tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57915687953601263792024-03-07T14:17:23.404+00:00Dutchess Discloses53 year old Dutch woman - living in England since 2003, mother of 3 (d21, s19, d15), married (happily, most of the time), devoted to autonomous education and living, intuitive/common sense parenting and making the most of each moment in a sort of Zen way - blogs to keep track of herself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-83218720035257607622010-11-17T17:40:00.001+00:002010-11-17T23:32:25.694+00:00Is Cumbria LA showing BadManners?Cumbria has for a long time been a county with a well functioning EHE (Elective Home Education) department within the LA, headed by Marie Barnes, who is both approachable and knowledgeable about EHE and alternative education. Thanks to her positive attitude and the hard work of local home educators in years gone by, the EHE department was well informed about both the legal and educational aspects of home education. Their website and leaflets held adequate legal information and referred to existing home educating networks and contact details.<br />
It wasn't quite paradise, with still the odd occasion of door-stepping and intimidating behaviour by SS, EWO's or other insufficiently informed civil servants, but once people found their way to the EHE Department or a well informed fellow home educator, matters could be addressed and redressed.<br />
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However, things are changing. Rapidly. For all <a href="http://www.home-education.biz/news/24/15/Balls-Bill%20shrunk-in-the-wash-up/">Balls' CSF Bill got drowned in the wash-up</a> and Badman's Review made its way into history deservedly labelled as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badman_Review">'rushed, badly researched, disproportionate and offering little in the way of evidence to justify his recommendations'</a>, a substantial amount of damage was caused. And while we were kept busy with Badman, DCSF managed to sneak CME Guidance 2009 in - more or less creating the hole in the wall for the <a href="http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2010/10/no-new-guidance-for-he-until-youve.html">back door to registration</a>. The consequences are now noticeable all through the country. Even in our beautiful and reputedly laid-back Cumbria. <br />
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Jayne Richardson, local contact for home education in Cumbria remarked: <i>'In the last four months I've had more complaints from home educators about ultra vires behaviour by Education Welfare Officers and CME (Children Missing Education) officers, than in the four years previous.'<br />
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And it's not going to get less. A few days ago we were informed that, following the recent spending review, Cumbria County Council have terminated the contracts of all external consultants, which means that the three well trained, experienced and mostly well liked <i>Home Visitors</i> of the EHE Team are out of a job. To our relief Marie Barnes is still in post, and the EHE Department remains under the remit of the School Improvement Team, rather than Education Welfare. Marie is now facing the task of quickly putting a new team together, recruiting from people currently working as School Improvement Officers. We trust she will try and choose open minded people, but we know for a fact that it takes more than a day's training to acquire a good understanding of EHE, and to appreciate the huge difference with the school system. <br />
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I have been attempting to help Jayne with the increasing amount of work coming her way as a consequence of the changing attitude, and the picture I'm getting about the current situation is rather worrying. <br />
Here are some examples of what I've witnessed in the past five or six months:<br />
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* Home educators have been door-stepped by EWO's, in some cases accompanied by police, after a visit to A&E and/or other health care providers, where they were asked which school the child went to and had answered to be home educators. We are very concerned that the question is asked in the first place, and that it might lead to people hesitating to seek help when they need it.<br />
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* We were told that visits to new home educators are being increased, because the LA have reason to believe that schools are advising 'badly performing' students and students with attendance issues to deregister and home educate, to avoid legal procedures. Apparently some schools even assist in drawing up deregistration letters. The LA feel this issue needs to be addressed under CME Guidance. Am I the only one who thinks this problem has nothing whatsoever to do with home education, but lies entirely with the school system and should be addressed there?<br />
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* The above behaviour has a negative effect, not only on existing home educators, but especially on people who deregister to home educate because for various reasons they have decided it will provide their child(ren) with a more suitable education. In one particular case I think the decision to deregister may have saved the child's health, if not its life. <br />
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* Newly deregistering people are being told that the LA <i>'has to offer a visit within 14 days'</i>. This may be their policy, but it certainly isn't required by law. It is completely ignoring the often traumatising experiences and the processes that people have gone through to come to the conclusion that deregistering and home educating is the best possible choice to make in their situation. The official excuse is that they want to offer these people the <a href="http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/eLibrary/Content/Internet/537/694/38701103758.pdf">'Home Education Package'[opens PDF]</a> as soon as possible, to make them aware of the existing networks and contacts. I see absolutely no reason why they can't send these packages in the post. <br />
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* This 'Home Education Package' that the EWO presents newly deregistered home educators with, contains a form called <a href="http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/eLibrary/Content/Internet/537/694/3870110404.pdf">'Notification of Elective Home Education (Form HE2)' [opens PDF]</a>, which they kindly ask you to return. You have to read the enclosed leaflet to know that you are not legally required to do anything, but that it would help [the LA] considerably if you were to complete the form, or write to the Director of Children's Services instead. Everything is geared towards getting people on the books.<br />
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* We have found that in spite of an official deregistration letter, children are kept on the school roll. When asked, we were told that this was done because they didn't want people to lose their place, when after a 'cooling off' period they decided they'd made the wrong choice and wanted the child to go back to school. How patronising is that?<br />
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* The travellers' community is often brought in as a reason for employing CME Guidance. Surely we must understand that those children are missing education? I have not enough insight into the travellers' community, nor into that of Hasidic Jews or others who have ways and beliefs different to mine, to pass any judgment on them at all. But generally I'd say that they have as much right to raise and educate their children according to their own customs and values as you and I have. Or are supposed to have, anyway.<br />
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Time and again I am shocked that, rather than recognising there is something structurally wrong with the school system and considering that maybe schools are not providing suitable education, these civil servants choose to doubt the ability of parents to decide on the best suitable education for their children. And what makes them the expert on OUR children?<br />
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The biggest shock to my system, however, came when Jayne and I were invited to talk about home education at a training session for Local Authority's Children's Services Staff - most of them were EWO's, who also 'did' CME. I was taken aback by their limited knowledge about the daily practise and reality of home education. I had expected to discuss EHE legislation, but instead we were answering basic - and prejudiced - questions about socialisation, qualifications, covering the curriculum, suitability of parents as teachers, etcetera. Yes, they knew that home education was a legal option and it was the parents' responsibility to provide a suitable education, but it took some talking to convince them - if we managed at all - that home educated children were by definition NOT missing education. <br />
Having said that, I do appreciate that we were given the chance to explain our way of life and education from our point of view. And I hope we will be able to keep the lines of communications open, because I sincerely believe that the only hope we have of solving the lack of insight and knowledge, and breaking through the barriers of prejudice, is to educate, educate and educate.<br />
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We happened to be there on the day the budget cuts were announced and the woman who ran the session explained that everybody was tense, because they weren't sure how safe their jobs were. When we were leaving she gave us some brochures and a draft document of the Council's Policy on Children Missing Education. (A document, by the way, that the previous government asked them to draw up. I haven't yet read through it thoroughly, but up to now I don't see the change in attitude towards civil liberties and freedom that we were promised under the coalition, reflected.) Apart from announcing that we were probably not going to like what we read in there, she also commented: <i>'At least CME keeps us in work.'<br />
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That last statement brought home the reality of the situation home educators are facing, not only in Cumbria, but throughout the whole of England. The Civil Service, expanded to monstrous proportions under NuLabour, is undergoing huge cuts and trim-backs from the current government. So are quango's, such as NSPCC and other institutions who, horribly, exist because of cruelty and abuse of children. If they want to survive, they will have to prove their right to existence. For that, they will have to achieve, produce numbers, be seen to act. <br />
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At a meeting with the EHE department and the Strategic Development Officer CME last June, we were presented with statistics showing a huge increase in numbers of Cumbrian home educated children 'known to Social Services'. To this day we haven't received the requested clarification and specification of the numbers, but I hazard a guess that these were very <a href="http://ahed.pbworks.com/w/page/1553033/LiesDamnedLiesStatistics">'Badmannered' stats</a>. They'll have included, for instance, children with special (educational) needs, who've applied for certain services, or families who've been involved with Social Services for other reasons than child welfare issues. Also, if in a family with four children one is known because of special needs, there will automatically be four ticks in boxes. <br />
<b>'Known to Social Services' most definitely does not equal 'At Risk'.</b> <br />
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I'm sure quite a few people in Children's Services are personally nice people, and some of them even have the best intentions. Or think they have the best of intentions. Because how very badly informed are they to justify the existence of CME by saying, as one of them did (echoing the likes of Graham Badman): 'You must agree that as long as it saves one child, it is worth it, isn't it?'<br />
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No, I don't agree. Not at all. Because I know for a fact that while you're out trying to save your job and looking for that one child to save, you're damaging and possibly destroying the life of many, many others - and their families. <br />
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And do you, professionals, really need me to point out that as a matter of fact there are sufficient mechanisms in, for example, the Children Act, for Social Services to get involved <i>if there are grounds for concern</i>. <br />
And while we're pointing fingers, I'm assuming you know that the inquiries into high profile cases such as Climbie, Ishaq and Spry found that there definitely were plenty of grounds for concern – as well as full access given to the children for any professional who asked for it. So much for the theory that 'official visits prevent abuse'. In all cases it was found that the officers in question had enough information to take sufficient preventative action under the law as it stood then, but chose not to take it.<br />
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So excuse me, while I dive into the <a href="http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/2010/10/it-wont-stop-there-though-will-it-cme.html">mess that is English legislation surrounding education - and specifically home education.</a> Excuse me, while I talk to my MP and other politicians to point out that in exercising the current legislation not only money, but quality of life and possibly life itself is being wasted. Excuse me, if I don't sit around waiting for others to try and secure themselves a living, whatever side of the fence they're on. Excuse me if I don't read or listen to endless ramblings that distract from the main issue, which is: <br />
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<b>The urgent need to secure the freedom to home educate.</b> <br />
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And as long as we provide our children with an education suitable to age, ability and aptitude and all special educational needs they may have - and as long as there is an 'absence of due concern' - we want to get on with it, <b>without state interference</b>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-89208600595564017232010-03-31T14:32:00.000+01:002010-03-31T14:32:08.003+01:00About passion and politics - an answer to Graham Stuart's comment<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graham Stuart commented on my previous post:</span><br />
<blockquote><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Really good piece and thank you for your kind words. In my defence I didn't criticise emotion I just suggested that Neil's letter had more emotion than insight. It was passionate and angry, which is fine, but seemed (to me) to allow that to obscure the need to fight off the immediate threat from Balls' plans. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps on a separate note I think we do have a functioning democracy which we should treasure and appreciate especially as so many others are subject to oppression and lack what we should hold dear. Of course it's not perfect but non-participation starves our democracy of what it most needs which is more good, honest people who will ensure that we remain a humane and decent society that can respect minorities including home educators.</span></blockquote><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My response to that comment was so long, that I thought I'd better blog it as a separate post:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graham, I realise you weren't directly criticising emotions, the mentioning of them just triggered something in me. "Being emotional" has been used against home educators by e.g. Badman, Baroness Deech, Coaker, and others.</span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good that you mention passion. That's what I recognise in you. Passion is what drives me and it's the reason why a lot of home educators can do what they do, in spite of all attempts to stop us.</span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Passion and good old fashioned raw anger are a healthy breeding ground for creativity, for constructive development. I recognise the passion with which you want to make sure Balls et al don't return to office, and I applaud it and would not want to obscure or stand in the way of that. I think you do what you do - being a politician - with a passion and I wouldn't dream of telling you to stop doing it, or even to do it differently. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn't sign the petition at the time. My signature - much the same as my vote - represents me, and me is all I've got to give. So I don't give it easily, and certainly not thoughtlessly. I very much believe in living in the moment and I try as much as possible to stay away from "what if" discussions. At the time of the petition I was left with too many questions and doubts. Also, I was - and I still am - of the opinion that politics is not the only answer to problems. So my decision at the time was to not sign. I still think that was the right decision to make, at the time. But I also think the petition was a massive success and raised a lot of awareness about EHE amongst politicians. I can live with the fact that I am not always (*wink*) contributing to the good and successful things in society, in life.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this moment I do - contrary to you - not see a functioning democracy. I of course base this on my own, limited, knowledge and observations. And it has everything to do with what I hold dear, such as mutual respect for people's uniqueness and autonomy, equality, compassionate care for each other and the world we live in, freedom of choice, freedom of education, freedom of religion, etcetera. </span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This to my mind incredible process of the "wash up" denies and ridicules all principles of democracy. It would of course be wonderful if the CSF Bill disappears in the wash up, but it will have disappeared for the wrong reasons, not as the result of a fair democratic process. And who knows, maybe it goes through, or partly goes through. I have my suspicions there. At the same time things might go through that shouldn't go through.</span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And can you explain to me what is democratic about "whipping"? Or about MP's who have their party membership suspended, but are still expected to show up for whipped votes? What about a review or a consultation of which the results are either ignored or purposefully twisted and used for a predetermined outcome? </span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are just a few things and I could go on for a while. But even on the basis of what I've experienced in this whole EHE affair alone in the past year, my conclusion is that democracy is a farce in this country, at this time.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, I agree. There are countries where people are oppressed and have no rights at all. But at least the regimes in those countries don't pretend to be democratic. And whereas I would like for everyone to have those basic rights and freedoms I was talking about before, I would never see the fact that other people don't have them as a reason not to stand up for my own. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, I do not consider what I do - and what Neil does - as non-participation. On the contrary. Wouldn't Balls et all be delighted if we would really non-participate? I would consider myself to non-participate if I would do what others tell me to do, without questioning why, without awareness of their or my own motives, without consulting my own conscience. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Dutch Prince Royal, Willem Alexander, recently said in an interview that he raises his children to not only ask questions, but to always be mindful and critical of the answers and never stop asking questions until the answer truly satisfies you. I like that. I have tried to raise my own children in a similar manner. And I am trying to live in that way. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My biggest question to politicians in this country at the moment is: </span><br />
