I have rolled my eyes so many times over the past year that I now have muscles on my eye balls!!
Why oh why oh why do we keep on hearing the same old garbage, the same "concerns" from people who don't understand Home Education? Why don't they get themselves informed with the facts? Why, when they are given the facts and pointed in the direction of the actual truth, do they still prefer to believe people who have no proper knowledge of what it's all about?
Graham Badman was on a mission....not to give an unbiased and fair report on Home Education but to misdirect everyone and give them false statistics and misinformation and downright lies, so that they too, would agree that Home Educators are not to be trusted.
There must be something strange about a parent who wants to be with their child all the time and not send them to school.....I mean how can that be normal? School isn't supposed to be "fun"...you have to go and endure it and "learn" the things that you are "taught" and follow the rules and unquestioningly follow like sheep, jumping through the hoops and getting pieces of paper to prove that you know certain things.....but not everything that you have been taught...no...it has to be a bit like a pub quiz...so hopefully you will remember the answer to that particular question on that particular day. AND as soon as you have passed the test/quiz, it doesn't much matter if you ever remember it again or ever have the need to dredge up that bit of information in your "real" life!!!
Now don't get me wrong, I want the doctor that operates on my brain to have passed exams....in much the same way as I want the plumber to mend my pipes rather than just guess at what they are doing and possibly flood the house....maybe the brain surgery should take a bit longer to learn ;) I am a reasonable woman, I do appreciate that we need to learn things and have some proof that we actually do know how to do something and are suitably qualified....so it's not that with which I have the problem...it's the methods!!
Anyway, I am a fervent believer in autonomous education and natural learning and have faith that any child will learn more in a happy environment and that a happy child will also learn to be a happy adult. I believe all children have potential but I don't think a "one size for all" education is the best way. That's why we chose HE or should I say EHE [E for elective as in we made the decision!!]. It's legal and it works...so where is the problem?
If you believe that school is the best place to learn then I will not try and convince you otherwise, so don't try and convince me that EHE is not the best choice for my family.
Please don't try and convince me that a child can only learn to be sociable at school......at school a child learns to cope with the society of school......but since compulsory schooling came about, the "grown up" world has become more like school........it's a bit like art imitating life or life imitating art.......but unlike the chicken and egg thing, it's definite that adult life imitates school. The problem is that the "real world" is not school....we rarely ever find ourselves in the same sort of situations that we were in at school because it is an unnatural atmosphere. So using the "tools" we acquired at school to cope in the "real" world, means that we are just following like sheep again.......it's a disaster!!
Right, so back to what I really want to say...........almost exclusively, the reason for taking children out of school in order to educate them or never sending them in the first place is that as parents, we feel that this is the best thing for the child! The only "concerns" I have ever had were for children who were being "hothoused" or pushed to succeed in their education by sometimes over entusiastic parents. The need to do a better job than school or to prove that their child is a genius, can sometimes get in the way of an effective education but in the worst case scenario, this is not much different to a school education.....and certainly never with the intention of harming the child. BUT then of course there had to be something worse that we might be intending to do to our children....even if it was only a tiny minority, wouldn't it be better to monitor all children rather than let one single child be harmed.......sounds reasonable when you say it like that and that is what has been pushed through the media and nobody is listening to anything else!!!
Never mind that the present legislation is perfectly adequate to cope with any child safety issues....no no no.......the general public needs to be frightened into believing that a EHE child is a hidden child and that because of this they are in mortal danger. If someone has the intention to harm their own child, they "might" take their child out of school and they "might" keep them hidden and they "might" not allow any officials into their homes to make sure the children are OK.........but these are all matters for social services not the local authority education services!!!!! A child can go to school every day and be seen by lots of people and still suffer abuse at ahome....why did they set up childline? BECAUSE abuse is hidden and short of putting CCTV in every room of everyone's house, how on earth could we make sure that it didn't go on......the NSPCC are not going to succeed with their "Full Stop" campaign.......they are not tackling it from the right angle nor are they dealing with it in the right way....but I digress!! So, what does this imply with regard to EHE...... that if a child who is EHE is seen on a regular basis, then as long as no sign of abuse is detected, then that child is safe? I don't believe for a millisecond that that is why they want to come into homes.....I believe it is because they do not feel as if they have enough control.....the state does not have control over the education of our children atm....we are primarily responsible for their education and the majority choose to delegate to school. As with private schools, if you EHE you do not have to follow the national curriculum and because of this, it is unrealistic for the "progress" of your child be compared to the NC....especially if you are autonomous [tried and "tested" and successful according to statistics!]. There are, however a large number of people who legally have deregistered their children from school for such reasons as bullying or problems with the way they were being taught etc. Many of these parents are happy to do "school at home" type work or at least adhere in some part to the NC but to insist that they be "tested" to see if their children are making the necessary progess and if not to order them back to school is ridiculous as we all know that schools fail many children and so are not any "better" than EHE. Many LAs are either against or do not encourage EHE and inspectors/visitors tend to make people nervous of home visits which is why they have opted for alternatives........not to hide from the authorities but they don't wish to be judged in such a negative way. The qualifications required for people who do visit EHE families seem to be very unclear and certainly in order to get an ubiased view of EHE families, it would seem necessary for these individuals to understand what EHE is all about and understand the different styles of EHE........but this doesn't seem to be in the criteria when employing individuals sadly :((( Some LAs are and always have been supportive of EHE and realise that these children are unlikely to have any concerns with regard to their safety and welfare BUT if they did have concerns they would be able to voice them to the appropriate department. The Educational Welfare Officers are often wrongly sent to monitor EHE families.....they really only need to visit those who have had problems eg. turancy and to make sure that the family have no other concerns or worries or that it was felt that the reason for the child being EHE was simply to avoid the parents being procecuted for allowing their child to truant. In any event, their action is supposed to be to help and support the family and to ensure that the child doesn't go without an education.
At present under the legislation in place, children are safeguarded by social services and any concerns that are brought to their notice are followed up by visits to the home. A good social worker will get to know the family and help them in any way they can. Sadly because of the shortage of trained social workers and the lack of funding etc. the service that they provide is not always what we would expect or desire. This is the area in which money needs to be spent....not on needless monitoring of EHE families.
Finally......*sigh of relief*....let's be clear that anyone can say they are home educating [or home schooling ] but in order to do it legally you need to send in a letter of deregistration to the school who are legally obliged ot inform the LA, who will contact you and enquire about your EHE plans etc. Just keeping your child at home is not legal, so that means that any child who is not in school without a reasonable excuse, should be seen as truanting and therefore should be seen by the appropriate authorities to resolve the situation. It's hardly rocket science and if this system is failing, as it clearly is, then it is blindingly obvious that the problem is not with the EHE community but with the way that the authorities deal with problems of non-attendance and child welfare and safety issues.....they are seperate aren't they? We all agree they are seperate don't we?
Right.......rant over......that feels a bit better.....for now....I have so much going on in my poor little head.....AND let's remember....my son is 20, at college and not affected by this but I am sooooooooooooooooo angry about the false messages circulating in the media that I fear for my friends who are caught up in it all :(((((
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