Home-Learning and School-Learning In The Twenty-First Century

Much, probably most of every child's significant learning is acquired outside school, especially in the home. Of a child's waking (learning) ¹ life from birth to age 16, only about 15 per cent is spent in school. Even if we assume that school, professionally staffed and relevantly equipped, has more than a IS per cent impact on a child's education, home is still a crucial learning centre for good or for ill. Besides directly teaching their child, parents are gatekeepers to the child's access to other family members, to peer group, to neighbourhood, to media such as books and television, and to society at large. Parents are also role models and usually establish influential affective bonding with their child, especially in the early years. Research across cultures has consistently shown a link between the nature of home background and a child's educational attainment. Recent understanding about how the human brain works suggests that conventional schooling is an imperfect learning mechanism, concentrating on but a few of a child's multiple intelligences and learning styles. There is also some tantalising evidence that children who have home-based education tend to out-perform schooled children. No longer can we brush aside home-learning.