The Home-Educated Philosopher

I've written out my Home-Education background because I think there are many misconceptions about it, especially since I'm atypical. I wasn't hot-housed. I didn't sit at home sweating 😤 😵 over my maths ➕➖➗✖ ☑ π√± 📝 so that I could go to Oxford University at 12 years old to study for a maths degree! 😟

As you can see below, I had a very broad education and attended many classes as a child and teenager (both peer group and adult education classes). So I wasn't just taught by my mother, I came across many teachers (and quite a few tutors [for languages up to and incl. A Level: Spanish, French, German, all native speakers and music: cello, violin, piano] and tennis coaches) with different teaching styles. As a result, I met children, teens and adults from a variety of backgrounds and learnt to be confident socialising with everyone, rather than just stuck with a small clique as is typical with school children. In my case, home-education gave me the opportunity to explore more than just academic subjects and to reach a high standard in them, such as the performing arts and sport (tennis). However, my mother kept checking with me throughout, once a term, whether I was happy to carry on being home-educated or whether I wanted to go back to school since I'd been so happy there. I didn't miss school because I spent most days out of 7 with children of my own age, made friends easily and was never bored! As I approached my mid-teens, I started attending adult classes, alongside GCSE classes for teenagers, so learnt to be just as confident learning and socialising with them as I did with my own peer group. Some classes had students across the age range, aged 17 - 80. So when I went to uni, I didn't have ageist barriers - I didn't see lecturers as some adult authority figures, partly because of my educational background and partly because I wasn't some teenager fresh out of school. I was also a mature student who already had experience of studying at uni (alongside mature students) and had embarked on a career as an athlete.

I was shocked how little respect lecturers had for students. Even after you leave college, they still treat you like you are a kid and they think that they can suggest nonsense to you and expect you to go along with it! We are all academically-minded people together, it shouldn't be a them-and-us situation between lecturers and students/past-students. There needs to be less hierarchy, less bureaucracy, far less admin and more focus on lecturers and students stretching each other academically and socialising together. Otherwise, philosophers don't become a cohesive group and so don't function as a philosophy/academic community. Lecturers and students should freely mix together - it's uni not school! And at my uni, some of the philosophy students were older than some of the lecturers! There needs to be interaction between the two. They should treat each other as equals and fellow adults, because that is exactly what they are! Not socialising across the board, regardless of age, status, job or qualification titles etc means you don't see people different from yourself as simply being fellow human beings, just like you, but rather, as something 'other' which leads to dehumanization which in turn leads to an unpleasant, hostile environment.

Home Education - between 1992-2007

All home education teaching was done in English, following the National Curriculum as well as furthering it, studying all subjects and then some! We covered ALL topics in the syllabuses at GCSE and A Level, whether compulsory ones or not.

I had a timetable on the wall which we followed but there was room for manoeuvre. Although I always felt it was an equal working relationship, my mother did prepare for every lesson, taught it and kept an academic record of everything we did. It was never a case of I could go off and do whatever I wanted - that's what my playtime was about. We didn't only stick to an age related curriculum either:

e.g. we worked from a GCSE biology book 📙 even though I was only 10; we watched excellent BBC education 📺 programmes together on various subjects, meant for 14-16 year olds even though I was still primary school age, and then we discussed them to make sure I understood what I'd been watching; from 10-12 years old, I studied the text 'Jane Eyre' page by page, line by line, constructing a literary criticism of it together.

I was home-educated by my mother, a qualified, experienced teacher (secondary school, both comprehensive and private schools): English/Drama, History and Religious Studies to A Level (with a focus on World Religions); Music (including organising school concerts with a focus on singing); pre-GCSE science. In addition, she is an Educationalist with an MA in Education (Educational Management) and a Feminist Theologian (B.D.).

Sciences 👩‍🔬🔬: Biology (mostly human biology but also including botany and zoology. I subscribed to a magazine which teaches you about insects and gives you an insect collection to go with it because I find insects fascinating so this was something I wanted to do); Chemistry; Physics (as separate sciences (not combined) then gained GCSE certificates in all 3 as separate sciences; Physics certificate at A level;

For my post on 'Science at Home', complete with photos 📷 of me and my GCSE Biology assignment report card see:

https://thesciencesspaceastronomytechnology.blogspot.com/2021/02/science-at-home.html

Maths: 📏📐➗➖🔢 (to A Level certificate, long-distance course with tutor and marked assignments)

Pure maths; Graphs 📉📊📈 (which also came up in research methods in psychology); Geometry and Trigonometry; Mechanical maths; Decision maths

(Non-verbal Reasoning 5-11 years old)

Geography 🌋🌍🌎🌏🗺🎋🎌🎎🎏 🕍🕋🕌⛪🏜🏞🏝🏔🏙🗻 🏭🗾🌁🌃⛅🌦🌨🌩🌪🌫🌀❄⚡☔🌊also to GCSE level (certificate);

I decided to gain certificates in biology, chemistry, physics, geography (GCSE certificates) and physics and maths (A Level certificates) as part of the completion of long-distance courses with tutors and marked assignments, instead of taking science exams because it was difficult to find regular lab practice and then an exam centre which gives you a lab for the exam. Throughout home-education, I did science experiments at home using my own science equipment and the long-distance course assignments included conducting and writing up home designed experiments. That way I didn't miss out on important subjects 🙂👍simply because the UK's education system was (and still is) not well designed for home educated kids and teens.😪

Here's a link to my Wicken Fen post, including my Geography GCSE assignment and tutor mark/comments:

https://wildlifegardensandtheenvironment.blogspot.com/2021/02/wicken-fen-uk-wetland.html

Other science subjects I studied as part of home-education:

