HS FAQ: Prologue

(The posts starting 'HS FAQ' are translated from a Hindi document I created to answer the most common questions we face on Homeschooling in India. I hope you like it and I hope you find it useful) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

When people meet us they say- ‘Such nice children you have. Which class are they studying in?’ Or they ask the children- ‘Which school do you go to?’ And me or the wife or the children themselves have to answer this straightforwardish question in a straightforwardish manner. ‘We study at home. We don’t go to school.’ ‘You don’t send your children to school?’ This question is asked in surprise or with a smile or sometimes with a trace of anger in the voice. And then I have to again bring out our two-year-old story in small bits and pieces. The last time I repeated this story for the one thousand and one-eth time I got a tremendous idea. Why don’t I write it down and make a small document out of it. The next person who asks me- I just whip out the document and hand it to them and say- ‘Bhai everything is written here. Read it. I don’t have the time to explain it all again for the one thousand and two-eth time.’ ‘What? What do we do with our time? Bhai, don’t we have to teach our children at home? It’s no joke. Its a full 24 by 7 job.’ So this document was born out of my need to tell the story of our children not going to school. Tell it one last time. But will you in the middle of your hectic life have the time to listen to my story? I think not and that is the reason that I decided to use a question-answer format here. The advantage is that you can read the answer to the specific question that rises in your head and then throw this document into the dustbin. Matter finished. Your precious time is saved and the burden on your brain is also minimized. What do you think? Good idea no? Some people may have even more questions than the ones that are answered here. My email ID and address are given on the last page and you can write to me at these addresses. And some friends out there who after reading this document feel that they have no need at all of my friendship can send me a collection of their best gaalis. Great fun no? From our side the blessings of our family-that-studies-at-home are always with you that reading this small document will wake you up and make you instantly take your children out of school and start teaching them at home.

HS FAQ: Overview

Your question: Bhai we didn’t even know that we could keep our children at home and teach them. Why don’t you start with a small introduction to this concept?  

My answer: Let’s start at the beginning of the modern schooling system. In the ten thousand year history of human civilization this is not more than two or three hundred years old. Which means that historically speaking it started as if just yesterday. And the British helped in spreading the system in India to maintain and spread their business interests. So has our family just extended the ‘Quit India’ movement against the British to ‘Quit School’ for our children? No bhai, the modern schooling system is not bad. Before it spread across the world there were no means of education on such a massive grassroots scale. And even today we can see how disadvantaged the uneducated or the children who cannot go to school are in India. So this homeschooling business- It is only for parents who have themselves gone to school and who are convinced that they can do a better job at home than what the mass education system is currently able to provide for their children. Educating children at home or outside the walls of a conventional school is a rapidly growing trend in the western world and appears to be catching up in India as well. It was estimated that in 2005 some 2 million children were being homeschooled in the US. (I heard somewhere that this figure is now 10 million in 2008) The figures are definitely going up. So friend, you can draw your own conclusions. My feel is that it probably just means that the modern schooling system has reached the end of its life and a big change is coming soon. So you can think that the millions of homeschooled children and their parents across the world and the three children and their parents in our small house in a small corner of the world are all together charting out the direction of this new big change. Here is another viewpoint. Each broad era of human history from horticultural to agrarian to industrial has created its own separate social-political-economic-cultural systems. Usually the new systems come up on top of the existing systems which means that the systems evolve to more complex, better modes of being. The education system that we assume to be sacrosanct today has evolved for the industrial era of human history. The rise of Google and the fall of the big auto manufacturers signals that a new era of human history that we can call ‘informational’ is upon us. And the new education system to cater to this new era is still not in place. Take some time and think about that and see if you can sense the unsettling changes happening in the world around you. Let me finish this answer with an interesting story that highlights the era-related aspect of the modern schooling system. The story goes like this- Before the spread of factories in the west, children used to get apprenticed with their parents from an early age. Boys would work with their fathers and girls with their mothers. You can imagine that ‘childhood’, with its special dress and special lifestyle that we know of now had not yet been invented. Any five year old wearing a spiderman dress would have died of shame. He also wanted to wear pant-shirt and look just like his father. Then the factory came and the father of this boy started working there and soon there were rules that forbade the boy from working inside. So the question that arose was what to do with this badmaash boy now. If you let him free he would probably play cricket with a cork ball and go around breaking windows all day. Some smart intellectuals came up with the solution- Why don’t we put him inside a room and teach him all day? At least the windows of the other buildings would be safe. But what to teach? The answer to that was really simple- Chemistry, language, anthropology, criminal psychology and every other ology- arre bhai there are so many things to know in the world just keep on stuffing him with the stuff yaar. And this, you see, is the secret story behind the birth of the modern schooling system and with it the birth of the special social institution now popularly referred to as ‘Childhood’. What are you asking dost? Whether this story is real or not? Well, where I read it they were claiming it was true. Now believing it or not is up to you and me no?

