A lot of people get freaked out when I tell them that I’m going to home school my kids. Their immediate answer is.. WHAT!! Are you crazy?
How will he/she get a job when they grow up?
How will they be able to socialise with the world?
Are you planning to follow any curriculum or syllabus?
Why are you ruining your child’s future?
Firstly, I would like to say that we don’t even know what the future is going to be like 20 years from now, and I strongly believe that the kids that are able to be more creative, expressive and quick to learn, un-learn and re-learn are the ones who will be happy and successful in their lives.
This video by Sir Ken Robinson is the video which changed my perspective on the education system. I watched this over 3 years ago and ever since I have been watching many other TED videos talking about the realities of today’s broken eduction system.
Now that you’ve heard Sir Ken Robinson’s perspective on schooling, I would like to share with you some of my personal experiences in my life which have caused me to believe that home schooling is by far the best way to bring out the best in your child.
I run a company today with some awesome people working me, but my qualification is that I flunked my 12th grade and I just completed a Diploma in Audio Engineering.
One of my best employees is someone who’s home schooled and has accomplished far more in his life at 20 than any other 20 year old.
After studying the lives of all the famous failures, I’m now convinced that success really does not depend on college degrees, it depends a lot on how strongly you pursue your passions in life.
As much as I propagate home schooling, let me tell you that this is not for everybody. It’s take a lot of guts and determination to go against the system. There will be a lot of times when you’re faced with peer pressure to get your kids back into the system, and in many cases parents break and get their kids back into it.
Both Parents Working: If both the mother and father are busy building their careers, there is no way you can bring up a child in the home schooled way. It’s the prime duty of the mother to bring up the child in the initial years, and then the father in the teenager years.
Not having a learning culture at home: If your home does not have a natural learning culture right from the beginning, then we really cannot expect our kids to be home schooled the right way.
Not having a passion-based study plan: I’m not talking about curriculums here, because curriculums also are very ‘cookie cutter’ types. Having said that, we need to have an overall education plan to get out the best out of your child. This may include a combination of spirituality, values, history, mindset education, science, maths and geography.
Not having a clear purpose of this education: the end goal of home schooling your child must be to ultimately equip them with the experiential knowledge, tools and mindset to be able to live a happy, healthy, responsible and creative life where they are able to monetise their passions and live a fulfilled life.
Here’s how 13-yr old Logan stepped out of the conventional path to now living a happy life being homeschooled, and hacking his way thru life!
Din’t this video completely blow your mind away??? This is what’s possible when you take this message to heart and put it into action.
The reason why most people don’t want to go unconventional is because they don’t have the guts to go against the system. The entire education system and the employment system is designed to enslave people for their whole lives.
The most common advise we get from our elders is go to school, get good grades, get a safe and secure job and stay happy. Now that according to me is living a very limited lifestyle, where you’re just in your little box-like home, driving your little box-like car and going to your little box-like cubicle at work.
To me, I believe that life is much more than that. And the entire education system today is just getting people to live in boxes and be slaves to the system.
How Can Home Schoolers Make Money?
The path that I’m planning to take is to raise my kids the way Cameron Herold is doing.. to raise kids into entrepreneurs. Of course I will also be adding the spiritual edge to their upbringing.
Cameron Herold is an amazing guy who recently spoke at TED and talks about how he raises his children to think differently.. to think as entrepreneurs.
The world tomorrow has unlimited possibilities and home schooling (according to me) is one of the most effective ways to get the best out of your child, provided you know what you’re doing and you have a good structure in place to enable that.
There will definitely be many challenges you may face to make that bold step to rebel against the system, but the pay-off is much larger than life if done well, from the examples you have seen above.
I’ve always been a little crazy with the things I do, and sometimes freaks people out, because I believe that you’ve got to be a little crazy to do magical things in this world. I have a baby boy who’s growing really fast, and as the world around me is doing everything conventional, I’m convinced that the future of my family and my kids is going to be magical, fun, happy and creative!
With my passion for music, technology and spirituality, I know that home schooling is the only way to bring everything together.
So.. what’s you’re take on this subject? Homeschooling or not?
