Edukacja domowa – szansa czy zagrożenie we wczesnym kształceniu dziecka?
Home Schooling: An Opportunity or a Threat in Children’s Early Education?

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses two forms of education: formal education, which is school-based and institutional, and natural education, in the sense of home schooling, which is environmental in character. As far as the traditional models of school-based and institutional education are concerned,full responsibility for the process of education and its effects must rest with the teacher, who manages the entire process of school teaching. Methods and techniques applied within this model focus on transferring knowledge by conveying it through teachers, so that they can feed pupils with information. Such a practice was established in the middle of the 19th century, under the influence of Prussian civilizational models, which were prevalent at that time. Even so, educating children in the family environment had previously constituted the leading form of teaching in various societies for many centuries. Also, a rebirth and some further development of home schooling took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This was a result of discussions about alternative schooling, self-governance and compulsory education, held in the mid-20th century. Currently, home schooling is practised in relation to children at preschool and early school ages, but rarely extends to the period of adolescence. It is organized by parents and is based on the active mutual involvement of parents and their child. The article shows where home schooling stands in relation to Polish and international legislation. It also defines the real social circumstances, together with the reasons, that determine parents’ decisions when they opt for home schooling. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of individual learning conducted in the home environment, where responsibility for the appropriateness of a child’s development rests with the parents. Finally, it presents the conditions affecting home schooling during the period of early school education.

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