Do you have happy memories of your school years? Do you have happy memories of teachers and school friends? If you do then you were lucky, because some children hate each minute of being in school and not because they are no good at it either. Frequently it is the clever kids who are taunted for being swots and teachers' pets. They are safe in the class, but the travelling to and from school and the school breaks can become nightmares.

Do you have happy memories of your school years? Do you have happy memories of teachers and school friends? If you do then you were lucky, because some children hate each minute of being in school and not because they are no good at it either. Frequently it is the clever kids who are taunted for being swots and teachers' pets. They are safe in the class, but the travelling to and from school and the school breaks can become nightmares.

However, it is not only bullying from other children that causes fear in school children. There are other reasons for fear in school as well. Occasionally, children think that a certain teacher does not like them and sometimes children are just frightened of failing or doing badly. Occasionally teachers are frightened of doing badly as well. It can all lead to an atmosphere of fear at school. It makes you ask yourself how anyone could have enjoyed their school days, does it not?

This atmosphere of fear can be greater in state schools because the teachers are subject to success charts and the children are more open to bullying. Furthermore, all of the school shootings in the world have taken place in state run schools.

However, the most subtle form of fear in school comes from teachers who are scared of missing the targets set by the state, because that will cost them their jobs. This fear is passed on to their pupils. The regime of fear is exacerbated by over-sized groups. Why?

Because teachers can hold the attention of only so many pupils - as we all can in normal discourse. Therefore, if the class is too large, the teacher will have to switch roles from being a teacher to a controller. When this occurs, education suffers for the sake of keeping order.

For all of these reasons and more, many parents are turning to home schooling. Some of the reasons why parents are deciding to instruct their children themselves are: distrust of the state education system; fear of bullying or worse of their children; a desire to teach their children in a more traditional or religious fashion.

There are education packages that parent-teachers can buy to give them a course of action on what to teach. There is also a lot of help available on the Internet. The problem facing any parents who wish to educate their own children is providing a rounded education.

All people have a natural tendency to specialize in one topic or group of subjects like, say, astronomy or the sciences, which is why schools supply many teachers, so that each one can teach his or her favourite subject. However, if you are the only teacher you will have to teach all the topics yourself.

This is why it is best to have a course or set of guidelines to follow. It is hard to teach maths if you have no talent for it, so look at your strengths but also your weaknesses before you take the considerable decision to withdraw your children from school and teach them themselves