollections of my personal school and academic experiences.