Why Education Unlimited? Back to the Basics (Part 5)
Categories: Léo’s Insights 2023-2024, Back to the Basics
In the last episode of the series, we exposed the term “education” to be code for indoctrination. This is potentially embarrassing for us as we use the word in our name. Why are we the Education Unlimited Academy? An explanation is in order.
When I first conceived of the idea of a “school” offering unlimited opportunity for parents to assume authority and responsibility for the “education” of their children, I queried the Lord as to what we should call this new entity. I still remember exactly where I was on the road the day He clearly told me to call it “Education Unlimited”. The rest, one could say, is history, but there is more.
Even though we were not as well versed in unschooling as we are today, the term would have greatly handicapped our mission. Unschooling was and still is a misunderstood word. All it really means is not doing what school does. Unschooling is the only term that escapes the normalization of public programming which is often part of private and alternate schools.
I liked the word “unlimited” but questioned the use of “education”. However, what other word would convey what we were intent on doing? Imagine “Training Unlimited” or “Teaching Unlimited”. Worse still, how about “Parenting Unlimited” or “Family Unlimited”. Even though I have grappled with the term “Education” for years, I am very glad we did not call this agency “School Unlimited”!
The dictionary definition of “education” is based on a preconception of institutional normalization. So if the definition of education is “the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university”, we can extend that meaning to be “parental instruction, especially within a family”, since family is God’s favourite “non-institution”. So let the name Education Unlimited stand and let’s understand it as meaning Faith, Family and Freedom “UNLIMITED”.
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