Comments on: Seriously.. we’re better off moving

By: Adrian McEwen

Adrian McEwen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:12:23 +0000

I suspect you might be aware of this already, but given that it crossed my RSS reading this morning, and is from a local councillor, I thought I’d pass it along – http://paulakeaveney.blogspot.com/2009/10/home-educated-children-legislation.html

By: Ruth

Ruth — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:18:00 +0000

I don’t think we are putting an excessive amount of faith in them, but we are optimistic for them arriving with bigger bees in their bonnets than HE, and an acute awareness of how little money they’ve got to go around.

By: Dad

Dad — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:11:08 +0000

Don’t put too much faith in a Tory government. Back in the Eighties, when they were telling us to leave business alone to get on with it, they were proscribing “The National Curriculum” for the schools because our teachers couldn’t be trusted to just get on with it. I suspect the present moves against home education is just an extension of that.

By: Sarah Barnard

Sarah Barnard — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:06:20 +0000

Sadly Kevin, those things are education in the things the givernment think important, fitting in, not causing any trouble, comforming, keeping the rules. Home Ed is much more likely to be truly full time….when “education” isn;t defined by a narrow curriculum.

Our LEA already specifies that *they* mean 25 hours per week of scheduled “lesson” time. Which is probably more than a schooled child of the same age would get sharing two adults between 30 kids. It is patently absurd to apply the same allocation of time to 30 kids with 1 teacher and 1 TA to 1 motivated, happy child facilitated by (mostly) enthusiastic, loving parent who understands what will most help her to learn. We can easily achieve more in an hour than she would have done in a day at school! For comparison I have kept the half-filled scrap book that was her record of work in her 2 terms at school!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:40:34 +0000

I suspect any review into ‘full-time’ will probably be carefully worded – “alternative full-time” or “full-time education outside of school system” – because your right – it’s an impossible mess –

When the school bell goes is lining up for class education? is the register education? moving between classes? add all them up and school doesn’t look that full time all of a sudden.

By: Joy

Joy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:09:01 +0000

Is it just me or does anyone else think that if the definitions of ‘full-time’ and ‘suitable’ become too rigid, that it may come back to bite the authorities in the bum? (think Scotland here and immigration laws) I mean, if they created absolute definitions and screwed them down tightly into the law, and then some school child decided that they weren’t getting a ‘full-time’ or ‘suitable’ education, then they might just sue the local authority for failing them. Anyone think this may be possible?

By: Lou Thorn

Lou Thorn — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:56:14 +0000

I think I agree with Kevin. The real protagonists probably aren’t Balls, Delyth & Badman, they’re probably the civil servants behind the last three consultations as well, and who are planning the fifth (what is ‘full time’?) and possibly the sixth (because someone else said they’d heard they were also going to go for a precise, legally enforceable definition of ‘suitable education’). So the chances are we are actually up against prejudiced civil servants who have angry hornets in their bonnets about Home Ed and it won’t stop even once the Tories (or whoever) get in.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:22:01 +0000

I veer from it’s all about the economy and the need for “Economic Units” to contribute in some form; to It’s Local Authorities pushing the government to close the loopholes that mean there are things they can’t put a figure next too in their league tables and performance indicators.

I’d like to think a change in government will result in a change in policy, but I’m begging to doubt that, I think to much of this is coming from the civil service not the politicians, maybe I’ve just watched yes minister to many times

By: Mieke

Mieke — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:10:05 +0000

I think they are doing this precisely because there are negligable numbers of home educators and because they thought the legislation they want to push through – a license to doorstep anybody they want to – would be easiest to obtain by targeting a group of people they thought wouldn’t be backed up by much public sympathy, especially not if they played the ‘abuse’ card.

I agree, though, about the moving instead of fighting while raising your children. It’s exactly for that reason that we moved from Holland to England almost seven years ago (home ed is not a legal option in Holland). Luckily our children have now reached an age where we won’t have to move anymore, not for the benefit of their education anyway. But again I find myself fighting for the cause, because I want future generations to have a similar choice.
And because I really think it is not ‘just’ about home education…

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:04:27 +0000

A well put together article.
Ruth, you ask why they care? They don’t. They don’t care about our children, they don’t care about their educational achievements, they don’t even care about abuse (in fact they are complicit in many abuses).
They DO care about the fact that we are free thinkers and therefore our home educated children will be free thinkers. Free thinking does not fit in with a totalitarian agenda and that is where they are steering us.
BadMan refers to children as “Economic Units”, how can you keep an eye on your little economic units if they are not in school with their “Permanent Record” and their “Targets” and their “Information Sharing Agreements” and their pigeon-holing of the children who stand out from the crowd, the ones who disagree with rules because they are inane.
How can they dumb society down when a small group of society refuse to be dumbed down. School with its rules for when to eat, when to drink, when to pee. School with its signs warning that the hot water tap may have hot water in it and what’s more it may burn! That doors trap fingers, so they put gadgets on the doors so it can’t happen. That if you run you may fall over. That when its cold you should put a coat on, that you shouldn’t be allowed to eat chocolate or crisps or have drinks other than water.
God forbid we think for ourselves, God forbid our children think for themselves.
This is nothing to do caring and everything to do with a political agenda!