Why disobedience matters: home education as a quiet act of rebellion

Oscar Wilde wrote, “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”

Many of us come to home education through a quiet act of disobedience. We’ve said no to a system that doesn’t serve our children. We’ve stepped off the expected path - not out of recklessness, but out of love, conscience, and courage.

Wilde’s words remind us that progress often begins with saying enough. With refusing to comply. With imagining something better.

By choosing to educate outside the school system, we’re challenging long-held assumptions. We’re rebelling - not for the sake of it, but because our children deserve more freedom, more kindness, more depth, more joy.

We’re creating change, not only for our own families but for the wider conversation around education. Home education is not a failure to comply, it is a deliberate and visionary act of rebuilding.

So if you sometimes feel like the odd one out, remember: you’re in good company. Many of the world’s most meaningful changes began with someone quietly saying no, not this way.