Wow - that was really enlightening, though I must admit I giggled my way through quite a few posts!
Mostly because although I don't Home Ed, DD already gets the chance to do them!
I'm a teacher, so very happy sending DD to school, but to be fair, I don't really send her, I take her! I also teach in a very small school, less than 20 pupils and 2 teachers. So for us a lot of the big positives of HE are actually being met in school already due to our personal circumstances. Small groups, mixed ages and abilities, independent learning, child led learning. Being such a tiny school as well means that a lot of the community is involved in the school as well, grandparents ect come in on a regular basis to share different skills with the pupils. This last term we have been learning to make traditional crafts using straw which NON of the teachers would have been able to teach, but we can and do make use of others who can
If we didn't live where we do then I think I would consider HE. The change in DDs education since moving here has been immense. From going from a class of 30 to technically a class of 2 mixed in with another 17 means she has been able to take part in all the things she wanted to do at school like pupil council ect but never got the chance. I've also seen how she has finally discovered she enjoys reading, excels in maths, can lead and support others in in their learning and take the initiative creatively. These are things she might have been able to do if being HE'd, but definitely did not do in a more traditional school environment. Given the changes in the last few years in Scottish education has also helped, the curriculum has moved to being much more pupil and skill driven which gives us as teachers much more justification in what can be taught.
