What's in a word?

Jun 2, 2007

—

Education or school? If you put it that way, it sounds hugely contentious, yet ppl use the terms home education and home schooling interchangeably without really blinking.

School to me means structure, desks, sitting in rows, waiting to be recognised. Odd really, as my children are in a school three days a week with few of those attributes. (Big does have a desk. She’s inordinately proud of it. It’s very beautiful, wooden and waxed.) Education can mean all sorts of things – home, school, mature, life long. It’s not as constricting a word. I prefer the term home education, although I just as readily use flexi-schooling to describe what we are doing. Flexi-educating isn’t really a term that makes sense. But to say flexi-montessori-educating-with-a-couple-of-days-at-home might be rather too much of a mouthful 😉

And so I do pick ppl up on the term homeschooling. It’s what the Americans call it. And in some places it is what they have to do – submitting lesson plans and curriculum for approval before the year begins, and then having their children tested or work assessed at the end of it. It varies widely from state to state though, and from family to family, just as it does here. I would personally prefer for ppl to only use that term in this country when they are referring to families doing school at home, rather than as a catch all term. Is it important? I think that precision in communication is important – the reason we have so many words is because they are not interchangeable, they have different nuances, different connotations, different implications. We are not just bringing school into our homes, we are bringing education into our lives.

So yes, I prefer home education. What do you reckon?

It’s where it is

Home Ed Inspiration, Ideas, and Activities

Click the links below and scroll through my collection of ideas, workshops, excursions, and more to discover practical everyday activities you can do together in and around your home classroom.

Home Education Inspiration

Home Ed: Ideas and Activities

Home Ed: Topics and Discussion

Exploring Neurodivergence in Children

Comments

10 responses to “What's in a word?”

Claire
2 June 2007
I would most definitely go with the term home education, even though that is not ideal either. Education doesn’t just happen at home, it occurs everywhere you go, every day of your life until you die (unless of course you’re arrogant enough to think you don’t have anything else left to learn!).
I don’t think there really is an exact term one could use to describe education outwith school; it is life learning.
Still no nearer am I? 😉
Reply
HelenHaricot
2 June 2007
home-ed for us. but you could use the term free-range ed if you prefer!
Reply
t-bird
2 June 2007
I’m between two stools here, we definitely home educate but we have a burst of time in the day when we “do school”. Sometimes we even excavate the desk and do it there!
Reply
Sarah
2 June 2007
I think (shoot me for making sweeping generalisations if you want) that people who call themselves home schoolers are often the sort who do do some sort of school at home type thing. I personally much prefer to call it home education simply because it excludes the schooling stereotype – but I probably wouldn’t go so far as to correct people talking to me.
For example when they ask ‘are you still homeschooling?’ I know what they mean, they mean ‘are your kids in school or out?’, they’re not usually the sort of people who would begin to comprehend the difference (probably only because they haven’t thought about it).
Thing is, you can’t make people use one term or the other because home educators can vary so wildly in their approaches – but I do know what you mean … don’t think I’m making much sense though, it’s too late!
Reply
Daddybean
3 June 2007
I do take your point, but I’m not sure I’m bothered about it.
I use the term Home Education, can’t really say that I come across many people who use the term home schooling, as Sarah says, it’s likely to be just ‘someone’ asking about us (in fact the lady in the bakers this morning mentioned it as we haven’t for some reason or other been in there much just latley).
But I wouldn’t be bothering to comment on someone use of the word, either because it’d be the lady in the bakers, for whom I can’t see any point in raising the issue (I’m not that interested in discussion HE with non-home edders really TBH), or another home educator. And if that’s the word they want to use, well that’s their choice.
So how much ‘school at home’ would you have to do to be a ‘home schooler ‘ then?
Reply
Nic
3 June 2007
Personally I loathe the term ‘homeschooling’ it really sets my teeth on edge. But actually if I were to deconstruct the term Home Education I guess I’d almost have as many issues with that too, so I won’t bother. But, I do correct people who use the term ‘home school’ wrt us as it is very clearly NOT what *we* do and infact I would use the term myself to categorise a whole load of people doing something rather different to us.
Reply
Clare
3 June 2007
I agree with you about the importance of language. I wouldn’t correct an aquaintance but I would make sure that the powers that be/media etc. are using ‘home education’ rather than ‘home schooling’. I like the term ‘free-range education’ – but I wouldn’t use it with people to whom I’m explaining that the children don’t go to school – if you say ‘we home educate’, everyone knows what you mean!
Reply
Raymond
4 June 2007
Language is a slippery beast. I agree that clarity in communication /can be/ important. I also recognise that language is fluid and evolves.
On the subject of educate .vs. school, I would prefer educate – because school carries overtones of institution and authority. I’d agree with Sarah, that this distinction is probably academic (ha!) for those never likely to take an interest in either. (Would most people quibble the difference between programming and software design?)
Reply
Deb
4 June 2007
I dislike the use of “home school”, but unfortunately it seems to be more common than “home-education” around these parts 🙁
I think it matters that we differentiate between school and what we do at home, because words are important; the message sent by the use of the word “school” is, imo, that we are somehow a school substitute, somehow less, somehow not quite real. To me, the defining characteristic of “school” is that it is a system. In my view, regardless of whether you use workbooks, schedules, plans, curricula, etc, it’s the prioritisation of the individual, rather than the system, that makes what we do *not* “school”.
Having said that, I’m not happy with the “home” bit of HE or HS either. “Home-based education” or “family-based education” is about as close as I’ve found, but they’re not totally satisfactory. “Life” would be perfect if only the rest of the world understood it…
Reply
shukr
7 June 2007
Coming into it late, again!
Nice to see you blogged it. I must do mine now,)
btw, I intend to tag you once I’ve finished my post….
Reply