Advice for Homeschoolers: Formal & Informal Information
Traditionally our schools are responsible for formally educating our children and young people, and families and friends supply the informal portions of their educations. Both of these portions of a child's education are of equal importance. They both contribute greatly to a child's learning experience. They affect the way a child thinks and communicates with society.
"Formal education is the hierarchically structured, chronologically graded 'education system', running from primary school through the university and including, in addition to general academic studies, a variety of specialized programs and institutions for full-time technical and professional training." (Smith) Formal education contributes greatly to a child's development because this is how the child will learn the sciences and arts. It helps people acquire the skills they need for such everyday activities as reading a newspaper or managing their money. It also gives them the specialized training they may need to prepare for a job or career. People must meet certain educational requirements and get a license or certificate before they can practice accounting, law, or medicine.
"Informal education is a truly lifelong process whereby every individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the educative influences and resources in his or her environment - from family and neighbors, from work and play, from the market place, the library and the mass media." (Smith) Informal education contributes greatly to a child's development because this is were he/she will learn all the other things about life that they wouldn't learn at school. This has more influence on how the child will learn to interact with others. Informal education is an essential part of a child's education; this is how the child will become "street smart".
"Street smart" means that the child will obtain the knowledge and skills to survive by his/her self in society. Informal education is important because it helps people increase their knowledge and understanding of the world. Education helps people acquire skills that make their lives more interesting and enjoyable.
Both ways of education are important to a child's development. Each type of education helps in its own unique way. All children should be educated by using both types of education.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.