Introduction

This blogsite was birthed after Penang’s first formal homeschool dialogue on 31.10.2010

Check out some of the questions that were asked.

This is a blogsite for Penang homeschoolers and is not related to any party.

21st Century Penang Learning Community hopes to be a Penang-based movement and hopes to serve as an umbrella to help organize the various conversations around alternative education and the trajectory of learning for the 21st Century.  That being said 21PLC is not an authority on homeschooling but merely serves as a platform to let all ideas stick together.

Is there a place where all homeschooling kids can come together and share resources?

Many parents had the same questions most of our Penang parents did : Where can we find a homeschool center?

An increasing population of parents needed help to get out of the schooling system for various reasons. It seemed like there were a lot of people desperate for answers and very few people who could make the time or have the resources to help them.

As time went on this information vacuum has led many astray about what alternative education is all about. Many parents were being misinformed that it had to be one extreme end or the other : All or Nothing. Instead of providing the answer for learning that can happen outside of schooling the idea of “Homeschooling” ended up raising more questions. Many were left in the dark feeling as if they were the only oddball thinking of pulling their children out of mainstream schooling.

Communities are about people coming together to make positive changes, people who are willing to contribute time, resources and energy to build a better world. 21st Century Penang Learning Community is a movement encompassing conversations and the sharing of knowledge, a nucleus to bring all the bits and atoms together.

It will be an organic movement with the hopes that it will fill the vacuum about homeschooling so that a community can make informed choices about the fundamental questions of education for the 21st Century. Many things can evolve from this, not just the idea of a collection of shared activities, local,  home or  world-class resource center.  However, their materialization depend completely on the direction collective conversations, engagement and initiatives lead to.

Communities are about collaborations, not competition. As such 21st Century Penang Learning Community is neither a business entity nor an NGO and does not promote any particular person, product, business nor agenda.  Instead it brings together the best practices of professionals, academics, enterprises, NGOs because of its unique ability to cross all boundaries.

Best,

Sloane

 

p.s this Introduction page has been edited on 15/11/2010.