Saturday 28 November 2009

A way forward?

I have been thinking today about the seemingly implacable hostility that exists between certain home educating parents and their local authorities. Without considering the rights and wrongs of the case, because I have not the slightest doubt that there are faults on both sides, I was wondering if there is any way of finding a compromise.

It is becoming increasingly likely that the Children, Schools and Families Bill will be passed before the next general election. There may be one or two MPs and Lords who are prepared for various reasons to oppose this measure and help try to prevent it reaching the Statute Book, but I would not think that they will be able to do this. A bill full of provisions designed to crack down on inefficient schools and useless teachers is not likely to face widespread opposition in either the Lords or Commons. Most of our legislature will hardly notice the few paragraphs which introduce registration and monitoring of home educators. Those who do spot them will probably approve.

Let us assume for a moment the bill actually becomes law. I am well aware that many parents are determined not to co-operate with local authority officers on various aspects of it. Is there room for meeting half way though? On the subject of registration, this is more or less a done deal. When ContactPoint is switched on, any child who has a blank field for "Educational Setting" will be receiving a letter from her local authority making enquiries. This will be de facto registration in itself. But what about the requirement for a statement of educational intent and so on?

I think I am right in saying that hardly any parents object to sending their local authority an educational philosophy. It seem to be a pretty standard response to enquiries and often used as a way to fend off a visit. It seems possible that this will not be considered sufficient in the future. An awful lot of parents are very much opposed to providing a curriculum, claiming that this would destroy the whole basis of autonomous education. Without going into the rights and wrongs of this position, is there a way that something more than an educational philosophy could be put together, which was a little more detailed as regards what the education was intended to provide for the child? Something less than a curriculum, certainly, but a good deal more than the sort of vague waffle which some parents currently submit to their LA? How far would parents be prepared to go in order to accommodate their local authority and avoid conflict on this particular matter?

At the moment, a lot of parents, perhaps the majority, seem to be against visits. I say the majority, because of course all those who are not at the moment known to their local authority presumably do not want visits. According to most estimates, these are at least as numerous as the parents who are known to local authorities. I can see that there will be trouble if local authority officers march into such homes and demand that little Johnny demonstrate that he knows his multiplication tables or has read Great Expectations . However, they will want to see the child and probably talk to him. What sort of model for these encounters would satisfy home educating parents? Assuming that is, that non-compliance is not an option and that a blanket refusal to engage with the LA might lead to court? Have parents any idea how this conflict could be resolved in a way which would satisfy both themselves and their local authorities?

I cannot think that an adversarial approach to these new regulations will benefit anybody, least of all the children concerned. If we take as given that change is coming and that home education in this country will be regulated and governed for the first time by laws which explicitly recognise its existence, then the only question remaining is how parents adapt to those laws and help mould the local authority practice. I do not wish to be a Cassandra, but I can easily see that if home educating parents launch a campaign of non-cooperation, this will ultimately lead to court proceedings and trauma for children who have been withdrawn from school for bullying. I don't think this will be to anybody's advantage.

57 comments:

  1. In spite of your earlier defence of democracy, Simon, you really don't seem to understand how *our* democracy works. The idea is that we (the people) delegate the task of keeping us safe and free to get on with our lawful business to government. We pay ministers to do this job. We pay MPs to represent our interests in parliament and to make sure government is doing its job properly.

    We pay local authority officers to provide us with services to help us go about our lawful business, and our elected councillors commission those services on our behalf and make sure LA officers are doing their job properly.

    Local authorities have two roles in relation to education. One is provision if parents request it. The other is law enforcement if parents fail in their duty - just as LAs have a law enforcement role in relation to planning, highways, public health, crime etc. They can bring law breakers to justice, but the justice is dispensed, on behalf of the community, by the judiciary (ie by a body other than the one accusing someone of committing a crime).

    Compromise, meeting half way etc. don't come into it. This is not about a difference of opinion, it's about the role of local authorities. That's why many home educators are so upset about it. Constitutionally, LAs are not entitled check up on whether private individuals are breaking the law, to require them to prove their innocence, nor to enter their homes except in cases of emergency, to recover property that is rightfully theirs, or to make inquiries if there is good reason to believe the law has been broken or is about to be broken.

