Swimming Against the Flow

Living as a Counter-cultural Family

A presentation given at the Home Educating Families' Festival on 16 August 2024.

In this 30 minute talk I explore why home educating families have chosen to live in a way which is counter-cultural in the prevailing monoculture of our day. The need is to understand that what is 'familiar' to us is not necessarily the 'normal,' but it is what we have adapted to without realising it.

What is familiar today is for families to live their lives largely as disconnected individuals, and therefore undervalue the connections and support provided by the multi-generational extended family.
Striving to rebuild family networks will be resisted in our Western societies and it will not be an easy road for those who determine to take it, for the desire of "the state" is to become the de facto parent of every child. Those who wish to preserve the natural and historic benefits of family will need wisdom to tread this path without offering grounds for contempt to those who oppose them doing so.