‘Home education’, largely due to the pandemic, has become a household phrase in the UK. Alongside this increase in awareness is a significant rise in the number of those choosing to home educate. A recent report in The Independent (‘Children will be “lost outside system” as home schooling soars after the pandemic’, 4 January 2023) revealed a 40% increase in students being home educated since 2018. More specifically, ‘In the 171 local authorities that provided data, there were 81,250 children learning at home in 2022 compared to 57,531 four years ago, before the pandemic.’
What is the reason for this and how does music education exist in this education space? What lessons can we all learn? To help find answers to these questions, I invited Lucie Hill (musician, music educator and home-educating parent), Nerys Williams (home-educating parent) and Will Savage (musician, music educator and home-educated) as guests on an episode of The Music Education Podcast. Our discussion forms the basis of this article.
Why would someone home educate?
The reasons to home educate are unique to each family. In fact, the very concept of home educating is not something we can really standardise or measure, since families’ motivations and philosophies vary so much. However, there are patterns of reasoning among those I spoke to, and simply by uncovering the positives of home educating and the negatives of the state-school system, we can identify some of the catalysts for making the journey home.
There are two reasons that stand out, and the first relates to neurodiversity and the unique mind. It's easy to see how humans, being individuals and operating, learning, failing and flourishing uniquely, struggle with a system built around sitting down for six hours a day. This is why educators spend so much time catering for different learning styles or, in other words, different brains.
Of course, to think of neurodiversity simply as a condition that affects those ‘unable to cope’ with everyday life, as we know, is a common misunderstanding of what neurodiversity is. We are simply talking about the variety that exists among individuals and how they think.
When it comes to music lessons in schools, there are many restrictions placed on students, often to make classroom management possible, and these can be restrictive or catastrophic for many neurological styles. Conversely, a home-educating session, or at least one described by Lucy Hill, seems to offer more flexibility for difference, even in a simplistic way: ‘They get up and move if they want to’, she says. Why is this significant? She adds: ‘To self-regulate; some people need to move around.’
The basic logistics with managing a class of 30 children can make something as simple as this freedom unviable. Smaller class sizes and a move away from a linear learning journey is therefore a clear winner for neurodiversity.
The second notable reason why some choose to home educate concerns wellbeing and mental health. This was, again, noted pretty universally by my panel, and is easily identified as a weakness of the school system. ‘Wellbeing’ can be stated as being at the centre of a school's ethos, or timetabled as an activity of some description; but the reality is it's not at the centre of our state education. At home, it at least has the potential to be.
The power of choice
Home education is, for all intents and purposes, without boundaries; operating without set criteria or concepts, except those that parents hold as beliefs. This enables home educators to choose a unique path, evolve and respond to their child without the need to consult the head of year or higher authorities.
This choice is for the parents, of course, not the student, but it can be extended to the young person. Choice was very much at the centre of things for two of my guests. In some ways, I think this resonates with some ideas of the currently popular ‘unschooling’, which, at the risk of over simplifying, is a concept that plays to the strengths of being able to focus on the uniqueness of the individual and to allow them to choose – what to learn and, to some extent, when to learn.
Hill describes a similar approach as ‘consent-based learning’: where children have choice, they have the agency to say no to what is offered. One of her home-educating music sessions is described as: ‘An environment that is nurturing, non-judgemental, where they aren't being assessed. I think that is so much more important for young people's wellbeing, that they don't feel anxious about making mistakes or saying “no” to things. We like them saying “no” to things; we like the challenge. We like them making that decision.’
The idea that children choose what to learn and when to learn will be unfathomable to many readers. But doesn't this description capture the perfect foundation for discovering and learning in music, and possibly for living life itself?
Why is this choice so controversial? Nerys Williams, another home-educating parent, explains: ‘Its controversial for a lot of people because they don't believe that children choose to learn if given the opportunity to do anything. They think that the children will just make really reckless choices, but that hasn't been our experience.’
From a musical perspective, this ‘choice’ solves so many of our challenges as educators. Firstly, by giving the student choice over what they learn bestows immediate ownership of the material and offers far better chances of engagement in the long term. It brings relevance and, crucially, doesn't mean that a parent can't offer ideas or inspiration at the same time. Secondly, the dissonant relationship between ‘play’ and ‘practice’ is resolved, since the student wants to play and progress.
Learning without being taught
Will Savage described to me how music can be the ‘Achilles heel of home education’. The reason for this, I think, relates to society and how many of us regard ourselves as being ‘musical’ or ‘not musical’, in binary fashion. This can leave some parents without the confidence even to attempt musical learning; they feel they can't without outside support. Of course, this challenge can be overcome with self-directed learning from the student. Even without an external tutor, the wealth of knowledge freely available to students online or from tuition books is more than enough for several lifetimes of unassisted learning.
In other words, being a parent who doesn't play an instrument shouldn't hinder your child's musical development. The knowledge is there for students to access online and in print. Williams – who doesn't play an instrument but has children who are very engaged with music – recalls how: ‘You are taught that children can only learn when they are being taught by someone. In our experience that is completely wrong. Actually, the best way for them to learn is to do it when they want to learn something.’
Takeaways
The most powerful point I have taken from my brief look into home educating is its ability to cater for the individual, through allowing students agency over what they learn. From a music education perspective, this can be immensely positive if, of course, you believe that music education means inspiring students to engage and create, rather than equipping them with knowledge.
Can this be brought into the classroom? Logistically, the challenges are just too great to reach the same level of freedom and choice found in home educating. I do, however, believe that there are lessons to be learnt, perhaps about teaching children in general; it reminds us how, given the right surroundings, children will choose to learn.
Ultimately, home education can be fertile ground for new, exciting and, arguably, original music. Jacob Collier and Billie Eilish are two recent examples of home-educated musicians becoming household names. It will be exciting to see the future effect this increasing trend of home educating has on music and the make-up of tomorrow's music industry. It will also be exciting to see how, or if, conventional schooling adapts to these new and increasingly popular ideas.
Listen to this article's accompanying episode of The Music Education Podcast, hosted by Chris Woods: themusiceducationpodcast.buzzsprout.com
Music Teacher is media partner of The Music Education Podcast.
