A blog which is mainly about home educating in the UK.
Monday, August 14, 2006
The Home Educator's Town Square Test
Home educated Lulie stands up for what she believes in and wonders whether Britain is really a free society. Hmmm...looks like the jury might be still out on that one.
I think homeschooling is a valid learning strategy only if used in conjunction with other strategies like individual self learning goals, and yes, public education.
Many home educators could not see the point of public education, since either their children would be so miserable there that they wouldn't learn effectively, or they would find that it conflicts with their principles of learning and/or their political persuasion, or that it would simply be a waste of time because you can learn so much more effectively with personalised learning and the internet or some other such similar resource.
What would be your argument in support of homeschoolers using public schools?
”If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a ‘fear society’ has finally won their freedom.”
I concur with David but would add that despite the blog in question being pro US; the 'land of the free' is far more restrictive than most European countries.
For instance in the US it is illegal, in some states to do the following:
Let the flag touch anything beneath it: ground, floor, water.
Fasten or display it in a way that will permit it to be damaged or soiled.
Use it as wearing apparel, bedding or drapery.
In Illinois some of the above could cost you 1-3 years in jail and up to a $25,000 fine.
Looks like Lulie should be glad she lives in the UK nad not the US, where she might have been charged.
Hmmm...am quite sure that we could come up with quite a selection of absurd restrictions that are legislated for in Europe, if only I were calm enough to think about it for just one second.
I suppose the main question is...is one likely to be stopped and hassled for actually doing this?
Of course, GB is damn brilliant in this regard: we are as likely to be left alone as anywhere in the world, but as always there are areas, such as the one Lulie addressed, where we could be going very wrong: the problem of ill-explained anti-Israeli feeling and has a significant impact upon the moral perspective of this nation.
Personally, I wouldn't go anywhere in a Conservative t-shirt. It's just wrong.
A short-sleeved shirt with the little torch insignia over the left breast pocket, perhaps - in my home town, that would have had rose petals at your feet - but not a t-shirt.
If you take out 'fear of violence' from the test, then maybe you could get somewhere. But people are still attacked for being the wrong colour/having the wrong accent, let alone actually professing a belief.
Still, I look forward to Lulie's further investigations into the Pope's religious affiliations, and the toileting habits of bears.
7 comments:
I think homeschooling is a valid learning strategy only if used in conjunction with other strategies like individual self learning goals, and yes, public education.
I wrote about three main reasons why parents homeschool their kids at http://selflearn.blogspot.com/
Many home educators could not see the point of public education, since either their children would be so miserable there that they wouldn't learn effectively, or they would find that it conflicts with their principles of learning and/or their political persuasion, or that it would simply be a waste of time because you can learn so much more effectively with personalised learning and the internet or some other such similar resource.
What would be your argument in support of homeschoolers using public schools?
”If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a ‘fear society’ has finally won their freedom.”
Then no country is presently free.
I concur with David but would add that despite the blog in question being pro US; the 'land of the free' is far more restrictive than most European countries.
For instance in the US it is illegal, in some states to do the following:
Let the flag touch anything beneath it: ground, floor, water.
Fasten or display it in a way that will permit it to be damaged or soiled.
Use it as wearing apparel, bedding or drapery.
In Illinois some of the above could cost you 1-3 years in jail and up to a $25,000 fine.
Looks like Lulie should be glad she lives in the UK nad not the US, where she might have been charged.
Hmmm...am quite sure that we could come up with quite a selection of absurd restrictions that are legislated for in Europe, if only I were calm enough to think about it for just one second.
I suppose the main question is...is one likely to be stopped and hassled for actually doing this?
Of course, GB is damn brilliant in this regard: we are as likely to be left alone as anywhere in the world, but as always there are areas, such as the one Lulie addressed, where we could be going very wrong: the problem of ill-explained anti-Israeli feeling and has a significant impact upon the moral perspective of this nation.
Personally speaking I wouldn't go out in my local town centre with a Conservative t-shirt on.
Personally, I wouldn't go anywhere in a Conservative t-shirt. It's just wrong.
A short-sleeved shirt with the little torch insignia over the left breast pocket, perhaps - in my home town, that would have had rose petals at your feet - but not a t-shirt.
If you take out 'fear of violence' from the test, then maybe you could get somewhere. But people are still attacked for being the wrong colour/having the wrong accent, let alone actually professing a belief.
Still, I look forward to Lulie's further investigations into the Pope's religious affiliations, and the toileting habits of bears.
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