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The truth is that if you are planning or already providing a Location Independent education to your children, then you probably already have an educational philosophy. Whether you’ve ever clearly articulated it for yourself or for others though, is perhaps a little less definitive.
An educational philosophy is a touchstone. It’s a way of clearly outlining what you and your child want for your child’s education, and equally what you don’t want. It’s a setting of your intentions, a clarification of your aspirations and a calming of your apprehensions. It’s a very valuable statement which will not only empower you, but will also empower your child…
Ok, you may be thinking that this is all very well but what do I actually need one for?
Well, for one thing you’ll need to get very used to explaining to others why you are doing what you’re doing. In the first instance, this may be broaching the idea with each other as parents. As we all know, open lines of communication are key to healthy relationships and you’re going to want to explain your reasons as coherently as possible to your spouse. Home schooling and home education when one parent is all for it and the other is reluctant, is rarely successful.
Now that you’ve made your decision together, you can present a united front to family and friends. This may be where you encounter most resistance and so you’re going to want to make sure that you have discussed this thoroughly with each other, set down some core values for your child’s education and agreed on answers to some of the more predictable questions. These will more than likely be, ‘What about socialisation?’ ‘What about their exams?’ ‘Are you mad?’ 
You may also need to explain your reasons for taking your children out of traditional schooling to the educational authorities. Now there are different rules and regulations regarding the education of children – please please please ensure that you get the best advice possible for your country and area. What you may find is that you will be required to share your educational philosophy with local education officials or some alternative local government office.
And then you will always get random strangers questioning you at the bus-stop, at the supermarket checkout, the library desk as to why you’ve made your decision, what about your child’s socialization, are you qualified and do you follow the state curriculum. Of course, it’s up to you whether you choose to respond to this line of questioning; however, I’m generally of the belief that the more I inform others about alternatives in education, the better!
Knowing exactly what it is that you believe and value, will give you enormous confidence when engaging in any of these conversations.
A Request For Your Participation…
Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be sharing some inspirational resources to help you construct your own educational philosophy which, like your approach, will be unique to you and your family. These resources have been selected to get you to start thinking about some of the following questions…
- What do you feel is wrong with the education systems you are currently familiar with?
- What do you want for your children in terms of their educational experience?
- What do you consider to be a well-rounded education?
- What do you believe the purpose of education is?
- How do you feel about your own education? What was good? What could have been better?
- If you were the education minister of your country, what policies would you set?
Each of the posts in this series will offer 10 quotes or links or video clips etc. to kickstart your thinking on education and your core values/beliefs regarding what you want for your child.
What we want you to do is share your favourite educational resources in response to the individual series post topics. Why? Because we’re going to create our first Location Independent Parent’s crowd-sourced book!!
The plan is to collate all of your responses along with our own recommendations into a document, which will then be made available for sale with all profits going to Save the Children to aid in their international efforts to improve the lives of children everywhere. Exciting, hey?
I love this article, I need this. Thanks a lot. You’re doing a great job!