Synopsis
Roland Meighan began researching and writing on home-based education in 1977. Over the last twenty three years, he has collected a considerable number of stories, case-files from the experiences of home-based educating families. In this book he opens fifteen of his case-files. Titles include: The road crossing, the prospective teacher, the seminar, the kilt, the court case, the cliff-top picnic, the speaking contest, an inspector calls, the home-education truant, and the leaflet. The files capture some of the variety, pathos, difficulties and excitement of the families who decide to become 'reluctant heretics' and take charge of their own education. Others who come into their orbit are educated in various ways too. Families do not just take on the education of their own members, but of members of the general population who are misinformed, conformist or just plain bewildered. The book should be of interest to all students of education, and academics in the field of education, as well as to practising home educators of all persuasions. It would be a valuable edition to the bookshelf of any education library or office.
It also has wider implications for issues of parenting in a rapidly changing society as well as for the new post-modern paradigm of the next learning system to replace the obsolete system of mass, coercive, ageist schooling.