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Give me one reason why I should trust you to make decisions about me, my family and all the people and principles I hold dear.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have not yet had a satisfactory answer.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-45114480072517274062010-03-30T17:55:00.004+01:002010-03-30T22:36:42.803+01:00So, what's wrong with emotions?<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was genuinely surprised by the starting lines of </span><a href="http://www.home-education.biz/blog/education/open-letter-to-the-all-party-parliamentary-group-for-home-education/comment-page-2#comment-421" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Graham Stuart's initial response</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to </span><a href="http://www.home-education.biz/blog/education/open-letter-to-the-all-party-parliamentary-group-for-home-education" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neil Taylor-Moore's open letter</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, where he said "it may contain more emotion than insight". </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watching him argue the EHE case in both the SC and the House of Commons, I've often thought how he stood out from many of his fellow MP's, and especially the likes of Ed Balls, Diana Johnson etcetera. I have my own private little conspiracy theory about the latter ones, as I am convinced they are not born from human parents, but produced in a secret robot factory, where they were fitted with a rather limited text programme and NLP-based software to direct their body language and facial expressions. Their manufacturers have made sure these replica human beings know how to manipulate human emotions - specifically fear - but lack any ability to feel or process them. Ears obviously had to be installed, but can only be made to listen with very specific plug-ins - not available to the general public.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I digress.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watching and listening to Graham, I felt he had actually listened to the people who were subjected to this whole terrible Badman and CSF-Bill exercise, and it seemed to have touched not only his common sense, but also his heart - yes, his emotions.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is this issue with emotions, anyway? Why is it that whenever people respond against a political or strategic decision, it is dismissed as emotive, emotional - and immediately associated with hysterical, unreasonable and therefore invalid. Emotions are what make us human, aren't they? What is wrong with emotions being part of the equation when making choices or decisions? Or when responding to measures and legislations forced upon us? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's not as if politicians and their strategists are not aware of the importance of emotions. After all, fear is a very powerful emotion and it is often appealed to in order to get certain policies implied. Need I explain how people are being persuaded to surrender their liberties and personal freedom out of fear for "terrorism" or "global warming", both apparently threatening to destroy our society and our planet?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently, I have been reading about what happens when people are being trained to overcome and/or ignore their emotions and their intuition. Their primal human nature. When I expressed my shock and horror about a </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8573755.stm" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">documentary on French television</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> someone pointed me towards the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stanford Prison Experiment</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. It is appalling to think what kind of a world we would live in if we did not carefully balance fact based rationalism with emotion and intuition. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I personally think Neil's letter is well balanced, and as a whole provides a healthy balance to the de-humanized and target-driven scenario played out by the government and, I'm sorry to say, the majority of parliament. The way I see it, politicians - for all their undoubtedly honourable initial intentions - are caught up in the Westminster Experiment and have lost, or are at risk of losing touch with reality and real living human beings, complete with feelings, emotions and intuitions. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Depending on what you want the eventual outcome to be, one has to make a choice of conscience, I think. To acknowledge emotions as an essential part of every individual human being and to engage with that would probably require a more intense and probably difficult investment of time and energy. But in my humble opinion it would be constructive and creative, and would - in the long run - lead to a more humane society, with room for individuality and personal freedom.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To ignore and deny emotions would necessitate a de-humanized system to control and suppress basic human nature, with no room for individuality, let alone personal freedom. It would - even in the short term - lead to an utterly regulated society. But by its very nature it would lack creativity, a main ingredient for constructive development, and therefore such a society would - in the long run - be self-destructive. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am no scientist and I have no other foundation for the above than my personal views and observations, my own life experience and that of the many people I've met, shared and exchanged views with in my life, the many books and articles I've read. I am not very good at reproducing facts, but that doesn't mean they haven't influenced my thinking. I do know who I am, though. And I do know what I value in life, and what I would like to share with my children. True emotions are a large part of that, love the major and most sustaining one. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will not be tempted into devaluing or excusing my emotions. They are as much part of me as the remainder of my functioning rational brain, and I trust both equally. I will continue to endeavour to keep the two healthily sustained and balanced. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I truly appreciate Graham Stuart's efforts to keep communications going with people within the EHE community. From what I've seen up to now he is willing and able to process feedback and integrate it in his work as an MP and a member of the SC and the APPG. Based on what he has said in public so far, I have no reason to doubt his sincerity. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How and if I would vote if I could (I can't, because even though I live and pay taxes in this country, and my life and family are directly subjected to and affected by its laws and regulations, I am still a Dutch citizen and as such not allowed to vote in the UK) I really don't know. I wouldn't vote Labour, that's for sure. I couldn't vote LibDem, because of their insistence on compulsory registration for home educators. I suppose if Graham Stuart was my MP, I might vote for him, but it would be a purely emotional vote. So Graham might reconsider the value of emotional arguments ;). </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rationally and tactically, I might be inclined to vote Conservative, because I do believe that they will ditch the CSF Bill and I also believe they would not want to spend budget on regulating EHE. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Emotionally and out of principle, I would spoil my vote, and if that would mean another Labour government and their dreaded totalitarian regime, I would welcome, support and participate in revolution and civil disobedience. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But adding it all up, and in all rational and emotional fairness, my trust and belief in British democracy as a whole is non-existent. By voting for any of the existing political parties I would condone and lend support to a system that has been utterly corrupted and has lost all resemblance to democracy. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the Netherlands, I wasn't prepared to go for the "would you like one leg broken or two" option, and I fought my own small scale revolution by taking on the authorities in a court case. I won, and we moved to the UK, where the law already recognized home education as an expression of basic civil liberties, of which the freedom for parents to choose how to educate their children is a very important one. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fact that my children are now at an age where they could not possibly be forced into any kind of education not of their choice, does not mean that I will quietly stand by and let our basic freedoms be squashed. I will not quietly stand by when I see humanity taken out of society. For myself, my children and theirs, I will speak up, stand up and - if needed - fight. Again and again.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because we're worth it :).</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-24340491965029787512010-02-11T00:58:00.000+00:002010-02-11T00:58:24.533+00:00The ET Syndrome and Neil TM<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wonder if other home educators on occasion also get the feeling that we are some kind of interesting phenomenon, observed and discussed by all and sundry and Lords and Ladies and politicians, who'd preferably keep us in zoo-like places, to be monitored, researched and - of course - controlled. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I read <a href="https://www.bhamonlineshop.co.uk/events/eventdetails.asp?eventid=148" target="_blank">this announcement from the University of Birmingham</a> I suddenly understood how poor ET must have felt. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only, home educators are NOT aliens and we are NOT some rare species on the brink of extinction, however disappointing that may be to Ed Fabian Balls and brethren. We are proper human beings, alive and thriving - in spite of all the efforts the abovementioned liberty and free-thought hating elements are making to try and get rid of us. And they are pulling out all the whips and plugs, throwing overboard every last bit of common decency and scruples, in order to achieve their evil goals.</span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rather than wait what the University of Birmingham would conclude from their research into the "suitability" and "efficiency" of our lives, Neil Taylor-Moore wrote to them, offering them his opinion and a chance to actually include the knowledge of real life and still relatively free home educators into their review. </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's his letter:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello,</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don't know you, and you don't know me, but you have decided to make me and what I do your subject for discussion. I am a home educator.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I and my children are sovereign beings, and not someone else's "human resources" to be managed, or for that matter discussed, unless we present some problem to the rest of society, which we do not. We have no interest whatsoever in your opinions of that which in all probability you have no experience, and even less in your debating the meaning of suitable and efficient, with which there has been little problem in this context for the past 61 years. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Case law has established the meaning of those terms that originated in the 1944 Education Act, and there is no problem with that requiring any debate by academics or anybody else. In fact it is hard to see that this exercise is anything other than a Badman, so called "review" inspired determination to interfere with the established common law meanings of those terms, generalisations which, precisely by avoiding being rigidly specified by inevitably bogus criteria, preserve essential liberty, as indeed does the 1996 Education Act, s437, which alone enshrines the LEA duty towards those electing to educate their children otherwise than in school. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Frederic Bastiat, in "The Law", recognised that the business of the law is to prevent injustice, not to ensure justice. Law, he said, should therefore be negative. That is what s437 of the 1996 Education Act is. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It tasks the LEA, not with "ensuring" "suitable" education, it gives it a duty towards the home educated, *only* "if it appears that a child..... is *not* receiving... suitable" education. This distinction is crucial because upon it hinges the preservation or destruction of essential liberty. In this negative context of only acting if there is an appearance of neglect or failure of s7 duty, discussions about the meaning to be applied to suitable and efficient, are necessarily irrelevant. It only makes sense to define them further than their common usage meaning if the LEA duty is an ensuring one, through some regime of inspection. But it is not, and there is no statutory provision for such. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That it is not, is part of the content of the meaning of a "free country" that my parents' generation were sacrificing their lives to defend in the penultimate year of WW2, when these words were first drafted into statute. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is as it should be, preserving the presumption of innocence, and empowering the authorities to interfere in private family life only if "it appears" that something is wrong, and there maybe default of a parent's s7 duty. It does not prescribe. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It really is that simple, and that right, if you are prepared to forgive the 1870 transgression and insult to human nature of making education compulsory, and compounding the insult by pretending school, not just education is compulsory ever since, in order to hide the law. Why was school not made legally compulsory? - force of public opposition to such a measure prevented the government from getting its way, so it lied about it ever since, coining the phrase "compulsory school age", instead of "compulsory education age", which would have been the truth. This was the same opposition which can neither tolerate education "otherwise" from being defined, controlled, inspected, licensed and denied by a state hostile to our precious liberty, no less now than then. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not until this past year have I ever in my life felt so colonised, nor the lives of my prospective grandchildren so threatened as I do now by a seemingly endless stream of rent seekers recognising a fresh feast when they see one. It's a horrible feeling. It is the experience of tyranny, where once there was freedom. This year has been open season on home educators, and everyone has an opinion as to what should be done with us. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teachers unions, academics, government, children's charities and social engineers of all descriptions, and all with one thing in common, a complete lack of experience and total ignorance of what we do, but bristling with their own prejudices which have been invariably grossly misinformed by the education establishment, which has a natural tendency to feel entitled to own anything and everything that comes under the umbrella of "education". </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I realise that this communication might seem offensive to some, but I would ask you to have the humility and decency to recognise the scale of the threat currently facing the family and everyone's historic liberty to raise our children as we see fit, within the existing constraints whereby the state may be called upon as parent of last resort only, in cases of irremediable parental default, or worse. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is no "problem of home education". No problem has been demonstrated, but much slander and invention by a hostile state education establishment with clear totalitarian ambitions has been heaped on us.</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why discuss the meaning of suitable and efficient, as opposed to discussing, say, "Freedom in education"? But really, why discuss that which has nothing to do with you whatsoever, at all? You are talking about us behind our backs, and that's not nice. Is your discussion without reference to us intended to inform policy making, which is also made relentlessly without reference to us, except in so far as it is to make a pretence of consultation, and then adopt the prior plan A in its entirety anyway?</span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is what we have already been subjected to, but despotism has always needed intellectual mercenaries to dress up its tyranny in order to make it appear respectable. I am sorry, but that really is the only word to accurately describe what is going on here, whether you are aware of it or not. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please don't fall for this abuse of your talents by power. Think instead how you might help us defend pluralism and liberty for everyone, and roll back this slide into totalitarianism that we are already embarked upon. Leave suitable and efficient, and those who are lawfully entitled to reject the state's model of education, alone. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sincerely,</span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neil Taylor, </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">home educator to three no longer so called school age children, and someone who has been privileged to see the difference that can make, and which explains why I said earlier that I have never felt so colonised in my life before. That is part of the hidden curriculum of compulsion schooling, to prevent you from noticing your own colonisation by its very ubiquity. Nobody is intended to escape it, and that is how any other possible perspective is prevented. Home educators disturb state compulsion schooling's absolutism, and the system needs absolutism in order to prevent the truth about who we really are - and what we are capable of, if unmolested - falling into too many hands, and giving the lie to so many underpinning wrong beliefs of the system. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that is really what all this Children Schools and Families Bill and the bad man "review" is about, and why Birmingham University has been co-opted into this scam to dress it up in respectable academic garb. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please have more respect for yourselves as well as us, than this. </span><br />
