On the basis that the main social educating cell is always the family, but referring to formal education, which most children will receive in schools, too, as we talked a couple of days ago, there are families that They choose to offer it directly, without schooling their children in an official Spanish center. Educate as a familyWithout going to school, it is a real possibility that for some people it is the most appropriate.
Who decide educate as a family They do it for different reasons. Some for the conviction that the most appropriate space will be this for ideological reasons to find that the education system is not the best for them. Others do it because the child has had problems or difficulties in the official education system. Some do it from the beginning, discarding the nurseries and nursery schools. Others do so after a period of schooling and must follow different possible paths for the child to stop going to school, as I will explain in another topic.
The central idea is that family education must respond to the needs and interests of children, individually. They come from all kinds of origins, training and purchasing power. It is not specific to any religious beliefs or ideology.
By not schooling and educate as a family The decision is made in accordance with the child's desire and in the field of rights and duties set forth in our Constitution, seeking a form of personalized education, but in no way isolated from society or overprotected, since children are related to their surroundings, with other children and with different spaces.
In reality, education is not only done in the family, but, as with all children and has always happened, in contact with the society in which they live.
These families take care of education of children, both in the transmission of values and principles and in the acquisition of knowledge. Although they do not delegate these functions and parental responsibilities to institutions if they can, and in fact they do so in many cases, go to professionals to cover certain educational needs.
The main concern of institutions is usually the socialization of children. However, it is not a problem, it is surely the child that these families face.
First I will mention that the socialization In school it is something relatively modern. Until the last century, most children socialized without going to school and that has not made humanity unsociable. Nor is it demonstrated that this form of socialization is the one that best responds to the needs of children excluding others. It is a formula to offer them social contacts, but not the only one possible today as it has not been the only one in the past.
We all interact with people of all types and ages, not only with our age group, doing so in school does not specifically prepare us with what we will live in adulthood. These children also interact with various adults with other children: in the family, with friends, with other children who study at home, with children in their neighborhood, in associations, in music, sports, painting or dance classes. What they don't do is spend most of the day with a group of their exact same age.
They are not isolated but have the possibility to choose their relationships based on common interests, not by school age group, nothing more.
Not schooling is not illegal in Spain it is not prohibited in any legal text. And in a democratic country, what is not prohibited is not illegal. Moreover, this option is constitutionally adequate. The Constitution gives parents the right to choose the education of their children within the framework of constitutional principles and obliges them to provide proportional education.
For this reason, although the Education Law states that schooling is mandatory, court rulings fail in favor of parents and there are recommendations that clearly state that choosing this option does not contravene Spanish law.
In democratic countries it is a educational option specifically recognized and in some, such as the United States, quite widespread, there are studies that indicate that home-educated children have social skills and academic training many times above average or at least equivalent to that of children who are educated in school institutions.
There have been some families who, when taking this path, have encountered legal problems, derived from the consideration of school absentees to their children. However, it rarely goes beyond that point, since children are dropped from school and prove to be properly trained. In other cases, there have been major problems when social services are part of a possible neglect.
In them, when the case is brought before a judge, the cases are dismissed, since there is no illegality in the decision and the children are cared for and educated clearly. However, most families have no problems doing so.
The most famous case happened not long ago, when the Branson-Sánchez family, resident in the Basque Country, was taken to court, the case being filed and resolved with great media attention. The video I have chosen to illustrate the beginning of this article is shot before your case will be permanently archived.
Educate as a family It is not an option that is considered better than schooling by those who do it, it is simply the option that they consider most appropriate for them and their children, without implying that school is not the most appropriate path for most the families.
It is more than what is better or worse, a matter of respect for freedoms and adaptation of the legal framework to the surrounding countries with more experience in this educational solution.
