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Compared with the span
of human history compulsory schooling has been around for a very
brief time but it has become very entrenched in people's consciousness.
Breaking out from the idea that learning takes place through formal
instruction is going to take more than a few years. I, for
one, have found it very hard.
We have been autonomously educating
in our home for several years, not because I started out with
the idea that it was the best way to do things but because my
children completely rejected any effort I made to teach them anything.
They wanted a mum not a teacher, and after careful consideration
I find that I prefer being a mum. Even now they can be bored
stupid but will groan loudly if I start a sentence with "shall
we do...." or "shall we go...". Whenever it gets to the
point where I am bored stupid I just say "we're going.... get
your stuff".
My trouble has been, as I stated
at the beginning, I found it very hard to break out of school
stereotype of what learning is and to spend time watching my children
do things that school would give no value to, and I am actually
finding it harder and harder as time goes on, as they show very
little inclination to develop their basic literacy skills.
I think that this is the crux of the problem with autonomous education;
if you have children who enjoy and excel at 'school' type activities
(reading, writing, doing projects etc.) or other such things that
have a visible end product you can feel relaxed about it because
you can see progress, but for some of us the idea that our children
really are "learning all the time" is invisible. We do talk
about a great many things, we go to many interesting places, do
experiments, read books together, but we also watch telly, browse
in charity shops, loiter in supermarkets and lounge around with
friends. Some days they spend all morning arguing or sulking
while I read the paper and ignore them. They do have periods
when they are very active and full of enthusiasm for things, punctuated
by quite long periods of boredom and disinterest.
I have come to the conclusion
that it is also partly an age thing; pre-schoolers are fine left
to their own devices, 5-7's are under external pressure to be
making academic advances, though at this age there is such a variety
in progress you don't get too anxious, but by the time they are
9+ you are beginning to doubt the wisdom of letting them do it
all at their own pace and maybe it is time for a little gentle
coaxing (which invariably turns into a large row!). But
the more that I have read on the subject and the more I have talked
with like-minded people the more I am sure that autonomous education
is the best thing for my children and for myself. I have
had experiences where they have shown how much progress (visible,
that is) they can make when they are ready to be taught something
and really got a lot of benefit from adult input. And I
have moments every day where they demonstrate, completely unselfconsciously,
that they have acquired some new skill, piece of knowledge or
small understanding of the world which reinforces my certainty.
My other thought has been that
in reality we are all autonomously educated. Since learning
takes place inside the mind of the learner, and nobody can get
in there to see what is happening, everybody does have full control
over what they learn. It's just that most children don't
have any control over the environment that they spend large chunks
of their life in, and therefore the input that they receive.
Even most adults spend a lot of time in a controlled work environment
and have to apply their brains to things that are not that fascinating,
it's us home educators who have all the freedom!
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