I totally agree with you that current education system ruining our abilities to think creatively and out of the box thoughts. Let alone thinking about entrepreneurship.
People here look at education as a platform which enables to get and do a ‘job’ under someone. It never inspires them to create their own businesses, ventures or take up entrepreneurship. In fact, our society itself rigid to people who tell I want to do a business rather than taking up a job.
So, a practical, real life based education which blends creativity and soft skills helps the child to pick up great ideas early in life.
Now, having said that, I still feel that you should send the child to a good school until he reaches 6th standard. Because , kids do learn discipline, socializing and variety of activities at school, otherwise they end up consuming the vacuum at home.
Only my personal thoughts, Sid.
Thanks for the feedback Naveen. Point taken. There are a few alternatives till 6th such as Steiner schools etc. which are better than the conventional schools which eventually program the kids into a particular path.
Wonderful post: thought-provoking and well-written. I especially enjoyed the video of the 13-year old who looked like he was having a good time and will grow up to be successful no matter what he does. But the skeptic in me was wondering what are the best arguments against home-schooling.
Thanks for the feedback Raam. Yes, as much as I’m pro-home-schooling at this stage.. there is a skeptic in me too to look at the flip side. The bottomline is that a lot has to do with the way we parent our kids.. a huge responsibility on the parents to structure the day, and curriculum. That’s one area I’m doing some research on as well as talking with parents who have successfully home-schooled their kids. Please shoot some your questions to me on FB, so that I get multiple perspectives. Thanks.
I had this debate when I needed to start formal education for my son. I did not send my son to pre-school, but we did a a home-school for him then. Those years are the most important years for the child when he keenly develops his bonds with his family members, each of whom get to share his time at home.
When it was time for regular school, we did a good amount of research to look for a not-so-run-of-the-mill school. I do believe that it is good for a child to have an equal exposure at home and outside in a school.
What the home can do, the school cannot. What the school can do, the home may not be able to do. A judicious mix of both is best for today … I think.
The challenge for the people at home is tremendous, but it is about priorities!
Thanks for those inputs Sushil. You’re right. We’ve got to balance it well and there a huge responsibility on the parents to engage the child positively, whether at home our outside. Just curious.. which alternative school did you consider for your son.
Education is a lot about allowing the mind to explore on its own… only an environment needs to be created and then creativity allowed to be unleashed ….
A wonderful revolutionary idea. The thoughts encompassed here will definitely take care of the children who are open to experiments, passion oriented etc. This comprises of a part of the population. Unfortunately our modern education system is killing this passion in us. But there will also be children who are not passion driven but result driven. It is not impossible but difficult to recognize the tendencies of children at a small age. I am totally against modern education, but the alternative that we provide must cover these types of people also. The reason why we free thinkers are getting such a strong opposition is that the result driven class of people are dominating the society today and they are having a tremendous influence in the minds of all types of people. These are the people who mostly oppose us. We must provide a program or a set of programs in our education that include all these types of people and practically demonstrate it so that in due course of time all will accept it. I will also think on how to do this and come up with my ideas. You can also share if you have any in this regard.
We must remember one thing : Before any change happened till today, there were always a set of people who said that it couldn’t happen. But a few knew it could.
Awesome Rakesh. I’m so happy that we are acquainted with each other and we both have kids of the similar age group. Let’s bounce ideas off each other and give the best to our next generation.. Looking forward to your ideas too.
Home school is going to be future educational model, Sidz! Our generation got already adapted to newer ways of learning; I don’t think we’ll be burdening our kids with the normal school educational system. In most of the developed nations, the change in educational system can be precisely seen. I had a client from US who’s actually taking her both kids to a school where no exams and other recurrent evaluation processes are involved. What they do is just giving complete exposure to kids through natural learning. The reason why they do is that the normal educational system is highly saturated. That it reduces the quality of education to greater levels. Personally, from my point of view, the Indian educational system equals with the total performance of students in the examinations– right from the kindergarden. It should be changed. After all, all of us aren’t just living to earn a degree certificate to showcase and get some job. It’s all about making a better living.
Thanks for sharing your take on such a relevant topic, Sidz!