<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would be pleased for this short plea to be read out at the start of this conference, and if it is I would be pleased to hear from anyone involved.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-10198282669623361052009-11-04T22:03:00.001+00:002009-11-04T22:03:42.499+00:00Child Abuse, WMD, football coaches and butchers<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Select Committee of Children, Schools and Families have published the submissions made to them as memoranda <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmchilsch/memo/elehomed/contents.htm">here</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Below is <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmchilsch/memo/elehomed/me12202.htm">mine</a> (no. 122)</span> <br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SUBMISSION TO THE CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES SELECT COMMITTEE </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">SUBJECT: Elective Home Education Inquiry</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Introduction of yet another home educator</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. The scope of the terms of reference for the Review; child abuse and WMD</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. The constitution of the Review Team, football coaches and butchers</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. Tampering with, and manipulative changes to questions and text, invalidating the whole review</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4.1 The 6 questions</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4.2 The 60 questions</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4.3 Question number 6 / a.k.a. number 7</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5. More spinning and twisting...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5.1 Recommendation 7, What Badman says and what Balls wants</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5.2 Submission from the Church of England, the whole story</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6. Independent and unbiased, out of the question</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7. Conclusions</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Members of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee,</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thank you for your invitation to submit evidence regarding the Review of Elective Home Education and the resulting Report and Recommendations. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1- Introduction of yet another home educator</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am a home educating parent, not a lawyer, not a politician and English isn't my first language, so writing a submission to your Committee is quite a challenge. Of my three - home educated - children, two are already over 18 (both in employment and continued education) and the youngest is making her way to university, so at first sight there is no personal necessity for me to testify. But the reality is that I live in this country and it is most likely that my future grandchildren will live here, too. Therefore I feel it's my duty to speak out and provide what evidence I can about the way the Review was conducted and the Report was put together, and about the possible impact of the Recommendations and the licensing scheme that would result from it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hope you will excuse me for mistakes in language, and for not being all scientific and providing you with the results of in-depth research; I do not have the means, nor the time, nor the knowledge for that. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2- The scope of the terms of reference for the Review; child abuse and WMD</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have never had a problem with openly discussing the prejudices people quite often hold about our elected way of learning. But Baroness Morgan gave the prejudice a whole new angle when she commissioned the Review to Graham Badman and explained in the media that one of Mr Badman's tasks would be to identify what evidence there was that home education was possibly used as a cover for child abuse, forced marriage, domestic servitude or other forms of child neglect. Established within our own community as we are, the statement and review have raised quite a few unbelieving eyebrows and critical questions with people who know us, but beyond our own community we - and home educators in general - are often subjected to the 'no smoke without fire' attitude. It is a known fact that this kind of information, when coming from a figure of authority through the national media, is often perceived as truthful by the general public. It is also a fact that Mr Badman found as little evidence of child abuse, forced marriage, domestic servitude or other forms of child neglect amongst home educators as Lord Butler found of WMD in Iraq. I won't go as far as comparing the consequences of these two Reviews, but I will state that our family and a huge number of home educators feel that they are being attacked on false allegations.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Under the pretext of welfare issues this is yet another attempt to get a government controlled grip on the completely legal educational choice of a minority group. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3- The constitution of the Review Team, football coaches and butchers</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A majority of home educators have inside knowledge and experience of the school system and for quite a few of us that is actually the reason to home educate. Others choose to home educate because there are no schools that provide the kind of education they prefer. Whatever the reason to home educate, it is safe to assume that knowledge about the school system was part of the equation. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Elective home education is a form of education suitable to age, aptitude and ability and to any special needs (a) child(ren) might have, provided otherwise than by a school. It covers a rainbow of diversity in methods, from very structured and curriculum following school at home to child led and autonomous education. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of the twelve members of the Review Team only one showed insight in the nature of Elective Home Education, none of the others had any actual experience of it, nor have they displayed any knowledge of the nature or workings of current legislation regarding EHE. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The leader of the review himself has knowledge and experience only of education within the school system and is the former Managing Director of Children, Families and Education in Kent, a county with a history of ultra vires practices towards and bad relations with home educators. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although he's an extremely capable sportsman, nobody would ask Sir Alex Ferguson to judge the finals of the Olympic Figure Skating and nobody would expect a butcher to advice a vegetarian on what to eat. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mr Badman and the members of the Review Team may all be experts in their own field, but none of them has the qualifications or background to (help) produce an expert report on Elective Home Education and the remit of the Review doesn't allow enough time to gather the required background information, research results and statistics. This has been made even more obvious by Mr Badman himself, who at the very last moment has asked Local Authorities for more information to back up his already written and accepted Recommendations. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4- Tampering with, and manipulative changes to questions and text, invalidating the whole review</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4.1 The 6 questions put to home educators and private people were leading, if not manipulative. In spite of that 1600 home educating parents and children (and not 2000 as Mr Balls suggests in his letter of acceptance) managed to put their views across, which resulted in 80% of the in total 2000 respondents stating they were happy with the status quo . Although this outcome was mentioned in the report, it was most certainly not reflected in the recommendations or in the current consultation.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4.2 In sharp contrast to the above, the Local Authorities had 60 questions to answer, although there seemed to be another questionnaire going around, too. Although anybody could answer the 6 questions in the public consultation, the 60 questions were reserved for LA's only. One would expect an independent reviewer to listen equally to both sides and give both sides equal opportunities for input.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4.3 A most disturbing thing happened to the last question of the short consultation. When it was presented to the public as question number 6, it read: Some people have expressed concern that home education could be used as a cover for child abuse, forced marriage, domestic servitude or other forms of child neglect. What do you think Government should do to ensure this does not happen? (my emphasis). The official analysis of the consultation questions shows a similar phrasing ;</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However: In the Report to the Secretary of State, Annex C , question 6 of the consultation, now referred to as question 7 of the public call for evidence, reads: </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some people have expressed concern that home education could be used as a cover for child abuse, forced marriage, domestic servitude or other forms of child neglect. What do you think Government should do to ensure this cannot happen again? (my emphasis).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two important changes: </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1) The 'consultation questions' became a 'public call for evidence', and</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2) The different phrasing changes the meaning of the question about possible preventive policy change to policy that would deal with existing abuse.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In my opinion this alone renders not only the consultation and the conclusions drawn from it, but also the whole review, invalid. As I, here below, and undoubtedly others in their submissions, will point out to you there are many more reasons to suspect that the outcome of this review was pre-determined and the recommendations drafted beforehand. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5- More spinning and twisting...</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5.1 In Recommendation 7 Mr Badman wants LA personnel to have the right to speak with each child alone if deemed appropriate or, if a child is particularly vulnerable or has particular communication needs, in the company of a trusted person who is not the home educator or the parent/carer.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Apparently, to Mr Balls this utterly disgusting form of intrusion on the life of innocent (as in: not suspected of any crime) children and their family does not go quite far enough. In the letter he wrote on the same day the Report was presented to him, he says: We agree that home educated children must be seen regularly in their education setting, on their own, or with an independent person present as appropriate [...].</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So where even Mr Badman leaves room for the fact that there could be instances where it might not be appropriate to demand to speak to a child alone, Mr Balls states that all home educated children must be seen on their own, as a rule. And the 'trusted' person that Mr Badman suggests should accompany the child if deemed appropriate, has become merely an 'independent' person in Mr Balls view.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5.2 In Chapter 4 - Elective Home Education in Context; the Views of Home Educators and Others - Mr Badman writes: </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And the Education Division of the Church of England states its concern:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“that children and young people not in formal education are missing the benefits and challenges of learning in community with their peers. Children who do not go to school may not experience the social and cultural diversity encountered there; they will not learn how to deal with the rough and tumble of everyday life; they may never meet people with different faith and value systems. All such encounters, even the difficult or painful ones are enriching. We are concerned not only with the five Every Child Matters outcomes, but also with the spiritual well-being of all children and young people. Spiritual well-being arises not only from being cared for in a loving family and/or faith community, but also in encounters with people of different opinions and backgrounds; in learning to listen to a variety of opinions; to encounter diversity and the riches and life-enhancement it can bring. Spiritual well-being depends on living and taking a full part in community life. Children and young people in schools learn about and from the five major religions. This may be a difficult part of the curriculum for home educators to provide, yet it is vital for the Government’s community cohesion agenda that all children learn in a balanced way about the variety of religious values and practices, and to be encouraged to question their own beliefs and practices.”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As there is no reference to a context, to the unsuspecting reader it seems as if this is what the Church of England has to say about EHE. But the above is one out of ten points. Most other points show at least sympathy for people's choice to home educate and the concluding tenth point states:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have seen no evidence to show that the majority of home educated children do not achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes, and are therefore not convinced of the need to change the current system of monitoring the standard of home education. Where there are particular concerns about the children in a home-educating this should be a matter for Children’s Services.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By only using point 7 Mr Badman has, in my opinion, taken part of the Submission out of its well balanced context, to give readers the impression that the Church of England is against Elective Home Education. In my opinion that can only be described as manipulative and misleading . </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The fact that Mr Badman had to resort to these measures to discredit the value of EHE is more indication that he failed to find evidence to support his negative assumptions. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6- Independent and unbiased, out of the question</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Terms of Reference state: "Seek evidence on how the systems operate in practice from stakeholders, including home education groups, home educating families, local authorities and children's organisations." Yet, Mr Badman has failed to properly investigate numerous complaints by home educators about ultra vires practices of LA's, nor has notice has been taken of the more than 80% of respondents to the public questionnaire who thought current legislations was adequate and sufficient.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He has failed to properly research existing legislation and how it is being implemented by the different LA's. He has not properly researched the local authorities with good practice. I know that my own local authority, which has a very positive relationship with home educators in the county, has offered to provide examples of good practice and information about establishing a good working relationship with home educators, but that offer was not taken up by Mr Badman. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7- Conclusions</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7.1 What Badman and Balls are proposing is effectively a licensing scheme for a minority of parents /carers. For these recommendations to become law without being discriminatory would require major changes to primary legislation, which would see all parents/carers requiring a license to provide the education of their choice.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7.2 There is a total disregard for the negative effects these recommendations are going to have on children and there is no mention whatsoever of a possibility to appeal to what could easily be the personal and or prejudiced opinion of an LA officer. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7.3 The way facts and figures have been manipulated, the way words and quotes have been twisted and misused, the lack of research into for instance the Scottish or the North American situation, the total lack of impartiality and the apparently immovable prejudices, all these factors together and more that I am unable to mention here as I have not had enough time to research it and not enough space to word it, make this report unreliable and untrustworthy and therefore invalid.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7.4 As there is no evidence that there are welfare issues that cannot be dealt with under current legislation, and as there is no evidence that the law does not provide enough possibilities to determine whether a sufficient education is being provided, there is no reason to implement any of the recommendations.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7.5 This is a last minute submission and I am aware of many more things that I could and maybe should have said. But the reality of the situation is that I am a practicing home educating mother and foster carer, self employed, with a very busy and intense life. I hazard a guess that the time I have invested on reading up on the Review, filling in the questionnaire, discussing matters with both fellow home educators and non-home educators as a result of false rumours, informing MP's and other interested parties about EHE and gathering evidence for this submission, by far exceeds the time Mr Badman and his Review Team together have spent on it. The fact that they got paid for it and I - and all these other home educators who are doing the same and more - am doing this on a voluntary basis, should be an indication how much we care and how much we want to protect our children and families.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Home Education is not a choice lightly made and home educating a family is not without sacrifices. I sincerely hope that the Select Committee will honour this and recognize that it is time to let home educators get on with what we do best and with more love, dedication and commitment than any system could ever offer: Providing our children with an education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude and any special needs they might have.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thank you for taking the time to read this. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">22 September 2009</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-31588213490293086592009-09-13T00:45:00.002+01:002009-09-13T00:59:49.305+01:00Home Education - A Cover for Abuse - If Recommendation 7 Goes Through<span style="color:#990000;">I must be going stark raving mad. Or is there an other reason for my hallucinations? Or was it a nightmare? I must admit, I was working on my submission for the Select Committee when it happened. I had just read the initial press release again, the one where Baroness Morgan says that home education could be used as a cover for child abuse. And I was re-reading Recommendation number 7, where Mr Badman explains he feels the local authorities should have access to the home of home educators, as well as the right to speak with each child alone. No parents present.<br /><br />I closed my eyes - just for a brief moment. My head was spinning and I saw and heard all these words, first separately, then blending together:<br />Child abuse - access to child - home education - stranger - child abuse - cover - safety - no parents...