Classical or Home education?

The difference between Classical and Home education is mostly one axis: mixed ages. Classical sits toward classes of the same age; Home education sits toward mixed-age groups. They agree, more than most people expect, on who else is there and a view of the world. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Classical

A specified body of knowledge, taught in a deliberate order, on the argument that you cannot think critically about something you do not know. The trivium stages it: facts and memorisation while memory is easy, then logic, then rhetoric. Often Latin, usually history in chronological sequence, and always explicit instruction from the front.

What it asks of you

Comfort with memorisation and recitation, which are unfashionable and central here
Accepting a canon, and that choosing one is a value judgement however old it is
Homework, and a household that supports it
Checking which tradition a given school belongs to — the name covers a wide political range

Home education

Education at home with a structure you choose — bought curriculum, your own sequence, or a co-operative with other families. It gives complete control over pace, content and values, and it converts one parent's time into the school. The outcome research is genuinely good and almost entirely drawn from self-selected families, so it should be read as what is possible rather than as what is typical.

What it asks of you

One adult's working life, in most arrangements
Building a social world deliberately, since it does not arrive with the building
Teaching subjects you are not confident in, for years
A plan for the transition back, if there ever is one

Side by side

Where they differ

Classical is the filled marker, Home education the hollow one. Widest difference first.

E1Mixed ages

classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Classical sits toward classes of the same age; Home education sits toward mixed-age groups.

L3Measuring it

no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Classical sits toward graded and tested regularly; Home education sits toward no grades, no tests.

L4Where the curriculum comes from

it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Classical sits firmly toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Home education sits between the two.

E2Outdoors and the body

learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Classical sits toward learning happens at a table; Home education sits a little toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows

school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Classical sits between the two; Home education sits firmly toward being in it, daily.

E3Technology at school

kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Classical sits firmly toward kept out until late; Home education sits between the two.

L1Who directs the day

the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Classical sits firmly toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Home education sits between the two.

L5What a teacher is

a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Classical sits firmly toward an authority who instructs; Home education sits a little toward an authority who instructs.

L2When formal academics start

when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Classical sits toward early, and ambitiously; Home education sits between the two.

V3What it is for

childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Classical sits toward it should set up university and a career; Home education sits between the two.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

Who else is there. Both sit toward a community that shares our values matters most.
A view of the world. Both sit toward school should teach a view of the world.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing