For too many people, this is reality:

• If you don’t enjoy your job or you resent the time you spend there
• If you spend your time clock-watching and lingering in the cloakroom
• If you only look forward to the evenings, the weekends, the holidays and retirement
• If you work only for the pay cheque because there is no joy or job satisfaction
• If you feel controlled, powerless and miserable
• If you don’t learn anymore because it’s too much effort, pointless, and you have no time
• If you are resigned to accepting that life is just like this, for everyone

Then of course you’re going to think that I am irresponsible for not automatically sending my child to school. I can see why you seriously question my ability to parent when I tell you that she is going to choose entirely what she learns, when, how, and whether she seeks someone else’s accreditation for her own efforts.

I understand that your experience has taught you that work and a happy life are at opposite ends of the spectrum. For you, work is hard, unpleasant but ultimately necessary. You have been taught that people (yourself included) are inherently lazy and not predisposed to productivity. You view people who choose to work long hours as put upon, obviously stressed, and clearly in need of a long break doing absolutely nothing.

Your view of the world is such that you believe children need school to teach them as soon as possible that life is tough and the daily grind is something they need to knuckle down to. They need to learn to take instruction from authority without question and they need to be shown some discipline.

Of course, you say, education is a necessary chore that all children must undertake if they are to learn anything of any import for the life slog that stretches ahead of them. You can see far more clearly than they that they must undertake the unpleasant (but fortunately finite) business of schooling, so they will achieve the examination results necessary, in order that someone who sees box ticking and hoop jumping as paramount will see fit to give them a job, and so they:

• Will begin to hate and resent the time spent there, so they
• Will spend their time clock-watching and lingering in the stationery cupboard, whilst they
• Look forward to the evenings, the weekends, the holidays and retirement, as they
• Work for the pay cheque because there is no joy or job satisfaction, and they
• Feel controlled, powerless and miserable, so they
• Don’t learn anymore, because it’s hard work, pointless, and they have no time, so they
• Become resigned to accepting that life is just like this, for everyone.

Our decision to home educate (unless our children actively choose school) is a rejection of this miserable worldview. For our family, it is the best way to foster the important qualities of independence, personal responsibility and critical thought that will be so important for achieving a fruitful and fulfilling life in the 21st century. And what better way to learn about making a positive contribution to society than through active participation within it?

To deny that school is necessary is tantamount to heresy. But it's one of the best-kept secret of our lifetimes - jealously guarded by those who would cease to benefit if the truth was exposed. Parents want or need their children to be looked after for several hours a day. The state needs a trained, compliant workforce to achieve economic wellbeing. Independent schools want customers who are eager to pay their fees to get ahead.

I don't want my child to accept the authority of strangers without question. I do not believe that the state will put the interests of my child first. I don't buy into the desire for an exorbitantly priced education. So let me clarify: school exists as an educational option, but it is absolutely not necessary. There are so many other learning resources out there in the real world, ready for the taking.

When I listen to my child's speech developing daily, or when I watch my partner programming in a new language he has learnt, or when I read about new ideas and work them through to a satisfactory conclusion in debate, then I understand the nature of real learning - tested time and again not by a teacher but against the rigorous standards of reality. Can my child make herself understood? Will customers buy the software? Does my logic stand up to public scrutiny?

Unfortunately, in the march towards standardisation, the classes, curricula, lessons, testing and assessments that are key features of most schools fail to cater to the individual. They emphasise the importance of "an education" as a time-restricted, consumable product, over learning - an internal, lifelong process.

True learning belongs first and foremost to the individual, who assimilates information uniquely and is not simply an empty vessel into which someone else's knowledge is poured. The very best teachers know this - and they exist everywhere, whether or not they have a PGCE or have ever worked in a school. They are parents and children and family and business people and lawyers and farmers and shopkeepers and sports people and artists and musicians and park rangers and programmers and doctors and writers and builders...

There is simply no need to duplicate reality - we just need to live in it.

[This post is adapted from one I wrote here, and has been written for the Home Education Blog Carnival, hosted by the lovely Debs here.]