“We go to many schools” and the decentralization of education

My 5 year old said to me the other day as we were driving to one of their “schools”.

“We go to a lot of schools, don’t we?”

And I said, “Yes we do. Are you happy about that?”

“Yes, mama.”

And then my heart proceeded to melt. 🫠

And maybe it’s time the world could re-think what education and schools could look like. We don’t go to school, we go to many schools. We can opt in and out at any time we choose.

This is more powerful than people care to realise.

Our school definition is probably different from yours

We didn’t set out to use the term in this way, it’s more what my kids started referring to as the activities we do. I suppose it’s a model they understand, and so I will go along with it.

And actually, it’s a pretty nice term. We are home educators, but really we’re just creating or making use of other schools out there. They are just not full-time and traditional schools.

The schools they go to vary, at the moment are:

• Forest School
• Sports
• Football
• Gymnastics
• Swimming
• Badminton
• Imaginarium (a drop of ‘school’ for the day)