    These safeguards were introduced to protect us from abuse of power by government - there is a mass of historical evidence to show what happens when the safeguards are not maintained.

    *If* there is a problem (children at risk of abuse or not being educated) then the starting point is to identify the nature of that problem first, and see how it can be addressed within our constitutional framework, not to ride roughshod over safeguards that have been valued for centuries because some people in local government have got the wind up.

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  2. The question is, and this is a matter of realpolitic rather than abstract talk of "safeguardsthat have been valued for centuries", whether home educating parents wish for the state to impose a system upon them or whether they are prepared to work as partners in devising a scheme which suits both sides. I am interested to know to what extent, if any, there is scope of compromise.

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  3. Why should we yield ground, when twice what we yield (and more, in some LAs) will be taken from us? Surely we'll end up with a better deal if we don't start talking about compromise now.

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  4. Realpolitic might be useful (although it has a chequered history) in international relations, or in party-political dealing. I don't think it's appropriate to enter this territory in terms of the relationship between the electorate and the people to whom they have delegated the task of government.

    The safeguards I mentioned are not just 'abstract talk'. They are embedded in all our laws and for good reason. The outcry every time police are permitted to extend custody without trial or given stop and search powers does not just come from woolly liberals who feel sorry for suspected terrorists or teenagers wandering the streets, but from people who are well aware that if these safeguards are allowed to slip in some cases, they will be allowed to slip in others.

    What needs to be the focus of attention is *why* the government has suddenly got a bee in its bonnet about EHE and what the issues are. I don't think the issues have been coherently set out as yet, and I feel very strongly that legislation in the absence of a defined problem is very ill-advised and a waste of public funds.

    As I said, this isn't about people's opinions about EHE - it's about governance and legislation.

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  5. Why do you think it's inevitable that it will get through in time? The Conservatives threatened to block any new bills announced in the Queens speech, and I've read that the Lord's often take 7 weeks to debate a bill and they've got less than 30 legislative days left before Easter, the most likely date for parliament's dissolution...

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  6. Personally, I hope this is an accurate representation:

    "Take the Children Schools and Families Bill. Like most of the rot she recited, the odds on this becoming law with so few parliamentary days left are similar to those against England winning the World Cup with Darren Bent, Jermaine Jenas, Desert Orchid, Shaun Wright-Philips, Elvis, Matthew Upson and Fatty Soames among the outfield players, and Hattie Jacques fighting Two Ton Tessie O'Shea for the goalkeeper's jersey. This, as with so many eye-catching initiatives of the kind, is its saving grace."

    "And will Mr Balls, who effectively guaranteed that children would leave school numerate and literate, be liable for negligence or breach of contract?"

    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-no-wonder-the-queen-raised-an-eyebrow-while-she-read-it-1823094.html

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  7. I'm interested in this line because we have practically the same constitutional basis for HE with it clearly defined in two separate articles, and yet we have regulations that allow for a greater degree of intrusion/inspection and control as well as provision for invasive evaluation by social services.

    What are the HE community's lawyers specifically utilizing as a legal defense ? Cos it might prove interesting from our POV over here to see how a legal challenge to a tightening of regulation was mounted because I don't doubt at this point that we are going to face the same at some point in the next decade.

    How has the UK HEing community gone about raising funds for the legal challenge ? Or will legal aid be available in the UK ?


    Does the legal defense team/person have a website that they are keeping you all up to date on ? I don't mind doing my own research.

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  8. Simon said: The question is... whether home educating parents wish for the state to impose a system upon them or whether they are prepared to work as partners in devising a scheme which suits both sides.

    No, and no. They haven't got time to get this bill through the Lords, and I'm not interested in cosying up, as I've said before, because I don't trust them.
    What do I have to gain from agreeing to either of these options? What makes you think that they are the *only* options?

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  9. Not sure there is a legal defence team as yet, Sarah, what makes you think there is? Would be interested in contributing to costs if there is.

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  10. So, as I understand it the gneral view of those who visit this Blog is, "No co-operation and complete rejection of the provisons made in the Children, Schools and Families Bill. Is that about right? Nobody here is interested in developing a new model, working together with statutory agencies? I was hoping for some constructive suggestions, but this attitude is also useful to know about.

