Home schooling VS home educating
Is there a difference?
In the UK, I’d say yes. In the USA, I’m not so sure.
Over here, in Britain, it has taken me a while to see the distinction. I think this is because I started home educating my kids during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the national narrative around education was that we were now all “home schooling”.
Our household, I believe, slid from “home schooling” into “home educating”, and at the time I didn’t pause to consider the shift.
Perhaps “it’s just semantics”, but as an editor I know that words are important. Here’s why:
Home schooling
This was what we were doing during the COVID-19 lockdowns when schools were closed to the majority of pupils. We were schooling at home, with worksheets and expectations sent home by teachers. The kids had to complete the work, which ticked National Curriculum boxes. I know families who have elected to take their children out of school and are now teaching them the school curriculum at home and with various resources.
In this case, home schooling is teacher or parent-led, and follows a government-set agenda.
Home educating
A few weeks into the first COVID-19 lockdown, we decided to ditch the worksheets and go it alone. The kids were still registered at school, but I informed them that we wouldn’t be doing the set work, but would send in photos and information that showed what they had been doing.
Instead of sitting inside at a desk doing a maths worksheet, they were outside planting seeds, climbing trees and making bows and arrows and mud sculptures. It has blossomed from there. The kids are not at school, they are not following a government-set curriculum, but they are learning and it is child-led.
The kids are self-driven and, therefore, love to learn.
Still just semantics? Perhaps. There are a lot of labels for all kinds of ways to home educate and/or school kids.
It’s taken me a while to get here, but now I view home schooling as adult-led, often with a set agenda, such as the National Curriculum. Home educating is more often child-led, with freedom to dive into all topics and experiences, whenever and wherever, as the kids’ curiosity and motivation guide them.
What is home schooling vs home educating to you?
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