I don't think I've ever heard of or seen anyone that homeschools in the UK. And that's including everyone I've ever met and all the documentary TV programs I watch. It's not part of our culture, and I hope it never is. Don't quote me on this, but I think you'd be in serious bother with your Local Education Authority if you tried to "home school". Even kids that get expelled from school after school don't get "home schooled".

I have very strong views on schooling. I don't believe in sending children to boarding school because I think they should be being socialised by their family and neighbourhood peers not suffering identity crises being in school 50+ miles from home and effectively being brought up by older boys/girls who often sexually or physically abuse them. Likewise, I'm not keen on private day schools UNLESS you can promise them a life of privilege when they leave school. If you can't, then you're setting them up for a fall when they finally have to face the real world.

I vehemently resist the view that people who are not home schooled can't think "outside the box". This is a ridiculous and spurious assertion.

If you can show me the studies that prove that home schooled people are more creative thinkers, then I will reconsider my perspective. If you don't have such data, then you may wish to reconsider your assertion.

If anything, I should have thought that the cloistering of being at home all the time and being not only brought up by your parents, but also educated by them, would be more likely to dampen creative expression, if only because the children's horizons are so limited.

But neither of you have answered the question of how parents can teach stuff that they themselves don't understand. Can you explain calculus to me, and can you demonstrate Young's modulus? Could you teach the covalence of carbon atoms, or demonstrate the instability of magnesium when faced with oxidisation? Can you explain a transitive verb, or the subjunctive tense in French? Are you capable of dissecting Macbeth and explaining the alliterations, metaphors, similes etc., or teaching Homer's Iliad. Can you teach advanced drawing to your kids or explain a diminished 7th? Can you teach them modern dance, how to play tennis, the techniques of soccer, or the paleolithic period?

My guess is "no". And that's not because you're bad or inadequate, it's because schools are filled with subject specialists for a reason - no one knows it all, and therefore kids need a range of teachers to get a rounded education.

So, anyway, I'll come out and take my position. Unless I've misunderstood homeschooling (and I don't think I have), I thoroughly disapprove.

I also thoroughly disapprove of sending kids to boarding school, because angsty teenagers need their parents, even if they act like they don't. I don't believe that kids should be brought up by other kids and housemasters.

And I don't approve of sending kids to private schools at an early age unless you can guarantee them the same toffee-nosed lifestyle throughout their lives.

There will be exceptions to these rules - such as where the child is in such a chaotic home life that boarding school is a better environment, or where school is so anxiety-inducing as to bring them home is better. But for most kids, this simply isn't the case.

I believe it's important to get a good education, but also to be very closely connected with your local community and to have friends nearby, and just basically grow up "normal". Perhaps this is a hard feat in the US with overly religious education.

Jane