I bring you to illustrate the article on homeschooling in Spain a very interesting Recently conducted interview with the President of the Association for Free Education, Laura Mascaró, of whom we had spoken on past occasions in Babies and more on the occasion of another interview and as the author of the book "Education and freedom".
Laura Mascaró She is a lawyer and educator at home, so in her intervention we can see the rigor and closeness of a professional who is a mother and knows in depth the homeschooler movement in Spain.
Although some of the statements of the presenter at the beginning of the interview are marked by the ideological position of the program and that surely do not match the reasons of many parents who educate at home, the interview happens with a respect for this remarkable option and all participants demonstrate a greater knowledge of the phenomenon and a serious attitude when raising their doubts.
Homeschooling in Spain and in the world
As well explains Laura Mascaró, education at home is an accepted and standardized educational option in Europe, except in Germany, where it has never been eliminated a law of Nazism that prohibited it, and which is also very common in the United States, where homeschoolers students are very appreciated by universities for their critical training and their responsibility.
In Catalonia there is already a breakthrough in the recognition of homeschooling although the legal framework has not been fully developed, as explained by law professor Madelen Goiria in her blog "The option to educate at home".
In addition, we can hear the analysis of a recent and controversial Constitutional ruling on a specific case and the subsequent decisions of judges and prosecutors, in these cases, in favor of families.
In Spain there may be some 4,000 children studying at home, with different models and for different reasons, and the association with the most families is the Association for Free Education, which has been asking for years to recognize home schooling and the possibility that these children can take free exams to 16 years without discrimination.
The study of Professor Carlos Cabo and the books published by the Association for Free Education give a complete vision of the variety of the homeschooler movement in Spain and of the normality in which these families develop.
Homeschooling is normal
Thomas Edison, Agate Cristhie, Mozart, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Armstromg, Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Andersen, Alexander Graham Bell and Jane Austen were homeschoolers among many others, some throughout their childhood and others for a time.
So are many characters known today, such as Julian Assange, Condolezza Rice, Elijah Wood, the Jonas Brothers, all of very different ideological or professional orientation, and many others perhaps less known to the Spanish public, but who are the palpable sample that children who are educated at home can develop their academic careers and their personality completely.
Let us not forget that, in Spain, there is an official home education center for children residing in other countries, for children living in the circus or for those who practice professions as singers or actors, as well as for elite athletes.
In these cases, the insistence that normal socialization only occurs in school seems to be of little importance and, without a doubt, school is not the only environment in which to grow up with a rich social and emotional life with people of all ages and friends to play with and share.
A good part of the families that educate at home do so, exactly like those who send their children to a boarding school, enrolling their children in schools in other countries where home schooling is somewhat standardized, to access the convalidable degree and demonstrate that their children receive a quality and homologous education. The best known are Epysteme and Clonlara.
Others prefer to do it directly without distance schooling and, in my opinion and experience, both methods are valid.
The future of homeschooling in Spain
The homeschooler movement has a logical open debate to define the best way to achieve the objective of recognition, given the variety of valid pedagogical methodologies that would not be framed in the way in which the Spanish school operates and that require acceptance, and, in addition From the ALE page, to get to know it better, we can visit other pages such as Family Education, the Catalan Coordinator for the recognition and regulation of Family Education, and Grow in freedom.
What counts is that children are taken care of, have a normal social life in their environment and receive the basic education to which they are entitled, which can summarize my opinion on the current situation of homeschooling in Spain.