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  11. Useful to whom?

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  12. Simon said "as I understand it the gneral view of those who visit this Blog is, No co-operation and complete rejection of the provisions made in the Children, Schools and Families Bill"

    Well, in my case it is a bit academic as my dd is now post 16; but although I don't think the new legislation is a "good thing" - because it won't work, will involve more govt interefernce in families lives and will cost money without solving the underlying problems; it will trap the innocent and may be manipulated by the more useless/horrid LAs for their own ends etc etc....I won't be advocating rejection and non cooperation if it does become law.

    There may be some things I might sacrifice my life/family for - but this isn't one of them. I have had the misfortune to witness first hand the effects of non cooperation (when a local family refused LA involvement and ended up with child protection proecceedings ) - the effect of the whole episode on the child was hugely damaging. I am afraid that I find it hard to understand the argument that says that "I wouldn't send my child to school because that would be a terrible experience but I would risk having my children taken into care instead". I am all in favour of making representations now- but if it does becaome law the only sensible thing is for families to keep their heads down and cooperate.

    Here in Hampshire we are trying very hard to find a way of working through all this with the powers that be. We have had open meetings with all the EOTAS area chiefs and on Monday it is the lead Councillor for Childrens Services turn. We have had some positive successes in gaining what we want from the LAs too (eg access to a school lab once a week; removal of confrontational language for standard letters, special needs support) None of that is going to change the legal postion -- but whatever happens in Parliament I hope we are setting up the sort of relationship that makes both families and the LAs more relaxed about negotiation.

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  13. Useful, Anonymous, to those trying to put together a model of how home eduators and local authorities can work together, rather than be in a state of conflict. Pretty much the sort of thing that Julie talks about above.

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  14. "There may be some things I might sacrifice my life/family for - but this isn't one of them. I have had the misfortune to witness first hand the effects of non cooperation (when a local family refused LA involvement and ended up with child protection proecceedings ) - the effect of the whole episode on the child was hugely damaging."

    Do you think the same would apply if the whole HE group in an area refused to co-operate with their LA? Apparently EO groups have successfully opted for non-co-operation when they felt their LA had gone too far.

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  15. "Useful, Anonymous, to those trying to put together a model of how home eduators and local authorities can work together, rather than be in a state of conflict."

    Does it matter yet? Most of the details look as though they will be in the statutory guidance which will come after the law passes (if it does). Did you make any suggestions to modify their initial ideas? Did they listen?

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  16. I have been asked to write some stuff about a possible model for home education in the future, after new legislation has been passed. I wondered if any of the home educating parents here would have anything to contribute, rather than my making it all my own work as it were!

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  17. Yes, most witty and amusing Anonymous! I must confess that I find few things funnier than a picture of a black man in chains; you must have been up all night thinking of that one! So, I can take it that you for one have nothing relevant to add to this debate.....

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  18. "I have been asked to write some stuff about a possible model for home education in the future, after new legislation has been passed."

    Who has asked you to do this? I think people should know who they are working for before they start offering suggestions.

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  19. Well, I'm still chuckling at your image of the enslaved African, Anonymous. I forwarded it to a few people so that they could share the fun, but the response was frankly disappointing. One Caribbean friend was distinctly sniffy about it, remarking that she did not think the deaths of hundreds of thousands of individuals during the African Diaspora in any way comparable to new regulations about education. It just goes to show how po-faced and humourless some people can be! It's political correctness gone mad in my opinion. A jewish guy suggested that an even funnier image might be something from the Holocaust; maybe a photograph of Auschwitz.

    I am not asking anybody to work for anybody else, Anonymous. I was trying to see if any home eduating parents would be prepared to compromise over any of the matters likely to be introduced in the next year or so. Don't worry, I am quite capable of devising such a model myself! I just thought it fair at least to offer the chance for others to have their say and for their views to be taken into account.

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  20. I'm not the same anonymous who sent the link to the picture.

    Why don't you want to say who asked you to do this? Is it a secret?

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  21. Once again, we see the problem when people are afraid to use their own names. I am having trouble following which Anonymous is which. As for home educators views, I am quite content to get them elsewhere and we don't really need to pursue this matter further.

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  22. So it is a secret?

