Would you consider homeschooling after lockdown ends?

I ask after research suggests almost a quarter of British parents say they plan to continue homeschooling after the coronavirus lockdown ends.

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If the research is to be believed apparently 23 per cent of us want to carry on educating our children at home – and I don’t know about you, but I won’t be one of them!

Would you consider homeschooling after lockdown ends?

If I didn’t work and only had one child I might think differently, but as a working mum of four I simply cannot fathom why anyone would choose to homeschool if they didn’t have to.

For me the case against homeschooling boils down to a simple case of mathematics: I’m outnumbered four to one and it’s simply not possible for one person to do four people’s jobs.

But apart from being outnumbered, homeschooling makes me feel like a 1950s housewife: I feel like I’m constantly cooking, cleaning and nagging from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to sleep with no time at all for anything else. And it fills me with rage.

That rage boiled over this week when the Chancellor of the Exchequer decided it would be a good idea to publicly thank mums for bearing the brunt of childcare duties during the pandemic. At the same time the government released a new ‘stay home, save lives’ advert featuring women doing just that while a man lounged on a sofa (it was taken down pretty swiftly after the internet erupted, but not before I managed to screen grab it).

homeschooling

Swearing at the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Alpha Bites on social media made me feel slightly better, but that’s not the point. The point is it’s 2021 yet the powers that be think it’s ok to perpetuate the gender stereotype of women ‘doing it all’.

The truth is, by juggling homeschooling and work with cooking, cleaning and nagging I feel like I’m perpetuating that gender stereotype too.

Then there’s all the terminology that’s been dreamt up somewhere between the time I left school and the kids started school. Like obscure acronyms for things that ought to be really simple, and as for old maths and new maths, that’s a whole new blog post! As far as I’m concerned teaching is best left to the experts, of which I’m certainly not.

Interestingly, the survey into homeschooling was done during the first lockdown and before the latest one, so I’ll be interested to see if the same parents are still so keen knowing what we know now.

But I, for one, am holding my hand up to say I will never ever in a million years consider homeschooling after lockdown ends.

What do you think? Would you consider homeschooling after lockdown ends? I’d love to hear your point of view!

If you liked this you may also enjoy reading:

10 things they don’t tell you about homeschooling in lockdown

A short rant about remote learning 2.0

10 things to look forward to in 2021!