HS FAQ: Problems with school

Your question: Frankly I don’t see any problem with the modern educational system. This seems to be a figment of your fevered imagination. And if the whole world is standing looking one way and you are looking in the opposite, aren’t you then, in the language of the modern schooling system, a bit of a ‘psychiatric case’? Or in other words- plain mad? 

My answer: Look friend lets set the rules of this dialog. Ok? I am trying to say many new things here and I would really appreciate it if you don’t call me mad-wad till you hear me out. Its just that you will be able to listen to me better that’s all. (Actually I am a bit of a ‘psychiatric case’ you know and so I am slightly over-sensitive about being called it :-)) Haan, so here is an incomplete list of the problems of the modern educational system:

1. It only lays emphasis on increasing your knowledge. And the knowledge that it gives you is of no use in your adult lives. No use in your work and no use in your home. A proof of this is that all employers have always complained that the youth coming out of schools or colleges are completely unemployable. They need to be again trained for a job for six months to a year.
2. The school environment practically kills all the natural curiosity and creativity inside a small child. Don’t believe me but listen to what Albert Einstein says. He is supposed to have said- It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry: for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of FREEDOM
3. Children of different learning styles and different mental levels have to study together in the same class in school. The slow children are left behind and the quicker ones get bored. In short nobody is benefited.
4. The modern educational system focuses on the physical world and completely ignores other vital areas like the moral and spiritual. Shouldn’t the way to live your life well also be an important part of the curriculum of any good educational system? If this is so, you will have to agree with me that our current system is a miserable failure.
5. So if this is the overall school experience then it doesn’t seem to make sense to give 6 hours x 240 days x 12 years = 3000 days = 17000 hours of our precious ‘childhood’ unthinkingly to a school.

This list is incomplete. But let me stop here and call on stage the experts themselves to have the last word. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome- National Council Of Educational Research and Training or NCERT. The Government of India created this agency in 1961 to help in the spread of education throughout our country and they have been doing a great job since then. This government agency recently created a stunning document on current education called the ‘National Curriculum Framework (2005)’ and you can download it from NCERT’s website and take a look at it. Lets listen to what this document has to say in its serious-type tone in the very first chapter. Further, there is a deep disquiet about several aspects of our educational practice: (a) The school system is characterized by an inflexibility that makes it resistant to change; (b) Learning has become an isolated activity, which does not encourage children to link knowledge to their lives in any organic or vital way; (c) Schools promote a regime of thought that discourages creative thinking and insights; (d) What is presented and transmitted in the name of learning in schools bypasses vital dimensions of the human capacity to create new knowledge; (e) The ‘future’ of the child has taken center stage to the near exclusion of the child’s ‘present’, which is detrimental to the well-being of the child as well as the society and nation. …Haan, so you heard no? What more can I add? So, like most people you too have had no idea till now of the huge problems of the current school system? I can only say that it is probably because this system has a position amongst the gods in your mind and you have known only how to bow down your head unthinkingly in front of it but not to question it.

HS FAQ: Govt. action

Your question: Ok, so that means that the Indian Government is well aware of the problems now and has very commendably already taken action. Now I fail to understand why you don’t just simply send your children to the schools following this curriculum.  

