I look forward to the day when the transition from passive learning to active living has ended and we all see the word “school” and its various forms as a strange little artifact of the past.
how wonderful to find you here, Wendy -- I used to write regular articles for Life Learning Magazine so so long ago (Jan Fortune-Wood then, but simply Jan Fortune now). My daughter and her (also home educated) partner now home educate their own two children, very centred on life learning :)
I loved reading this Wendy!! And I’ve written about living as if school doesn’t exist and it’s so beautiful to see you coming to this same conclusion (except decades before me hehe): that we need to move away from being in opposition to school. Great Piece!
In the U.K., it can be a bit of a minefield as newbies often get told off for using ‘homeschooling’. ‘Home education’ / ‘home ed’ or ‘autonomous home education’ (for unschooling) tend to be the preferred terms.
To my knowledge the ‘official’ term in the U.K. in fact is ‘EHE’, elective home education. Legally all parents are responsible for ensuring their children receive an education. Some (majority) outsource it to school (though legally they remain responsible for ensuring the school actually does provide an education) and some elect to ensure their child receives that education at home. (And some, more and more, deregister their children from school after the school fails to provide that education!)
The reason so many people here are very anti- the word ‘homeschooling’ in fact is partly because legally, it is too easy to conflate with situations where children are still on the school register but aren’t attending in person; they have tutors sent by the local authority (LA) or are simply sent work home. Plus the more people conflate home ed with ‘school’, the more governments and LAs expect a school-like environment.
And ‘homeschooling’ does make me think of big American houses that have their own beautifully curated Instagram ‘school room’ with lots of seashells, a chalkboard, and books in baskets. 😃
But I also think the telling off of new home edders that happens here (a lot — especially on Facebook home ed groups) for using ‘homeschooling’ can give people a very icy first impression and doesn’t always build community.
It’s interesting as always to see there are similar debates across the pond. I wonder what the preferred terms are elsewhere.
how wonderful to find you here, Wendy -- I used to write regular articles for Life Learning Magazine so so long ago (Jan Fortune-Wood then, but simply Jan Fortune now). My daughter and her (also home educated) partner now home educate their own two children, very centred on life learning :)
I loved reading this Wendy!! And I’ve written about living as if school doesn’t exist and it’s so beautiful to see you coming to this same conclusion (except decades before me hehe): that we need to move away from being in opposition to school. Great Piece!
I like ‘life learning’.
In the U.K., it can be a bit of a minefield as newbies often get told off for using ‘homeschooling’. ‘Home education’ / ‘home ed’ or ‘autonomous home education’ (for unschooling) tend to be the preferred terms.
To my knowledge the ‘official’ term in the U.K. in fact is ‘EHE’, elective home education. Legally all parents are responsible for ensuring their children receive an education. Some (majority) outsource it to school (though legally they remain responsible for ensuring the school actually does provide an education) and some elect to ensure their child receives that education at home. (And some, more and more, deregister their children from school after the school fails to provide that education!)
The reason so many people here are very anti- the word ‘homeschooling’ in fact is partly because legally, it is too easy to conflate with situations where children are still on the school register but aren’t attending in person; they have tutors sent by the local authority (LA) or are simply sent work home. Plus the more people conflate home ed with ‘school’, the more governments and LAs expect a school-like environment.
And ‘homeschooling’ does make me think of big American houses that have their own beautifully curated Instagram ‘school room’ with lots of seashells, a chalkboard, and books in baskets. 😃
But I also think the telling off of new home edders that happens here (a lot — especially on Facebook home ed groups) for using ‘homeschooling’ can give people a very icy first impression and doesn’t always build community.
It’s interesting as always to see there are similar debates across the pond. I wonder what the preferred terms are elsewhere.