Homeschooling
The term home schooling means a form of alternative education, usually provided by parents to their children outside the school context. This movement has grown significantly in the Anglo-Saxon countries (United Kingdom, United States) from the late 1980s.
Definition
This term is difficult to define because it encompasses several very different philosophies and practices. There are also other terms (often English) with slightly different connotations: homeschooling, unschooling, non-attendance (Non-sco) or de-enrollment (un-sco) and sometimes highly contentious area the French word " Family education.
We find in the laws as well as Belgian French notion of obligation "school" when in fact it is an obligation to "education", she herself frequently and radically challenged by many movements defending "because children" have the meaning given Christiane Rochefort.
In Quebec, we prefer the term education is largely because an instruction seems loaded with connotations too prescriptive, and refers only to factual knowledge or surgery. Promote education would therefore indicate a more holistic approach, which is often the initial motivation of parents.
However, we can consider that teach means "to transmit knowledge and skills" and learn "to acquire knowledge and skills, and education means that acquiring both transmit moral values and societal. This distinction can sometimes better understand the motivations of some parents who choose the IEF.
Grounds
Some parents take their children to school and make the choice to take care of themselves the education of their children, to entrust to private tutors, religious, etc.. or / and still be left to simply grow at their own pace.
The reason for the choice to take over the education of his child, or leave freely "discovered," varies depending on the family and for some that are educational reasons, for other religious or philosophical, for d still others it is a solution which they saw as necessary and even saving, due to problems specific to their children (health problems, school problems, financial, geographic, etc.). and for others, this choice was presented to them as an extension of the pleasure they had to live with their children and the desire to continue to support education or simply accompany, evolution, education, development of these . Finally, an important reason for choosing this form of education is often a distrust of the system of institutional education.
A survey in the U.S. census provides an overview of the motivations of parents choosing not to send their children to school in this country:
* Superior education at home (50.8%) parents;
* Religious reasons (33.0%);
* Poor quality of school environment (29.8%);
* Objection to the curriculum (14.4%);
* Inadequate level of school education (11.5%).
In France, the main motivation seems to be "political" and psychologically inspired writers like Catherine Baker and Christiane Rochefort: respect the freedom and development of children, focus on a real life "social, more independent and free. (See studies and interviews in 1997, 2001 ...).
Educational choices
So we see that there is a wide diversity of approaches experienced by families, mainly because of their very different educational choices.
We distinguish among them several "routine" and some are choosing to take courses by correspondence, as support during the school year through the National Center for Distance Learning (CNED) in France or private lessons. Others use special pedagogies like Montessori, Steiner, Freinet, Decroly. There are many "homeschoolers" who choose to be accompanied by various media (educational software, textbooks, resources, etc..). For "unschooleurs" Learning is free and self-directed, since parents are not obliged to adopt the methods introduced by the Education and follow their own order of progression. However, the law requires that every child educated at home has gained knowledge at least equivalent to those of a student's age when the age limit for compulsory schooling.
Advantages and difficulties
Jolyn Whitaker summarizes the advantages and difficulties faced by parents who choose home schooling.
The main advantages are time spent with children, monitoring what the child learns more involved in the transmission of values, protection of the child vis-a-vis negative social situations, bad influences ... She also cites the pleasure of the parents to get involved together in the education of their children. In addition, home schooling allows parents to take care of the individual child and allows them to tailor learning pace and its difficulties. The possibility of differentiated teaching is also one of the main arguments advanced by Catherine Baker, a French movement references for the schooling (and against any ideas, estimated deadly, pedagogy).
The main difficulties are listed by Whitaker cost, the child's motivation, the need to defend the choice of home schooling vis-a-vis her child and others, the effort required to ensure that the child has the opportunity to meet other children her age and the fear of parents being unable to cover the whole curriculum.
Socialization
A common fear - fear more common among the general public and for parents who practice education at home - would be the potential isolation suffered by children deprived of contact with other children in school. Associations promoting homeschooling all evoke the subject on their websites. Many parents are fleeing precisely this "socialization" made of conformity, social pressure from other children in school, bullying and bad influences.
For most proponents of home schooling, their choice actually improves the social development of their children. Indeed, for them, the years spent in an institution are the only in which students will be separated artificially partitioned into groups of similar age (not by economic efficiency and concern for quality). These advocates argue that children educated at home socialization live healthier and more natural, because they interact more with people of all ages. This leads to an increased influence of adults and less from other children, which produces more mature young citizens.
In the United States and the United Kingdom, a number of studies, often funded by organizations promoting the school at home, trying to assess the impact of schooling at home on "sociability" of children. The results are generally very positive (Studies Larry Shyne & alt.)
Some authors, like Robert Epstein, former editor of Psychology Today, consider the extension of compulsory schooling and the fact of "park" between them teenagers like children, while teaching customized closer contact with adults, such as homeschooling, allows a more rapid maturation and avoid the crisis of adolescence. Depression is largely a consequence of this long compulsory education during which adolescents are treated as children and have as role models and companions than other adolescents.
Graduate
Finally, critics focus on the difficulties of adapting to the school system in higher education.
Also according to the defenders of the system, it is not in fact. They cite in support of this thesis a French study on families of school led by Jennifer vehicle dynamics, that the best time availability broadens contacts, facilitates adaptation to any sort of environments and situations including academic situations.
In North America, particularly English, many higher education institutions (including Harvard) in pupils being educated at home. Universities "sympathetic" to children educated at home. According to Inge Cannon, Director General Education Plus: "Many of these institutions seeking this particular customer because of his maturity, his capacity for personal reflection, creativity and her strong educational background."
Europe
The European Constitution guarantees parents the normally free choice of education of their children under Article II, 74-3 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union, reinforced by the Universal Declaration of Human of Rights of 1948.
However in practice, opportunities for instruction in family are different from one country to another. Generally, in most countries, laws are not well defined with respect to parental education, and often a legal loophole allows everyone (families and authorities) according to their beliefs, tend States to strengthen controls and although the European Convention of Human Rights (P1-2) and the European Charter clearly affirm the right of parents to choose the type of education given to their children.
However, in other countries like England, Ireland, France, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark freedom of inquiry exists in law and parents can then choose to instruct their own children. However, in these countries, governments may attempt to introduce controls. This is the case in France where the children educated at home are being investigated in social biennially. The instruction given in the context of family education is also checked once a year by the school inspectorate. Other European countries tolerate more or less parental education, or because the possibility is not considered in law as in Spain, either because they accept it under certain conditions: for example, income and diploma from a parent in Italy, and often for control of knowledge or learning. Sometimes these checks are compared with national programs, such as Belgium and Austria, where children are subject to review national school, they often leave an educational freedom for parents such as France, Italy or Denmark where Parents can even choose their inspector.
See also
wikipedia
