Learning from Home must be Legalised in many EU Countries

In the United States and the United Kingdom, though more prevalent in certain regions, home and online schooling are both completely legalised and societally accepted. Although it may seem as if learning from home is allowed throughout the world, surprisingly many nations in the EU still have strict bans on home and online schooling, such as Germany. As has been shown through repeated studies and many heated debates, learning from home must be legalised in many mainland European nations due to academic, ethical and practical reasons.

On average, students who are schooled at home can learn at least the same amount of information when compared to their in-person school counterparts, as has been evidenced by nations in which learning from home is completely legalised. It is an unfortunate but common misconception that learning from home involves mostly child-guided activities and frolicking in open fields. In turn, this misrepresentation of home-educated children would seem to suggest a lower academic performance, a concept which many people still hold today and use as a justification for anti-home-education ideas or policies. Although it is certainly true that some home-educated children are simply left to guide their own learning and play, the vast majority of home or online schooled children follow a much more rigorous school curriculum. The rigorous learning which home-educated children engage in, however, is also measurable. As can be seen in the in-depth study conducted by Lawrence M. Rudner in 1999 of home-educated children, “the median scores for home school students are well above their public/private school counterparts in every subject and in every grade” (19). As the data of median scores presented by Rudner demonstrates, most of the home-educated children in the United States must follow a curriculum which is more rigorous than that followed in brick-and-mortar schools, which could be seen as an indicator of the superior efficacy of home-education over physical education in terms of academics. The success of home-schooling in the USA from an academic viewpoint can be used to support an argument for why it should be legalised in many European nations such as Germany. Not only do students who are home-educated tend have superior academic results to their physical school counterparts, but they also appear to often have an academic ability which is that of a student one grade above their national grade (Rudner 18). Although many home-educated students (69.8%) are at the level of their national grade, a remarkable 23.2% of home-educated students is ahead by one year (Rudner 18). Although some students are behind their national grade in their academic ability, this percentage is nominal (0.3% of home-educated students being 2 years behind their national grade) when compared to the percentages seen in physical schools, and a much larger number of home-educated students is ahead than behind (1.3% of home-educated students being 2 or more years ahead of their national grade), again exemplifying the idea that the academic performance of home-educated students certainly does not suffer – instead, it prospers – under their system of learning (Rudner 18). The success in home-educated students in meeting and exceeding state standards for grade levels in the USA supports the concept that home-schooling does not have a disadvantage over in-person schooling and should therefore be allowed throughout Europe. Both the average superior academic performance of home-educated students over their physically schooled counterparts as well as the overall meeting and exceeding of grade-level state standards in home-educated curriculums demonstrate that home-education should be allowed in the EU from an academic perspective.

Just as people throughout Europe have the liberty of nutrition or of religion, the fact that home-educating a child has not been shown to be harmful would seem to posit that people should have the liberty of the type of education which their child receives and denying parents and children this liberty certainly appears to be unethical on the part of a nation. Throughout the Western world, many liberties are granted to people, inclusive of many which may compromise the wellbeing of individuals or society. For example, there has been conclusive evidence showing the dangers of activities such as smoking, drinking alcohol in excess or consuming large amounts of sugar, yet little legislation explicitly prevents people from engaging in these activities. There is also a certain degree of educational liberty given to parents in European nations such as Germany: one can choose between various physical schools. Since each school is different, choosing a physical school could impact a child’s learning and thereby affect the quality of the education they receive – for better or for worse. Even if home-education were therefore deemed to be of an inferior quality to physical education, it should therefore be allowed simply since denying this liberty seems to contradict other rights which parents have over their child’s education. Although Germany allows parents to choose a school for their children, it “banned homeschooling in 1919 and hasn’t allowed it since” (Dalton, “Why is Homeschooling Illegal in Germany?”). Whilst a policy restricting parents from home-educating their children would seem in place in a very controlling government, a nation which prides itself on allowing such a diverse number of liberties would seem unethical were it to restrict a liberty which has been shown not to cause any harm (and even, on average, be beneficial) in other nations. Since there is no conclusive evidence to show that the results from home-educated students are worse than those of children at brick-and-mortar schools, denying parents the right to choose an education model (home education) which has proved itself to be just as effective as other models seems unethical on the part of a government.

