Most of us go to school and learn without learning much about how or why we’re taught.
Many home educators don’t simply follow a pre-set curriculum at home. They decide which approach (or mix of approaches) best suits their students. This means they’ve done a bit of research, and speak in a lexicon the majority of us who simply went to the nearest school to where we lived, don’t understand. We tend to call them all homeschoolers, which makes many of them cringe.
Here at The Spinoff, we’ve learned a few things through our new docuseries Home Education. Here’s a glossary for the language home educators use, for people who can’t tell unschooling from deschooling.
Home education
This is a broad umbrella for when parents (or legal guardians) take responsibility for the education of their children, instead of enrolling them in a school. Under the umbrella, education can be, and is, done in endless different ways.
Homeschool
Homeschool is sometimes used interchangeably with home education. However, many home educators feel it’s inaccurate, as what they’re trying to do is break away from the structures of traditional schooling. Homeschool suggests an approach which follows a set curriculum and structure, akin to school-at-home (see below).
Eclectic approach
Many home educators take an eclectic approach, gathering and mixing bits and pieces from various philosophies and sources. This gives them flexibility to adapt to the learners’ needs and the family’s goals, commitments and lifestyle. They might have a mix of set activities or curriculums for certain subjects, and have time for child-led learning as well.
School-at-home
Some people do “school-at-home” with a set curriculum and schooling hours. It’s a highly structured approach which recreates a traditional classroom method using worksheets, textbooks and tests. Sometimes, the family may have a dedicated room in their house with desks for learning. They may teach curriculums that have been bought in full or make up their own lesson plans. This is probably what many people envision when they think of home education.
Unschooling
Unschoolers believe that life and education are the same thing and so learning can happen all the time. It’s based on the idea that children are naturally curious and so allowing them to explore encourages them to become life-long learners and to take responsibility for their education. It’s about following kids’ natural timelines, and not pushing them to do things before they are ready.
The preference is to remove the traditional classroom and other hallmarks of conventional education like fixed curriculums, homework, lesson plans, tests and exams. Instead the approach is unstructured, and children’s interests lead the learning, often through projects. They are led partly by the writing of John Holt, an American teacher turned author who tried to reform the US school system before advocating for home education.
Though the term unschooling is gaining traction, some people avoid using it because it’s often misunderstood. They may instead use free schooling, self-directed learning, natural learning, child-led learning, or free-range learning. When people use the term natural learning, there’s a greater lean towards learning in nature, as it’s considered the perfect environment to support learning, and tactile experiences of handling natural materials is thought to make learning fun.
Waldorf or Steiner
These are one and the same! This approach is based on the work of Rudolf Steiner who was an Austrian philosopher and teacher. Steiner took a holistic approach to education and stressed the importance of the whole child by focusing on body, mind and spirit. There is an emphasis on natural play materials, story telling, art and craft, music and movement, nature and the rhythms of life.
Some features of this approach to education include strong relationships between teachers and students, children being seen as active agents of their own development, a focus on aesthetic and artistic elements, free play, rhythms and repetition and real work such as housework, cooking, cleaning, toy-making and gardening.
Montessori
This educational approach was developed by Dr Maria Montessori, a pioneer of early childhood education in the late 1800s. Rather than use formal teaching methods, the Montessori approach involves developing independence, natural interests and activities. The aim is to support children to unfold their own potential in an environment designed to meet their needs.
The main features are a well-ordered, aesthetically pleasing, consistent, and predictable environment, activities with designated spaces laid out on trays with all the objects needed in a logical place, and the expectation that children act constructively and take responsibility for their own actions. Activities are often focused on a sequence of steps putting things in order or in their proper place, or making them clean. Teachers observe, only intervening when children need guidance or structure.
Te Kura / learning by correspondence
Students learning via Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (previously The Correspondence School) are supervised by a parent or caregiver, and have teachers who send them work and check in with them regularly online or by telephone. Students must follow a set curriculum and hours are expected to be roughly the same as a brick-and-mortar school. Te Kura is a public school, so students are enrolled. Students can also do just one, or more, papers through Te Kura. Some refer to this as distance learning.
Project-based learning or Unit studies
This is when a child’s interest is centred, and projects based on interests are vehicles for learning. Subjects like literacy, numeracy, science and arts are integrated to the child’s interests. If a child was interested in butterflies they might read books and write a story about butterflies (literacy), investigate patterns and symmetry or count butterflies (numeracy), look at the butterfly life cycle (science), do some painting or craft using butterflies as inspiration (art). This approach is evident in the first episode of Home Education where kids learn by running a dahlia farm.
Charlotte Mason
Charlotte Mason was a British educator who dedicated her life to improving education in England at the turn of the 20th century. Her best known method is the use of “living books” instead of textbooks. Living books are said to make topics “come alive”. They’re written in a conversational or narrative style, to pull learners into the subject so it’s easier to remember the information. Living books are available in most school subjects, including maths, geography and science.
Classical
Classical education is language-focused. Written and spoken words are used to learn rather than images like pictures and videos. Progress follows a classical pattern called the Trivium, which is rigorous and systematic. Early schooling years are spent absorbing facts, in the middle years students learn to think through arguments, and in high school they learn to express themselves.
Socialisation
Home educators are most often asked about socialisation. Since they are not in a large classroom, people assume children are mostly alone or only with their parents, but most home educators will tell you this is not the case. Much of home education happens outside the home, and so children have opportunities to interact with a wide variety of people, in mixed-sized and mixed-age groups. They interact with real people doing real work in the real world, so perhaps community education would be a more accurate term. Also, many associations and groups organise meet-ups between home educated kids. The Ministry of Education acknowledges that “the research also indicates that homeschooled children tend to be well socialised”.
Exemption
In New Zealand all children over six years old need to either be enrolled at a school or have an exemption. Most home educators, bar those who use Te Kura, need an exemption. Exemptions are granted by the Ministry of Education, and the requirements can look daunting. The application is a detailed document outlining the education plans for the child, to prove that they will be educated “at least as regularly and as well as in a regular school”. Exemptions are unlikely to get granted if the basics like reading, writing, and maths aren’t included in the plan.
Paperwork like a birth certificate is also required. Exemptions are valid till the child turns 16, unless it is revoked or the child goes back to school for a term or longer. The Ministry requires home educators to sign a written declaration confirming that they are continuing to home educate in accordance with the law twice a year.
Deschooling
Deschooling, not to be confused with unschooling, is the mental process kids (and adults) go through when they leave a formal schooling environment. There’s a period of adjustment as rigid ideas about learning are let go and people get used to the freedom of home educating. They say it’s about rediscovering the joy of learning.
Definitions have been compiled from the following sources:
National Council of Educators NZ
Home Education is made with support from NZ On Air.