The above title is inspired by the famous line from the end of the ”Moromeţii”: “time was running out of patience”. I believe, however, that (the) time is generated by our own minds, our patience and, most of all, our impatience. Look how an ultra-tiny creature has turned the planet upside down, helping us to sort out the messes left for future resolution within a process called “procrastination” (or “amânare” – in the sweet Romanian language).

Indeed, it is easier to invent drawers to hide all kinds of fears, like some old socks that we cannot bear to throw away than to contemplate ourselves in conscious silence (almost impossible to attain).

Together, we and the time learn how to be patient.

NO, we will not become another school in the image and likeness of those sanctioned by the systems currently trying to get accustomed to what is new in education. We are something else, and the systems will adapt to us, instead of us adapting to them.

I am not talking only about CEREHARD. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of similar undertakings in the world, developed by parents who know they can make a significant contribution to the lives of their children and their communities. As an institution, the school is useful, necessary, and admirable, but only if it adapts to the needs of those it guides.

In the UK, it is not schooling that is compulsory, but education. I am going to repeat it until someone will address this issue in the Romanian legislation:

The Constitution gives us the right to educate our children according to our own convictions. On the other hand, the law of education requires us to take them to school, even when school is not necessarily a learning environment.

The Law of Education needs to be changed. For the time being, it violates both the Constitution and the Human Rights Act. There are excellent schools with great teachers out there, but the sad reality is that they are far fewer than those carrying flaws from the times of Eminescu and Caragiale.

Until the quality of the educational process in schools is improved, parents are willing and able to take care of the education of children, their own children and those within the community they belong to. Since these communities include all types of families, equality of chances is promoted as well.

Children learn much faster and easier from available adults who support them in a trial-and-error journey than from a sordid environment where they are punished for their mistakes (which sometimes are not even mistakes).

I felt the need to repeat these ideas because many parents have one concern: when do we enter the “ranks of the world”?

That is to say, the SIIIR. The Romanian state has some laws that must be respected, right? Otherwise, we are punished, and police or child protection services come to our doors, or so we think.

Well, those laws have gaps. They need to be supplemented or changed, and this can only happen if we draw attention to their flaws. We do this ALSO through the means required by HG 22/2007 that says that the schools using another curriculum must submit a file to Aracip for them to be included in SIIIR.

We are a school of thought, not an institution. We are a “school in the cloud”, without walls, benches and blackboards, and we ask to be seen in these terms, not in those imposed by a Romanian education law that is unconstitutional. We are currently compiling the file for Aracip, and we have the support of the UK Embassy and the British Council for that.

Together, we and the time learn how to be patient. Slow down. Let it be. Find your inner rhythm, both you and your children. When one’s heart is in one’s mouth, or one desperately tries not to make mistakes, learning does not happen.

When I set out on this journey, I knew neither its meanders nor its pitfalls. I had (and still have) only one goal in my head – the right to learn in my and my children’s own terms and to choose the right resources for them. We are not free-riders that use everyone’s resources. We pay half of our income in taxes to the state. That is just one of the reasons why the state must respect our rights.

We found out that the term ”homeschooling” reflects only a small part of what we do. Homeschooling is the school’s clone transferred at home, with subjects, tests, classes and everything else.

That is why we became EOTAS, a growing movement starting in the UK as an alternative for the children who do not progress in school.
This movement has become increasingly complex, mostly because its initial objective, the return to school, has evolved into another one – providing each child with an environment conducive to his development and offering support on the child’s own terms.