Firebird nails it here.
If this isn't enough to annoy you, we've just heard via a letter to the Independent that a home educator is a
"part of a home education group, and we have been told by the council that all the adults will need a CRB check, though no one is in loco parentis because the parents of all the children are present."
Get to the mass lobby if you can!
Even if everything in this post is true (and these days, there is no reason to doubt any of it), we all need to consider a few facts:
ReplyDelete1 If you do not register, they cannot even start any of their operations on you and your family.
2 The Tories are going to end all of this. Even if they do not, you should not obey anything that they say.
3 By all means, go to the mass lobby, sing songs, blow bubbles and draw pictures, but remember; if they ignore you (and in all probability they will) you need to be psychologically prepared for this and to be ready to enter into civil disobedience mode.
Part of the HE 'communitie's' problem is that they consistently look to the government to protect their rights. The government will let you down every time, and it seems no matter how many times they do it, or what abuse they dish out, the HE crowd goes back for more.
This government is completely illegitimate and corrupt. The more you put your faith in its ability to right itself, the tighter you fasten the noose around your children's necks. Your faith in democracy and the good will of government is your greatest failing, and will be your downfall if you do not wake up and take the correct measures to protect your families.
The end result of going to the government is going to be precisely nothing. They are going to push through the 'end of parenting' agenda if they can, no matter what letters you write, what submissions you make, what MP or haughty lord you appeal to.
I do not like the situation that the HE families are in, and I do not want to give the impression that there is nothing that anyone can do to stop this persecution, but I do know one thing for sure; appealing to the abusers is not going to end the abuse of you and your family.
Your last point is actually one of the reasons I like the lobby idea. To me, a rabble of diverse individuals who clearly think for themselves and don't defer to authority, pitching up on a lawn outside the houses, well, it sends a certain message - we are not appealing to them so much as giving notice of intent to remain resolute in the face of oppression and to do everything we can to provide our children with an education that is genuinely suited to their needs, is not state-mandated and which equips them to critique government and hold it to account.
ReplyDeleteTo me, a rabble of diverse individuals who clearly think for themselves and don't defer to authority, pitching up on a lawn outside the houses, well, it sends a certain message
ReplyDeleteIt sends a message to the police: ARREST THESE PEOPLE.
Unless you can specify precisely how this lobby is going to make them back off, it is a waste of time. Its like lobbying to stop a leaking sink; if your sink is leaking, you call a plumber, you do not lobby the water to "please stop flowing and flooding my kitchen".
- we are not appealing to them so much as giving notice of intent to remain resolute in the face of oppression and to do everything we can to provide our children with an education that is genuinely suited to their needs, is not state-mandated and which equips them to critique government and hold it to account.
The problem is, you can give all the notice you like ( If you want to make a real point, you should do it in writing from a lawyer, to each and every MP telling them that you will not under any circumstances obey) once you get home, the LA will still pursue you and your family. Giving notice in this way will achieve absolutely nothing.
We already know that you are doing everything you can to provide your children with an education that is genuinely suited to their needs. That is why you are Home Educating. What this is about is the government's requirement that you STOP doing that, and what you are going to do to STOP THEM from interfering with you.
Critiquing government is useful up to a point, and we have gone way past that point. We are now at the stage where the state will soon use violence to stop you from Home Educating. They will come to your house, break your door down and kidnap your children. No critique, lobbying, letter writing, appeals to the Lords, tearful appeals, song writing, letters to the editor or anything like that will help you when the police are invading your home.
That is the entire point of my comment.
Once again, by all means, lobby parliament. It is your time, and your right to freely gather associate for whatever purpose you like. But whatever you do, I recommend that you do not harbour any illusions about what effect this mass lobby will have. It will achieve nothing, just as demonstrations against more serious abuses (mass murder in foreign countries) have.
"It sends a message to the police: ARREST THESE PEOPLE."
ReplyDeleteHi Anon, (am assuming both anon comments are from same source), isn't this exactly your point though? We will be arrested when we enter into civil disobedience mode, many of us have talked about it already on many of the lists, and as you suggest above, I think this is part of the message that this lobby is likely to give off.
OK, so this lobby is legal, but it gives the message that it isn't and that we are prepared to stand up for what is right, and not necessarily for what is legal.
It seems to be also that point 2 in your first comment conflicts with your fourth paragraph in the same comment? If point 2 is to be believed, then it would not seem unreasonable to lobby those of libertarian instinct in the Tory party?
For the record, we are not at all clear that the Tories are going to end this. Whilst Cameron's office seemed to suggest that they would, there was a more recent missive from Michael Gove's office which stated that registration and monitoring of home educators would happen under a Tory government too.
So sigh, bring on the hand-cuffs.
Regarding your first point, Anon no 1, it is worth remembering that Badman proposed that failure to register a child as home educated or failure to supply adequate information will be a criminal offence. As most of HEors are highly visible and we cannot rely on ContactPoint to completely screw up and miss us, it might not be the case that
ReplyDelete"they cannot even start any of their operations on you and your family".
Another Anon
Point 2 says "even if they do not, you should not obey anything that they say" so there is no conflict. If the Tories reverse the Labour insanity, then we will all be spared violent confrontation. If they do not, we will have violent confrontation. I am not relying in any way or putting any faith in a Tory government, because either way I am not obeying under any circumstances
ReplyDeleteIf you want to send a message, send it in writing, unambiguously. You say, "...to me a rabble...". Well, this is the problem; to many MPs, most of whom are authoritarian by nature, a rabble looks like... a rabble; something to be put down, controlled and dealt with.
People who are organized, who use solicitors, who can run campaigns, and who can issue threats by these means are serious people to whom a serious response will be given. Part of the problem HE people refuse to face is that everyone does not understand the world the way they do. YOU might think that a rabble represents something, and everyone else might think another opposite thing; sadly, the MPs almost to a man, think HE is a waste of childhood and dangerous. This mass lobby will not be effective in dispelling these misconceptions, especially if the participants turn up in the form of a 'rabble'.
Furthermore, after you do this 'mass lobby' how will you know that you were successful? How are you going to measure the effectiveness of this campaign? How will you know how many MPs you reached?
I'm sure that I am jumping the gun in asking these questions, as I am not going along to this rabble powered mass lobbying event, and that you have written down somewhere how you are going to measure the effect of what you are doing. I'm just asking.
And please do not take my observations personally; I am worried sick about the future of HE and my children's future in this increasingly fascist country. Every day we read about an even more ridiculous regulation or law, and now we hear that ireland has voted FOR the treaty, meaning that the EU and its anti HE stance will gain even more traction in the UK.
In times like these, talk of lobbying and rabbles sounds quaint... but more power to you, and I sincerely hope you prove me 10000% wrong.
It would make for a welcome change of news!