(Paula's children are girls. They were: E (13), G (11), J (7) and N (5) at the time of writing. They have never been to school. She wrote specifically looking at autonomous education from a Christian viewpoint. Scroll down for her most recent update now the older girls have grown up)

Paula writes:

My point of view is that total autonomy is not Scriptural. We are not autonomous. We have a God who requires obedience, it is not left up to us to decide how we want the world run, our lives run etc. Now of course we do have choices to make as to whether we accept God's authority or not.

What is autonomy?

With reference to children's education, we need to decide what we mean by autonomy. My dictionary says self governing. Perhaps we could allow our children self government to decide how they pursue their education. But at what stage should they?

I tend to think that a certain stage of maturity needs to be reached before a child can be accountable for their own decisions. The Jewish age of adulthood? 13? Before that stage, I can't see autonomous education being best for a child. But by that I am not advocating a rigid "school at home" institutionalised structure; that I believe can be more damaging.However, most people think of autonomous as the children choosing things to do that interest them, and parents inserting the relevant information about the headed curriculum subjects as they crop up.

An experiment with autonomous education

I struggled with this issue for about a year. We decided to try it for a period when I didn't impose any school type work, or require any overtly educational projects to be done. In the 4 months we tried, I feel the children just drifted. Yes, they did educational stuff. It certainly required greater motivation from me to be available to answer their queries and pick up on motivating them to pursue something (they were aged 10, 8, and 5 then) but they didn't seem to learn or consolidate things. It was as though they had no direction.

Balancing National Curriculum with childrens' interests

Since then we have adopted a more balanced approach. As parents responsible for our children's education, we are ensuring they at least have the information given them that they would recieve at school: ie we follow National Curriculum workbooks for approx 40 mins each day.

Once a subject has been studied, I have no worries if it is forgotten. Obviously the child was not interested enough to retain the facts. Many times though, we find the subject cropping up in everyday life, so it is discussed and then really absorbed! (eg magnetism, map reading, sunlight, animals, periods of history). Or vice versa, we discuss a subject, then it crops up in a workbook... the child already knows it.. easy peasy work.

I think the reason we struggle with the issue of autonomy, is because it has grains of God's truth in it! Deuteronomy 6: 7 sounds more autonomous than structured to me. We teach the children in everyday things. Sitting for an hour at a table writing digested information is NOT learning. Doing and understanding IS. Again, perhaps we have let the world rob us of what is rightfully ours, and even have corrupted God's instruction so that we don't know where to stand.

Ultimately, we are responsible for our own families, and have to do what God leads us each to do, without judging one another. I don't feel total autonomy gives children a fair taste of how God works, or what he expects. I do believe in taking children seriously, and making sure we are not following a plan of education just because that's the way school does it.

Flexible timetable using workbooks

We use the National curriculum core subjects on our very flexible timetable. English, maths, science, history, geography. We buy workbooks for all of these subjects from WH Smiths, and bargain book sellers such as The Works. We use workbooks to ensure that we don't miss out on subjects that schoolkids would cover. Partly because we are hoping to take GCSEs and want the foundational knowledge to be there, and partly because as a parent I am a facilitator of what they will be offered to learn about.

I am an extremely academic, uncreative, and unimaginative person, but quite organised. If I only used my criteria for developing a curriculum it would be very limited. So our workbooks often provide impetus to explore subjects we would not have thought about, or give us ideas on how to go about developing skills. It also ensures that as a family we have a wider base of learning.

The girls have been given space/ opportunity/ encouragement to develop their own interests , ie G is very artistic, E musical. The consolidation of what they have read / heard in workbooks etc goes on throughout the days/ weeks as we talk/ discuss/ watch more things about subjects that catch their interests. I write a 5 week timetable, eg:

MON - Pearson geography workbook - Letts Maths - French on the computer
TUE - spelling for 10yr olds (WH Smiths) - Maths workshop (computer) - Pearson History workbook.

Each of the girls has her own timetable of her own workbooks. We don't timetable creativity or PE or cookery :-) That just happens! They can "do" schoolwork any time that then suits them. Usually one page of each book: their complete "schoolday" probably takes 40 minutes. The timetable is extremely flexible, and if we go visiting or other places, it doesn't get done. It is not set in stone. We don't have to "catch up" if we miss :-)

We "do" schoolwork just as we would "do" the washing up, "do" our teeth, "do" the ironing. Structure gives organisation to our day, we all know that learning goes on outside "doing" schoolwork, but we use it to our advantage.

(Paula, Spring 1999)

Update (Spring 2007)

We continued following a flexible structure, even during a traumatic time when my husband left the family. Because it was such a crisis time, we chose to do correspondence courses for two of E's GCSEs as we all felt we needed some support. She obtained a B and D in English language and Geography. When the family situation had settled down we then followed IGCSE sylabus from textbooks, and E got her 3rd GCSE in English literature grade C. On the strength of 3 early GCSEs, she was accepted in the local 6th form centre to do 3 A Levels. She eventually got 3 passes at B C and C.

Once E was settled being educated away from home, G started on an O level and got C grade. We then had another major change when we all moved back to Birmingham and I remarried. We again chose to do GCSE correspondence courses for G. She worked through three in one year and gained the grades needed to go to a local further education college to do a CACHE diploma in childcare and early years. Whilst she was there, she won the student of the year award for academic achievement. A great reassurance that home education had not hindered her academically!

The two older girls did excellently in further education and are both now working in their chosen fields. E married her childhood sweetheart in 2006 when she was 20. G is a nanny to a local family. Both girls also passed their driving test at 17.

J is now 15. The local education authority in Birmingham allow under 16s to do adult education classes as long as they are accompanied by a guardian. So J is taking two GCSEs this year and hopes to do 2 next year with a view to going to college and doing a BTec in animal management. N is still following a flexible structure at home, and we are looking forward to pursuing GCSEs through adult education next year when she reaches 14.

Other approaches to home education:
Gayle - Heather - Henrietta - Jane - Kathie - Sue