@SpatzieLover….Homeschooling is a different thing. Homeschooling is not being spoon-fed for most of the year until your mind is numb from whatever “the state” (as in the UK) wants you to believe. The question was not “Is it okay to homeschool children all year?” The question is “Do you think children should go to school all year?” How many children are you homeschooling? A handful, correct? A handful (usually) of well-behaved children who really do learn better. (I should know——I did both….I taught huge classes and then homeschooled..and never the twain shall meet.) Putting children in a state school all year…is not the same. Classes are usually huge, the teachers are stretched to the limit. The bright students are made to lag behind, the slow students don’t get the attention they need and then lag behind, too. Discipline problems are rampant.
@aprilsimnel….The idea that “USians can get used to it”...is true. But why should they? It’s a system that flogs the creativity out of children, forces them into simply spewing out whatever the curriculum demands and stunts the whole process of self-individuation. I see the children walk by day after day all year round and frankly, they are exhausted. It’s just a way to get the state to babysit your children. And if that’s okay, and you want the state to be your nanny all year, teach them the values of “everyone must be the same” as the world seems to be going anyway…then it works. I just like children to have the freedom to be themselves and that is not necessarily taught at state schools…though I know there are fantastic out-of-the-box teachers in the system. But even they are often threatened with the loss of their jobs.