Peter O. Gray, a psychology professor, writes in his book ‘Free to Learn’ ― “Once compulsory systems of state-run schools were established, they became increasingly standardized, both in content and in method. For the sake of efficiency, children were divided into separate classrooms by age and passed along, from grade to grade, like products on an assembly line. The task of each teacher was to add bits of officially approved knowledge to the product, in accordance with a preplanned schedule, and then to test that product before passing it on to the next station.”
This unfortunate reality has troubled many parents and educators and is one of the reasons that gave rise to the homeschooling movement.
Problems with Traditional Schooling
Traditional or conventional schooling has been around for ages and will continue to be, at least for a few more generations. However, alternate systems of education are becoming increasingly popular throughout the globe, for many reasons that have to do with the shortcomings of traditional schooling, as explained below:
- It takes away creativity
Sir Ken Robinson, author and international advisor on education, states that all children have tremendous talents – it is the education system that squanders them (Robinson, 2007). He contends that creativity is now as important in education as literacy. He argues that the education system is so strict about avoiding mistakes that it doesn’t allow children to be free in their imagination. As a result, they grow out of creativity. Schools do have classes for art and music but they’re not given as much importance as the “higher” subjects like mathematics and science. This leads the education system to be predicated on academic ability. Eventually, children who are more interested in the arts are steered away from these subjects, because they wouldn’t get a job in those fields. Schools thus ignore most of the nine types of intelligence suggested by psychologist Howard Gardner and focus on just Logical and linguistic intelligence.
In a homeschool, however, the child gets to choose which subjects to dive into, for it is student-led. Children’s questions are not shunned, their loud minds are not quieted, and their ideas are given wings in a proper homeschool.
- Lack of Experiential Learning
In the words of Clay P. Bedford, “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”
Learning through experience should not be taken to mean that children must be left by themselves in the world to discover and reinvent all of the knowledge on their own, but rather to be scaffolded by wise adults who have worked in the respective fields, and be assisted towards finding the “why” and “how“, along with the “what” of learning. Testimony as a source of knowledge is widely accepted in epistemology, and should definitely be used by children as they progress through their learning journey, but how that knowledge is presented to them needs to change from passive to being active. For instance, instead of “teaching” a child the formula of the area of a square, one may begin with why one needs to find the area in the first place, and then proceed with how the child thinks it can be done. The lessons have to be well-planned so as to allow for efficiency while making sure they are child-paced. Teaching is not merely the deliverance of knowledge but also about the journey the learner takes to get there, which will be different for each individual. In a big classroom, this type of learning simply isn’t possible. Homeschooling, on the other hand, is all about helping a child fall in love with knowledge and its acquisition, since children by nature are designed to learn through self-directed play and exploration.
- Inflexibility and Lack of Personalization
With a set curriculum and strict schedules, schools overlook the individual needs and abilities of students, hence restricting personalized learning. Classroom learning adopts a one-size-fits-all approach to education, hence failing to accommodate individual differences in learning styles, abilities, and pace. Inflexible learning environments can thus lead to boredom and lack of engagement.
Homeschooling promotes personalized learning by allowing the child to make their own choices regarding how and what they learn. The parents’ role is to provide the child with an environment that caters to their natural curiosity. The learner may choose any of the various methods of acquiring knowledge – exploring books and documentaries, speaking to elders like specialists or mentors, visiting places like museums and factories, and interacting with nature and the world around them. Thus, the child continues to learn naturally through interactions in their daily life.
- Indoctrination And/Or Value-Less Education
John Taylor Gatto, a former public school teacher, said, “There is no idea more radical in the history of the human race than turning your children over to total strangers whom you know nothing about, and have those strangers work on your child’s mind, out of your sight, for a period of 12 years.”