<br /><br />And then, all the sudden, I had this image of myself, sitting behind a table, with home educating friends on either side of me. The sign in front of me said: Special Minister of Elective Home Education. On the other side of the table a room full of people with camera's, microphones and notebooks. I was obviously giving a press conference! A lady pointed a microphone at me and asked: "Minister, could you tell us what this review is for? Isn't this an infringement of the right of civil servants to do whatever they want?"<br /><br />And I read out a prepared statement:<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff0000;">"There are concerns that some civil servants are not performing the tasks the tax payers pay them to do. And that in some extreme cases being a civil servant could be used as a cover for paedophilia or other forms of child abuse.<br /><br />Quite a few people in government and civil services are undoubtedly doing a fantastic job and I want to ensure that they get the continued support of the people who voted for them and are paying them. But we can't afford to let any paedophile slip through the net - for the sake of our children's safety and our families' wellbeing.<br /><br />Several thousands of paedophiles are registered, but a much larger number of them are invisible to the authorities. We have to balance the rights of privacy of civil servants' against the pre-eminent rights of children to a safe and loving life, preferably with their own families."<br /><br /></span></em>Again a lot of noise. The same words, not only buzzing around in my head, but also in that room full of reporters and journalists. It was just too much for me and I closed my eyes again.<br /><br />Next thing I knew, I was sitting in my own safe and familiar living room, papers all around me, on the floor, on the settee next to me. In my hand a page of the Badman Report, the one with Recommendation 7. I looked around. No reporters. No camera's. I listened carefully, but I didn't hear those words anymore, only my daughter upstairs, singing and playing the guitar.<br /><br />Strange games the supposedly logical mind combined with tiredness can play on people. Mixing up things that just don't go together, that don't add up. Well, they shouldn't. No, they can't. Can they? No, a Minister of Elective Home Education, that's just unthinkable.<br />That will never ever happen.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-29396333375812115212009-09-09T10:21:00.002+01:002009-09-09T10:40:31.280+01:00Why Do You Home Educate?My usual answer to that question is:<br />"Because we like it, it suits us and we all thrive on it."<br /><br />Then, in the open mouthed and raised eyebrows silence that follows, I ask people: "Why do you send your children to school?" The answer is rarely the same as mine. The few families I know who feel the same about school as we do about home education have usually carefully selected a school, and often the parents are very much involved with the school and their children's education.<br /><br />Mostly, however, I get one of the following answers:<br /><br />(a) Because they have to go to school<br />(b) Because I want to have a life (or job) of my own / I wouldn't want to have my children around all day<br />(c) It hasn't done me any harm (or even: I had a good time in school).<br />(d) Because I couldn't possibly teach them myself<br />(e) Because they need to be around other children / socialize, and learn how to deal with life<br />(f) Because how else could they get qualifications and a good job?<br /><br />Of course everybody is - and should be - free to make their own choice. But most, if not all of the above reasons are often based on insufficient information and/or misconceptions.<br /><br /><strong>a. Because they have to go to school</strong><br /><br />No, they don't.<br />Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 states:<br />"The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable ;<br /><br />a) to his age, ability, and aptitude,<br /><br />and<br /><br />b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school <em><strong>or otherwise</strong></em>." (my emphasis)<br /><br />So, parents have a duty to provide their children with a suitable education. If they choose to delegate that duty to a school, they are entitled to be informed about the standard and quality of education provided. That's - officially - the reason why the State inspects schools. If parents choose to educate their children otherwise, for instance from home, then the Local Authorities have a right to enquire whether the child is in receipt of the above specified education. If it appears to a local education authority that a child of compulsory school age in their area is not receiving suitable education, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise, they shall serve a notice in writing on the parent requiring him to satisfy them within the period specified in the notice that the child is receiving such education. (Section 437 Education Act 1996).<br /><br /><strong>b. Because I want to have a life (or job) of my own / I wouldn't want to have my children around all day<br /></strong><br />On first appearances those are very good reasons to send your child(ren) to school.<br />If you (and your partner) think you'd be unhappy having your children around and (both of) you prefer to have a fulltime paid job, then maybe your children are better off in school. However, there may come a moment when you realize that for one reason or another it would be beneficial or desirable to be more involved in your children's lives. Then it's good to know that there are ways to have it all.<br />In our family we've managed to combine work and children in such a way that one of us has always been at home for (or away with) the children. A life of our own very much includes our children, while we also both have our time away from them. And - in spite of all that *grin* we are still quite happily married, having celebrated our 30th anniversary this year.<br /><br />I suppose it might be a daunting thought to have to 'keep them amused' if your only experience of having them around involves children who are normally in school and after-school activities, where their time is usually managed for them. But the reality of home education is quite different. Life happens in a much more organic rhythm and is not divided up in equal blocks of always limited time. Because we follow the questions and the natural interest of our children they can be involved in what they're doing for hours, days or weeks. Of course we are there to accommodate or - if needed - to help, but not only is that a far more relaxed kind of interaction, it is quite a lot of fun, too.<br />Within this construction there is space for times when nothing happens - on the outside. I often compare that to the tides. When the tide is in there's lots of activities, questions, outings, big visible waves. And then comes the moment when they're saturated, filled to the brim. Then the tide is out, lots of relaxing, reading, contemplating, no visible waves.<br /><br /><strong>c. It hasn't done me any harm (or even: I had a good time in school)<br /></strong><br />That could be a very good reason to have no objection to sending your children to school. And there is a good chance that your children have a good time, too. There are children who do very well in school and/or have no problems.<br />But the same goes here, there might come a time when you find out that school is doing your child harm and that they're not having a good time in school. And then it's good to know you have the choice, as mentioned under (a).<br /><br /><strong>d. Because I couldn't possibly teach them myself<br /></strong><br />This myth has most certainly been around too long. First of all, children don't need teachers. They need to have the opportunity to learn. And especially nowadays, with technology at our fingertips, anybody can learn whatever they want. But even without a computer and the internet in your home, there are plenty opportunities to find answers to questions, to ask other people, to learn together. My personal experience is that teaching often gets in the way of learning, and this is supported by research - done mainly in the US, such as this <a href="http://www.nheri.org/Latest/Homeschooling-Across-America-Academic-Achievement-and-Demographic-Characteristics.html">Nheri Report</a> - showing that home educated children of certified teachers do slightly 'worse' (a nasty word, I'm sorry) in standardised tests than those of parents who are not certified teachers.<br />As I've said above, I genuinely enjoy learning, discovering and exploring together with my children. And there are so many wonderful people out there, who are more than happy to share their knowledge and their passions with us.<br />Another myth is that children wouldn't learn unless they're being told to. Rubbish. There is no end to the natural curiosity and will to learn of a child, or of any human being, for that matter. And I'm sure everybody can easily think of examples, from baby's learning to crawl, walk, talk and sing to adults learning everything there is to know about their hobby's.<br /><br /><br /><strong>e. Because they need to be around other children / socialize, and learn how to deal with life<br /></strong><br />Of all the myths surrounding the benefits of school, this one is the biggest. And at the same time apparently the most difficult one to debunk. My general take on the matter is that the need for socialisation is so strong within children (human beings) that they manage to socialize, even in schools. Children will socialize. But all in their own way. Some have only one or two true friends, others couldn't live without being constantly in the company of at least a dozen others. Some get on really well with people of their own age, some thrive by associating with people older or younger - or both - than themselves. As with everything, it is very individual.<br />The point is that for many children the school way of socializing is a way they would never choose naturally. In fact, many students perceive school to be a kind of <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/200909/why-don-t-students-school-well-duhhhh">prison, as professor Peter Gray describes here.</a><br /><br />My own children have all very different needs when it comes to socializing, and not being in school has not stopped them from becoming socially adept young people. They all have a social life that suits their needs, they have good and lasting friendships and friends with whom they can share good, hard, happy and sad times. Neither has not being in school stopped them from having friends who are or have been in school.<br /><br />Nor is it true that not being in school hasn't prepared them for life. I even dare say that not being in school has given them more opportunities to experience life as it is really lived. And yes, they have been exposed to and learned to deal with bullying. They know what competition is. They know what sadness is. They know what happiness is. They know what hard work is. They know how to look after themselves. They know how to budget. They know how to cook and sew and clean a house.<br />But most of all, they know who they are, they know their own strengths and weaknesses, they know what they want in life and how they can get there.<br /><br /><strong>So, why do you send your child(ren) to school?<br /></strong><br />I'm not saying people shouldn't send their children to school. I'm glad that we (still) have a relatively free choice. I only hope that after having read the above, people understand that if<br /><br />- you want to provide your children with an education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude and to any special educational needs they may have,<br /><br />and<br /><br />- you want an education that you and your children like, that suits you and that allows all of you to thrive,<br /><br />you do not HAVE to send your children to school<br />everybody CAN home educate, if they want.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-18558218950188690372009-08-09T13:16:00.003+01:002009-08-09T15:21:26.130+01:00An autonomous young person's letter to Government<span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">After a very intense period of living in the Dutch limelights because of our choice to home educate our children, we made the most of the relative isolation that came with life in The Vicarage. It gave us the chance to 'go back to base', enhance family life, focus on our own developmental needs and strengthen our autonomous learning process. It was invaluable.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">But since our move into town we seem to have opened up to the outside world again. Even stronger, I like to think. And more than ever convinced of the value of autonomous living. It is slightly bizarre that a lot of the choices we make now, seem to bring us in direct contact - and even make us work closely together - with the authorities. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">Our decision to start fostering again led to tackling lots of red tape, assessment by social workers, over and over again explaining / defending our choice to home educate our children, the scrutinizing of our family life, in short: it was quite invasive. But, it was our own choice, as a family. We had agreed to it and if we'd felt it was too much, we could have ended it.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">If the recommendations made by Mr Graham Badman in the Report about Elective Home Education are going to be made law, there will be no choice, and such an intrusive treatment will await people for the mere fact that they have chosen to home educate. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">The difference is clear to me and to the other members of my family:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">For the fostering the authorities, who act in loco parentis to already damaged and vulnerable children, have to make as sure as possible that these young people will be safe and well looked after. I can see that as being supportive to the cared for children.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">In the case of home educated children there is no reason whatsoever to assume that the parents are not fulfilling their legal parental duties to the child(ren), so no reason for the authorities to act in loco parentis. Unrequested monitoring and inspection of home educating families is not supportive and could even be abusive.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">Just the idea of this possibly becoming law has caused a lot of unrest and resentment in our family. Not because we are scared that we couldn't continue living as we do; we have no such fear. But the sheer injustice of it, the fact that the government seems to think they have the right to take away basic freedoms of individual people - and we DO all believe that it will not be limited to home educators - and to interfere in the sanctity of family life, thát has raised our hackles. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">Another hot topic in our house results from Owen's decision to sign up for the Army. We all know that this is what he has wanted to do all his life and although nobody likes to see a loved one going off to dodge bullets and roadside bombs in a far away country, we do accept that this is Owen's choice about his life. But what makes it utterly painful to bear is that this government seems to have little respect for the very lives of our loved ones. It is disgraceful that the armed forces are not fitted out properly with protective gear and that there are not enough helicopers, because Mr Brown, as a chancellor, has cut the budget (but he himself is transported by an American helicopter when he visits the troops in Afghanistan). The most recent disgrace is the MoD going to court to try and have compensation costs for injured soldiers cut by no less than 75%! </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">All these things together have now brought Myrna to write a letter to government, stating her dissatisfaction and urging them to change their attitude. It will be sent to Gordon Brown, Ed Balls, the Select Committee of the DCSF, our MP and maybe some other Civil Servants. And we will see how seriously she will be taken, how seriously children's rights are taken by this government.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">Here is Myrna's letter:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">===</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;"><em>My name is Myrna Tennant, I’m fourteen and I’m Home Educated. My mother works from home as a book translator and my father is a stay-at-home dad.<br />I moved to England when I was seven because it is very difficult to Home Educate in the Netherlands, you need to go to court to get exemption.<br />School was never the right choice for me, and it definitely wasn’t the right choice for my older brother, who has Aspergers Syndrome. Because of this mild form of autism he was left out and bullied at his school by the other students and was singled out by the teachers, who never even bothered to try to get to know and understand him.<br />My mother pulled us out of school for mainly that reason.<br />We held it out in Holland for a while, but it was a very big fuss and we were frowned upon by a lot of people who didn’t agree with Home Education.<br />So we decided to move to England, the homeland of my father.<br />We lived in Penton (Cumbria) for five years. In that time my sister, the eldest of my two siblings, started a job in a nearby Bed & Breakfast and my brother and I went to Archery, while he also went to Judo and Cadets and I started private music lessons and group drama classes. Through these activities and the Home Educators meetings we went to weekly, we met a lot of great people, some of whom are now my closest friends and through whom I also met a lot of other amazing people.<br />We moved to Carlisle two years ago which was a great change for all of us, moving me and my siblings closer to our friends and activities, and making it easier for my sister to get a good job.<br /><br />These days, we have recently been approved for child fostering, my sister works full-time for Mencap after having finished college, and has just found her own place to live. My brother is studying Jujitsu together with my father after passing his GCSE’s with flying colours (with the help of our part time private tutor in Science, Biology and Maths) and will soon be joining the army. I have now been a classical singer for five years and am soon taking my grade seven exam in singing and my grade five in theory, and I also play flute and guitar. I have sang at a wedding and frequently get asked to sing solo at concerts. I spend my days going to my music lessons, singing with my lovely choir, doing art and spending time with my friends, band and boyfriend. I plan to start studying Japanese and join my brother and father in Jujitsu and will also be taking my GCSE’s when I feel I’m ready to do so.<br /><br />So you see, we’re just like any other normal family. I have the best family, friends and boyfriend I could have ever wished for and I wouldn’t change my life for the world. Of course we have our rough times and I have had my unpleasant experiences in life, but what person hasn’t? Life can not be lived without regrets; only a person who is truly ignorant and arrogant could say he’s never done anything he regrets.<br /><br />So before you make assumptions about autonomous learning and invade people's privacy and their homes and sit kids down to talk about if they really want to be Home Educated, why not think about why you are really doing this? Or maybe you could even consider going to a school and asking the kids there how they enjoy school? I have a lot of friends who go to school and I don’t often hear nice things about it. What I hear about school is how teachers no longer enjoy what they do, kids are only bored and take nothing in anymore, they rebel, they bully and they stereotype. They divide themselves up into groups and don’t let anyone else in who doesn’t go by a certain way.