My answer: The first problem that the Government of India needed to solve was to get all the children inside the walls of a school and to do this build new school walls and get teachers inside these walls. A lot of good work has been done in this direction. Today in India 20 crore children go to 10 lakh schools where 55 Lakh teachers teach them. And the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) document tells us how to effectively use the time the children spend inside the school walls. NCERT has revised all its textbooks on the basis of the recommendations made in the NCF document and now these textbooks are a very important first step in correcting the imbalances inherent in our educational system. We have bought all the NCERT textbooks from 1st standard to 9th standard and our children are using these textbooks in their studies. So why don’t they just go and study in a school then? Let me try to explain this by using an excerpt from a preface written by the Director of NCERT in a primary school textbook. The words in the brackets are my comments. ‘The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005, recommends that children’s life at school must be linked to their life outside school. (Wah! Wah! What a nice suggestion. I am also completely in favor of it) This principle marks a departure from the legacy of bookish learning which continues to shape our system and causes a gap between the school, home and community. (Oh! So according to you there can be nothing better than homeschooling no?) This syllabi and textbooks developed on the basis of NCF signify an attempt to implement this basic idea. (A thousand thanks for your wonderful wonderful effort and your beautiful textbooks sir!) They also attempt to discourage rote-learning and the maintenance of sharp boundaries between different subject areas. We hope these measures will take us significantly further in the direction of a child-centered system of education outlined in the National Policy on Education (1986). (Arre sir, what can be more child-centered than the child’s own home? So you ARE talking about homeschooling no?) The success of this effort depends on what steps that school principals and teachers will take to encourage children to reflect on their own learning and to pursue imaginative activities and questions. (But tell me sir, what incentive will the school principals and teachers have in their Government jobs to go out of their ways and increase their work? You have created the textbooks and we will use them properly following all your advice and suggestions and teach our children at home only. And I again thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful work)

HS FAQ: Law

Your question: I am not saying that I will take my children out of school yet. But let me agree with you that homeschooling may have some advantages. But is there no law in the government to put people like you in jail and send your children to the nearest government school?  

My answer: Bhai, the police have not come home to catch us yet. It is possible that when millions of people read what I have written and I become popular my enemies may bribe the law and get me jailed. But then my capacity to give bribes will also have gone up and I will probably be able to slip out unconvicted. What? You are busy and want me to come to the point quickly? Ok, the point is that each state government has its own rules about education and you will have to find out what these are in your state. But the news that a state government is forcibly taking children to school has not reached my ears at least. And I don’t think that likely in the near term either. The governments in fact go in the completely opposite direction by spending crores of rupees on midday meal schemes to attract and retain children. And yes, when the time for getting caught by the police comes there would be thousands of homeschoolers and we will all be overflowing out of the governments jails. And the MPs in between all the furniture breaking they do in parliament will have to change the rules and let us all out again. Sounds reasonable no?

HS FAQ: Board Exams

Your question: So the police will not catch you and your children will continue to study at home. But how will they go from one class to the higher class? And how will they give the board exams in 10th and 12th standard? And if they can’t do this how will they give their medical and engineering entrance exams? 

My answer: Yes bhai, you can assume that studying at a home is a great liberation from the suffocation of the examination system. But the way you asked the question- seems like you think that the examination system is a good thing. Ok, let’s listen to what Professor Yashpal has to say about this. Professor Yashpal is a highly reputed Indian educationist and he is the Chairman of the National Curriculum Framework (2005) committee and is an ex-chairman of the UGC. In the preface to the NCF document he says: This document frequently revolves around the question of curriculum load on children. In this regard we seem to have fallen into a pit. We have bartered away understanding for memory based short term information accumulation. This must be reversed particularly now that the mass of what could be memorized has begun to explode. We need to give our children some taste of understanding following which they would be able to learn and create their own versions of knowledge as they go out to meet the world of bits, images and transactions of life. Such a taste would make the present of our children wholesome, creative and enjoyable; they would not be traumatized by the excessive burden of information that is required merely for a short time before the hurdle race we call examination. The document suggests some way of getting out of this self-imposed adversity. Achieving some degree of success in this area would also signify that we have learnt to appreciate the capacity for learning and the futility of filling up children’s memory banks with information that is best kept as ink marks on paper or bits on a computer disk. Understand no? Now lets talk about the 10th and 12th standard exams. The National Open School or NIOS a government organization was set up in 1989 to let people get their educational qualifications outside the school environment. So whenever our children feel like it they will give their 10th or 12th exams through this board and will come into direct competition with your children. And haan, all colleges and other institutes of higher learning in India recognize this board as equivalent to CBSE and ICSE etc. So there you are- Your biggest problem solved. Armed with this information, are you now going to take your children out of school and not let them waste their time and effort and peace of mind on this anachronism that we call school? Not convinced, you say? Not yet, you say? OK Bhai, your choice. But wait wait… Don’t get bored and stop reading this document. Within a few more questions this FAQ gets really very interesting you know. Lot of masala- like an Andhra Pickle or a bollywood movie or something you know.