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  23. BTW, you can turn off the anonymous option if it bothers you.

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  24. No it doesn't particularly bother me, it just leads to confusion. No it's not a secret, but I will just use the reactions of some home educators to the Ofsted questionnaires in various local authorities. I think this will give a flavour of how a lot of home educating parents react when asked about their lives and practices.

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  25. "No it's not a secret"

    secret: kept hidden or away from the knowledge of others.

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  26. Of course, you are allowed to keep secrets, but why refuse to admit that it is?

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  27. Where are you going to get your information about the reactions of home educators to the Ofsted questionnaire from?

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  28. You clearly have not been following the thread on this subject on the HE-UK list!

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  29. I hope you are going to ask the permission of the members of HE-UK before you use anything they have written.

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  30. "Faith, hope and charity. And the greatest of these is hope....."

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  31. Just to reassure anybody who is afraid that their views might be taken into account in anything which I am writing. The most that I might do is say something along the lines of, "Some home educating parents might argue..." and then give the gist of some of the objections that parents have voiced here and elsewhere to participating in any research on the subject of home education. I must say candidly that I am utterly foxed by this attitude. I genuinely thought that it would be a good thing to ask other home educators what they felt about certain aspects of the new legislation. Not to worry though, I can manage without this input, I just thought it might make things a bit more balanced, rather than just including what local authority officers are saying.

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  32. I went to an interesting meeting with the councillor in charge of Childrens Services today (with a load of other home educators). He did say that in the opinion of the MP in his area, the legislation wouldn't get passed, but the interesting thing was that every one there wanted a lot more from the LA what ever did or didn't happen re political change. They wanted exam centres, special needs resources, access to funding - along side the need for more training for LA bods etc. There was certainly the feeling that if they had to put up with being known and visited by the LA that was acceptable - they didn't come across as the "happy with not being known and not receiving services" bunch -- even though that most of them have been highly active in the anti review campaign. There was a real desire to get involved with negotiations with the LA at all levels.

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  33. This sounds about right, Julie. The truth is that it is outrageous that home educating parents cannot in general get examinations paid for, access to laboratories and so on. I am guessing that quite a few parents might be prepared to meet local authorities halfway here; perhaps a greater degree of co-operation in exchange for concrete benefits such as free GCSEs and so on.

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  34. Simon,
    What did you think of Lord Lucas' speech on Thursday?
    I must confess, I don't quite understand what you mean by "I think this will give a flavour of how a lot of home educating parents react when asked about their lives and practices". I think most parents wouldn't want to be interrogated and judged on how they raise their children and education is just one part of this. I have to confess that I would be slightly nervous about outlining my educational philosophy for the LA in case they didn't happen to understand or agree with it. Because if they didn't for whatever reason then I wouldn't want to be pushed into dishing up the sort of education I've seen first hand in some schools.

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  35. Some one earlier up this post (one of the anons) did comment about my post about whether anyone would really be (in my opinion) foolish enough to sacrifice their children if we do get lumbered by Badman type inspections. They asked about group resistance- my answer is that although it may appear from the protest groups, especially online, that home educators are united re Badman, there are large groups of people out there who want to compromise when it comes to getting something positive from the haitus - see the post I made about todays meeting. So I don't think that is a practical proposition.

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  36. I think the best approach the government could do in improving home education, would be to forget for the time being any form of registration. Provide the resources in the way of drop in classes for different ability groups (free of charge), exam centres, educational psychologists etc and the other professionals available via schools, and this should be organised by alternative educationalist. Experienced home educators, Steiner, Montesorri experts perhaps. With these resources available home educators would come forward and use them or not. If they were good services they would be used. Home educators will not be pushed around, we are free thinking people, not sheep.

    I am not sure where this would lead, but it might mean more parents took responsibility for their children's education and upbringing, and the whole system might require changing at that stage, with the advent of online schools for example. It might put one of two parents back in the home, out of the workplace. It might improve unemployment figures.

    As a home educator at the moment, threatened with 'compulsary registration' I feel persecuted much as the Jews in Nazi Germany must have felt. This feeling is not conducive with getting any form of working relationship with a council. Frankly I don't trust them. They cannot run an efficient School educational system, what gives them the right to try to improve what people do when they opt out of the system that is not working.