<br />And this takes effect on how kids act outside of school. Some of my friends may fit some people's opinion of the stereotype “emo” or “scene” or “goth”, and therefore I have often had people shout insults at me and my friends, and even had things thrown at me for absolutely no reason but the way we dress or the music we enjoy. I even sometimes get bullied for being a classical singer.<br />And that is what the government is doing to the Home Educators, they are singling them out and treating them like there’s something wrong with them, just because of the decision to keep their child out of school, even if on many occasions that choice is made because the child is bullied in school, like my brother was. And therefore we get treated differently, badly. All that the government is doing is stereotyping and putting labels on things, just because they have the power to. The government are just bullies in the way that they use their superiority as a way of belittling people, while they could be using it for so much better things.<br />Instead of making everything cosy for yourselves, how about giving some thanks and support to the people who serve in the forces.<br />How about doing something about the homeless, the sick, and the children who are actually being abused?<br />Of course, I will not deny that there is a chance some people could use Home Education as a cover, but think about how little parents abuse their children, and then think about the percentage of those people who could be Home Educators. Will you really use that small amount of people to change the law for tens of thousands?<br />The only reason you’re saying that Home Education is a cover for child abuse is so you will get more people on your side for campaigning against it, because you don’t agree with it because it doesn’t fit in with your idea of perfect.<br />Well, the world is just not perfect is it?<br /><br />It’s going to take a lot more than petty assumptions to make us back down, we fight for our rights, like any other person would.<br />We fight to keep things as they are now. There is no need for changes, there is a good law that protects people who need protecting. And we will protect the law that allows us to Home Educate and do Autonomous Education.<br /><br />Government, spend your money on things that make a difference for the better. Start making things, stop breaking things.</em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;"><em></em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">====</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-83982150913383518112009-06-20T17:24:00.004+01:002009-06-20T17:52:53.854+01:00Here's the evidence: There is no evidence!<span style="font-family:verdana;">Thanks, Ann N, for pointing me towards chapter 8.14, where Mr Badman admits - albeit in a roundabout way:</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;color:#3333ff;">"8.14 - With regards to other specific groups within the remit of this inquiry I can find no evidence that elective home education is a particular factor in the removal of children to forced marriage, servitude or trafficking or for inappropriate abusive activities. Based on the limited evidence available, this view is supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers. That is not to say that there is no isolated cases of trafficking that have been brought to my attention."</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">That paragraph has most certainly been written with an intention to confuse, if nothing else. And my fingers are itching to pick this bit of manipulative writing to bits... </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">If only I had a bit more time... I might do it still, later...</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">But in spite of all the misleading phrases, in the end it says: </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">There is no evidence to support the allegations on which this review was started, that elective home education can be used as a cover for abuse, forced marriage, servitude or trafficking.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">NO EVIDENCE.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Hello everybody!! MP's!! PM!! Media! Watchdog? Ombudsman? Anybody! (Other than Ed Balls and Baroness Morgan, because they knew this all along):</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">This Review was based on false allegations and the Report with its repulsive Recommendations should be declared invalid. Immediately!</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Home Educators were harrassed and - especially the children - put in a potentially vulnerable position, which has definitely caused great distress, to say the least.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Who else can treat a minority group like this and get away with it, without consequences? What, not only get away with it, but even still make an attempt to get their own evil way?</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Hello, Britain! Wake up! This charade has lasted long enough! </span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">They've taken our money for their second homes and luxury meals, they're trying to take our freedom and they are aiming to take control of our lives, our children.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">We need to stop them. Now!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-81654238638401836532009-06-19T17:45:00.004+01:002009-06-20T17:24:18.988+01:00B&B - Cheating and lying<span style="font-family:verdana;">I bet my last penny that if the allegations of child abuse in home education could have been substantiated in any way, it would have been not only on the first page of the report, it would also have been blown out of all proportions in the national media.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">But the review didn't find any such evidence! <em><span style="color:#3333ff;">**edit** See my next post with the quote from the report where Badman confirms the lack of evidence**** </span></em>There is only a mention of the opinions and unsubstantiated assumptions of NSPCC, NASWE and LSCB in Chapter 8 [Safeguarding].<br />Still, that doesn't stop Ed Balls and Baroness Morgan to blatantly lie to both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/ete/independentreviewofhomeeducation/irhomeeducation/">Here's what I found today:</a> [opens website from which the following documents can be downloaded] </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><em><span style="color:#3333ff;">**edit** As the site apparently is not always accessible, I will copy the Statement of Ed Balls at the end of this post****</span></em><br /><br />The Written Ministerial Statement (House of Commons), by Ed Balls - and<br />The Written Ministerial Statement (House of Lords), by Baroness Morgan of Drefelin.<br /><br />The documents are similar, only the second one has an introduction by our dear Baroness Morgan.<br /><br />The venom is in the tail.<br />I quote:<br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">"The review also found evidence that there are a small number of cases where home educated children have suffered harm because safeguarding concerns were not picked up, or not treated with sufficient urgency, particularly where parents were uncooperative or obstructed local authority investigations."<br /></span><br />And here again, as with the Submission of the Church of England in my previous post, there are no proper references given in Mr Badman's report. Sloppy, to say the least. No college teacher or professor would accept - or grade favourably - this report if it had been done by a student. Yet Ed Balls not only accepts it, but is trying to use it as a foundation for policy and new legislation.<br /><br />Leading by example is one of the main principles in teaching, I would say.<br />How can the government even begin to expect me to trust them with anything, let alone the wellbeing, health, safety and - for crying out loud - the education of my children, if the example they're setting is one of low quality, cheating and lying?<br /><br />Graham Badman and Ed Balls, sorry (well, not really), but both of you failed.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Miserably.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#3366ff;">**edit: added - Written Ministerial Statement (House of Commons) by Ed Balls**</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#3366ff;"></span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#cc0000;">DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES<br /><br /><br />Review of Elective Home Education in England<br /><br /><br />The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Ed Balls):<br /><br />On 19 January 2009 I asked Graham Badman to carry out a review of elective home education in England. The terms of reference for the review emphasised the government's recognition of parents' well established right to educate their children at home. They also set out our commitments to keeping home educated children safe, and ensuring that they receive a suitable education. I am grateful to Graham Badman and the review team for conducting a thorough review which carefully considered extensive evidence provided by home educators; local authorities (LAs); and representatives from a wide range of organisations and individuals working with children and parents involved in home education.<br /><br />The terms of reference commissioned Graham Badman to investigate the barriers to LAs and other public agencies in carrying out their safeguarding responsibilities; whether LAs were providing effective and appropriate support; and whether there was evidence of home education being used to cover child abuse. From this evidence, he was asked to identify whether any changes were needed to the current regime of monitoring home education.<br /><br />The review makes a compelling case for substantial changes to the arrangements for supporting and monitoring home education. It recognises the wide range of philosophical and practical reasons that lie behind parents' decisions to home educate. It acknowledges that in some cases home educated children have been withdrawn from school under a range of difficult circumstances: this is reflected in the relatively high proportion of children with special educational needs who are home educated, and other cases where children have been bullied of had other experiences that leave them unable to attend school. These children and families need support from their local authorities in a way that enables them to access appropriate advice and guidance, receive specialist services, and use extended school provision and facilities such as leisure centres and libraries. The review argues for fresh thinking and further consultation with children, their families, local authorities and others involved in home education to identify ways to commission services for this very diverse sector in order to support the best possible outcomes for the children concerned.<br /><br />The review also found evidence that there are a small number of cases where home educated children have suffered harm because safeguarding concerns were not picked up, or not treated with sufficient urgency, particularly where parents were uncooperative or obstructed local authority investigations. It sets out specific steps that should be taken to address these risks as well as improving the monitoring of the education provided: a compulsory registration scheme; a discretion to local authorities to prohibit home education where there are safeguarding concerns; and the right for LA representatives to interview home educated children to establish whether they are safe and receiving a suitable education. I am today launching a public consultation on these proposals so that they can be introduced to Parliament at the earliest possible opportunity.<br /><br />Copies of the review and our initial response have been placed in the House Libraries.<br /></span></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-39710060814522052172009-06-18T19:07:00.006+01:002009-06-19T00:51:19.664+01:00Rules for some... Yet another reason to declare Badman's Report 'not valid'<span style="font-family:verdana;">Maybe not many people have seen the very first page of the <a href="http://publications.everychildmatters.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/HC-610_Home-ed.PDF">Report to the Secretary of State on the Review of Elective Home Education in England</a>, but it's quite an interesting one. I've copied it here below:<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">==========<br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">© Crown Copyright 2009<br /><br />The text in this document (excluding the Royal Arms and other departmental or agency logos) <span style="color:#993399;"><em>may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium providing it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context</em></span>. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document specified.<br /><br />Where we have identified any third party copyright material you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.<br /><br />For any other use of this material please write to Office of Public Sector Information,<br />Information Policy Team, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU or e-mail: licensing@opsi.gov.uk<br /><br />ISBN: 9780102961133</span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color:#3366ff;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="color:#3366ff;"><br /></span><span style="color:#000000;">==========<br /></span><br /></span>Please take note of the part I've highlighted, before you continue reading.<br /><br />On page 13 in Chapter 4: Elective Home Education in Context - the Views of Home Educators and Others, Mr Badman writes:<br /><br />==========<br /><span style="color:#3366ff;">And the Education Division of the Church of England states its concern:<br /><br />“that children and young people not in formal education are missing the benefits and<br />challenges of learning in community with their peers. Children who do not go to school may not experience the social and cultural diversity encountered there; they will not learn how to deal with the rough and tumble of everyday life; they may never meet people with different faith and value systems. All such encounters, even the difficult or painful ones are enriching. We are concerned not only with the five Every Child Matters outcomes, but also with the spiritual well-being of all children and young people. Spiritual well-being arises not only from being cared for in a loving family and/or faith community, but also in encounters with people of different opinions and backgrounds; in learning to listen to a variety of opinions; to encounter diversity and the riches and life-enhancement it can bring. Spiritual well-being depends on living and taking a full part in community life. Children and young people in schools learn about and from the five major religions. This may be a difficult part of the curriculum for home educators to provide, yet it is vital for the Government’s community cohesion agenda that all children learn in a balanced way about the variety of religious values and practices, and to be encouraged to question their own beliefs and practices.”<br /></span>==========<br /><br /><br /><br /><p>Mr Badman may view it a 'fundamental problem' that home educating parents do not have a 'representative voice' [page 14, 4.10] but that doesn't mean we don't communicate with each other. And although the Report (intentionally?) doesn't mention the source of this quotation, it was soon mentioned on some of the home ed lists that it was part of a ten point "Submission from the Church of England Education Division".<br />It took some doing, as the link on the available websites only produced encrypted documents, but eventually my much more computer literate husband managed to create a legible file for me (I have a pdf and a Word file, if anybody is interested) and I managed to copy the complete Submission into this post, at the end.<br /><br />For the record, the fact that I copy it on here does not mean that this Submission represents my personal opinion (and this obviously especially goes for point 7).<br /><br />May I draw your special attention to point 10?<br /></p><br /><p>==========<br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">"We have seen no evidence to show that the majority of home educated children do not achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes, and are therefore not convinced of the need to change the current system of monitoring the standard of home education. Where there are particular concerns about the children in a home-educating this should be a matter for Children’s Services."</span> </p><br /><p>==========<br /><br />And may I now remind you of the first page in Mr Badman's Report, in which it says <span style="color:#3366ff;">"the text in this document (......) may be reproduced (.....) providing it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context".</span><br /><br />As a whole, I find the submission of the Church of England to be mostly sympathetic of Elective Home Education, with some points of concern, which I'd be delighted to discuss with them.<br />By only using point 7 Mr Badman has, in my opinion, taken part of the Submission out of its well balanced context, to give readers the impression that the Church of England is against Elective Home Education.<br /><br />That's more than Bad. That's Evil.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">Review of Elective Home Education<br />Submission from the Church of England Education Division<br /></span></p><br /><ol><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">Church of England Education Division<br />The Church of England Education Division is a provider of statutory education in over 4,500 Church of England primary schools and 220+ secondary schools and academies and of voluntary education and training of children and young people and adult learning.</span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">We welcome the opportunity to contribute to the independent review of Elective Home Education. We believe in the absolute value of each child and young person as being made in the image of God, and that we have a responsibility to safeguard the vulnerable, whilst offering the freedom needed for growth and development. </span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">We also believe in the importance of relationship within families and within communities, and that children and young people need to encounter a diverse range of people to enable them to learn to live in community and communion and to develop relationships outside their own family and close community.</span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">Children and young people need to be equipped to challenge oppression and injustice and where they are the victims of such oppression and injustice and have no voice that is heard, the Church should be advocates for them. </span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">As Christians, we cannot condone the use of home education as a cover for any form of child abuse. We are not aware of any research that shows how prevalent this is or whether it is widespread. Prevention of abuse under the cover of home education seems to be the main reason for this review, and in making it so, has the effect of tarnishing the reputation of the many parents who choose to home educate their children from the best of motives.