Home-educating brings with it multiple logistical and practical advantages, including allowing children to have an increased time to explore their passions and reducing the impact which education has on the environment. One commonly made argument against home-education is the lack of initiative seen in home-educated students, and their general inability to find true passions and achieve great things because of their smaller number of social interactions. Although it is true that average home-educated children have fewer social interactions with classmates, home-educated students have more time to devote to and find out their passions. The reduced time which home-educated students spend in activities such as assemblies and school travel has enabled many home-schooled students to go beyond their academic studies and explore their passions at a young age. Countless examples of a highly effective utilization of this additional time exist - some of the most famous people, both modern and historical, were home-educated. From scientists and inventors like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison through to skilled writers like Agatha Christie and able politicians such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and George Washington through to athletes such as Serena Williams, there are a vast number of previously home-educated students who have – and still do – continue to wield a large amount of influence over the world and continue to have extremely impressive and noteworthy achievements. Thomas Edison, who would later go on to create inventions including the light bulb, the movie camera, the phonograph, and film, was home-schooled by his mother for most of his school age and found the experience to be a key factor in his later success in life. Edison’s mother “held no very high opinion of the average public-school methods and results and was both eager to undertake the instruction of her son and ambitious for the future of a boy whom she knew from pedagogic experience to be receptive and thoughtful to a very unusual degree” (Dyer 53). Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and many other figures who were home-educated for most of their childhood each rose to prominence and are today famous for their accomplishments. It is likely that the increased time which children such as Edison had at home to explore their passions allowed them to begin exploring the world and coming up with new ideas at a very early age. Beyond the practical benefit of increased time which students have to explore their passions, home-education greatly reduces environmental impact through education. Since home-educating does not involve a daily school commute or the heating of a large school building, it has a much lower carbon footprint, thereby helping reduce the negative environmental impact of education. As the distance which students travel to school has increased, many parents have resorted to bringing students to school with a car – in turn causing many school commutes to be 2 miles or more. In 1969, only around 35% of students had a school commute longer than 2 miles (Federal Highway Administration, “NHTS Brief”). However, perhaps due to more selective school selections processes and population growth, the commute to school has greatly lengthened over the years – in 2001, around 60% of students had a school commute of 2 miles and over (Federal Highway Administration, “NHTS Brief”). In response to commutes which were, on average, much longer than usual, many parents made the decision to take children to school in private vehicles. In 1969 only around 15% of students drove to school in a private vehicle; in 2001 there were 50% using private vehicles (Federal Highway Administration, “NHTS Brief”). As the percentage of students who drove to school increased, the number of students who went to school by walking or with a bike decreased. From around 42% of students walking or biking to school in 1969, only around 15% of students walked or biked to school in 2001 (Federal Highway Administration, “NHTS Brief”). The use of private vehicles as a method of children making their way to school thereby has greatly increased (and continues to increase to this day), largely in response to longer school commutes, but these commutes have had disastrous and far-reaching consequences for the environment. The high CO2 emissions from driving a single mile (around 404g of CO2 in an average passenger vehicle) contribute to the large impact which daily school commutes have on the environment (EPA, “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle”). By home-educating their children, families reduce their total impact on the environment greatly, thereby giving home-education another important practical advantage over brick-and-mortar schools which require daily commutes. Both the ability to use time usually spent commuting to school or in assemblies for exploring passions as well as the lower environmental impact of schooling from home contribute to the logistical and practical advantages of home-schooling, which suggests that legalizing home education in European countries where it is currently banned would greatly help both students and the environment.

In conclusion, it is essential that home-educating one’s children is legalized in European nations such as Germany. As the academic and practical sides of home education indicate, home-education produces average results in children which are at least as good as, if not better than, the average results seen in students at brick-and-mortar schools. The clear benefits of home-education both from an academic and a practical perspective (as seen in countries where home-education is legalized) strongly suggest that prohibiting parents from home-educating their children is unethical, and that these home education bans must be reversed.

Works Cited

Dalton, Martha. Why is Homeschooling Illegal in Germany? Goethe Institut, 23 October 2019, https://www.goethe.de/en/uun/prs/auf/n19/21701597.html. Accessed 10 Mar. 2022.

Dyer, Frank Lewis and Thomas Commerford Martin. Edison: His Life and Inventions. Jefferson Publication, 1910.

Environmental Protection Agency. Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle. United States Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle. Accessed 10 Mar. 2022.

Federal Highway Administration. NHTS Brief. U.S. Department of Transportation, Jan. 2008, https://nhts.ornl.gov/briefs/Travel%20To%20School.pdf. Accessed 10 Mar. 2022.

Rudner, Lawrence M. Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998. Home School Legal Defence Association, 23 Mar. 1999, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED424309.pdf. Accessed 10 Mar. 2022.