The Secular History of Homeschooling

Ben Franklin and other venerable forefathers necessarily schooled at home notwithstanding, the modern homeschooling movement can be sourced to 1960s education reformers like Ivan Illich and John Holt. Their goal was none other than decentralized, un-institutionalized learning.

Ivan Illich

Ivan Illich was one of homeschooling legend John Holt's main inspirations. Illich was a multitalented Viennese scholar, a polymath who earned his doctorate in history at the University of Salzburg before coming to the U.S. in 1951. His writings and research ran the gamut from theology to politics, and his views were distinctly humanist, devoted to the betterment of humanity through individualized freedom of learning.
Illich repeatedly argued that true education is impossible in an institutionalized environment of conformity and regimentation. To equate equal educational opportunity with obligatory schooling, said Illich, "is to confuse salvation with the church." He went further and declared, "The first article of a bill of rights for a modern, humanist society would correspond to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. "'The State shall make no law with respect to the establishment of education.' There shall be no ritual obligatory for all." (Deschooling Society, pg 16)

Deschooling Society

Illich's book, "Deschooling Society,"( New York, Harrow Books, 1971) virtually laid the groundwork for homeschooling in America. In this collection of essays, Illich set forth the premise that institutionalizing values inevitably leads to:

1. Physical pollution,
2. Social polarization and
3. Psychological impotence.

These three social ills, he said, ultimately heralded “global degradation and modernized misery."


Illich was not alone in his thinking. In "Growing Up Absurd,”( Random House , November 1983) written at around the same time as Illich's work, author and political theorist Paul Goodman, pointed out that public education was a waste of youth. Education, he said, should be a community effort and not an institutional one.

John Holt

John Holt, almost universally acclaimed as one of homeschooling’s most influential and well-regarded founders, took Illich’s ideology a step further. He spoke with Illich at length about his theories and was particularly intrigued with Illich's conviction that schools polarized societies. As a result, he moved from the idea of public education reform to calls for completely new ways of looking at learning and education. By 1972, in his book "Freedom and Beyond,"( E P Dutton, May 1972 ) Holt publicly articulated his belief that bringing greater freedom into the classroom environment was not the answer to America's growing educational ills.
With the notion of "learning as living," - being present to embrace and support children's spontaneous learning moments -- Holt and other education reform luminaries changed the emphasis from overhauling the public education process to something much more intimate; completely changing the social relationships between children and adults, and role of education in America.

The Moores

Even Raymond and Dorothy Moore -- Seventh Day Adventists by spiritual practice and who wrote at length, in the early days of home education, about giving children time to learn for the simple sake of learning well -- had at the heart of their education reform philosophies the very humanist belief in maximizing individual liberty. The “Moore Formula” consists of age and interest appropriate study and learning, often through play, manual work and community service; in short, living meaningfully in the world.
Religion doesn’t play much, if any, role in early homeschooling history. Rather, distinctly humanist notions of individual liberty and freedom of thought and learning guided the homeschooling movement. The writings and teaching of individuals like Ivan Illich, John Holt, Paul Goodman and Dorothy and Raymond Moore helped set the stage for family directed learning in a way that influenced not only the growth of home schooling, but continues to affect public and private education methodology today, as well.


This post was reprinted by permission from the author. Theresa Willingham is a professional freelance writer and photographer and a published author. You can discover more about her at her website, on her blog The Progressive Homeschooler, and even right here at SecularHomeschool.com where she blogs and posts!!