All washed-up

Time for a huge sigh of relief - the draconian home education clauses of the CSF Bill have failed to make it through the "wash-up". My boundless thanks to those, like Graham Stuart and Lord Lucas, who've supported us in our fight to retain fundamental rights and to all those wonderful home educators up and down the country who've been the best mutual support system anyone could hope for.

Anyone who knows our family will understand that we tend to view everything through a musical lens, so what should be the soundtrack to these momentous events? I toyed with The Pogues' "Fiesta" but it's now obviously the property of Harry Hill. I looked for a decent YouTube vid of "Freedom Jazz Dance" to no avail. In the end, I decided that a bit of vengeful gloating would do. Here's something from His Bobness dedicated to His Ballsness:-

A Tyranny of Busybodies

Today I was leafing through dd's collection of Charlie Brooker essays, "The Hell of it All". One article really struck me. It dates from 2008 and is a rather eerie portent of what was about to happen to us home edders. I just love this bit where he borrows from C S Lewis. It sums up why it's so frustrating to be subjected to well-meaning but ill-judged scrutiny:-

"Once upon a time, in between scrawling allegorical fables about lions and wardrobes, CS Lewis said something prescient. "Of all tyrannies," he wrote, "a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." "

Better start queuing for my Freedom of Choice permit ...

Growing up, or an effect of home education?

Today, dd participated in a music competition where it was unlikely that she would win. One of only two 12-year-olds in the finals among a bunch of older teenagers, aged 15 and upwards, she was lucky to have made it this far. She played really well, though obviously with a few more rough edges than some of the more experienced (and stunningly talented) older performers. What made me glow was not that she was a finalist, nor that her performance was undoubtedly very good, but that she was very poised and comfortable while playing, fully aware that she wasn't one of the main contenders. And when the result came and the prize went, deservedly, to a really lovely older girl who dd knows a little, she was absolutely thrilled for her.

Just over a year ago, while she was still at school, I know I'd have been worried sick about her response to this kind of situation. That, faced with a competitive situation where she was at a disadvantage, she'd withdraw, feel inadequate and possibly resent the winner. Now, I don't know whether it's a sign of her growing maturity or of the freedom from the obsession with class-position, but I knew she'd be fine with a chance to play music she loves among people who would appreciate it and that she'd realize that it's not all about winning. Over the past few months, she's had a very easy ride - achieving awards in festivals and being told she's ever so clever. But above all of these, this is one of the moments when I've been most sure that home ed is working for us. DD suddenly seems so much more comfortable in herself and so much less brittle in her self-esteem. I couldn't be more proud of her.

Double standards - precisely the problem

This blog post says it all about damning an entire community on the basis of an isolated case:

http://threedegreesoffreedom.blogspot.com/2010/02/lords-and-tainted-ladies.html

It's so good to read some common sense.

Well, that was January ...

I've not posted since the Christmas holidays. It's simply been too busy. This seems paradoxical, as we've had extended periods of being snowed in, but at that point we had nothing much to report. Since the thaw, we've probably gone a bit overboard with activity to make up for the prolonged Christmas veg-out.

The new year's seen lots of new ventures in the local home education scene: board games clubs; drawing classes; French groups; a proposed teen club. And DD has joined both the young archaeologists' club and a creative writing group that has been going some time. On top of her musical activities every weekend. She's certainly not short of opportunities to socialize.

Also, we spent 3 days in the company of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. The Holmes Science lectures at Newcastle University are held annually for children aged 10-14. But I think this is the first year that the lectures' organizers cottoned on to using their namesake as a dramatic device to impart all manner of scientific information. It was very funny - Holmes keeps turning up at Watson's surgery complaining of various symptoms. We're then taken through the science of ECGs, brain scans, radiography, and other medical tests. Of course, Holmes' symptoms are discovered to be down to his rather degenerate lifestyle (pipe-smoking, cocaine snorting and hip-flask swigging).

Once again, home educators came out very well in the quiz at the end of the lectures. Last year, Dd came joint second and her home educated friend won. This year, another home educated boy came joint second and Dd won. The quiz was only a bit of fun and it wasn't a question of being competitive: it was simply nice to see a handful of HE kids do well in a sea of uniformed children. A little vindication of our choice when so many in authority seem to erroneously believe that home educated children might "fall behind". As if 'lifelong learning' is a race, in any case!

The Third Degree

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.

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