Can Homeschoolers Change the World?

I just finished reading John Holt’s “Instead of Education”.

In it, Holt describes the problems with the modern education system as being more a matter of purpose instead of procedure.

He writes:

“I must insist on it once more: the trouble with S-chools (his spelling for compulsory or forced attendance based institutions) is not a matter of means but of ends. The change I seek is not at bottom about gerbils or pond water or Cuisenaire rods or better reading programs. It is about a different view of human beings, and the nature and needs of children.”

and

“Meanwhile, education-compulsory shooling, compulsory learning-is a tyranny and a crime against the human mind and spirit. Let all those escape it who can, any way they can.”

Because he was a teacher, it’s not hard to understand how his observations, and his willingness to publish them, were considered at the very least radical.

Sadly, little has changed in that there is no evidence that the nature and needs of children is of anymore concern to the policy makers and administrations that now run our public schools.

Despite the upsurge in families “choosing” to homeschool their children and recent legislation de-criminalizing the choice (as far as I know there are still only few places in North America that have actually made it legal – without the requirement to jump through all sorts of administrative hoops), schools themselves have changed little.

In fact, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that schools have gotten much worse since this book was written – I hardly think Holt could imagine that just two generations later kids would actually start bringing guns to school and killing each other…or perhaps he did.

However, in light of the recent uproar in California, I found the following particularly poignant:

“But by the time enough children have escaped S-chool so that the S-chools feel they have to close the escape routes, we may have enough evidence to convince the courts and legislatures that they should be kept open. In short, we may be able to show that children out of S-chools learn much faster and better than children in them, at vastly less public expense, and that for reasons of public policy as well as liberty and justice we ought to let parents and children together decide how much (if any) and what kind of schooling they want.”

Can homeschoolers change the world…I believe absolutely.

What is changing the world if not changing the lives of our children for the better? What is changing the world if not inspiring and supporting someone to actively take responsibility (and personal power) back into their own hands?  What is changing the world if not to tread unbroken ground so that someone else might follow more easily?

Homeschoolers can and do change the world by not conforming, by not towing the non-existent line and by learning about the world by being in the world…not sequestered inside a classroom being told what to think and what you ’should’ know by now.

If you haven’t already read this book, I highly recommend it.