In these swiftly changing times, parents are increasingly (and rightfully so) becoming concerned with what they find their children studying at school. More and more parents are pulling their children out of schools, arguing that the neo-liberal curriculum is confusing their children, and is against their religious beliefs. Apart from the hidden curriculum, there’s an increasing number of complaints about the revised syllabus, and about many historical facts being removed from textbooks. Science textbooks too, are not behind in promoting value-less education, for they totally skip the mention of a Creator. Educational policies and frameworks talk of value-led education, but have miserably failed to implement it.
God Almighty created parents and gave them the responsibility of raising children in the way most pleasing to the Creator. Most parents choose to homeschool for this very reason: they choose not to let strangers – whose beliefs and backgrounds they know nothing about – be in charge of bringing up their children, out of sight, every day of their child’s life. Homeschooling lets parents take control of what their child is exposed to, in this era of post-modernism.
- Fear of Examination & Materialistic Motivation for Grades
American author and lecturer Alfie Kohn argues that when children are driven by fear of examination, they tend to do things in a more shallow or superficial manner. When their motivation is stemmed in grades, they end up picking something less difficult so they can have better grades, like an easier project or a shorter book. (Kohn, 1999)
Can the motivation that stems from marks sustain itself? Can we expect it to work in the long run? Should education be aimed at producing “toppers”, or real intellectuals? Research predicts that more than 90% of human jobs will be replaced by automation in the coming decade or so. So the question remains – what are we planning to create? An army of robots that give “the correct answer” – an army that will soon be replaced? Or do we wish to shape the minds of children into those of creatives, originals, discoverers, and explorers?
In the words of Peter Gray, “Schooling that children are forced to endure—in which the subject matter is imposed by others and the ‘learning’ is motivated by extrinsic rewards and punishments rather than by the children’s true interests—turns learning from a joyful activity into a chore, to be avoided whenever possible. Coercive schooling, which tragically is the norm in our society, suppresses curiosity and overrides children’s natural ways of learning. It also promotes anxiety, depression, and feelings of helplessness that all too often reach pathological levels.”
There is another problem with standardized tests – that they are insufficient for evaluating individuals. A student who is excellent at speaking might not be able to articulate their thoughts on paper, and a student who can paint a process well might not be able to write “bullet points” for the same. Thus, these tests are unfair ways of “judging” a child and pronouncing their future based on superficial marks.
In a homeschooling setup, evaluation happens in a different and quite wholesome way. Lusi Austin, a homeschooling mother, says, “We assess our children’s learning to make sure they are indeed progressing but we don’t have to examine them in the same way as a school does.”
Homeschooling parents know of their child’s growth and learning through a simple technique – observation and discussion – much of which is infeasible in a classroom of 35 kids.
- Failure During Pandemic
During the pandemic, while school systems across the globe failed miserably at imparting education, parents realized that they could teach their children at home using internet learning tools and additional support if they had the time. Santosh Sharma, an education consultant based in Bhopal, decided to homeschool his son post-pandemic. He remarked that although he had been thinking about it for some time, the epidemic gave him the chance to implement it. (Sharma, 2023)
Educational activist Pat Farenga, co-author of Teach Your Own: The Indispensable Guide to Living and Learning with Children at Home, writes in his book, “When homeschooling was in its early stages, school officials tried to stop it by claiming people’s homes weren’t properly set up to be schools. They took families to court for not having the same types of safety protocols as schools, such as… parents not being certified teachers…. For decades, homeschooling grew at such a slow rate that school funding mechanisms were not seriously threatened, but the pandemic has changed that.”
However, one must remember that homeschooling is not schooling at home. Instead, it is more like out-of-home learning since a lot of what the child learns comes from their surroundings.
What Homeschooling Is, And What It Isn’t
Homeschooling (in particular, unschooling) does not mean emulating the school at home. Homeschooling is more of an education directed by parents (not school) and based at home. This does not mean that all the learning happens inside the home, but that it is based around the family – its values, its time, its feasibility. Homeschooling does not mean the imitation of school classrooms at home – with a desk and chair and board setup. Instead, homeschooling can look like discussions, cooking together, enjoying hobbies, outings to museums, farms, nature reserves, etc.