    I have been imprisoned by the sytem while bringing up one child, I am catagorically not prepared to be imprisoned by this rigid system while bringing up a second.

    We must be given choices. Prison is for people who have offended, not for people who feel that they wish to take on the responsibility of bringing up their children, in all facets of their lives.

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  37. I found Lord Lucas' speech interesting, Kate. I found the business about the Ofsted questionnaire intriguing, because here was an organisation actually asking parents about home education and what they are doing. Many people seemed put out about this. There does seem to be opposition to any sort of research about home education, outcomes and practice. I am not sure why this should be.

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  38. Presumably home educators think that there is a hidden agenda to some of the research?

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  39. Kate, I think home educators are intelligent enough to know that research can be biased any way the researcher wishes to present the information. To be honest, I have very strong views but have declined from commenting publicly until this my anonymous post above yours.

    You have to say there is a serious breach of trust in this country now that people do not trust their governments, politicians, councils, LAs and schools. Something is seriously amiss in my opinion.

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  40. The ofsted questionnaire was poorly written and thought out, it asked questions appropriate to a curriculum based education but was very hard for anyone using a different educational system, I find you disingenuous when you say, all wide eyed surprise, 'many people seemed put out about this' as though the matter is so simple. Ofsted proposed all parents and family members who home educate should be crb checked, they were commissioned by the DCSF to survey home education. After Graham Badmans 'independent' report there is a lot of mistrust out there and in my opinion rightly so. Perhaps a genuinely independant review like the scottish consumer council one would be more appropriate. Being surveyed by people with a lifetime of traditional education views is bound to lead to a degree of bias and/or non-understanding.
    Patricia
    p.s I think it is wrong for you to use peoples posts and comments from lists you are no longer a member of especially as you like to use them in an inflammatory way. You frequently say you don't really value the autonomous approach, that is fine but it is not fair for you to use peoples ventings, concerns or views to undermine them that shows your own prejudice and is not an honorable way to conduct yourself.
    p.p.s anonymous is the simplest way to post a comment, it's not about hiding identity

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  41. You've lost me a bit here Patricia. What posts and comments am I using and how?

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  42. The suggestion by Ofsted that HE parents should be CRB checked before being allowed to teach their own children didn't endear them to home educators either.

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  43. We cannot be far from having to be vetted before getting a certificate to allow us to have children in the first place. Will they be chemically sterilising us too to make sure that no undesirables have children.

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  44. I am sure I havn't lost you,
    Mona souny asked
    "Where are you going to get your information about the reactions of home educators to the Ofsted questionnaire from"
    Simon says
    "You clearly have not been following the thread on this subject on the HE-UK list"
    Mona says
    "I hope you are going to ask the permission..."
    Simon says
    " 'Faith, hope and charity. And the greatest of these is hope....' "
    Memory refreshed, as I was saying disingenuous.

    Patricia

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  45. I hardly think that reading people's views on a list and gauging their opinions in this way amounts to, as you said Patricia, "using people's concerns to undermine them". I am trying to establish how some people feel about the question of compromising with local authority requirements. I do not see how this can be seen as, again you put it, using posts and comments in an inflammatory way. The concern expressed on the EO list was that I would quote individuals. I have not the slightest intention of doing so.

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  46. It's a matter of strategy, isn't it? Talk of compromise at this stage weakens our position. If and when the battle is lost, that's the time to talk about compromising. Anyone would think you wanted to weaken our position, Simon. But as you're an ex-home educator, that surely can't be true.

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  47. The most charitable thing I can say, Anonymous, is that this comment does not perhaps display your intelligence to best advantage. Showing a willingness to engage with the DCSF, Ofsted and local authorities will not weaken your position but strengthen it. If you present to various statutory bodies as some species of weird cult, and I have to tell you that this is precisely the impression that many autonomous home educators are currently giving, then you will find harsh regulations being imposed unilaterally by those who find your whole attitude a little suspicious. If, on the other hand, you show yourselves willing to negotiate and discuss new arrangements like rational people, this will allay uneasiness and persuade others that you are reasonable individuals to be taken seriously.
    However, as you so rightly point out, I am no longer a full time home educators and so it is really nothing at all to me. You must do as seems good to you. If you imagine for a moment though, that I am anything other than very strongly committed to the rights of parents to educate their own children, you are making a grave mistake.

