The issue about teaching creationism in home schooling is a red herring. The main aim of home schooling is to offer an alternative. It is ideal for anyone who believes our current school system is not suitable for their child.

In Australia there are about 30,000 home-schooling families. We should be encouraging the development of this approach where it meets the needs of children. Home-schooling is not a free-for-all. It has to meet formal criteria. Home-schoolers must be enrolled as a student at a day school and be available when required for assessment against the regular school curriculum

The main benefit is freedom for children to be children. Home schooling offers a physical liberty that a highly regimented classroom does not. It is not oppressive. It avoids the brutality of modern schooling. Am I exaggerating? Why not ask a sample of children or adolescents about their deepdown, personal experiences of attending school. It is not always a pretty place.

Home schooling offers well-rested children who have time to play, to learn and to work. School is an artificial educational factory.

Some will say schools prepare children for life. This is not true. For the most part, our curriculum does not reflect the interests of students or what they need to survive. We teach subjects not life.

Moreover one can be more productive in home schooling. There is less time wasting. Actual learning time is greater. Home schoolers are not emotionally deprived; parents are savvy enough to provide many opportunities for play and socialising.

Of course, it needs to be done properly but then so does normal schooling. We have this fixation that school is education. No it is not.

There is actually very little evidence that normal schooling is effective. It was probably a reasonable solution for providing compulsory instruction in the past but it does not address the needs of children in a complex, urbanised society. It does not offer a solution for the future.

My experience is that schooling restricts high achievers. Despite its best intentions,  it does not do enough for those at the lowest achievement levels. And who knows what happens to the poor souls in the middle. There are alternatives but we have to rid ourselves of the mindset that traditional K-12 schooling is the one-size-fits-all solution to learning. Canadian research shows that by Year 9 the enthusiasm and interest in kindergarten has well and truly evaporated.

Traditional schooling is not even achieving the goal of literacy and numeracy. In the official adult literacy and life skills survey around 46 per cent  of Australians failed to meet the minimum standard required for literacy. This is after decades of compulsory schooling in our nation. Even a brief perusal of the NAPLAN results shows that the proportion in the highest levels in Year 3 gradually fades and, by Year 9, it is reduced substantially. It is almost as though later schooling had a negative effect on literacy and numeracy.

Normal schooling is hugely expensive. And when it does not work, we throw more money at it. By the way, 2007-08 figures show it cost about $10,722 per full-time primary student in a state classroom and $13,551 for a secondary student. That is a lot of money per child from K-12.  Home schooling, even at the primary level, is very economical and achievable in our society.

Most children are capable of learning when they are interested and when there is a need. They learn half of what they need to know in life well before they go to school. It is usually taught to them by their parents. In general, they learn to speak, go to the bathroom, maybe tie up their shoe laces and sometimes even say "please" or "thank you". And all this was done without a formal curriculum, a data projector or oversight of the 'Bored of Studies'. Many kids can read quite well before even going to school. Don't they know that this is the job of a teacher?

Schools sap   many children's creativity and interest. In the 1970s, educational reformers talked about de-schooling society. They provided compelling evidence about the harmful effects of schooling. We have not learnt this lesson.

Traditional schooling is like the QWERTY keyboard. It was designed for another time and place. We persist with this keyboard even though we know it is not the most optimum layout. Maybe it is time to pause and to allow freedom for alternative approaches such as home schooling. Creationism amongst some home schoolers is the least of our problems; finding an alternative to schooling is far greater.

I believe Australia has one of the larger home-schooling populations in the world. I am not saying that home schooling is for everyone but it is ideal for some families. It is an idea that is worth promoting.

James Athanasou is Adjunct Professor in Education at University of Technology, Sydney, and associate professor, Rehabilitation Counselling at The University of Sydney.

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