</span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">Parents are in the vast majority of cases the best people to decide what is appropriate and best for their children, and those who choose for whatever reason to educate their children outside the state or independent system do so for many reasons. </span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">Our main concern about home education lies in (3) above: that children and young people not in formal education are missing the benefits and challenges of learning in community with their peers. Children who do not go to school may not experience the social and cultural diversity encountered there; they will not learn how to deal with the rough and tumble of everyday life; they may never meet people with different faith and values systems. All such encounters, even the difficult or painful ones, are enriching. </span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">We are concerned not only with the five Every Child Matters outcomes, but also with the spiritual well-being of all children and young people. Spiritual well-being arises not only from being cared for in a loving family and/or in a faith community, but also in encounters with people of different opinions and backgrounds; in learning to listen to a variety of opinions; to encounter diversity and the riches and life-enhancement it can bring. Spiritual well-being depends on living and taking a full part in community life.</span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">Children and young people in schools learn about and from the five major religions. This may be a difficult part of the curriculum for home educators to provide, yet it is vital for the Government’s community cohesion agenda that all children learn in a balanced way about the variety of religious values and practices, and to be encouraged to question their own beliefs and practices.</span></li><br /><li><span style="color:#ff0000;">We have seen no evidence to show that the majority of home educated children do not achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes, and are therefore not convinced of the need to change the current system of monitoring the standard of home education. Where there are particular concerns about the children in a home-educating this should be a matter for Children’s Services.<br /><br /><br /><br />Church of England Education Division<br />February 2009<br /></span></span></li></ol>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-36718993893454134512009-04-04T11:54:00.003+01:002009-04-04T12:03:36.780+01:00Professor Stephen HeppellAs posted on <a href="http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/">Gill's blog</a> in the comment thread about "Mr Badman, Professor Heppel, bullying, Notschool and Becta" in response to Professor Heppell virtually kissing Gill:<br /><br />Something has been bugging me for a few days now and I cannot let it go. If only because I want a clean conscience. And because I want to walk the talk.<br />One of the things I've said in my letter to Baroness Morgan is that I would do anything within my power to stand up against abuse.<br />Now, I have a growing feeling that I am witnessing at least the onset of abuse and although I feel very uncomfortable watching, I am still limiting my response to trying to override my instincts and instead reason and rationalise. But hurt and damage is being caused. Trauma's are being formed. There is definitely an unequal situation, wherein one party - at least potentially - has power over another. The less powerful party is not entirely defenceless, but knows that in the end the other party has access to ultimate power.<br />If the situation I'm describing would be between an adult and a child, the authorities would (want to) be involved, the child would be in a protective programme and the adult would be up in court.<br />But in this case I'm not sure who to turn to for justice, because the more powerful party is representing the authorities and the less powerful party is represented by adults. In the end, though, children will be the victim of this abuse in the making.<br /><br />Professor Heppell, I am a very visual thinker, and the image of you offering kisses to Gill - after first saying "Would you rather I'd left it to the Ofsted members" - was a final straw for me. It turns my stomach, to be honest.<br />I am all for engaging in dialogue, for exchanging view points, for open and non-violent communication. But the only fair way to conduct that is if both parties set out to respect each other and take each other one hundred percent seriously.<br />Please take a step back, Professor Heppell, and look at this situation. Look at it as if it concerned a situation with on one side a teacher who knows his grading is going to determine the future of his student, and on the other side the student, who is being asked to hand in his free spirit in exchange for a good mark.<br />Look at it as if it concerned a situation with on one side an employer who know his employee is depending on him for the income that supports his family, and on the other side the employee who is being asked to smother his free speech in exchange for an income.<br />Look at it as if it concerned a situation with on one side a (grand)parent who knows the child can't live and can't go anywhere without them, and on the other side the child who knows that if he doesn't do what the adult wants him to do, there will be no food, no home, no love.<br /><br />I'm sure you don't want to be part of any of these situations, Professor Heppell. So please take a step back and consider what your position as member of the reviewing panel is in relation to our position as the party being reviewed for something we are falsely accused of.<br />Gill doesn't need your kisses - Gill deserves your support, your understanding and not in the last place: your apology.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-49732238536664530632009-04-01T23:57:00.004+01:002009-04-02T12:38:21.412+01:00My draft A4 to Mr Badman<em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">I've written and re-written my A4 to Mr Badman.</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">It's strange, in one way I feel there's already many people writing extremely good pieces, so maybe I shouldn't take the focus away from them. On the other hand I really feel it's about me, and about my family, and about the future of my children and their children, so I need to add my bit to it.</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">Obviously everyone's dilemma is what to write in such a limited space. How to phrase all that's so utterly important to us in so few words? I wonder if Mr Badman realises that each and everyone of us conscious and elective home educators could talk for hours and hours about the why and how of uninterfered-with home education. How can you make someone understand the essence of autonomous education if they are walking an entirely different path in life?</span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">Anyway, I've decided that this - here below - is what I want to send. Any comments or corrections to English are most welcome. </span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></em><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">Dear Mr Badman,<br /><br />Thank you for inviting home educators to write to you regarding the ongoing review of Elective Home Education and thank you for your promise to read it all.<br />It was hard to decide what to write about, as I could easily fill a book with relevant facts, figures and feelings. As I expect you will be inundated with facts and figures by other home educators, I chose to write to you on a more personal level.<br /><br />After all that's gone on and been said since the start of this review - and the previous consultations - it's hard to withstand the tendency to feel suspicious or hostile. Everything I believe in, live for and love dearly, seems to be under threat of being changed to such an extent that it would change the very core of my existence. And that's scary.<br /><br />However, one thing I've learned since we chose to home educate our children autonomously, is that the only way to deal with fear is to stand up to it and face it. I will not let fear get the better of me, I will not let it rule my life. I will have faith and trust that my well considered choice to take full responsibility for the education of my own children gets the respect and recognition it deserves and is entitled to.<br />From that faith and trust I am now asking you to not let the overwhelming sense of fear that seems to rule our society nowadays, stand between you and sound judgment. To please look beyond and recognize that one very good way to conquer fear is for people to take responsibility for their own lives and, as a possible consequence, for the education of their own children. In whatever way they see fit.<br />And that by doing so the well-being of young people is improved and the chances of them being abused or neglected are reduced, not only within their own families and communities, but - eventually - in society as a whole.<br /><br />As the absolute expert on my own children and after twelve years of autonomous home education I dare to say they wouldn't be the well balanced, confident, competent, independent and <strong>happy</strong> young people they are today if there had been a compulsive need for monitoring. Or if any outside and non-committed party had in any other way interfered with or tried to take control over their self directed way of learning and living. Being able to home educate in our own autonomous way has been very beneficial for our children and for us as a family.<br /><br />Nothing and nobody can ever totally eradicate evil from this world. I am absolutely sure that existing legislation and guidance in this country is more than sufficient to tackle possible child abuse and threats to children's welfare as good as possible. There is enough evidence to suggest that LA's and other agencies involved in education and child welfare are not sufficiently informed and therefore not efficient when it comes to relating the existing legislation and guidance to elective home education. Improving that would surely result in a better outcome for all involved, and would certainly prevent a lot of unnecessary aggravation and harmful experiences to home educating families.<br /><br />Please, Mr. Badman, let us get on with what we do so passionately and with more love, dedication and commitment than any system could ever offer: Providing our children with an education suitable to their age, ability and aptitude and to any special needs they may have.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-78877985151477709092009-03-30T23:37:00.005+01:002009-03-30T23:59:59.682+01:00Showing off...<span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc0000;">Myrna made the local newspaper when she won the <a href="http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/tv_talent_shows_boost_interest_in_carlisle_musical_festival_1_529515?referrerPath=home/news_star_search_results_page_2_1962">Sam Bellingham Memorial Trophy</a> after winning four of her six classes and the sing offs <span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc0000;">in the Carlisle Drama and Music Festival 2009. The name above hers on the Cup is... Andrew Johnston!</span> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-52918174087871646522009-03-20T01:31:00.003+00:002009-03-20T01:40:41.858+00:00And then there was life...<span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">I intended to do a post with 'evidence of ignorance', but life took over. Besides, I haven't received any additional info, nor did I have time to gather it myself. And looking at what's going on other blogs, on Facebook and on various lists, I am trailing behind and it would be a shame to waste good energy while I have plenty to do anyway.<br /><br />Meanwhile, in spite of efforts to break home educators down, home ed life in this family has never been stronger. And busier for that matter. We've had amazingly intense weeks here, with lots of extremely exciting and positive things going on, which I will come back to in a minute.<br /><br />There is no way I would ever concede the education of my children to the state. I strongly believe my children are quite capable of being in control of their own education in order to achieve their own goals in life and I've gladly taken it upon me to provide for them in any way I possibly can. I also believe that love, trust and respect are the strongest foundation to build a well balanced life on. And up to now the state haven't given me much reason to believe they're in any way capable, let alone willing to give my children the same opportunities as I as a parent can and want to give them. In other words, I do not want the responsibility for a suitable education for my children taken away from me.<br /><br />At this moment I'm not sure what's the best way for me to help guarding the rights and the educational freedom we have in this country. I am trying to find out in what way I can put what I've got to offer to best effect. What have I got to offer, for that matter? That's not a question in self pity, it's a genuine attempt to self analysis.<br /><br />- My knowledge of Dutch educational legislation, Dutch political systems and the mysterious ways the Dutch educational system works is of no use whatsoever, that's for sure.<br />- I am not very good with virtual groups, yahoo groups and all that. In 'real' groups it's hard enough for everyone to find a comfortable place, feel the dynamics and try and create - and maintain - a balanced atmosphere. But you can actually see the people, their facial expression, their body language. In a virtual group all you have is the written words, and if you're lucky you know one or a few of the other group members. You can't see the quiet ones, you don't feel the vibes, you don't see how people look at each other, whether they smile or not, and it's very hard to determine if what looks like an aggressive remark is based on frustration, sadness or bitterness. Also, unless you've been with a group from the very beginning, you won't know what's already been written about, if and how other members know each other, and you haven't got a clue how people really perceive your written words.<br />- Our geographical position and our way of life don't leave much room for meeting up with lots of other - politically active - home educators and the fact that I have to earn a living as well as eat and sleep, doesn't leave me with an abundance of time.<br />- In spite of everyone saying my English is good enough, language is a handicap. I still think in Dutch and writing in English is a challenge.<br /><br />So what have I got to offer?<br /><br />- My personal experience, I suppose, and the things I've learned in my own life. Mostly through trial and error.<br />- My passion for autonomous education and the fact that in the past ten years I have had to stand up for that on several occasions, in court, in the media, on seminars about education, in one to one situations, etcetera. Mostly in Holland, but I'm gathering quite a bit of UK experience :).<br /><br />So where does that leave me as in making a constructive contribution to securing the legal right of freedom of education in this country?<br />I'm still not sure. And until I am I think I'll just stick to what I feel good and comfortable with and that's enjoying our autonomous life to the fullest. And every now and then I'll stick my nose into political matters, or I'll make a comment of the list I'm on because I really feel connected to something or someone.<br />But most of all I'll try and live in the moment, be calm and assertive when it comes to making sure my 'pack' is safe and happy and all the while love my children to bits. And my husband of thirty (!!!!) years, of course.<br /><br />The past two weeks I was overwhelmed with happy and successful moments. Moments where my children were happy, ecstatic because they reached goals they'd set themselves. Because they had achieved what they wanted to.<br /><br />Our eldest (19) started in her new job and after only two weeks got offered a fulltime job, including paid training to get the qualifications she wants. She is over the moon, feels self-confident and strong.<br /><br />Our son (17) has been promoted to Lance Corporal in the army cadets and at the same time got given a few quite responsible tasks. He was commended for his commitment, for his dedication ánd for his ability to stay calm under pressure. Not bad for an Aspie, hey? Plus he got his grading to orange in Hontai, the classical form of Jiu Jitsu and he was asked to help train the youngsters twice a week.<br /><br />Our youngest (13) took part in the Carlisle Music Festival and managed to win four of the six (singing) classes she took part in and get a second prize in one. Then she had to sing in the finales and won that, singing O Mio Babbino Caro. So she won the trophy for best under 18 vocal performance (which went to Andrew Johnston last year, by the way :)).<br />As a result we might get an article about home education in the regional newspaper, because she seems to have made quite an impression on the journalist who interviewed her.<br /><br />Of course there are lots of little and big moments where I know, see and sense that autonomous home education was the best choice for our children. And I certainly do not measure the success of our home education by the prizes my children win or the qualifications they earn. But it's definitely good to see how capable they are to carry themselves in this world without losing one little bit of their unique selves.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-52336545421863104912009-03-07T01:03:00.005+00:002009-03-08T00:56:38.658+00:00A letter to Baroness Morgan<span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">Again, I am going back to what started the current review of home education.<br />Although it said in the DCSF press release that the review <span style="color:#990000;">"will assess the effectiveness of current arrangements for parents who home educate and of local authority systems for supporting children and families"</span> it is obvious from all that is happening now that not the quality or the functioning of the local authorities is under scrutiny, but much more the whole concept of home education itself. That's weird, to say the least, because there is ample evidence of failures of local authorities - with sometimes disastrous consequences - but none concerning home education as such. Therefore I have drafted a letter to Baroness Morgan and I am still gathering relevant evidence to convince her of the fact that local authorities and other agencies involved in education and child welfare are - often - ignorant of existing law and guidance in regard to education outside the school system.<br />Please feel free to leave more such evidence in my comment box.<br /><br /><em><span style="color:#663366;">Dear Baroness Morgan,<br /><br />As an elective home educator I am well aware of the weight your words carry when you choose to express your concerns about matters related to education and children's welfare.<br /><br />As a responsible, caring and most of all loving parent I share your ambition to do everything possible to prevent and fight child abuse in any form. Children, I think, are entitled to a well balanced upbringing in a stable and loving environment. If I have any reason to believe children are denied this chance I will do everything possible within the law to intervene.<br /><br />As a law abiding citizen of this country I feel it my duty to inform you that the information on which you commissioned the current review of home education is not only inaccurate, but could also lead to damage and/or disruption of young people's lives.<br /><br />Apparently the information you were given led you to believe that "home education could be used as a ‘cover’ for child abuse such as neglect, forced marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude".<br />Based a.o. on your first press release on this matter it appears that no distinction is being made between 'children missing education' and 'children in home education'. There is a distinctive difference between the two. In the first case children are not going to school and are not receiving any other form of education, while in the second case parents have chosen to provide their children with an education suitable to their age, aptitude and ability and to any special educational needs the child(ren) may have.