 By the mid-1990s, it was being recognised that people were joining EO due to a "crisis" and wanted to get their child out of the school system, rather than coming to it with an interest in exploring alternative education provision.There was disaffection with the way the organisation was run via national gatherings which were seen as alienating the majority of members.The debate broadly split into those that wanted to follow a structured style of education with a "managed" organisation and those who valued an informal approach and rejecting the status of charitable trust and company limited by guarantee.