Frequently Asked Questions...

In this article I have tried to answer four of the most frequently asked questions, based on my personal experience of being home educated.  If you would like to ask me anything else, I would be happy to answer to the best of my abilities, you can click here to send me a message.
Is home education legal?
In practically every country in the world home education is legal, (Germany, the Netherlands and Japan are the only places I have heard of where there are strict laws against it) although rules and regulations do vary from place to place.

I have been home educated for four years in England and ten years in France. Despite many French people considering home education to be illegal, I have found this country to be better than England (less hassle, no visits from education authorities, and a much better attitude to seeing children in school hours). Maybe if we had been French it would have been different, but I think on the whole, if a family is prepared to keep a low profile they will not be bothered.  This probably applies to all countries, and certainly goes to show that even where home education is considered to be illegal, it doesn't necessarily prove to be so.
In a way, home education cannot be illegal, because a parent looking after its young is the most fundamental and basic part of a society, and will always have to be for as long as society continues. Therefore rules against home education should not be tolerated and no one should send their children to school just because it is the law. This may mean battling it out with education authorities, being flexible and keeping a very low profile, or moving to another country, but if this is the cost of freedom, it is a small price to pay.

What about the social aspect?
This is a very frequently asked question indeed - although I have yet to work out why. To give a laconic answer, the social aspect isn't a problem, don't even worry about it.

I could go on to explain why not, but I can't help thinking people could work it out for themselves if they just gave a little thought to the matter; then the conclusion would be their own, and not mine.
It is good to remember that children being at home with their parents is a very old and tried-and-tested method which has been going on for thousands and thousands of years in all parts of the world. Mass schooling is an incredibly recent method which seems to be often resulting in very unhappy, resentful, rebellious and uneducated young people. I think school's 'social life' is as much to blame as anything for this - everyone knows it is a child's 'friends' who introduce them to fashions, drugs, crime, swearing, smoking, drinking and all manner of things which young people become pressurised into doing from a constantly younger and younger age.

I think parents' basic worry is that their home educated child won't have a 'best friend' like maybe they had when they were little. But I wouldn't say this is a cause for worry. What parents often fail to see, is that their child is perfectly happy, that they have a family life rather than a social life (something which is usually sacrificed for school), that they don't need to play with children exactly the same age, that it is, indeed, far better fun most of the time to play with someone older or younger, and that to be by oneself is not a terrible thing - it is, in fact, a very useful skill which many people don't have!

If your child isn't happy, and wants to meet more children, then they can simply go back to school, and discover for themselves what the social life is like. If they are happy, then why be worried?

What about exams, university, etc.?
When beginning the venture of home education, parents always look to the end.  It is probably reassuring to know that if a home educated child wants to return to conventional education, it is perfectly possible, and frequently done. Many home educated children do go to university, and I am sure that the skills learnt at home enable them to do very well. An even more interesting option, though, is to not go to university, and this is also perfectly possible.  Home university has quite as many advantages as home schooling, and although it might not leave you with a degree (which is a pretty dubious return for all that time spent getting it, anyway) it should leave you with genuine skills. To read more about studying at home you can visit the section Home University

How has home education been for you?
It is difficult to say how home education has been for me, because it has been so much. Quite simply it has given me, or at least allowed me to have, my childhood. People may not be aware of it, and I can only presume that they are not, but school robs children of their childhood, and throws them into a world of competition, careers, friends, and socialising, when all they want is the space to be happy in.

To know how to read and write are important lessons in life, but a thousand times more important is to know how to be happy, to feel content, to know how to get the best out every situation, and to find a sweet joy in everything. These are the lessons which fortunately don't need to be learnt, and every baby is born with them. This is why so many people have fond memories of when they were young, and why a baby can be placed in the rubble of a bomb-flattened city and still laugh and smile. The baby can be happy in any surrounding, it is only when the mother is taken away that it will start to howl. Of course this is what happens at school, and this is how those important, in-born lessons, which should be made a habit of, fade away.
When I was going to school (albeit a Steiner kindergarten) I was already quickly forgetting them. I was headed down a path of stress, frustration, and resentment, and I look back to those days with wonder, at how anything so seemingly innocent could make me feel so angry inside. When I left at five years old, I switched tracks and returned to the glowing, magical path of being a child. I have golden memories of the time I spent playing in the garden of our house in England 14 years ago, and I can honestly say that I have golden memories of playing in the garden of our house in France, just a few days ago. The games have changed, but the enjoyment is the same and I don't have to sigh over bygone times.
I don't pretend to have retained the simplicity and innocence of a child, but I know those qualities lasted much longer than they would have done, and I hope I will never entirely forget them.
It has been said that when a childhood is neglected 'it is like cutting off Spring from the year'. Summer is reached, but the seeds have not been planted, Autumn comes and there is no harvest, Winter comes and there has been no growth; these are the dangers of a Spring lost in school.
A happy childhood has nothing to do with money, situation, or good teachers, its requirements are very simple: happy parents nearby, and the space to be oneself in.  I think this is why children in what one would consider to be terrible situations, in countries where families are incredibly poor, have grins on their faces which stretch from ear to ear and a glow of joy in their eyes which is rarely seen in the West.  These are not the children we should be trying to send to school, but rather we should be looking after our own children so that they can smile that way too.
To see a child crying in the playground is the greatest tragedy I can think of, and yet how many times does it happen a day? Laws are created to make sure these children never escape and some people make it their jobs to enforce these laws! How shocking it is that there are so many people who have forgotten what it is like to be a child.
Being home educated has meant that I have stepped outside this chaos of school and its inhumane laws. It has given me a freedom which I value very highly, and it has let the journey of growing up happen at its own natural pace. I feel that being home educated has indeed been a beautiful Spring where many seeds have been planted, and I think that every child deserves to be given the choice that I was given, of whether to spend their childhood at home or at school.

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