LEARNING AT HOME Have you ever thought about leaving school and learning at home? Thousands of young people do exactly that, It's called 'home schooling' or 'home education'. So why do parents make the decision to do this? Some parents s take their children out of school due to bullying or other serious problems, but there are a growing number of British parents who choose to home-educate their children from the start. We don't have a set timetable, but negotiate what we're going to do every day. Morning activities include using the computer, writing, spelling, reading, maths and science. After lunch, we generally choose something 30 more creative like art, sewing, or gardening. I have to admit that some activities are more popular than others, but in my view, it's important to get through every subject in order to get a good general education. People ask what happens when home-schoolers get 35 to secondary school age. I have friends with teenage children and most of them have decided to follow a curriculum and take GCSE exams. This has meant a more organized day but the young people still take a great deal of responsibility for their own learning. One boy my son Joseph was six and Lily was eight. There were no problems with teachers and neither of the children was being bullied in fact they were quite popular - they were simply bored. With large class sizes, low resources 15 and other problems, it's difficult for teachers to give some 40 I know is planning to stop home-schooling when he is children the individual attention they need. sixteen, do a part-time college course and then go on to university. We spoke to Erin Morgan who chose home-schooling for 10 her children. 'We took our children out of school when When we started home-schooling, I was worried the children wouldn't fit in socially, so they have a few organized activities a week. Joseph is learning the 20 trumpet and plays in a band. Lily goes to ballet classes and they both have swimming lessons. This means they learn skills and enjoy the company of other children at the same time. In addition, I belong to a home-schooling network so we often get together for trips with other 25 home-schoolers. EXAM TASK Przeczytaj powyższy tekst i odpowiedz na pytania 1-6. Zakreśl literę A, B, C lub D. 1 What does the writer say about home-schooling in Britain? A It's a serious problem. B It only occurs when children are unhappy. C It's rare for young children to learn at home. D It's becoming more common. 2 What does Erin Morgan say about her children at school? A They were in big classes. B They enjoyed some of their lessons. C They had no friends. D They disliked the teachers. 3 What does Erin say about her children? A They avoid meeting children. B They dislike groups of children. C They only meet other home-schoolers. D They often meet children of their own age. 4 What does Erin say about daily activities? A They are always the same. B The children can choose them. C The children like all of them. D They all involve writing. 5 What does Erin say about home-schooling older children? A It's better to send them to college. B It's important to change your method. C It makes no difference. D It generally isn't done. 6 Erin thinks that children learn best A without rules. B in formal situations. C when they enjoy it. D with other children. (4 Whatever the age of your children home-schooling is a challenge, but in my opinion, the worst thing to do is to 45 turn the home into a formal school. Learning should be fun, and children and young people need to feel happy in order to achieve. I'm not saying you shouldn't have rules - we all need rules to be able to learn and live within society but learning in a formal environment at school 50 isn't the answer for everyone? 5 In pairs, discuss the questions. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of: a learning in a very small school? b learning at home? VOCABULARY Build your vocabulary 6 Find words 1-8 in the two texts above and match ther with definitions a-h. Then use them in sentences of yo own. 1 remote (1.01) 2 viable (1.23) 3 disruptive (1.30) 4 take out (2.10) 5 fit in (2.18) 6 get together (2.24) 7 negotiate (2.26) 8 get through (2.32) a disturbing or upsetting b finish at least a part of something c remove d decide or agree someth talking about it e far away from where or people live f socialize g practical or possible h be able to live and wo other people 7 Find three other interesting words in the texts in ex 5 and 6 and write their definitions. Read the defini the class and let other students guess the words. 1
