The Duffy parents
have already proved their ability to provide their children with a reasonable
minimum standard of education or better. Their elder son Gary, after being home
educated for 2 years, proceeded to Youth Reach at Sligo where he successfully
completed a wide range of nationally accredited vocational courses. He received
an excellent reference from the Centre and is now in full time employment. He
also leads an active social life. In my opinion this is sufficient assurance
that Mr. and Mrs. Duffy are capable of educating Rory at home. They have
already been doing so, successfully, for 5 years. I am of the opinion that if
Rory were to return to school he would regress rather than progress
educationally. His social development would suffer and so too would his
psychological health.
2. The Duffy family has been involved in Court
cases almost continually since 1993, a total of 23 appearances. Their first
case, which ran from 1993 to 1996 resulted from an action taken by the parents
following an accident at school which resulted in Gary, the elder son, spending
two days in intensive care and further hospitalisation. Their action was
successful. Mr. and Mrs. Duffy have since successfully defended actions taken
against them by School Attendance officials between 1996 and 1999 (2 District
Court and 2 Circuit Court hearings) most recently in the Circuit Court in June
1999. They believed this was the end of the matter and that their
Constitutional right to educate Rory at home had been upheld. In spite of this,
in October, 1999, they were served with yet another Court Summons for
non-attendance, Since then, the hearing was postponed three times. Then, in May
it was adjourned for an educational assessment. I fail to understand why such
an assessment was sought at this juncture, when one had not been sought in the
preceeding four and a half years. The extent of cumulative stress on the
family, of Court hearings lasting 6 years, can only be imagined. The Duffys
have, of course, tried to protect Rory, but there is little doubt, in my
opinion, that he has suffered significant psychological stress over the whole
perod. I believe that if he were forced back into school now, the consequences
for his psychological health would be dire. I further believe that this would
be apparent to any reasonable person. It hardly needs a psychologist to state
it.
3. Rory's experience of school was, for the most part, unpleasant
and accompanied by a distressing psychosomatic condition, as his family doctor
noted. The adverse affects remain with him even now. I observed him in the
family setting for three days. After his initial shyness he became quite
outgoing and humorous. He was also happy for me to see his work books. However,
he immediately changed when I asked him to do something akin to a school-type
task for me. He became visibly upset and withdrawn. As soon as I reassured him
I was not going to persist he became his normal pleasant self again. This
reinforces my belief that he would find the experiences of school highly, if
not traumatically, stressful.
4. Rory is quite capable of learning in
the right environment, as reported by his temporarily appointed tutor in 1997,
and as I saw from perusing his work books. His mother tells me that he
generally works with her for two hours or so each day, which is typical for
many home educating families, as I found in my research in England and
Australia. Because it is one-to-one, teaching at home is very intensive, so
that this amount of time is quite sufficient. Moreover, at home, Rory has many
opportunities to learn informally from conversing with his parents and
neighbours. Again, as I have shown in my research, this kind of learning is
highly enriching, is common in home education, and for obvious reasons is
virtually non-existent in school. Rory's parents, I am convinced, are
determined he will be as well prepared as was his brother for going on into
further education and/or the world of work. They have devoted themselves to his
education for nearly 5 years, both in the basic areas of numeracy and literacy
and through a wide range of other educational experiences. All this serves to
demonstrate that Rory will learn more if he continues to be educated at home.
The combination of the stress of returning to school combined with trying to
adapt to school-type learning will, almost certainly, ensure that all the gains
he has made in overcoming the stressful experiences will be lost and he will
reach school leaving age with a lower level of educational achievement than if
he continues to be educated at home.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Rory is a pleasant young person
who is still recovering from the highly stressful effects of his experiences in
school and subsequent court cases, including this one. I am strongly of the
opinion that if Rory were to return to school his psychological health could
suffer permanent damage. I also believe that his educational progress would
suffer. His best hope of growing into adulthood, emotionally stable and
socially skilled, with an appropriate level of education, will be for him
complete his education at home. I am convinced that Rory's parents have acted
in his best interests all along and are best placed to ensure his successful
entrance into the adult world. My only advice would be to buy a computer for
Rory in order to familiarise himself with information technology, give him
access to a wide range of knowledge and to further develop his communication
skills.
References:
Hargreaves, D.H. (1997)A road to the
learning society, School Leadership and Management, 17, 9-21
Lines, P.
(1995) Home Schooling: ERIC Digest 95, Clearinghouse of Educational Management,
University of Oregon. Meighan, R. (1995) Home-based education effectiveness
research and some of its implications, Educational Review, 47, 275-287
Petrie, A. (1992) Home Education and the Local Education Authority,
Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Liverpool.
Ray, B.D. and
Wartes, J. (1991) The Academic Achievement and Affective Development of
Home-schooled Children. In: J. Van Galen & M.A. Pitman (Eds) Home
Schooling: Political, Historical and Pedagogical Perspectives. Norwood, New
Jersey; Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Rothermel, P. (2000) Unpublished
Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Durham.
Rudner, L.M. (1999) Scholastic
achievement and demographic characteristics of home schooled students in 1998,
Education Policy Analysis Archives, 7, No. 8.
Alan Thomas 12 October 2000