WHAT IS HOMESCHOOLING – These are groups of a few children, 5 or 6, who gather in a house and there they follow an education program that does not necessarily follow the ministerial one. Homeschooling in fact does not mean opening schools at home, those are called “parenting schools”, but organizing a type of education that involves parents personally and anyone who wants to pass on skills.
HOW IT WORKS – In some cases families prefer to organize a grid of timetables, texts and school programs, others choose a more “natural” approach in which the needs of the students and the particular skills of the tutors or the “guide” parents are met. There is no need to have a particular qualification to teach in homeschool but just want to do and pass on their skills to the little ones.
IS IT LEGAL? – Many may turn up their noses at the word homeschooling but in reality it is perfectly legal. In fact, article 34 of the Italian Constitution states: “Lower education, given for at least eight years, is compulsory and free”. So it is education that is compulsory, but not school. And again article 30 of the same: “It is the duty and right of parents to maintain, instruct and educate their children, even if born out of wedlock”. A responsibility of the parents therefore, in any way they decide to fulfill their duty.
BUROCRATIC PASSAGES – Certificates, exams and a series of bureaucratic passages guarantee the students to be perfectly up to date and in step with the students of the traditional school. It is sufficient to send a written communication to the relevant didactic management every year for the following year indicating the names of the children who will not show up at school. The parent must also attach the self-certification certifying the technical skills and economic possibilities of the family. This is a self-certification and does not imply that you bring your tax return or diploma / degree to the manager. The state can carry out checks if it has strong doubts about the fulfillment of the compulsory schooling, or if the family escapes any contact.
Since 2018, Homeschoolers are present in the ANS, the national student registry, which does not mean that they are enrolled in school or that they appear in the class registers, but that their name corresponds to the item “family education”. The choice of homeschooling is not forever: you can decide at any time to return to the traditional school system.
From June 2018, the law provides that pupils and students who make use of parental education “take the annual qualification exam for the passage to the next class as external candidates at a state or equal school, until the completion of the education obligation “(Article 23 of Legislative Decree 13 April 2017, no. 62). In practice, every year homeschoolers can take the exams as private individuals who will have to comply with the MIUR National Guidelines on assessments that speak of skills acquired over the years, and not the chosen program of the school.
THE COSTS – “There is so much free material online that we could home school at no cost. There are libraries, you can agree between friends and relatives and between groups of homeschoolers to share this learning moment “, explains Erika Di Martino, the mother-coach who for years has been committed to spreading this practice in Italy, on her social networks. . If a parent wants to invest in online courses or specialized tutors, the costs go up. In this case, a parent has to spend about 150 euros per month including the necessary materials.
THE DIFFUSION – In Italy it is a practice that has existed for many years but not very widespread that is around a thousand families. But in other countries there are many more: in the United States there are more than 2 million, while there are almost 80,000 in England , 70,000 in Canada , 4,000 in France and 2,000 in Spain , data for 2018. In many countries we are arrived at the third generation of homeschoolers. The trend is constantly growing and even the most prestigious colleges are starting to welcome students who have been educated in the home. More than nine hundred universities around the world accept enrollments from homeschoolers and among these are includedHarvard, Cornell, Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale . In England, the United States and other countries, home schoolchildren can access college courses even earlier than their school-aged peers.
Erika Di Martino through her social networks and the blog spreads the culture of homeschooling. She is the founder of the Italian network www.edupar.org, a point of reference for numerous Home scholers. She is the mother of 5 children who never went to school, she left traditional teaching to devote herself to spreading this particular style of high-contact parenting. “What matters most is that a child knows what he wants to achieve in life, but how can he do it in a confusing context like the one proposed by schools? – writes Di Martino on Facebook – The talent and needs of the individual are not a priority: schools standardize everything in the name of the organization with disappointing results both during the schooling period and when entering the world of work
