Homeschooling: A holistic way to learn

Perhaps the impetus for this comes most recently from the instance of 17-year-old Malvika Joshi from Mumbai, who was home schooled -- and accepted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology despite having discontinued formal education at the age of 12 years.

According to Karthi Sekar, who subscribes heartily to the idea of  homeschooling, “The idea is to find what your children are interested in and to focus on their strengths. The concept of subjects is becoming obsolete. When it comes to homeschooling, children are taught a vast magnitude of subjects at the same time by taking part in projects. The children make up their own timetable based on their interests. My children also get the opportunity to travel a lot and take part in various classes which takes care of  their social interactions.” 

Parents are increasingly opting for homeschooling over the conventional because of the chance to expose them to a variety of subjects and their interconnectedness. “The reason I chose to homeschool both my daughters is because I wasn’t convinced about the learning opportunities in conventional schooling. Nowadays, many people find that what they learnt in school and college does not correspond with the profession they are practising. I didn’t like the idea of my children spending 14 to 15 years learning something only to pursue a different career path afterwards,” says Karthi.

For others, homeschooling is a way of reverting to a more traditional form of academic pursuit. “Earlier, children would take up the profession that their parents did. I take my children to work to give them an idea of a professional set-up and also enable them to interactn with people of all ages,” adds Karthi.

To help parents take a more hands-on approach to their children’s education, a few centres have been set up to better acquaint them with the nuances of teaching. Cascade in Thiruvanmiyur offers parents diplomas in the Montessori method. The institute, run by Vidya Shankar, offers parents mentoring in the art of teaching. “We run a family learning cooperative and we believe that children should be allowed to learn at their own pace," says Vidya. "In formal education, when a student does not excel in a particular subject they are branded as academically weak. We believe in teaching difficult subjects by engaging the students in projects. Teaching that does not inspire fear or dread brings out the best results in students -- and this can be achieved through homeschooling.”

Homeschooling can also accelerate a student's academic progress. “He or she can take part in competitive examinations way before their peers in conventional schools,” adds Vidya.  

Child specialists concede that there are many learning benefits to homeschooling, but with the caveat that parents must pay special attention their children’s social interactions. According to Dr Arundhati Swamy, a child phycologist, “Parents need to factor in the social and emotional needs of their wards. Interaction with older peers have many learning benefits, but could have social side effects. The social level of pre-adolescent children is very delicate and sometimes they are not mentally prepared for extended periods of exposure to people outside their own age group. Parents must take care that their children have access with alternative social groups with age appropriate peers.”

Parents have to also take into account that most institutes of higher education in India require potential candidates to process a high school mark sheet for admission. Malvika Joshi, who excelled in maths, found it very difficult to get admission into some of India's premier educational institutes. Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI) was the only institute where she got admission. She enrolled at the M.Sc level as her knowledge was on par with B.Sc students. In the West, colleges have different criteria for admission. MIT has a provision for accepting students who are medal winners at various Olympiads. Malvika was able to get admission into MIT after winning three medals at the International Olympiad of Informatics (IOI), commonly known as the Programming Olympiad.