There were several candidates to occupy the last position of the ten most controversial parenting practices, and we have decided to comment on home education, an option that more and more families called "homeschoolers" share, that do "homeschooling" or homeschooling.
This is an option that we could even extend to the first cycle of Early Childhood Education, which in the regulated system comprises three academic courses, from zero to three years, and in which many children are not in school. The vast majority of children begin to go to school in the second cycle of Early Childhood Education, from three to six years, even though this stage is still "not mandatory".
If education or upbringing at home is quite shared and accepted in the first years of children's lives, as they grow, a child who does not go to school begins to be more "weird" and the decision of his parents less understood and criticized.
However, education at home, and with children who start from small to higher education, is an accepted and standardized educational option in Europe (except in Germany), and very common in the United States.
However, in Spain and in other countries the debate is open. Can a child have the right to education at home, leaving out of the regulated system? Are these students lacking, at the educational or socialization level?
Our partner Mireia knows homeschooling very closely and has told us on several occasions how children from families who practice homeschooling develop normally.
Also, that there are associations in Spain, such as the Association for Free Education, which have been calling for years to recognize home schooling and the possibility that children can take free exams at age 16 without suffering discrimination.
As home schooling is not legally recognized in Spain, the child will not have any degree unless it is incorporated in various ways to regulated education or obtain it in another country that does recognize home schooling as distance education and then validate the title obtained.
Many families who educate at home do so by enrolling their children in schools in foreign countries where home education is standardized, to access the validated degree and "join" the homologated titles of the country of residence.
Other families educate their children directly at home, without distance schooling. In these cases the access to the degree can be of diverse ways, reintegrating into approved face-to-face education (accessing the course corresponding to your age), or performing various exams to access ESO or Vocational Training modules.
The reasons to educate at home, to debate
We have seen that there are many reasons to educate at home, each family will choose their own, reasons that go from the pedagogical to the religious, and if children are offered a complete training, while continuing to develop emotionally and socially, there is no reason to think that families who opt for this education are doing it wrong.
In the same way, I would like to (and this is a very personal question, because as you know, I am a teacher) that people who defend education at home will not think that there are no professionals in the education system who struggle every day to survive the shortcomings and misunderstandings, trying improve a model that effectively needs it and trying to make his students not only more trained people, but also better people.
If there is any reason with which I personally do not agree to carry out this type of education, it is to consider that the conventional educational system is little less than a manipulative system based on fear and repression that restricts the freedom and creativity of children (and teenagers and adults later) to turn them into uncritical beings ready to join the production system.
This apocalyptic vision seems excessive to me, which does not mean that I think that the school is really lacking and there is a lot that could be improved, or that some of the above issues are more a problem for society as a whole than for the school.
In short, there are options for homeschooling valid and different reasons for families to choose for him, in knowing and understanding his reasons is the key to respect, because many times it is ignorance that leads to think "these parents are hippies, that they are going to live in the country "(something that I have heard talking about the subject) and things like that.
On the other hand, we must not forget that education starts and develops at home throughout childhood of our children, we are the first responsible for it, to educate them in values, emotionally ... Even the training and teaching of content, concepts, skills ... should never be an exclusive matter of the school.
For all the above, I consider that the debate about home education It is positive and will lead in the future to increasingly know the option and accept more normally and may even lead, taking the best of this practice, to improve the regulated education system.
The ten most controversial parenting practices
The cheek The colecho Breastfeeding Diaper operation Prolonged breastfeeding Vaccination Sleeping methods The nursery or nursery school * Homeopathy