HS FAQ: Why

Your question: OK, homeschooling doesn’t seem to be such a weird idea now. But how did this thought come to you? Were your children not able to cope up with school or what?  

My answer: People homeschool for many reasons. Like: • Unhappiness with the current school system • Unhappiness with the whole world’s system • Children not getting educated properly in school • Saving weak children from their big strong friends • Having more control on the child’s religious life • Practicing a more natural grounded lifestyle …And I don’t know what else. The point is that if we start listing out all the reasons why people homeschool there would be place for nothing else in this document. So it is probably better to tell you our personal story and quickly finish this answer. Two of our three children have gone to school and they were doing very well academically. My wife and I had for a long time been searching for the answer to what an ideal education for our children and for ourselves would look like. And when we thought that we had found it we discovered that no school was following any system close to this. (The main point behind what we wanted was to develop body, mind and spirit to grow in self, culture and nature) This was probably the biggest reason for us to get into homeschooling. And now after two years of practical experimentation we are so happy with the results that I had to sit down and write this document to share our good news with you.

HS FAQ: How

Your question: Have you created the atmosphere of school at home and does someone come over and teach your children? I mean how does one go about homeschooling?  

My answer: Let us look at the preface to the National Curriculum Framework (2005) document and listen to what the chairman Professor Yashpal has to say about this: Education is not a physical thing that can be delivered through the post or through a teacher... There is a mutuality to the genuine construction of knowledge. In this transaction the teacher also learns if the child is not forced to remain passive... From personal experience I can say with assurance that a lot of my limited understanding is due to my interaction with children. So bhai, the first thing that you have to understand is that nobody learns by a bombardment of information at them. What Professor Yashpal seems to be saying is that learning is a process internal to the learner, where the knowledge (2 into 2 is equal to 4) simmering inside the heads of interested learners forms mysterious internal connections that we call ‘learning’ and the learner then gains the ability to re-express it (2 plus 2 is also 4). So if learning is a process that even the interested learner doesn’t appear to have rational control over, tell me how a teacher standing and lecturing to 40 passive children can make it happen? Haan bhai, I can hear what you all are whispering. Instead of the pen and paper type of studies I am talking general philosophy no? Ok, Let me talk about our current method. Our method has changed very much from the time we started and we think that it will continue to evolve. Right now we do about an hour to two hours of what we call ‘school-time’. The children choose any one school subject for the day and sit with the text book with their mother. We have bought all the NCERT text books from 1st standard to 9th standard and the children have this resource always available to them. Besides this, all of us learn a lot together through various extra curricular activities and reading and discussions and travel and maintaining a very simple lifestyle. Take a look at this daily activity review sheet that our children have recently started maintaining. Notice that ‘studying’ is only a small part of the activities that make up the day so we always remember that the objective of all our studying is to learn to live our lives better. Let me clarify that the activities were going on even before the list was compiled and I added the categorization to make sure that we were touching all the bases in our bid to be holistic. Sounds like a good idea no? Remember this is not a military chart designed by parents to organize the lives of their children and if you are not homeschooling I would very very very strongly discourage you from adding this kind of chart to manage your already overburdened children. Understand no? Now all the discussion above was just about OUR method. YOUR method- bhai you only will have to find out for yourself. There is a lot of information on the internet and you can read up more about the following popular methods of homeschooling. 1. Unlearning (Completely child directed learning) 2. Creating a small replica of the school at home 3. The Montessori method 4. The Waldorf method 5. Online studies and testing using the internet 6. Unit studies (Where parents research and create study material for their children) …etc.