<br /><br />I put it to you that the existing legislation and guidance on elective home education is sufficient, but that local authorities and other agencies dealing with education and welfare have insufficient knowledge of it, and are therefore not capable of applying it in an efficient way. That to me is a concern and I genuinely feel the wellbeing of children in general and of those in home education in particular would be better served with a review into the competence and functioning of said local authorities and other agencies. Their incorrect interpretation of law and guidance, together with an insufficient and/or incorrect understanding of home education, not only causes unnecessary grief and damage to home educators, but also leads said authorities to - unnecessarily - feel inadequate and/or incompetent in cases where there might be reasons for concerns.<br /><br />Rather than using assumptions and suspicions I can support my statement with ample evidence of cases where local authorities and other agencies display ignorance of existing legislation and guidance, as well as of the workings of education other than through the school system.<br />Furthermore, I could provide you with a list of people with ample knowledge and experience of home education and related legislation, who could efficiently and effectively conduct a review into this matter, supply you with both a relevant report and suggestions for improvement, as well as suitable training/education for LA's and other agencies working in this field.<br /><br />I trust that after reading this letter and looking at the attached evidence you will share my concerns and take appropriate measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children.<br /><br />Yours sincerely,<br /><br /></span></em><br />In a next post I will list all the links I'm sending the Baroness. Up to now I have:<br /><br /></span><a href="http://daretoknowblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/dorsets-response-to-la-questionnaire.html"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">In this post on Carlotta's blog</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;"> you'll find the Dorset LA response to the 60 questions they were asked to answer. From the frustrated tone of their answer it is quite obvious they are yet again confusing welfare issues with educational ones.<br /><br />After a - very brief - item on BBC's Radio 4 programme PM a very lengthy and similarly </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/2009/02/home_schooling.shtml#commentsanchor"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">interesting and informative discussion came to life on the PM Blog</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">. Very significant was comment no. 74 by someone who presented himself as a 'Children Missing Education Officer in the North of England'. The answers to his comment speak for themselves.<br /><br />Another LA response to the questionnaire that caught the attention because of the apparent lack of knowledge was </span><a href="http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/8379/response/18394/attach/2/=?UTF-8?B?RGVwYXJ0bWVudCBmb3IgQ2hpbGRyZW4sIFNjaG9vbHMgYW5kIEZhbWlsaWVzLCBlLUNvbnN1bHRhdGlvbi5odG0=?=.html"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">this one from Birmingham LA</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">. One home educator from that area contacted 'her' EWO about the contents of this response and he knew nothing about it, apparently. It makes me wonder how much the person filling in the questionnaire actually knew about the day-to-day reality of the situation 'on the ground'.<br /><br />In Lancashire </span><a href="http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/corporate/news/press_releases/y/m/release.asp?id=20\0901&r=PR09/0003"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">this press release</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;"> brought to light that Lancashire County Council were under the false impression that they could make local agreements about visits and providing of examples of work with some home educators about all home educators. And of course they, too, showed they were not informed about their legal rights and limitations.<br /><br />With regard to the ongoing review a shocking case of ignorance and uninformed partiality was displayed by NSPCC spokesperson Mr Vijay Patel <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/is-the-government-right-to-be-concerned-about-homeschooling-1631969.html">in the Independent</a> when he implied a connection between the death of Victoria Climbié and home education. Even though DCSF and Mr Graham Badman have now said they know there is no such connection, the NSPCC has not yet officially apologized and is still involved in the so-called independent review of home education.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-40627406888504657812009-03-06T13:23:00.005+00:002009-03-06T16:26:02.246+00:00Eagerly awaiting further action...<span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">Did you read this on any of the lists?<br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">From EO's Spokesperson:<br /><br />I have permission to quote this statement that I have just received from Graham Badman's office, after I sent over details of the references made in the Independent article by Vijay Patel about Victoria and home education and after I gave them the link to the statement made by the Victoria Climbie Foundation:<br /><br />"The DCSF, and Graham, know that there is no link whatsoever between the tragic death of Victoria Climbie and home education"<br /><br />This statement was made to me officially today in an email written by Elizabeth Green who is working for Graham Badman during the Independent Review of Home Education.<br /></span><br />I read it. On one of the home ed blogs.<br />But I didn't read it in - for instance - the Independent. And as far as I'm aware there wasn't a national press release or any other attempt to make the general public aware of the fact that Mr Patel had misinformed them.<br />I am eagerly awaiting what DCSF and Graham are going to do after more or less acknowledging that they're aware of the biased views of NSPCC, represented by Mr Patel. After all, we are being told this is an "independent review".<br />For that matter, what is NSPCC going to do? They still haven't made a full public apology for their damaging comment, they haven't sacked Mr Patel, they haven't withdrawn from their involvement with the review.<br /><br />How on earth can I even try and achieve the five outcomes of ECM for my children when the Powers That Be are doing their utmost to make it impossible!? Not only by threatening to disrupt, interfere with and intrude into our personal life and development, but also by having that done by people who not only have no knowledge of autonomous education in the first place but on top of that have not even been CRB checked! </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-80243324618989869562009-02-21T16:59:00.002+00:002009-02-21T17:16:10.896+00:00The last bit of the press note<span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;">I'll attempt to conclude my scrutiny of the NCSF press note about the Review into Elective Home Education.<br /><br />After summing up the aims of the Elective Home Education Review the press note again cleverly connects <span style="color:#000099;">"children missing education"</span> and <span style="color:#000099;">"home education".</span><br />It would have been really easy to construe a sentence with both the popular phrase <span style="color:#000099;">"right to balanced education"</span> and <span style="color:#000099;">"home education"</span> in it, but obviously that might have veered the minds of readers in a different direction. It's all about suggestion. Very clever.<br />And it works, as you can see in this <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-children-we-abandon-at-our-peril-925518.html">scary example of misinformation</a> (Thanks, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=37623200&postID=6122116427113392700">Debs</a>!).<br /><br />The press note ends quoting Graham Badman, who will be leading the review. At this moment I'll give Mr Badman the benefit of the doubt. I've read quite a bit about the work he is and has been involved with, but I do not know enough about these cases to have an opinion about the quality of Mr Badman's work. I know enough of the workings of the media not to form an opinion based on the so-called 'public opinion'. To me Mr Badman is a kind of a judge in a court of justice, and without profound knowledge of the cases concerned, I couldn't possibly form an opinion about the quality of his work, purely based on his verdicts.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;">Mr Badman, too, acknowledges the right of parents to choose to home educate, and he promises to <span style="color:#000099;">"discuss all the issues with home educating families, local authorities and other key stakeholders"</span> - who would they be? - <span style="color:#000099;">"[and] investigate whether the current system adequately supports these rights and responsibilities"</span> - see, that's hopeful, he mentions both rights and responsibilities - <span style="color:#000099;">"and if not, I will make recommendations for improvements."</span><br /><br />So there it is. This to me sounds like an open invitation to elective home educators to provide Mr Badman not only with information about how seriously we take our responsibilities, but also about whether we feel the <span style="color:#000099;">"current system adequately supports these rights and responsibilities".<br /></span>The very fact that this review is necessary because (a lot of, not all!) local authorities and other agencies have not enough knowledge and/or understanding of the existing legislation and guidance to adequately remove the bee from the Baroness' bonnet should lead to a recommendation for improvement of the training and work methods of local authorities and agencies.<br /><br />I know I am lucky to live in Cumbria, where we have some excellent LA people, who are positively supportive of EHE and who make an effort to communicate with our representatives. I have only had brief dealings with them when I was having problems trying to get my eldest into mainstream education - LOL to the irony of that! - and thanks to the interference of the - then - LEA my daughter got the place she wanted. I know many examples of positive cooperation between home educators and LA's in this county. It is possible. And all within the existing law and guidance.<br /><br />The Editor's Notes of the press release again indicate that there is no intention to provide well-balanced information. There is no mention of Section 7 of the Education Act 1996. There is no mention of the organisations representing home educators in this country. And of course there is no mention of conclusive evidence or even probable grounds for the vile accusations about child abuse.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;"></span><span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;">Of course not. Because there aren't any.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-84746608353595043502009-02-19T01:14:00.003+00:002009-02-19T01:29:44.347+00:00Going back to the beginning of the EHE Review<span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;">In an attempt to fully understand what has actually instigated this whole <a href="http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/ete/homeeducation/">review</a> I was re-reading not only the invaluable amount of information on <a href="http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.com/">Gill's blog</a>, but also a lot of other articles on this subject.<br />And this time I made a point of reading that very first <a href="http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2009_0013">press notice</a> word by word. I cannot but have great admiration for the person (spin doctor, I think you Brits call them) who wrote this. It's a clever bit of suggestive writing and I'd guess the author got paid extra for every time he managed to get the words "safe(ty), health(y) and education" in the same sentence. With an bonus for welfare.<br /><br />Apart from all these clever little tricks - another one is mentioning "children missing education" and "home education" in the same, first sentence - I was amazed to read on what arguments the Baroness Delyth Morgan managed to get funding for this review, involving many - undoubtedly highly paid - experts.<br /><br />First she confirms the parents' right to choose to home educate their children. She immediately adds that <span style="color:#000099;">"a very small number do".</span> Of this very small number, she says, <span style="color:#000099;">"the vast majority do a good job".</span> So, we may conclude that the vast majority of a very small number of people do a good job, in the eyes of the Baroness.<br />Then we come to the crux of the matter: <span style="color:#000099;">"There are concerns"</span> - unspecified and therefore subjective - <span style="color:#000099;">"that some children are not receiving the education they need. And in some extreme cases, home education could be" </span>- note: COULD BE - <span style="color:#000099;">"used as a cover for abuse."</span><br /><br />Well, I'll be the first to agree that we <span style="color:#000099;">cannot allow this to happen and I will do everything I can to help ensure children are safe, wherever they are educated</span>. Because I totally agree with the first sentence in the second paragraph, that <span style="color:#000099;">"everything possible should be done to guarantee all children their right to a balanced education in a safe, healthy environment."<br /></span><br />As a dedicated elective home educator (EHE) with enough experience within the school system I do not even need to see the statistics to know that the amount of children within the school system who do NOT enjoy a <span style="color:#000099;">"balanced education in a safe, healthy environment"</span> vastly exceeds the <span style="color:#000099;">"very small number of children in elective home education",</span> of whom the vast majority is without a doubt receiving <span style="color:#000099;">"balanced education in a safe, healthy environment",</span> let alone the number of children the Baroness has - up to now unfounded - concerns about.<br /><br />I wish I was given the job to <span style="color:#000099;">"look at whether the right systems are in place that allow local authorities and other agencies to ensure that any concerns about the safety [and] welfare of home educated children are addressed quickly and effectively".</span> In the six years I've now lived in this country I've personally met at least ten people, in my county alone, who'd be able to answer that adequately. I think I'd need a day or two - including long tea and lunch breaks - to gather enough information to write a nice and absolutely solid report. And I could without too much trouble put together a team of people who are not only experts on elective home education and the laws and legislation that relate to it, but who could also train local authorities and other agencies to know what they need to know on EHE, as well as on the existing and efficient legal tools to make sure the mentioned concerns are addressed quickly and effectively.<br /><br />But never for all the money in the world would I want to have to do a similar job when it wasn't only about home educated children. Not only would I just not know where to start, I think it would break my heart. I can just about manage to deal with my own memories and the stories of people around me about unhappy children, unfulfilled needs, abuse, bullying and inadequate education in schools.<br />Hmm, maybe that's why the Baroness chose to go for home educators...<br /><br />Back to the DCSF's press note, now.<br />At the end of the third paragraph it says: <span style="color:#000099;">"There are no plans to change parents' well established rights to educate their children at home."</span><br />Yet, two paragraphs further along DCSF finds it necessary to include a comment of Diana Sutton, Head of policy and public affairs at the NSPCC:<br /><span style="color:#000099;">".... We believe the existing legislation and guidance on elective home education is outdated. We support the view set out by the London (LA) Children's Safeguarding Leads network that the government should review the legislation to balance the parents' right to home educate their children, the local authorities' duty to safeguard children and the child's right to protection."</span><br />Why include this comment if <span style="color:#000099;">"there are no plans to change parents' well established rights to educate their children at home"?</span><br /><br />I will not go deeply into the Five Outcomes of the ECM here, apart from saying that I find that whole document an appalling bit of propaganda, that aims to appeal to people's good intentions. Who in their right mind would want to say they do NOT want these five outcomes for their children? Shockingly missing from the whole ECM programme is the word "happiness".<br /><br />Upon reading the task set for the EHE Review I become slightly more optimistic. If the Reviewer takes this literally there might be hope for EHE after all. And maybe even for children in a school age in general.<br /><br />The first thing to be investigated is:<br /><br /><span style="color:#000099;">"Whether local authorities and other public agencies are able to effectively discharge their duties and responsibilities for safeguarding and ensuring a suitable education for ALL CHILDREN."<br /></span><br />Ah! Not only children in EHE! But... but... but... Why is the consultation not aimed at parents of all children then? Why is EHE singled out? Do I misread what it says there, or are they really going to investigate all children?<br /><br />The second:<br /><br /><span style="color:#000099;">"Whether home educating parents are receiving the support and advice they want to ensure they provide a good, balanced education for their children."<br /></span><br />Well, that might be good news for us! We can either just say: No thank you, we're doing fine! Or maybe we can ask them to suggest making EHE parents exempt from this new everybody has to have a paid job-mania. Or exams and educational material available at no cost. Or... or... Well, my panel of experts could undoubtedly come up with a good long list of suggestions!<br /><br />As to the third one:<br /><span style="color:#000099;">"Consider what evidence there is to support claims that home education could be used as a 'cover' for child abuse such as neglect, forced marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude"<br /></span><br />The Reviewing Committee would be wise to first find out where these claims come from and what they are based on. But how on earth can you find hard evidence for something that COULD happen? Uh? Or is that my lack of understanding of the English language?<br /><br />Anyway, I'll leave the rest of the press note for what it is, for now, as it is way past my bedtime and I must admit that this whole ruddy business has taken away a lot of energy that I usually apply to ensure that my children enjoy a balanced education in a safe, healthy environment.<br />So may the most important recommendation of the Reviewing Committee be that to ensure that children in EHE receive a balanced education in a safe, healthy environment, their parents should be allowed to get on with it instead of being bothered and bullied by yet another consultation.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-27138228994693130322008-12-14T22:53:00.003+00:002008-12-14T23:24:12.812+00:00Computers and Peace<span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">The other day we were discussing freedom and world peace. You know, as you do over dinner.