by Sara Mcgrath

Created on: June 27, 2008   Last Updated: June 19, 2010

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." ~ Albert Einstein, winner of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.

In Albert Einstein: A Biography, Albrecht Folsing reported that Einstein's general high ability in school was coupled with a disdain for compulsion and a tendency to do things his own way. He remembered schooling as an unhappy experience, yet received good scores when he wanted to. He spent much of his free time at home building with construction model sets or reading serious books about science.

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." ~ Albert Einstein.

School methods of educating students as well as the institutional setting itself have many critics - great thinkers, former educators, education experts and reformists among them.

John Holt, former educator and author of many books on education and homeschooling, described his philosophy this way:

". . . the human animal is a learning animal; we like to learn; we are good at it; we don't need to be shown how or made to do it. What kills the processes are the people interfering with it or trying to regulate it or control it." [Marlene Bumgarner. A Conversation with John Holt, 1980]

And he further said:

"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." [Marlene Bumgarner. A Conversation with John Holt. 1980]

No two schools, nor any two homeschooling families, are equal. However, in general, I would argue that the home provides a more beneficial learning environment. From home, children remain part of the world, part of the daily reality of life, free to interact with their communities, and free to follow their interests without the many pressures and fears student in schools suffer.

John Taylor Gatto, former educator and author of many books on education, has this to say:

". . . the seven lessons of school teaching - confusion, class position, indifference, emotional and intellectual dependency, conditional self-esteem, surveillance - all of these lessons are prime training for permanent underclasses, people deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius." [John Taylor Gatto. The 7-Lesson School Teacher. 1992]

Gatto, and others, observe that schools do not produce independent thinkers, do not encourage creativity, but rather actively discourage thinking and creativity. Gatto asserts that schools were originally instituted to control the poor, to produce an obedient future working class, and that they remain true to that purpose.

The failure of schools is not news. Homeschoolers consistently outperform schooled children on standardized achievement exams [Dr. Brian Ray. National Home Education Research Institute. 1997]. The answer to the question of whether homeschool or school education is more successful has long since been answered.

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