I suppose it's not surprising that people might want to understand our decision to home educate. But it can be stressful. While having a very pleasant night out with some of my oldest friends, the conversation turned to our "home-schooling" (their terminology, which demonstrates one of the fundamental misunderstandings that are so difficult to challenge - that we all attempt to provide miniature schools-at-home).
Relaxed chat turned into feeling like I'd been given the third degree, with all the predictable questions: "what about socialization?"; "what we do about science?"; "surely there can't be enough 'experts' in enough subjects among home-schoolers to provide a balanced curriculum?"; "how many hours a week in our timetable?", etc, etc?
I started by trotting out the standard and very easy answers to these questions, the things that home educators understand through the process of living this life. That our children's social lives are far more rooted in the diverse relationships that they will encounter in the real world (as opposed to being herded into age-specific groups and coerced into the same space at the same time, regardless of personal disposition). That, in an information-rich society, anyone who needs to learn about anything can find ways to draw on the necessary resources. That any learning undertaken in the real world is highly efficient, so that a new concept that takes 10minutes to discover could, in a school environment, take a term's-worth of lessons paced to the average student in a class of 30, with all the attendant targets and repeated explanations and registration periods that go with this approach.
But, do you know, at a certain point, I thought to myself, "Why am I bothering?" I know that there are people who I'll not convince, and it's a waste of effort to try to change their opinions. It's too easy to come across as defensive when it's preferable to hold to the mantra that "It's working for now and if it stops working, we'll find another way of doing things". After all, I'm sure that my friends would be deeply offended if I queried every aspect of every lesson and every extra-curricular activity that their children undertake at school. I'm sure they'd tell me it's none of my business. Rightly so.
So, here's a New Year's Resolution that I firmly intend to make: I'll no longer waste energy attempting to justify our choices to those who will not be swayed, but instead will simply do my best to ensure we live and learn to the full in our own way.
Monday 28 December 2009
Saturday 5 December 2009
New leaflet tells it like it is
New from the AEUK blog, a succinct summary of what's so wrong with the proposed legislation. Please pass it on to all who might be interested:
“Parents bring up children, not Government”1
If you think this is New Labour policy, think again
Clauses 26 and 27 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill currently in Parliament would lock home educating families into a bureaucratic system that is all about restricting educational freedom and nothing to do with ensuring children are well educated and looked after.
What is the Government proposing?
If the proposals in the Bill become law:
• Every year, parents would have to ask permission from the Local Authority to home educate
The Government is calling this a ‘register’, but a more accurate word would be ‘licence’. Local authorities would have the power to refuse ‘registration’ or to remove children from the ‘register’ if their parents do not cooperate with the system. ‘Registration’ would have to be renewed every year.
• Unregistered home educated children would be ordered to attend school
Local authorities would not be allowed to consider whether the education of unregistered children is suitable for their needs. The only consideration would be whether the child was ‘registered’ or not.
• Parents would be required to supply an advance plan for their children’s education every year in order to remain on the ‘register’
Local authorities would be given the power to decide whether the education provided is suitable, and whether it measures up to the plan. The power to decide what constitutes a suitable education for an individual child would be taken out of the hands of that child’s parents and given to a local council officer, who may have met the child only once.
• Local authorities would have to reassess home educated children and parents every year
If home educated children, or their parents, do not give consent for a child to be interviewed alone, the local authorities would not have the right to insist. But they would have the right to remove that child’s name from the ‘register’ as a punishment for this refusal to cooperate. Loving parents would be forced to override their children’s wishes in order to protect their freedom to be educated outside the school system.
Clause 26 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill gives this or any future government the power to issue guidance to local authorities about what they may demand of parents as part of this new ‘registration’, monitoring and inspection regime. MPs are being asked to approve the Bill without having sight of this guidance.
Clause 26 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill has been presented to Parliament before the results of a public consultation on the proposals have been released. Over 5000 people responded to the consultation but their views have been completely ignored in the drafting of the Bill.
There is no need to change the law regarding home education. Home educated children are at no more risk of abuse than any other group of children. Local authorities already have powers to take action if parents are not educating or caring for their children properly.
Please write to your MP now and demand that they vote for the removal of Clauses 26 and 27 from the Bill.
1 http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/childrensplan
“Parents bring up children, not Government”1
If you think this is New Labour policy, think again
Clauses 26 and 27 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill currently in Parliament would lock home educating families into a bureaucratic system that is all about restricting educational freedom and nothing to do with ensuring children are well educated and looked after.
What is the Government proposing?
If the proposals in the Bill become law:
• Every year, parents would have to ask permission from the Local Authority to home educate
The Government is calling this a ‘register’, but a more accurate word would be ‘licence’. Local authorities would have the power to refuse ‘registration’ or to remove children from the ‘register’ if their parents do not cooperate with the system. ‘Registration’ would have to be renewed every year.
• Unregistered home educated children would be ordered to attend school
Local authorities would not be allowed to consider whether the education of unregistered children is suitable for their needs. The only consideration would be whether the child was ‘registered’ or not.
• Parents would be required to supply an advance plan for their children’s education every year in order to remain on the ‘register’
Local authorities would be given the power to decide whether the education provided is suitable, and whether it measures up to the plan. The power to decide what constitutes a suitable education for an individual child would be taken out of the hands of that child’s parents and given to a local council officer, who may have met the child only once.
• Local authorities would have to reassess home educated children and parents every year
If home educated children, or their parents, do not give consent for a child to be interviewed alone, the local authorities would not have the right to insist. But they would have the right to remove that child’s name from the ‘register’ as a punishment for this refusal to cooperate. Loving parents would be forced to override their children’s wishes in order to protect their freedom to be educated outside the school system.
Clause 26 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill gives this or any future government the power to issue guidance to local authorities about what they may demand of parents as part of this new ‘registration’, monitoring and inspection regime. MPs are being asked to approve the Bill without having sight of this guidance.
Clause 26 of the Children, Schools and Families Bill has been presented to Parliament before the results of a public consultation on the proposals have been released. Over 5000 people responded to the consultation but their views have been completely ignored in the drafting of the Bill.
There is no need to change the law regarding home education. Home educated children are at no more risk of abuse than any other group of children. Local authorities already have powers to take action if parents are not educating or caring for their children properly.
Please write to your MP now and demand that they vote for the removal of Clauses 26 and 27 from the Bill.
1 http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/childrensplan
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