The Story So Far

06/10/17

I trained as a teacher in WA which had a very self reflective focus and a course on ed philosophy in which I read about the 'democratic classroom’ and even then, pre-kids, it struck a chord. So going into my own small classroom of 17 children in year 2/3 in a small country town with what I didn't realise at the time as being loads of autonomy (just seemed scarily wide on where to start), I started with what the children wanted to do and we went from there. All of my classes across the 3.5 years that I taught in Australia were a mix of ages because there weren’t enough children in one age group to make a whole class. Having a biology degree from back in the UK (University of Oxford) I had the intention of using children's natural curiosity to inspire the next generation of scientists through a love of science (partly to make myself feel better about not going into research myself (yet)). We looked at materials through toys, scientific process through detective stories and forensic hunts, plants, soil and sustainability amongst many other skills (team work, perseverence and making connections with our community in moving huge piles of sheep poo and logs for bed edges from local farmers to name just a few). I eventually gained a position of part time specialism within my second school for team teaching the Science curriculum across the whole school and then took that role on my own in my last school post before I had my daughter, Peanut.

During my first year of mumming I moved back to London after my marriage broke. Being home educated with my brother all through primary school I’d always hoped to do that for my daughter. This seemed far less likely as a single parent so we followed the nursery route to school and in the meantime I facilitated a few hours a week in workshops on a first year course of Life Sciences as an hourly paid lecturer (with thankfully no actual lecturing), eventually moving back to schools as a supply teacher a couple of days a week once Jeff was in nursery.

Supply showed me that schools in London were far more test focused than I was used to and that many classrooms followed set curriculum units that makes it extremely difficult to make the classes even mildly individualised for interest/motivation, even when teachers want to. It seemed wrong on many levels.

My daughter meanwhile was loving nursery and being able to play almost everyday with her friends. Three weeks into a smooth start she started to get upset about me leaving. I was lucky and had a nursery who was flexible so when I suggested trying out having a “skip day” for the two of us on a Wednesday, they fully supported it. This worked perfectly and she returned to being happy with her time there.

However, reception was a tough transition with the days suddenly much longer. I argued for the “skip days” to continue as she started to get tummy aches in the morning before school and tried to negotiate for a more formal Flexi schooling agreement imagining that this could be an awesome in between for home ed and my need for part time work as a single mum. However, despite Lily being a summer born baby and not even at legal age yet for school, they refused. We took them anyway until we started to get called in for meetings about attendance. At about the same time I requested a three week holiday in term time for her to see her Dad in Australia. They refused and wrote to me warning that if we went anyway she could lose her school place. That was the final straw. Not only did they not seem to acknowledge the benefit to her for neither time with her Dad and extended family in rural Australia nor with me mid-week enjoying all the experiences London has to offer. They also made learning appear as work. Something she had to get done before she was allowed to play. She hated not being able to play and the conformity of uniform coupled with the injustice of teachers not being required to comply. I also think this near year had a hugely negative impact on her self esteem and how she views her capability to learn the more academic skills like reading, writing and maths.

So just before our trip to Australia, I deregistered her and informed our local authority of our decision to home educate. My parents were incredibly supportive and agreed to take her to local groups and spend time with her while I did a couple of days of supply work so that I had some income.

During the time of moving towards home education a friend of mine lent me Peter Gray’s book ‘Free to Learn’. This strengthened my resolve that home ed would be the way forward. That some form of self directed education is the way forward for most children (not necessarily at home). Once we actually started and joined more groups, we met more of the unschooled and I widened the reading and my knowledge on the subject of self directed and democratic education and discovered schools that exist that are designed with this at their core. At the same time I was feeling hypocritical stuck in classrooms on day supply that were completely at odds with everything I was learning. The evidence that is growing, that I became aware of, massively supports my experiences and fed into the feeling of the school system being inadequate, and even harmful. This made me want to be a part of the change, so that all children can have the option of self-directed education.

I want to document here some of the ideas, books and people that I came across on my journey so that perhaps more people will join me, and the growing number on this side, in order to gain the numbers we need to bring about more widespread and accessible change...and also to help people discover the options that are already around albeit in small bubbles.