HS FAQ: Socialization

Your question: By constant interactions and playing together etc children learn many things. And this socialization is what helps them in their family and work lives later. How will your children learn this very important art of human interactions?  

My answer: You are right. Children at least get to meet lots of types of people in school. Teachers and classmates and seniors and juniors and the learning from these meetings is impossible to replicate at home. You are very right and I agree wholeheartedly with you. But… Haan Bhai there is a ‘But’ here also… But… This problem is not as big as it appears at first sight. Because:

1. The school environment is unnatural and the interpersonal learning from here is usually not directly applicable in the real world
2. In school, children become friends with other children in their class which also means other children of the same age. But in our later out-of-school life we need to interact with people of all age groups and all socio-economic backgrounds
3. Cruel children and their victims study together in school and this is harmful for both these groups
4. The correct way to deal with the world is probably learnt more by homeschooled children because this important art is transmitted to them by their own parents

And we have taken the following steps to solve this big problem of our children not having a school full of friends:

1. Our children go to dance and music class where they meet other children everyday
2. To live in a place where our children can make friends who can play with them
3. Forming a bond with other homeschooling families so that our children know that there are other children like them

So now you tell me have we been able to solve this problem or not? No? And you say that this is the single largest reason why you can’t take your children out of school? Ok bhai. Whatever you wish. But because you have already made up your mind you might as well read the other answers just to reinforce your decision. Ok no?

HS FAQ: Competition

Your question: Everything you say is OK, but you know, the world today is a very competitive place. And children who go to school learn important skills to handle competition through regular examinations and games and many other school activities. By taking your children out of school aren’t you saving them from competition. Is this good?  

My answer: Let me first answer this with a perspective I read somewhere recently. The perspective was that it might be possible that we have got it the wrong way. It is not that the school prepares us for the competitive world but the world is a competitive place because of our schooling system. Or the school and the world are part of the same outdated system that needs urgent change. No, no, no, wait, wait, wait… Don’t throw things at me. Calm down bhai. Didn’t I tell you this was just something I read somewhere? Let me quickly tell you a nice story now to apologize for having got you so hassled. OK, the story goes… Long, long ago my daughter was learning how to play chess from a national level player. One day when I went to get her back from the class her master told me that he was organizing a chess competition and my daughter should also take part in it. A boy who was standing nearby replied that last years champion was his classmate and this year he would definitely defeat him. Now we have reached the climax scene of this story. If you want to go to the loo or drink water or get popcorn or something do it quickly and get back into your seats… …Haan so you are ready no? So here is the climax scene… No, no let me say that louder… Haan so, HERE IS THE CLIMAX SCENE… The national level chess player, hearing the tone the boy used, looked at him and said- ‘The real competition in chess is not against the opponent but against yourself. If you play against your own limitations, your own previous milestones, your game scales new heights.’ That evening my daughter and I discussed the wisdom of Masterji’s words and my daughter liked the idea very much. She has started applying this wisdom in other areas now and is in competition with herself in many new areas. And oh I almost forgot…They lived happily ever after… Understood no? Tell me why no one teaches this in any school? And also tell me how any good student of ‘competition’ from the school system, who then neatly fits into the competitive adult world, will ever in his or her life learn this wisdom?

HS FAQ: Famous HSers

Your question: Homeschooling is becoming very famous in the world but are there any famous people who haven’t gone to school?  

My answer: In India homeschooling is not very popular yet but our great poet Tagore’s studies happened at home. And look at the list below. None of these famous people from around the world have been to school.

• Scientist Thomas Edison- the inventor of the electric bulb
• Abraham Lincoln- president of the USA
• Writers Charles Dickens and Mark Twain (who famously said- Don’t let your schooling come in the way of your education)
• Tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams
• Comedian Charlie Chaplin

…etc.