Geology (e.g. rock formations in nature and field trips to see them, reading about and collecting gems, stones, mineral; going fossil hunting on beaches and collecting/buying fossils)💎

Environmental studies 🌱🌲🌳🌴🌵🐘🐧🐪🐯🐆🐗🐒💮🏵🌹🍁🐢🐍🌊🐬🐟🐳🐙🦀🐠🐡🐚🐙🌋🗻🏔🌄🌅

Health studies and Nutrition 🍇🍈🍉🍊🍋🍌🍍🍎🍑🍒🍓🍅🌶🍄🌰🧀🍖🍗🌽🍆🍅🍏🍯🍶🍽

This included cooking with granny as well as occasionally at home, here's me cooking, Aged 5:

This post includes a photo of me about to cut a carrot aged 2:

https://wildlifegardensandtheenvironment.blogspot.com/2021/02/pownaturechallenge-symmetry-in-nature.html

Sports Science (followed the BTEC First Certificate and Diploma in Sport)🏋⛹️🤸🚵🚴🏂🚵🤽🏊🏄⚾🏀🏈🏉🎾🏌🎿🍇🍈🍉🍊🍋🍌🍍🍎🧀🍄🍯

Space science and Astronomy 🔭🚀🛰 👩‍🚀

IT: 🖥💻🔌🖱🖨💾💿

Microsoft office: word docs; spreadsheets; PowerPoint presentations; designing leaflets, posters, office admin skills - gained a certificate on one of the courses

Course on email management and internet searches (including how to research topics on the internet and find anything you want)

Website building course

Humanities: 📚📒📔📖📝

English Language to A Level;

English Literature to A Level (GCSE long-distance course certificate with assignments and tutor; AS exam);

Creative Writing.

History - I studied history throughout and it was my favourite academic subject. Eras covered: from stone age to present day concentrating on kings and queens. (Including field trips e.g. museum trips, battle reenactments, historical events which recreated the times, educational tours, hands-on activities e.g. Pottery, archery, seal stamping, archives e.g. Kew Library.)

Classics - Latin including Latin texts e.g. Virgil, Ovid, Homer; Ancient Greek; Classical Civilisation, Ancient History, Archaeology (including collecting artifacts and field trips e.g. Visits to Roman sites in the UK, museums)🏛

Sociology to A level (AS exams, no coursework)

Psychology to A Level (AS exams no coursework; classes taught by a practising psychologist)

Philosophy to A Level (certificate long-distance course with tutor and marked assignments)

Languages:

Fluent in:

Spanish; French - A Level (exam only)

Instead of coursework, I did the French literature module option exam which meant writing about set French texts which I read in the original French and then wrote about in French in the exam (something uni students don't even do at degree level, they write French literature essays in English!) For Spanish, I decided to do the Spanish history, society and culture module option exam and wrote about that in Spanish in the exam.

I followed this up after my A Level by studying Spanish literature e.g. Lazarillo De Tormes; Pablo Neruda

Czech including Czech literature e.g. Jan Neruda; Macha; Nemcova

German; Italian; Hebrew;

Latin; Ancient Greek;

Japanese (for fun!)

Creative Arts:

Art throughout: painting, drawing, collage, 2D, 3D, Pottery classes (City and Guilds course) 🖼🎨

took GCSE classes, and then adult education art classes to uni entrance level

Photography 📷📸

Performing Arts:

Music: 🎻🎹🎼🎵🎶🎤

Main Instruments:

Singing to professional level 🎵🎶🎤;

cello to professional level including concerto repetoire (I started as a kid by attending children's string classes at a London Conservatoire)

Subsidiary Instruments:

violin 🎻

piano and keyboard 🎹

guitar 🎸

Music theory 🎼

Went to an incredible amount of concerts in London; Ballets and Theatre.

Theatre School:

Drama including LAMDA exams 🎭

Dance: 💃 Ballet; tap; modern/contemporary; jazz

I later started an A Level Dance course (which included choreography and notation) 🙂but I didn't continue with classes😥 or take it as an exam because some UK universities did not recognise Dance A Level in their entrance requirements. 😥 So I switched to Sociology classes but I continued to study the Dance A Level syllabus through home-education instead, reading academic journals on Dance at one of my mother's prior unis.👍

Singing classes and shows (including performing solos on stage)

Musical theatre

P.E. (Physical Education):

Fitness (strength 💪 and stamina)

Home Gym: climbing frame (in backgarden, from 3 years old+, see my Instagram); trampoline (for older children then one for adults); treadmill; 2 in 1 convertible hydraulic rowing machine; resistance band style rowing equipment; dumbbell weights; resistance bands; medicine ball; step up (variable heights); exercise pedal stepper with inbuilt resistance tubes for arm work; twist board; exercise cones; hand grip trainer; muscle toner; gym ball

Tennis 🎾 (including children's tennis classes aged 5-8yrs old, then trained seriously in tennis from aged 8 with my very sporty mother as my main /travelling coach who had been coached by professionals in tennis and golf, good enough to become a professional golfer)

Here's some Instagram photos 📷 of me playing tennis on grass, Aged 7:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BseIZNihbvV/?igshid=fiyyn8uo4ab1

Table tennis

Running - I have always loved running, love the freedom of a good, fast sprint. It was a toss-up whether to become a tennis player or take to the track

These were off-court training activities with a focus on skills:

Darts 🎯 ; Badminton 🏸; Golf ⛳🏌; Basketball/netball 🏀 🏐; Cycling 🚴; Horse riding 🐴; Football ⚽; Street hockey 🏑; Rounders/baseball ⚾; Cricket 🏏; Swimming in the open sea 🏊

Here's an example of me practising basketball 🏀 in my then back garden, and my BMX bike at the ready!