Home Education Unites People Around the World
Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 12:26PM There are two homeschooling events of particular interest to those who speak or are Spanish. One is a scholarly conference to be held in Navarro, Spain on November 25–26, 2011. There is an English version of the site available, too; look for the link on the menu on the left side of your screen.
The National and International Conference on Family Education Homeschooling
The fact that Spain is hosting such a conference while at the same the country is debating whether homeschooling should be permitted is very interesting to me. I look forward to hearing how this event turns out.
The other event is a continuation of the International Home Education conference I addressed in Bogotá, Colombia in 2009. Educación sin Escuela features families as well as academics who reflect on their learning without schooling, as well as learning with flexischooling.
Flexischooling is a word invented by Roland Meighan, whose work on behalf of autodidacts everywhere deserves wider recognition. Roland has for many years published The Journal of Personalised Education Now and the latest issue, No. 14, is fascinating. It is a special edition about Edmond Holmes, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools, who wrote several books after he retired, including What Is And What Might Be (London: Constable, 1911). Holmes is a deep critic of standardized curriculum, testing, and emphasizing the role of the teacher over the role of student in the educational process. This is from the article by Michael Foot that opens the issue:
According to Holmes, teachers need to realize that it is not they but the children who “play the leading part in the drama of learning.” Teachers need “to help them to develop all their expansive instincts, so that their growth may be many-sided and therefore as healthy and harmonious as possible.” And that healthy and harmonious growth will be its own reward, thus rendering unnecessary “the false and demoralizing stimulus of external rewards and punishment.”
Not only does Holmes sound like a precursor to John Holt, in this quote, also from What Is And What Might Be, he almost sounds exactly like Holt:
In nine schools out of ten, on nine days out of ten, in nine lessons out of ten, the teacher is engaged in laying thin films of information on the surface of the child’s mind, and then, after a brief interval, he is skimming these off in order to satisfy himself that they have been duly laid.
It is always refreshing to me to find like-minded people from other cultures, times, and societies who not only question conventional education but who also do something about it. Though homeschooling does not have well-paid lobbyists, consultants, research programs, and business interests to support it as conventional education does, we do have people-power. Right now, in the United States, there are more children being taught at home (2 million plus) than there are in publicly funded charter schools (1.4 million), which have had far more money, publicity, and institutional support than homeschooling has over the years. Homeschooling is gaining adherents around the world, primarily through word-of-mouth and example; compulsory schooling needs laws, officers, special buildings, television shows, advertisements, and all sorts of social enticements to gain and keep adherents. Somewhere between the words of Edmond Holmes (and others like him) and the actions of home educators around the world, a new form of education is being created around the entrenched institution of conventional schooling.
Reader Comments (9)
Hi Pat
Couldn't agree more.
With the direction the formal education system is walking to, it does not really matter if the level of the teacher, or of the students will get better, as it is simply teaching WRONG.
I for one do not care if my child (that has not seen the inside of a school in his life) knows a few more mathematical equations by heart, or can explain to me what Shakespeare meant in one of his ancient English phrases. This is not the stuff dreams are made of, and it does not matter how good the school is, if it teaches our kids how to become good capitalists it is not my cup of tea.
I am surprised by the numbers you offer here (over 2 million children being taught at home!), and I feel blessed to know that I'm sorrounded by such a big community. I thought we were few :)
Keep on sharing and writing
and come visit education distance to share your thoughts about ideas for studying online and studying while traveling.
I couldn't agree more. In my opinion, mind should be free. In case of traditional study, childs are bound to learn what their curriculam includes. They have no choice on their own. Many child suffer various problems because of this. Though in my opinion, school is a great place for socializing, these problems are far more great. Those who are decision maker of curriculam should take account this factor. It should be more flexible. Now people are even learning through online according to their own choice. Home schooler do better in career too as they do what they really want to do. I don't understand why our school give importance to memorize equation which won't be any help to them. Instead these are crushing their tender minds. I hope the schools will realize this matter soon as most of the people children still go to school.
The debate over bilingual education has two sources. Part of it is a reflection of societal attitudes towards immigrants. Since language is one of the most obvious identifiers of an immigrant, restrictions on the use of languages other than English have been imposed throughout the history of the United States, particularly in times of war and economic uncertainty. Despite claims that the English language is in danger, figures from the 2000 Census show that 96 percent of those over the age of five speak English well or very well. Rolf Kjolseth concluded that language is also closely associated with national identity, and Americans often display a double standard with regard to bilingualism. On the one hand, they applaud a native English-speaking student studying a foreign language and becoming bilingual, while on the other hand they insist that non-native English speakers give up their native languages and become monolingual in English.
Read more: Bilingual Education - Need for Bilingual Education, Benefits of Bilingualism and Theoretical Foundations of Bilingual Education - Language, English, Students, Instruction, Programs, and Native http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1788/Bilingual-Education.html#ixzz1XMxt1AJQ
I think the debate of whether home education is better than traditional education is better will continue. Home education offer students what they really need for their mind and it will eventually be understood by everyone. But I want to add one more things that need to be given importance. Home education has been established only in developed countries where parents are giving importance to the proper growth of their mind. But this is not possible in developing and under developed countries. This is creating an gap between these countries. It will create huge differences in future which will affect the whole world. The best way to solve this problem is to establish a common platform for everybody. I think now everybody knows that what children are taught in school do not do any help to them. Massive revision and scruitiny is required to accomplish this, but if we don't take step now it will create huge problem in future.
Thanks for all these thoughtful replies. However, I want to respond directly to Peter0803052's good observations.
First, I don't want to engage in a debate whether home education is better than traditional education, I just want to be sure that options to traditional education, particularly homeschooling, remain free and readily available to all who wish to try it. There is no one best way to educate everyone, and that's the problem our technocrats refuse to acknowledge. I advocate for unschooling/homeschooling, but not to the exclusion or demise of other approaches. I think it is exactly this closed-door policy to outliers and innovations that occur outside of school that is draining the creative energy and possibilities of conventional schooling and I don't want to replicate that mistake in our efforts to create alternatives to school.
By the way, my blog post about 3 cups of Tea describes how unschooling is well-suited for developing/under-developed countries. The work of Shikshantar, described on my Resources pages on this blog and in the book Walk Out, Walk On (Berkana Institute, 2011), is all about helping poor and underprivileged people in India use unschooling and other alternative ideas about school. Also Sugata Mitri, whose TED talk I describe in an early blog post, describes how poor children in India were able to teach themselves to use a computer, and learn English at the same time, just by providing them with unfettered access to a computer built into a wall in their neighborhood. These are the sorts of "massive revisions" that are possible and that give me hope. Indeed, Illich's Deschooling Society describes in detail how developing and under-developed countries would benefit from NOT pursuing the western concept of compulsory schooling.
I have experience in both the way of education. Sometimes, Home education considered better as parents can have a close look to their children what they are studying. In developing countries, still traditional education produces good results. In competitive environment every child tries to learn better and thus you can reduce drop out ratio.
One thing that is nice about Home Education is that it enables the children to do school work at their own pace instead of rushing through it. Home school gives parents more control of what their children is learning about and it is a better environment than public schools. Parents are allowed to have a more flexible schedule since the children are in home school.
I think it is exactly this closed-door policy to outliers and innovations that occur outside of school that is draining the creative energy and possibilities of conventional schooling and I don't want to replicate that mistake in our efforts to create alternatives to school.
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