HS FAQ: Epilogue

If you have done your schooling then my viewpoint is that you are completely qualified to teach your school-going children. You don’t need to buy fancy B.Ed. or M.Ed. degrees to do this. Think- For thousands of years crores of people have taught their one and two and three year old children to speak their mother tongues without the need of any special degree-vigree. Also think- your interest in your children will obviously be more than that of some teacher in a 40-student classroom. Because isn’t it true that most of the teachers time probably goes in managing the badmaash children of your enemies? And if you tell me that every single thing you learned in school has vanished without a trace from your mind- arre bhai, then tell me why you want your children also to go through a full 12 years of school to make the very same things vanish from their minds? I showed this document to some people before I decided to publish it and many of them said that the questions seemed to be only half answered and that it seemed that I was trying to escape without giving a proper answer. If this is your opinion also then let me tell you what I told them in my defense. This way of answering is very deliberate. The document is suggesting that you walk in a particular radical direction but it tries very hard not to point out any definite path. Your path you only will have to find out for yourselves. You should only find some gentle pointers towards possible paths here. Before finishing this document I feel the need to give you a warning. If after reading this you also become abnormal like me then please read this paragraph very carefully first. This is no child’s play… Sorry, its child’s play only... No what I wanted to say was that this is a very big commitment, a very big responsibility for you. Before taking it up ask yourself- Can you stay with your children for more than one hour without going out of your mind? If the answer to this is yes and you take the plunge then remember- This decision of yours will lead you to back-breaking levels of work. And if you are not able to cope up with this work properly and your children go from bad to worse then you do whatever- beat your head on the wall or beat your children or send them back to school- whatever- but it is my sincere request, my vinamr binati to you- please don’t put the blame of your misfortune on my poor head. And haan, one absolutely last final thing- Remember that smiling keeps your teeth white and shiny. I don’t remember properly now but I think this true thing was taught to me in school. And you also must have noticed that all the shiny-white-toothed men and women in toothpaste ads are always smiling. No? So whatever happens, keep smiling :-) A loving pranaam to you from all of us here, Arun, Kanti, Aditi, Srikant and Dinkar Contact etc. Arun Elassery, Email: arunelassery@hotmail.com For more information on homeschooling in India check out: http://www.alternativeeducationindia.net http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alt-ed-india http://www.multiworld.org/taleemnet.html http://www.learningnet-india.org And don’t forget the most important website of them all: http://www.google.co.in

Perspectives on teaching, learning and education

Perspective 1:

Learning is a 3-step process.
Step 1: Take input (read, watch, listen, get taught etc.)
Step 2: Goof off. Immerse yourself in some completely unrelated task. (The input goes into a temporary memory storage location, which keeps only the latest stuff. Goofing off lets your mind mysteriously form internal connections that transform the input into ‘learning’. This is not a conscious activity and your rational mind usually has no control over it)
Step 3: Re-express the input in your own words. (If the re-expression is not coming from memory as happens in most rote learning it seems possible that the connections have been formed in step 2 and ‘learning’ has happened)

-Based on Sri Aurobindo’s views on ‘Integral Education’

Perspective 2:

Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.

-Swami Vivekananda

Perspective 3:

Classical definition of growth or development:
The subject of a lower level becomes the object of the subject of the higher level.
(The subject can only be aware of objects and not of itself. So when we are able to ‘objectify’ an experience, we have moved on to the next higher level. It is like a box within a box within a box)

-From the works of Ken Wilber

Perspective 4:

Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes you accident-prone.

-Ancient Zen saying

Startling conclusion:

1. Learning is an accident. Learning inputs makes you accident-prone.
(You can substitute ‘learning’ with ‘personal growth’ or ‘education’ and the sentence will still be valid)
2. Learning happens INSIDE the learner and the best learning inputs and the best teachers cannot guarantee learning.
3. Where good learning inputs can help is
- If the learner ‘almost’ knows something, structured inputs can help crystallize this learning
- If the mysterious learning process happens on a regular basis the learner unknown to herself develops faith in her ability to learn
4. If a teacher understands this process her perspective on her role vis-a-vis a learner will surely change. The dominant worldview encourages teachers to believe that learning happens as a result of teachers pushing inputs at learners.

The mysterious last word:

Were purpose clear, all would seem vain to you.
Your ennui would haunt a shadowless world
of neutral life and untransforming souls.
Something of disquiet is a holy gift.

Hope, which in your eyes lights up dark alleyways,
does not arise from a more settled earth.
All your splendors spring from mysteries;
The most profound, not self-understood,
from certain night derive their riches
and the pure objects of their noble loves.
The treasure that irradiates your life is dark.
From misty silence poems arise.

-Paul Valery (Modern French poet)