Homeschooling advocate criticises Tánaiste's education environment comments

Vivienne Clarke

A homeschooling network counsellor has expressed “sadness” about comments by Tánaiste Micheál Martin who said he was not a fan of homeschooling and stated that it leads to problems with socialisation.

Monica O’Connor, who homeschooled her six children, told Newstalk Breakfast that the Constitution states that parents are the primary educators of their children.

If Mr Martin had taken the time to research homeschooling reports from the UK and the USA, he would have seen that children who are homeschooled are socially adept, she added.

Not everyone should know the same things, explained Ms O’Connor. Homeschooling allowed her to tailor education according to her children’s interests. “They read on their own timetable”.

There were many ways of achieving aims in life, she said. Two of her children had sat their Leaving Cert while others had accessed college through Fetac access programmes.

When asked about life skills learned in school such as how to deal with bullies, Ms O’Connor said children needed as much love and care as they could get which would give them a good grounding for life. She did not wrap her children in cotton wool.

Putting a child in a class of 24 was not the way to prepare them for life, she said.

Ms O’Connor said it saddened her that Mr Martin was “going after a minority”. In his role as Tánaiste he was “supposed to” protect the Constitution and people.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Martin said that Enoch Burke's case is proof that homeschooling can cause isolation and that children should be educated in schools.

While stressing that he did not want to sound "patronising", he said the situation the Burke family have found themselves in is "sad" and "disquieting".

Mr Burke’s mother, Martina, a qualified teacher, homeschooled her 10 children.