En las conferencias Liberty 2008 en Londres asistieron un grupo de homeschoolers liberales. Nos sentamos juntos durante la cena y tuvimos un interesante intercambio. Yo estaba muy inquisitivo, era la primera vez que me encontraba personalmente con homeschoolers y me interesaba conocer de primera mano su experiencia.
Mi principal duda respecto a la idoneidad de educar a tus hijos en casa (vis a vis la educación en una escuela formal privada) es el aspecto de la socialización. Los niños/adolescentes que son educados en casa se relacionan con otros niños y hacen amigos fuera de las "horas de estudio", pero aún así quizás sea positivo para el niño interactuar con otra gente la mayor parte del tiempo o durante su proceso de aprendizaje. Incluso aunque el niño no quiera socializarse de este modo, esta interacción puede ayudarle a desarrollar las aptitudes socializadoras necesarias para la vida real y el mercado laboral, donde tienes que interactuar con personas desconocidas o con las que no te apetece relacionarte.
Después de las conferencias intercambié varios correos con una de las homeschoolers. A continuación copio su respuesta (con su permiso) a la cuestión de la socialización y otras que habíamos comentado. Es un punto de vista muy razonable y no tengo nada que añadir.
You must understand that 'home education' could mean a huge number of different things--from something much worse than school to something far, far better--depending on the people. Some parents will have their kids learn the school curriculum with private tutors. Some will just let them fend for themselves. Some will keep them inside all day. Some will keep them outside all day with other home-educated kids. That home-educated children don't socialise is a big (if very common) misconception. Some do, a lot, and some don't, at all. But in any case, I don't think it's correct to say that a child needs always to be with other people (especially if he has access to the Internet -- the Internet really changes everything). Plenty of self-taught people have done great things. Of course some kids will be very social and will want to be with others all the time. That could also be arranged without school, easily.
Albert: Even if the child doesn't like it, it may help to develop his social skills and prepare him for real life and work environment, where you usually can't avoid interacting with people you don't know or want to interact with.
Even if you were an expert in psychology, people are much more complicated than comments like this allow for. If you force a kid to be social when he doesn't want to be, it may just as well disturb him and make him irrational about interacting with others. He could also simply learn how to interact with people at work when he starts working (if he hasn't already learnt it by then, and if he gets that kind of job). Predictions about psychological effects are naturally very precarious, but I think it's much better to assume either or both of these things than to assume that you have to force a child to do something just in case it's useful for the future. But anyway, as I said, home-ed kids could still socialise even whilst doing academic stuff (for example, with intellectual discussion, direction from parents or their friends who know about things they want to learn, or maybe even taking the odd class in something they're interested in).
http://www.takingchildrenseriously.com/ -- I don't know how good all the articles on the site are currently, but TCS is an excellent parenting philosophy that lots of home educators try to follow.
http://www.curi.us/archives/show_category/55 -- these articles may be of higher quality.
http://www.education-otherwise.org/ -- I think this is the largest organisation in the UK. It has over 4000 member families. About half of them turn up at the festival I go to. They're mostly hippies.
Que esta práctica esté seriamente restringida e incluso prohibida en numerosos países dice bastante sobre la naturaleza liberticida y adoctrinadora de la intervención del Estado en la educación.
Leed también este excelente análisis y defensa del homeschooling escrito por Pablo Molina, sin pelos en la lengua pero cargado de sentido común.
Podéis encontrar información sobre la situación legal en España de la educación en la página de Educación Libre. En la misma página podéis consultar las opiniones de algunos padres sobre esta experiencia.
¿Cuáles son vuestras dudas o impresiones sobre la educación en casa?