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  48. And the most charitable thing I can say, since I don't like resorting to personal insults, is that what you've just said is purely a matter of opinion and that mine disagrees with yours.

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  49. Simon Webb's evidence to the Commons CSF Committee appeared to be an attack on a large number of home educators. Does he claim incompetence to defend himself against the charge of malice?

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  50. Could you be a little more specific, kenm? I actually said about a twentieth as much as any of the others giving evidence that day. What was the attack upon a large number of home educators? I might have forgotten this.

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  51. Well, kenm, I have been re-reading the transcript. As I say, I actually said very little. Perhaps you are referring to this bit;

    "As far as autonomous education goes, the problem is that we know that conventional teaching works pretty well with most children, and that it fails some of them. We do not know the same about autonomous education. It is possible that it is very successful with a few, and that a few will get to Oxford, but it might fail more than it succeeds with. That is why there is a need for more research."

    I hardly think that this is an attack on a large number of home educators! Tell us more, I am genuinely intrigued by this accusation.

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  52. Simon, You posted:
    "Most of our legislature will hardly notice the few paragraphs which introduce registration and monitoring of home educators. Those who do spot them will probably approve".

    This is precisely the devious way in which the government is trying to push through a bill, unnoticed and unhindered, to restrict and box, free thinking and caring parents. Thousands of pounds are in line to be spent on monitoring home educators. Families who chose to follow autonomous education outside of the school system have no intention of being policed and measured by an antiquated and draconian system that was intended for schools. We are not schooling our children, we are educating them. If we wanted them schooled, we would have them in school system! When home educated children reach college/work/university age, they enter the system as they wish, with a free thinking and joyous approach to continue their learning experience and to contribute to the world around them. How our children reach that point, quite frankly is no business of the governments! Money would be way better spent on tackling child abuse and not attacking innocent families, who are trying to get on with their lives. I have never voted conservative in my life .... but this time for sure. The labour government have just gone too far. Every single aspect of our lives is in danger of being controlled and monitored. Now the government is trying to usurp the rightful role of the parent. Margaret Thatcher, for all her faults had it about right .... "nanny state"! But, that is putting it mildly.

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  53. If you are trying to gauge how people feel about compromising with their LEA, I personally do not mind, as long as the person opposite me listen to me and judge my family case on its own merits. I homeschool my children because I do not want them to have a childhood free of pre-concived ideas (ok, they do get mine, but honestly, I do try to be fair and open minded ). They have been learning at their own pace, and now, one of them is fully tri-lingual at the age of 9 and the other one is bi-lingual at the age of 7, reading, writing and understanding. I believe they achieved this because I gave them my time. My son was not a fluent reader until the age of seven and half. What do you think would have happen if an inspector came and thought I was not doing a good job? this is the only reservation I have, regarding assessing families and children on their abilities, because some LEA officers themselves will take their book, look at it, tick the relevant case, but no explanations will be given why a child is not able to do this or that. Myself, when I was at school, I was brillant at literacy, history and geography but very bad at maths because I did not like it and was not interested and never had a good teacher to change my mind about it (and it seems my children are following me suit on this). But what will happen to home educated children if they are not more than average on every subject? Will the LEA officer see that some children have preferences? and better abilities at some subjects than others? that it does not mean the parents are not teaching them well or neglecting their education? or will s/he just make a report that the child in behind in such and such subject ? If they want to be fair, then the parents should have the same kind of OFSTEAD inspection that the schools have, three yearly basis, and a real report, with their strength, their weakness, how they can improve in some areas, what they excel at. I think the parents would feel less intimated or angry if they were treated as professionals and not as cow boys botching their jobs. My own two cents on the matter, and apologies for any typos and english grammar mistakes, English being my additional (3rd) language!
    Anisah

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  54. ooopss, sorry, I did make a bad typo, I meant in the 5th line of my previous post: I do want my children to have a childhood free of pre-conceived ideas...''

    NOT : I do not want my children to have a childhood free of pre-concieved idea..

    lol, that would be bad and I hope you have spotted the typo and knew what I meant (i did preview though....)
    regards

    Anisah

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