JOIN USFor those kids who require a stress-free environment to hone their intelligence and function optimally, homeschooling is a viable option, writes Rama Natarajan
While play homes abound and schools are mushrooming everywhere, there is also a new concept which is taking root, slowly but surely — homeschooling or home education.
Homeschooling is widely prevalent in the US, UK and the rest of Europe, where it was born out of sheer necessity to address certain lacunae in the existing system of education. In India it goes by the name, swashikshan. The idea is relatively new and started out with sports persons who couldn’t juggle with rigorous match schedules and stringent school laws.
In fact, sports associations have a coaching plan which includes academic tutoring together with sports training. But homeschooling is now not just limited to gifted kids who don’t get time to attend school in their busy schedule or differently-abled children who feel lost in the present rigamarole of examination, evaluation and grading system. Nowadays, we see more and more children and parents showing interest in this system of education, where the stress is on learning through exploring.
Alternative education
Homeschooling is not just some haphazard method adopted by disgruntled parents. It is a well thought-out, tailored plan to suit the IQ levels, areas of interest and aptitudes of the children being tutored. A young mother took pride in the fact that her toddler was learning much more by applying his senses and from his immediate environment.
“I wouldn’t change this for the structured form of brown hills, green trees and the blue sea, colouring within the line...my child sees and interprets differently and questions why the grass has to be green always. I find that intelligent,” she smiles.
In 1977, John Holt, an American educator and author coined a new phrase called ‘unschooling’, which advocated ‘growing without schooling’. He held that this method was learner-friendly, especially at the primary level. Based on simple logic, it merely pointed out that when a child initiates learning, the level of curiosity and interest is sustained and the learning experience is meaningful and completely understood; and therefore ‘real’ learning.
“I have always been a little suspicious of elaborate and special systems of education,” said Anne Sullivan, teacher to the legend Helen Keller. She felt that ‘teaching’ fills the mind with artificial association as against the development of a child’s independent ideas culled from real-life situations.
This is not to take away from the fact that for generations now, schools have been churning out scholars and that institutions have become somewhat flexible. But they are a long way from being affordable and student-friendly. The curricula are overloaded and stress out students with assignments, homework, projects, tests and more tests.
There is keen competition and unfair comparisons. Most schools look for that magical ‘100% results’ and ruthlessly ask high school students to leave because they fear that they cannot make the grade.
“Isn’t this a callous and selfish attitude?” asks Basheer Khan, the father of a fourteen-year-old who was studying in a reputed ICSE school in the city. “He has to face his Board exams this year and they have asked him to leave. I am feeling helpless, not to mention how humiliated my son is,” he lamented.
A parent who wanted quality education for his children, but couldn’t afford to send them to an International school, opted to register them with Cambridge for IGCSE and homeschooled them. His son is now doing his undergraduate studies at Cambridge University.
It is thanks to such flexible and student-friendly boards such as the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), the International; Baccalaureate (IB) programmes and the Cambridge University, that quality education has now become a possibility for those being homeschooled. Many universities abroad support homeschooling and make their programmes available online.
Lessons are carefully planned to suit each child, ensuring an enjoyable learning experience. We hear about so many school dropouts and suicides because of parental and school pressure to make it to that ‘Merit List’ which is a virtual Damocles’ sword. Research studies have shown that students in the adolescent years are the worst hit and their sense of self-worth has taken a whipping.
Pros & cons
So, how does educating a child in the confines of your home make things better? Homeschooling is based on the principle that it be flexible, need- and aptitude-specific and allow each individual to work at his or her own pace, compete with self to up their level and enjoy the learning process without any pressure.
In fact, one could go so far as to say that homeschooling can be a stabilising factor with families which are constantly on the move and have mixed-up routines. Some parents pointed out that the middle school stage was a difficult phase for boys and girls. The children are learning to cope with major biological changes and face peer judgement, together with the rigor of an education system.
The only negative seems to be a sense of loneliness and a feeling of being out of it all. “There was a period when I was trying to understand and cope with my anxiety issue and had to be homeschooled for a year, but I found it way too lonely,” felt a student (name withheld on request), who has since returned to the regular school routine.
“I prefer the classroom environment — friends and foes, fights and laughs, the rapport you build with teachers over the years, wearing house colours…but that is just me. There are plenty of students out there who need a stress-free environment to function optimally. For them, homeschooling is the obvious answer,” she smiled.