This article was compiled after much deliberation on the Swashikshan online e-group, following individual responses to a questionnaire prepared by the author. It reflects the diverse, unique and vibrant flavours of the Indian Homeschooling Community – a community that celebrates learning and growing without school. Different Flavours of Homeschooling When P. Aravinda, from Mumbai, Maharashtra …
“Okay, so you are homeschooling your child……but what about his future? Will he go back to school sometime? Will he take exams like other children and pursue further studies? Do colleges and universities here recognise homeschoolers? Will he get to do the course he wants to do?” So many questions….questions that many homeschoolers are often …
We often ask, what is learning? Now let us ask, what is slow learning? 1. Slow In Space and Time in Classical Mechanics, Einstein asks to imagine that he has dropped a stone while in a moving train. As it happens he asks us to imagine that he has dropped it outside the train, from …
Life is learning. As we look back at each day in the months and years we’ve come through, they seem very similar to one another. But take one yesterday out of the journey and it’s a missing piece in the puzzle. What makes each day so different from the next? Think about it… it was …
Right now, education, in India, is in the throes of change. The Right to Education Act was established recently. With it, comes a huge opportunity to abridge the stark isolation of some sections of our society. Also, the RTE will hopefully set the stage for some meaningful reforms, by overcoming ‘implementation devils’. The government-regulated change …
Interview with Dola Dasgupta: Perspective on Living and Growing Without School Read More »
My current favourite definition of education is: Engaging with everything living and non-living. It is possible that in India our curriculum makers would, hearing this, jump to list everything living and non-living and then only consider our education complete once a student has engaged with everything. Finding this impossible, we could subscribe to the Indian …
Homeschooling as an urban movement started about three decades ago in the US. Some people who were religious did not like the fact that their children did not get a good religious education. They also did not like the lack of values and peer pressure in American classrooms. Another kind of parent who opted for …
The seed for SwashikshanTV was sown in a casual Facebook post on the Swashikshan page, a few months ago; where Hema A. Bharadwaj said that she was keen that we start a YouTube channel for Indian Homeschoolers. This was even before Swashikshan was formally launched! Just as a seed starts to germinate when the time …
And, thus our paths converged…. I had not known some until that very moment. Few I’d known for only a week or so. Others – just a few months back. But those 48 hours that we spent together – the homeschoolers of Delhi (and couple of families – from Chennai and Hyderabad) exchanging thoughts, questions, …
Homeschoolers Meet in Delhi: Questions, Reflections, Lessons Learned Read More »
Priya Desikan is a homeschooler from Chennai. At the Swashikshan launch she shared with us how patiently and heart wrenchingly she discovered that her son cannot be taught because he is a self-learner. Presented below is the video of her talk followed by the transcript where she shares how she let go of many of …