Wednesday, February 18, 2009

From 33452

...comes one of the most concise and sensible takes on the Home Education Review to date.

If you don't have time to write a lengthy response to the consultation, I would fill it in as quick as you can and simply include the point that is made in the 33's penultimate paragraph.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Got my response done and my two older children have done so too. One of the mums in my home ed group is going to leave it to tomorrow so she can adjust her answers as more info comes in. She wants to give them an ear bashing I think :)

Adele said...

Thanks. :)

Anonymous said...

well said - and 60 visits to baby P failed to detect abuse, so what exacly do they expect to achieve

Dani said...

Yes, I think that is what they want. I think some of the other recommendations from the review will be:
- prior consent from the LA before deregistration from school (as in Scotland)
- compulsory registration of HE kids who haven't been to school

I think this is partly about trying to slow down the increase in HE, by building into the system as many opportunities as possible to intimidate people out of it. Especially the "wrong type" of people.

I don't think they are planning to go as far as insisting on HEers following a curriculum, taking SATs, etc.

I think we need to put our arguments clearly and strongly, but we shouldn't get carried away. We will demotivate ourselves if we start to believe that all is doomed and we will be slung in jail before we can say "John Holt".

I also think that the review is quite likely to be window dressing, and we might be wise to save some energy for the fight against future proposed legislative changes...

Carlotta said...

Hi Dani,

Yes, I think what you and 33 propose are the most likely outcomes, but I wouldn't rule out the more extreme situation, for the reason that the reviewers have said that they want to establish what a suitable education is, and that this determination in itself, irrespective of whether a specific curricula and/or exams are imposed, would mean that people risk ending up in jail.

For me, thinking about worst case scenarios can work several ways: it means that I stop having a lurking dread that there is something I haven't considered - I now know and have considered the worst possible outcome and have prepared myself for it one way or the other; it doesn't demotivate me, rather it makes me work all the harder; and the other point is that I want the reviewers to know that I am prepared to take drastic action to protect what I know to be right. They will have the destruction of perfectly satisfactory families on their hands should they dare to push a definition of suitability through in legislation or via statutory instrument.