Children educated at home don’t learn like they do in school
Ockham’s Razor Transcript, Sunday, 24th November, 1996
Robyn Williams: Bertrand Russell never went to school; it didn’t appear to do him much harm either, as he still got to Trinity College Cambridge, revolutionised 20th century mathematics, won the Nobel Prize for Literature and did quite a bit for philosophy and politics as well.
Avoiding school was commonplace for the British aristocracy. But does it have a place in today’s education? Alan Thomas has done a study on this question. He’s Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Northern Territory in Darwin and his results are quite surprising.
Alan Thomas: Education means schools and classrooms, and always has. Not any more. A growing number of parents now take their children’s education into their own hands and teach them at home. Why do parents turn away from a freely available system of schooling and assume the huge responsibility of doing it themselves, usually without any training? For a variety of reasons: some have different educational philosophies, others because their children experience problems in school. Are they successful? By and large, yes. Sometimes, startlingly so. What about social development? Most parents go to great lengths to ensure their children don’t miss out on having friends.