In nineteen sixties, John Caldwell Holt published a book entitled ‘How Children Fail’ which criticized traditional schools that believed in uniformity, similarity, competitions, standardization and externalization. The book was based on a theory he had developed as a teacher. According to him, the academic failure of school children was caused by pressure placed on children in schools and faulty methods of teaching.
In his books, Holt had not suggested any alternative to institutional schooling; he had hoped to initiate a profound rethinking of education to make schools friendlier toward children.
Here is an abstract of homeschooling from the Web.
A curriculum-free philosophy of homeschooling may be called un-schooling, a term coined in 1977 by American educator John Holt in his magazine ‘Growing Without Schooling’.
Similar to Holt, based on the philosophy of unschooling, Moores embraced homeschooling and went on to become important home school advocates and consultants.
It was asserted that formal schooling before ages 8–12 not only lacked the anticipated effectiveness, but was actually harmful to children. The Moores strongly believed that formal schooling was damaging young children academically, socially, mentally, and even physiologically.
Their primary assertion was that the bonds and emotional development made at home with parents during these years produced critical long term results that were cut short by enrollment in schools, and could neither be replaced nor afterward corrected in an institutional setting
At the time, other authors published books questioning the premises and efficacy of compulsory schooling, including ‘De-schooling Society’ by Ivan Illich, and No More Public School by Harold Bennet,.
Holt published two more books ‘Instead of Education’ and ‘Ways to Help People Do Things Better’. In its conclusion he called for a "Children's Underground Railroad" to help children escape compulsory schooling
In 1980, Holt said, "I want to make it clear that I don’t see homeschooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools. I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were.”
Holt later wrote a book about homeschooling, ‘Teach Your Own’, in 1981. One common theme in the homeschool philosophies of both Holt and the Moores is that home education should not be an attempt to bring the school construct into the home, or a view of education as an academic preliminary to life. They viewed it as a natural, experiential aspect of life that occurs as the members of the family are involved with one another in daily living.
Home schools use a wide variety of methods and materials. There are different paradigms, or educational philosophies, that families adopt including:
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