In a recent interview with La Vanguardia, Xavier Alà, founding partner of the Association for Free Education (ALE), of which we have already spoken, exposes the fundamentals of this educational option and answers the most frequent doubts.
Xavi is High School teacher and yet he decided to educate his children at home. He explains that from his professional experience he knew that school curricula are too little flexible for what he considers appropriate. He also wanted to provide a personalized education to his children.
With this option it offers children an education without rigid schedules and with more possibilities to adapt the subjects and their rhythm to each student. In the interview he exposes in general the two ways of educating at home. One more academic, which combines hours of work at home with external activities. The other, called in English "unschooling" is aimed at learning outside the limits of the school structure. Regarding the legal situation, that while in many countries it is fully collected as such, in Spain the legal vacuum allows that, if the parents prove to be taking care of the education of the children, the Administration cannot act since there is no absenteeism and if education, which is to what the law requires.
In the interview he explains that these children can get the official degree, or presenting at 18 to a maturity test or enrolling in schools in other countries that do have distance education. And those who want it, in this way, can go to the College.
It states that the socialization of children is achieved in an environment that allows them to interact with people of all ages and that their academic results are usually excellent. The full interview can be read on the La Vanguardia page.
What do you think? I increasingly believe that this option, which I believe will always be a minority, must be accepted by our legislation, provided that children are guaranteed to be educated, learn and have adequate socialization. I also think that our school system can learn things from these initiatives, so that our children's education is the best possible.
