Homeschooling in Poland: the pedagogical inspirations of modern home educators

Abstract

Homeschooling in postwar Poland celebrates its 25th anniversary. Its reactivation after years of absence was made possible by the Education Act from 1991. Despite the creation of the legal regulations it did not mean true beginning of home education. The first families of home educators started to selfstudy their children in 1995. At the turn of the 20th century there were only several dozens children being homeschooled, while now there are more than 6.000. The increase in number of home educators has also caused growing diversity of this environment. All of home educators share a common goal – to provide the best education for their children. Home educators also indicate that their views on education have long-standing traditions and approval of many pedagogues. This article is an attempt to disclose the pedagogic inspiration of modern home educators who refer to ideas of J. Dewey and A. Neill. They stress that the school teaches content which is detatched from the real needs, and does not take into account individual abilities of students and their preferred learning styles. Some of them – the followers of unschooling – quote I. Illich and emphasize that the child who is curious by nature wants to learn itself. Children take into account their abilities and interests and for that school is not necessary. They also refer to the concept of E. Key concerning family and the role of women in education, including the traditional model of the family with social roles strictly assigned to men and women.