Social
Aspects
by Clare Murton
School attendance
is the only way for our children to become socially integrated
into our culture. So unquestioned is this belief, that this is
the foremost objection people raise to home education, before
doubts or concerns about academic education.
In fact many people
are ready to accept that today's state schools are not necessarily
the best place to receive an education. However they find it harder
to accept that without schooling we can still rear a happy, sociable
person, able to cope with the complexities of life. Continued...
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An
Autonomous Day
by Jane Fernandez
My eldest Son is
six - though I consider us to have been home educating since he
was born. Most of the time I am really relaxed and confident
in his progress. He is ahead of his school going peers
despite not doing formal work. I do wonder if I would be
as confident if he was not reading and writing. My 3 1/2
year old Son is now learning his alphabet and is asking to learn
to read and write - which amazes me a little as he has been completely
autonomous (and I have days when I panic) Whereas in the early
days of my eldest Son learning to read etc. we did... Continued...
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The
Trouble With Autonomous Education
by Martine Archer
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 ... Continued...
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Can Autonomous
Education Include Structure?
by Jos Underhill
Our family follows
an autonomous style of home education. Out of interest I
checked autonomous in a dictionary and it defines it as 'having
self-government' and 'functioning independently'. When
I apply this to education it means for me that any material covered
(or not covered) and any methods used are chosen by the child
rather than imposed by someone else. It often seems to be
assumed that structured education is the opposite of autonomous
education but it doesn't appear so to me. Learning that
is directed and controlled by another person (parent, teacher,
employer etc.) is the opposite of autonomous ... Continued...
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How Do They
Learn?
by Christine Waterman
(Following a discussion
on how children learn....) I agree that these things just click
suddenly, and often without much practice. When a child comes
to something in their own time they often master it quickly and
skip out all those hours of struggling with something they are
not ready for. I have just seen this happen for my son in
relation to a skill that I don't really value but that seems very
important to the early years of school - colouring in. ... Continued...
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