Do you describe yourself as a homeschooler or a home educator? People usually use these words interchangeably – which is okay (I do this too sometimes) – but there are some good reasons to start shifting away from the ‘homeschool’ term to something more holistic and well-rounded, like ‘home education’.
The word ‘homeschool’ subtly gives people the impression that homeschooling should look a lot like doing school-at-home. We immediately start remembering our own experiences in school, with rows of desks, worksheets, lots of tests, and students who are pretty much miserable and bored with everything they’re being taught. Without even realizing it, we decide this is what learning looks like. The problem is that when people try to replicate the school classroom system at home with their own kids, it’s usually a very unhappy experience for everyone. School classrooms are set up in a certain way because one teacher is trying to manage 20-30 kids (or more). Typically, the teacher has never even met his or her students before the first day of school, so there isn’t any level of familiarity with the students before a new school year begins. This isn’t the teacher’s fault; it’s simply the nature of a system where there are a lot of kids, a smaller number of adults, and where the expectation is for students to progress to a new grade (and therefore a new teacher) year after year after year.
This isn’t the case in our homes though. You know your children better than anybody, you have a relationship with them, and they trust you to care about their needs. This underlying relationship means we don’t have to manage our kids in the same way that a teacher has to manage 30 kids in a classroom that he or she doesn’t even know very well. At home, our kids don’t need to sit in desks in straight rows. They can learn perfectly well sitting at the kitchen table or on the couch. At home, our kids can eat lunch or a snack while doing their lessons. They can excuse themselves to use the restroom as needed. In a classroom, if 30 kids were eating snacks and leaving to use the restroom whenever they wanted, it would be total chaos. The structure of a classroom is necessary because the teacher is trying to maintain order in a room with a lot of people. But the classroom environment is completely different from the home environment and that means the methods we use at home can be different too. At home, you can customize your environment and schedule in a way that best meets the needs of your kids. Don’t feel obligated to do everything exactly the same way as a classroom teacher.
Another way the ‘homeschool’ term falls short is that ‘school’ has a much more narrow and rigid definition than a term like ‘education’. School is defined as “any institution at which instruction is given in a particular discipline” [1]. It focuses on the place where the teaching is happening. There are several definitions available for education, but here are a couple of them: “the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction” [1], and “an enlightening experience” [1]. While the word ‘school’ focuses on the location and the institutional aspects of the learning process, ‘education’ is much broader. These definitions remind us that an education is an ongoing process. We also see that ‘education’ not only includes formal academics. It also includes things that we learn purely because we find them interesting, or things we’re learning that help shape our character.
We should aim to not only give our children knowledge of grammar, math, history, and science. These things are important. But there’s more to becoming a fully educated person than just these things. Children need a full, well-rounded education – one that helps them grow and develop mentally, physically, and spiritually. This kind of full education extends far beyond formal academic subjects. If we want our kids to be the sort of people who enter adulthood with good character, a deep spiritual life, an ability to care for themselves and others, and a love for learning a variety of new things, we need to give them more than instruction in subjects like math and English grammar. We need to give them a full, multi-faceted education. In addition to the academic subjects, you can also teach your kids important life skills like cooking, gardening, generosity, and a love of learning.
Finally, as home educators, we have different goals for our kids than the goals of teachers and administrators in conventional schools. Those of you who attended school can probably remember memorizing the material long enough to be able to take the test, and then forgetting it once the test was over. In her book “Parents and Children”, Charlotte Mason even wrote about this being a problem in the schools back in her day [2]. Teachers are trying to teach students the material in a way that will help students do well on exams. I know there are a lot of teachers out there who also want to help prepare their students for a good future. But let’s face it. In conventional schools, if students don’t do well on exams, the assumption tends to be that the teacher didn’t do a good job. In real life, I think we all instinctively know that test scores are not a real reflection of what a person knows or is capable of achieving.
If we want our children to truly learn things, and if we want the things they’re learning to have a lifelong impact on them, we have to use different methods than the ones being used in the schools. As home educators, we need to see ourselves as performing an entirely different task than the one being performed in the school system. Yes, formal academics are important. Yes, we need to give our kids a solid education in the various academic subjects. But we also need to go beyond that. We need to give our kids a well-rounded education that prepares them for as many aspects of adulthood as we can – whether that’s managing a home, starting a business, working for a corporation, pursuing a new hobby or interest, or showing kindness and generosity to people in the local community. By showing your kids how to learn new things, by giving them plenty of time to play and explore their interests, and simply by spending quality time with them each day, you can give your kids so much more than sitting in a desk while memorizing boring facts from a textbook You can give them a rich, full life.
[1] Definitions are from Oxford Languages as found via a Google search
[2] Mason, Charlotte. Parents and Children, 1904. Reprinted in 2017 by Living Book Press.