Homeschooling isn’t just watching a few videos, having the child do some worksheets, and giving them a test. Homeschooling requires planning – putting together a curriculum and designing the modes of learning.
Homeschooling is not about a parent teaching a child everything they know, but rather about helping the child develop a passion for learning so that they continue to explore and learn beyond what their parents know.
Homeschooling isn’t the parent simply giving the child some work and leaving, it is about the parent spending time with the child. At the heart of homeschooling lies bonding with one’s own children and prioritizing family connection over busy schedules.
Finally, homeschooling is not for everyone. Different families have different needs, schedules, goals, and future aspirations. Homeschooling asks for sacrifices to be made. It isn’t for those who are comfortable in following the crowd, but for those who wish to create leaders instead of followers. It takes dedication, intentional parenting, and a willingness to learn.
A Common Objection to Homeschooling: How Will the Child Socialize?
While homeschooling takes away some of the social benefits of attending school, homeschooling does provide unique socialization opportunities, such as participating in homeschooling co-ops, extra-curricular activities, summer camps, etc.
Families who travel a lot, also benefit from socialization at a wider level. World-schooling (or adventure-schooling) is a form of homeschooling that provides learning opportunities from the real world. It includes places, people, and experiences from all over the globe.
Hamsini V., an Indian homeschooling parent now living in Germany says that when she started homeschooling her kids in India, she was doubtful about their socialisation, but as time passed she learned that her kids could socialize just as well – or even better – than average school-goers of their age. Homeschoolers groups, friends in the neighborhood, music and art classes, etc. provided great socialization opportunities. Now both of her kids are in college in Germany and doing great.
Research shows that homeschooled kids are well-adjusted, have stronger relationships with their parents and other adults in their lives, have high levels of satisfaction in life, are ethical and more likely to take social responsibility as compared to school-goers, are open-minded and explorative, and experience less emotional turmoil (Medlin, 2013). It also shows that homeschooled kids who attend college are as social as their peers who were conventionally taught.
Embracing The Era Of Unconventional Schooling
“If the familiarity and convenience of conventional school is why we keep our kids there, it’s worth challenging what has become normal to us. Because what is common isn’t necessarily what is best.” – John Taylor Gatto
Homeschooling is legal in many countries, including India. The University Grants Commission (UGC), accepts homeschooling as formal education (Sharma, 2023).
“Why do people take or keep their children out of school? Mostly for three reasons: they think that raising their children is their business not the government’s; they enjoy being with their children and watching and helping them learn, and don’t want to give that up to others; they want to keep them from being hurt, mentally, physically, and spiritually.” ― John Holt
References
Kohn, A. (1999, March). From Degrading to De-Grading. Alfie Kohn. Retrieved January 27, 2024, from https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/degrading-de-grading/
Medlin, R. G. (2013, June 19). Homeschooling and the Question of Socialization Revisited. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 284-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2013.796825
Robinson, K. (2007, January 7). Do schools kill creativity? Youtube. Retrieved January 27, 2024, from https://youtu.be/iG9CE55wbtY?si=1y0BnO530nCVJ5SV
Sharma, K. (2023, April 12). Homeschooling & multiple entry-exit points for school students among reforms in UGC’s new credit framework. ThePrint. Retrieved January 27, 2024, from https://theprint.in/india/education/homeschooling-multiple-entry-exit-points-for-school-students-among-reforms-in-ugcs-new-credit-framework/1513525/
Sharma, K. (2023, May 21). Covid upheaval not the only reason: Why homeschooling is taking off in India. ThePrint. Retrieved January 27, 2024, from https://theprint.in/india/education/covid-upheaval-not-the-only-reason-why-homeschooling-is-taking-off-in-india/1582954/
