Welcome to The Educating Parent Beverley Paine's archive of articles about homeschooling and unschooling written over a period of 30 plus years

Free download a quick guide to getting started with homeschooling and unschooling by Beverley Paine The Educating Parent in this excellent Resource Directory
Introduction to
Home Education

 

Free directory of Australian homeschooling and unschooling support groups organised by national, state and territories National and State
Support Groups

 

Plan, record and report all in the one document! Always Learning Books planners available in each year level to suit your homeschooling needs, includes curriculum checklists
Yearly Planner, Diary & Report

Let Beverley and friends help you design and write your own curriculum to suit your child's individual learning needs, learn how to prepare lessons, unit studies and more, record and evaluate your children's learning in this series of 3 parent workbooks developed on Beverley's popular homeschool manual Getting Started with Home School Practical Considerations

Homeschool Course for Parents

this Always Learning Year 7 Plan is everything you need to get started a comprehensive collection of curriculum aligned resources and links to activities, lesson plans and unit studies for your year 7 homeschooling student
Homeschool Learning Plans
go back to The Educating Parent home page click here to learn more about what The Educating Parent offers to help you start and continue your awesome homeschooling or unschooling adventure click here to subscribe to Beverley's substack blog with new entries added every other day click here to join the largest Australian online homeschool community The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook group

Rites of Passage?

by Beverley Paine, originally published in Learning in the Absence of Education

Can we consider the evolution of the current institutionalised education system as a replacement of traditional 'rites of passage' from childhood to adulthood. Before extensive global colonisation and migration over vast distances, with its effect of breaking down the extended family unit, the responsibility for the passage of the child into adulthood was the responsibility of the family, not the State. This also included the religious as well as the ordinary living experiences the child needed to acquire as growth progressed.

Rites of passage demonstrate characteristic patterns which have been documented (When Religion Goes to School, Habel, N & Moore, B)as follows:

  • The candidates are isolated from their given world or social group via a series of rites of separation;
  • In the process of separation the candidates are provided with a sponsor or guide to help them overcome the coming ordeal;
  • The candidates enter the in-between world in which they have to learn those things necessary for their new status, and usually overcome some hazards;
  • The successful candidates are marked with the common sign of the initiated;
  • The candidates are welcomed into their new world or social group via a series of rituals of inclusion;
  • The candidates adopt the life style suitable to their new status.

If we take this point by point we can see that schooling does indeed constitute 'rites of passage for young people, and initiation into adult life lasting many years.

Young children are prepared for entry into the world of school by the family talking about and visiting the chosen school, by selecting and purchasing school specific items, such as lunch boxes, bags, new clothes and stationery. Children are encouraged to look forward to and desire this new phase in their life, seen as a necessary and important part of 'growing up'.

As children enter school-life they are provided with a teacher, or series of teachers to help them learn the lessons, and also cope with school life. In some schools counselors are appointed to help children adapt and adjust to school life, or at each new stage.

Special teachers or officers devise extensive curriculum designed to inform students about their world and instruct them with processes and skills to enable them to act effectively in their world. School life constitutes a series of experiences to be assimilated, and in this children often have to find their own way through the daily presentation of problems facing them. For many school students school is a hazardous place.

Children are required to wear school 'uniforms', the mark of initiates, and there is a constant call by society to enforce this 'rule'.

As children progress throughout their school years they are welcomed into each new stage, and ultimately at completion of school life are rewarded by ceremonies, certificates and celebrations.

At the end of it all, whether fifteen, eighteen, twenty-one years old or older, the end of the 'education' process allows for the adoption of an adult life-style, including the right to work for monetary reward and participate in society fully as voting citizens.

If society has replaced the traditional 'rites of passage' with schooling, what has this meant in terms of personal and familial responsibility, not to mention the effects on the spiritual dimension of existence? And what effect does it have on individual development? Rites of passage evolved over thousands of years. Schooling, on the massive scale which now exists, is a relatively recent development.

Are families who chose to home educate unknowingly reclaiming their right to follow the ancient, traditional path, marking out time honoured and proven rites of passage for their children? This is an interesting question, and one I believe deserves further study.

Browse our comprehensive library of articles!

keep up to date with new posts to this website daily by clicking here to subscribe

Support Groups: National SA VICWANSW QLD TAS ACT NT
Registration Guides: VIC NSW QLD SA WA TAS ACT NT

Looking for support, reassurance and information? Join Beverley's
The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook

Need a ready made homeschool learning plan in a hurry for your homeschool registration? Try one of ours!

Need a ready made homeschool learning plan in a hurry for your homeschool registration? Try one of our Always Learning Books homeschool year level learning plans, packed with links to FREE lesson plans, unit studies and activities for each curriculum subject area, hundreds of suggestions, use what you want, only $18

Want to learn how to write your own education plans to suit your unique children's individual learning needs?

itap into Beverley's four decades of home educating experience and learn how to write your own homeschool curriculum and learning plans to suit your child's and your family's individual needs, a complete how to homeschool course for parents in 3 self paced workbooks each focusing on a different aspect of home educating, planning, recording, evaluating and creating lesson plans image shows 3 workbooks, plus samples of pages, and 3 children walking in bushland

The Educating Parent acknowledges Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present.

click here to become a Fearless Homeschool member giving you access to all past summit workshops as well as exciting new content and webinars, online discussion platform, and more

Twinkl downloadable Home education resources helping you teach confidently at home

say goodbye to home education registration stress with this ultimate rego bundle from Fearless Homeschool

make homeschooling a lot easier, zero to homeschool's excellent course is here to help

go back to The Educating Parent home page click here to learn more about what The Educating Parent offers to help you start and continue your awesome homeschooling or unschooling adventure click here to subscribe to Beverley's substack blog with new entries added every other day click here to join the largest Australian online homeschool community The Educating Parents Homeschooling and Unschooling Facebook group

The information on this website is of a general nature only and is not intended as personal or professional advice. This site merges and incorporates 'Homeschool Australia' and 'Unschool Australia'.

The opinions and articles included on this website are not necessarily those of Beverley Paine, The Educating Parent and April Jermey Always Learning Books, nor do they endorse or recommend products listed in contributed articles, pages, or advertisements on pages within this website.

Without revenue from advertising by educational suppliers and Google Ads we could not continue to provide information to home educators. Please support us by letting our advertisers know that you found them on The Educating Parent. Thanks!

Affiliate links are used on this site that take you to products or services outside of this site. Beverley Paine The Educating Parent and April Jermey Always Learning Books assume no responsibility for those purchases or returns of products or services as a result of using these affiliate links. Please review products and services completely prior to purchasing through these links. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question before purchasing or signing up.

Text and images on this site © All Rights Reserved 1999-2025