<br />And I remembered a passage from this book I translated from English into Dutch in 2000, when life was in more of a turmoil than usual for us, because we'd taken the children out of school and were just starting on the path of 'unschooling', at the time totally illegal in Holland. The only reason I managed to do this translation is because the book gripped me right from the beginning. It became a lifeline to me and each chapter brought me a new and very valuable insight.<br />The book was 'Zen Computer' by Philip Toshio Sudo.<br /><br />Here's the bit I read out to my dearest and nearest:<br /><br /><em>"For as much as technology transforms our lives and society, Zen Computer says true transformation - the kind that's authentic and profound - will not come through technology alone, but through the transformation of people's souls, one by one by one. It says salvation arises from self-awareness, not better tools and faster communications; <strong>that world peace stems from inner peace; that</strong></em></span><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"><em><strong> freedom for all people demands first the self-discipline of each individual</strong>. To cultivate self-awareness through the use of tools and communications - this is the hard work Zen Computer seeks to support. Only then will we elevate our humanity." </em></span><br /><em><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#006600;"></span></em><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#006600;">It was and still is food for thought and contemplation.</span><br /><br /><em><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#006600;"></span></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-38872223728354632352008-12-07T14:08:00.006+00:002008-12-07T20:42:53.209+00:00Learning from Life<div><div><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc0000;">Our eldest daughter has a new job.<br />A job that - in my opinion - really suits her.<br />A job that she holds no paper qualifications for.<br />I am so happy for her, because I know this is the kind of work she really wants to do. And in my mind, it's the kind of work she's cut out to do.<br />She's going to be a support worker with MenCap, working with adults and children with learning disabilities.<br />Ever since she started to think about what she wanted to do she's said she wanted to work with horses and with special needs people.<br />She did the Horse Management Course in college, but it wasn't satisfactory for her. Too much aimed at 'the industry', while her interest lies in the connection, the bond between horses and people. </span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc0000;">For her work experience she went back to Holland, to the riding school she used to go to when we lived there. They are specialized in working with children with special needs.<br />By the time she came back to England - not entirely by her own choice - all she wanted to do was earn money and have a good time. Go shopping. Party. Make friends.<br />She got herself a job in Tesco, which gave her the money and the time and opportunity to do what she wanted to do. But soon she started to realize that working without job satisfaction was only okay up to a certain level. And she didn't want to do it for the rest of her life.<br />Then we saw this job in the paper. And we talked about it. I could see the sparkle in her eye, I could sense her intention when she went to fill in the application forms. And I prayed that she would get the chance to go for an interview, because I was sure her intention would be clear to other people, too.<br /><br />The invitation for an interview came. She was really nervous to start with. But then she started to prepare herself. Reading more about MenCap on the internet and in the leaflet they'd sent out. Buying the same perfume her clan-sister uses and wearing it to the interview, so she felt her much loved and supportive clan-sister was with her.<br />I drove her there and it literally felt as if the car was filled with purpose. I dropped her off and an hour later picked her up again.<br />She was all smiles and totally relaxed and said that, even if she wouldn't get the job, she was really happy with how the interview went and she was proud of herself. Big thing for someone who's suffered from a fear to fail and insecurity for a long time.<br />There had been three people and at first she'd felt slightly overwhelmed. But once she got the chance to talk she came into her comfort zone. She'd told them how it had been growing up with a brother with Asperger Syndrome and what she'd learned from that. She spoke of her work with horses and special needs children - and I know how she radiates enthusiasm when she talks about that. They'd asked her if she'd be prepared to do the necessary training and she'd said she'd love to and explained she learned best when it was coupled to 'real life'.<br />They said they'd let her know within the next couple of weeks whether she'd got the job, but we'd only been home ten minutes when they were on the phone to offer her the job!<br /><br />It'll be part time to start with and they'll fit it around her hours in Tesco. That's good, because she wants to get her drivers' license and she wants to move out. So she'll need the cash. Once she's completed the training they'll be able to offer her fulltime employment. That's an excellent incentive for her and I'm sure she'll do what it takes.<br /><br />For me it's hugely satisfying to once again see that autonomous education does work.<br />It's funny, actually.<br />As is custom in Holland, we sent birth announcement cards to friends and family when she was born. At that time totally unaware of home education, let alone autonomous education or child-led learning, I'd asked a friend of ours to make this drawing of a man and woman asleep in bed, with a balloon above their heads showing the dreams and expectations they were having of their child.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQbbQryly6LAM8kl7y61pvBQ0JgIIR4RH3IafvQNWqNPseWvi9rYHB80UH6Fc1wAkKHJi7lYvapj2D_VhygZ9EHiggidU18VXwid8iMhG1JB-xcrPe7fHTzLETvwalqcN1yZEGxZ82sy8/s1600-h/141_4188.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277050543907552786" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQbbQryly6LAM8kl7y61pvBQ0JgIIR4RH3IafvQNWqNPseWvi9rYHB80UH6Fc1wAkKHJi7lYvapj2D_VhygZ9EHiggidU18VXwid8iMhG1JB-xcrPe7fHTzLETvwalqcN1yZEGxZ82sy8/s400/141_4188.JPG" border="0" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc0000;"><div><br />On opening the card there's this baby, peacefully asleep, and a text above her head: </div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVAiE0fU8iJBBCz2ENCs-5GFj1TeU6_XFUjrPrVRyOXlUOSbV_JDk1XwJWb2qq6IMXO3xEpwNq3DV3QFMynj-PAx0jMDWTVs_QVJPFsRGuRtd5Pilfmzd4SGnySNlzjJVoEfP4slot95I/s1600-h/141_4192.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277051607563191650" style="WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVAiE0fU8iJBBCz2ENCs-5GFj1TeU6_XFUjrPrVRyOXlUOSbV_JDk1XwJWb2qq6IMXO3xEpwNq3DV3QFMynj-PAx0jMDWTVs_QVJPFsRGuRtd5Pilfmzd4SGnySNlzjJVoEfP4slot95I/s400/141_4192.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Isn't it amazing how true this has turned out to be!</span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-19084737392565139592008-09-21T22:30:00.003+01:002008-09-21T23:40:49.611+01:00Creating confusion and pigeon holes<span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">I can't believe it! I thought I'd posted on here not so long ago, but it's been almost two months!! </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">I really need to keep this up. For myself. Because my memory seems to be less adequate than when I was younger - haarrrumphh - and blogging was supposed to be a substitute for diary writing. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">I just wanted to sum up a few short conversations I've been having in the past couple of months, about home education. You know when you're somewhere and people start bragging about how well their children do at school and all that, and then they ask you: "What school do yours go to?"</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">If the children are with me, this is the point where they disappear. They've heard it all, said it all. Been there, done it, got the T-shirt. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">So, I answer: "They don't go to one particular school, we home educate."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">One of the often heard responses to that is:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"Ow, I could never teach my own children!"</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">To which I always reply:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"No, I couldn't either."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">And then I take a deep breath and get ready to explain about autonomous learning, the Natural Curriculum, and so forth, and so forth. If people are really interested, that is. There used to be a time when I'd find myself explaining all this to someone who looked more and more bored and confused by the minute. They just wanted to 'socialize', you see. Not get involved into any deep discussions...</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">Socializing is of course a big issue with people who have their doubts about home ed.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">One of my favourite responses when people ask if there's not a problem with socializing, is:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"I don't know, they've been too busy recently to discuss it."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">The other big Q is obviously about qualifications. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"But how will she get her GCSE's?"</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"Natural Curriculum does not do GCSE's."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"But surely she'll need qualifications to get on in life."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"Then she'll get the ones she needs to do what she wants to do."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">I very often end up explaining that, when a home educated (young) person really wants to do something, s/he'll either talk their way into it with a portfolio or some other testimonial of their qualities, or actually goes and does the exams.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">At a wedding reception I got talking to this teacher woman, who, when she found out we were home educators, had disapproval written all over her face. After the usual above questions, she asked me if I didn't find it difficult to be a mother and a teacher at the same time. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">I smiled and said: "Why? Do you find it difficult, then?"</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"Well, I wouldn't like to teach my own children."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"Oh? Why not?" </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"Because you need a completely different set of tools to be a teacher, compared to a mother."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">"I see. That's interesting! So, what's the difference?"</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">It would take too long to copy the whole conversation here, but I quite enjoyed myself by just asking questions, really. She was talking about discipline, how you needed that as a teacher more than a mother, and obviously, in the end she couldn't deny that as a teacher you need to exercise more discipline because there are too many children to allow individuals to - for instance - ask questions to which the answers wouldn't fit in the time assigned to that particular lesson... and you need discipline because there just isn't time to try and find out why certain children are restless, upset, anxious, happy, or whatever... you need discipline because you can't have them talking and 'socialising' with each other while you're trying to teach... you need discipline in the school yard because their 'socialising' often gets out of hand, because they have to cramp all that energy and wanting to get to know each other in those fifteen or twenty minutes...</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">It was fun, because it wasn't really me saying all these things, it was her answering my questions. I don't know if she now hates home edders even more, or maybe maybe realises there might be another angle to home ed, that up to now she hasn't seen. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">We are in the process of becoming foster parents and one of the Placement Consultants came the other day, to fill in all kinds of forms and have a first informal chat. Myrna is very keen about fostering and wants to be involved with the whole procedure. So she sat in on the chat. Obviously, the subject of home education was raised. And would we not find it difficult to have a foster child who'd have to go to school. No, we wouldn't. And obviously, the woman wanted to know what Myrna felt about being home educated, did she not feel lonely at times? (Maybe she thought that was the reason Myrna was so keen on having a foster child?)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">But never mind, because Myrna set her straight with a very convincing and fiery plea for home education, starting by saying that she felt a lot of children in school were very, very lonely indeed, because quite often nobody had time to listen to them, talk to them. Hurray for Myrna, she brought a smile on the woman's face. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-18463065157100278732008-07-20T01:03:00.002+01:002008-07-20T01:05:29.445+01:00Check it out!<span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc0000;">To keep you in the picture I've created a blog on which I post only photo's with short comments. You'll find it <a href="http://mieke-inthepicture.blogspot.com/">here!</a>.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-44377619073934222402008-07-18T23:47:00.011+01:002008-07-19T00:19:27.601+01:00Knock, knock... I'm home!<span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;">After two weeks in Holland I was even more tired than I thought I was and I literally arrived back home with a bang. Having managed to drive to Holland, through Holland and back home without any problems whatsoever, totalling over 1400 miles in a fortnight, it went wrong at the very last moment.<br />I drove up to the house and saw four vans parked on the drive and on the pavement, belonging to the builders doing the extension. So I went to park on the pavement in front of our neighbour's house. I still don't know what and how it happened, but I heard this loud bang and was checking my mirrors to see if maybe one of the builders had dropped something or slammed a car door. "What was that?" I asked. To which Owen replied: "You just drove into the neighbour's fence, Mum."<br />And he was right. I hit a concrete post first and then buried the car's bumper into the wood of the fence. Couldn't go backwards or forwards without causing even more damage. I was so annoyed with myself and it took me a while before I could be grateful for the fact that my extreme tiredness hadn't caused more damage than a broken bumper and headlight. Anyway, Ken lived up to his Mr Superglue reputation and that same evening the car was legal to drive again.<br /><br />Our time in Holland flew by and we didn't get to do everything we'd planned to do, and we didn't get to see the people we wanted to see. But that's not unusual. Every time we go back to Holland it's an agonizing choice of where to go, what to do and who to see. You can't just go and see somebody for an hour or so after not having seen them for such a long time. So it's always a challenge to avoid too much frustration, on either side, and we always end up having to make choices that we'd rather not have to make.<br />As this trip was also part of Myrna's birthday present, I wanted to make sure that she had a good time. But because I also wanted to spend as much time as possible with my sister we both had to compromise. When having to choose between seeing people or seeing places, Myrna eventually chose to see people, even though she'd looked forward to visiting 'old' places...<br />I had so much looked forward to visiting our old next door neighbour from Brummen, who'll be 95 this year and who I still write with a few times a year. I thought this might well be my last chance to actually see her. I'm glad I didn't tell her we were coming to Holland, because I know she'd have been so disappointed to not have seen us. In the end I had to choose between just dropping by for no more than an hour and not going and I chose not to go, because I was afraid such a short, unannounced visit would just be too stressful for her. Such a shame, though...<br /><br />Obviously I also had too little time with my sister. But the time we did spend together was good and valuable. For both of us. I was pleased to see she looked a lot better than when I saw her in hospital and although I know she has a lot of hard and painful work still to do, I can see that she definitely is on the road to recovery and improvement. And I'm sure that in the end she'll come out happier and stronger. It would be nice if within the next few months she could come and spend some time with us here, in England. At least we'll by then have the space to put her up...<br /><br />While I was in Holland a lot of work got done at home. It looks like the builders are true to their word and will have the whole job done within 6 to 8 weeks! When I tell people we're having an extension put onto the house nearly everybody feels sorry for us 'being in a mess' and 'having the builders in the house'. But I can't agree with that. All the people involved in the building so far have been nice. Hard working, cleaning up behind them every day, causing as little mess as possible for us, and overall just very pleasant to have around. I genuinely enjoy following the whole process and seeing all these people doing what they're good at. I think in my next life I want to be a joiner, because judging from the ones I see at work here it must give such enormous job satisfaction to build or beautify a home. 'Our' builders are always keen to answer questions we throw at them, and we take great pleasure in plying them with coffee, tea and the results of our baking sessions.<br /><br />I tried to take pictures of the work in progress and I'll publish a few of the ones I took from the outside here below. Photo's of the inside are to follow later and I'll try and not let so much time go by again before the next post :)!! </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#990000;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAur5oRXSrlVXEtQDCLUmnRbAxGq3lFFPDrhe1H9GVp7rvhRYuOga1DW-bAGpSpZxZOpccqmq2TjxbkcC1XdGtHQclx8CsPaTlJ9tJQe_ESo4B49M7c7I4YGvWeXXTK-f2oRxcYrXmBA/s1600-h/137_3785.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224491353690030082" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoAur5oRXSrlVXEtQDCLUmnRbAxGq3lFFPDrhe1H9GVp7rvhRYuOga1DW-bAGpSpZxZOpccqmq2TjxbkcC1XdGtHQclx8CsPaTlJ9tJQe_ESo4B49M7c7I4YGvWeXXTK-f2oRxcYrXmBA/s400/137_3785.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqBkTX5GrmgZ2X9KSaav_M0J814S8NZ5N2dM66bYhEaIH39gmcn-UPXCmoyySq_vqmRHX66nOkzImF7fVBbLNYO9LVVG3g1UOi3af4CXnQqMgIhpMHv4z-_jSkyAmUMHy77i8ABzMVfFc/s1600-h/138_3815.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224491829546160402" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqBkTX5GrmgZ2X9KSaav_M0J814S8NZ5N2dM66bYhEaIH39gmcn-UPXCmoyySq_vqmRHX66nOkzImF7fVBbLNYO9LVVG3g1UOi3af4CXnQqMgIhpMHv4z-_jSkyAmUMHy77i8ABzMVfFc/s400/138_3815.JPG" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dUnYhRRsjchRVW7gFfNfc1fy8KHT2rLskAIhsamS6yLB9HApdiRsEWrzhXRRnMp6xatrA3zsy36hVEOIBUMWDLGYq4_1oCMLNxc0a2a_q9MbGUirrT9SbCVmPVivPEP8mYtA9Rf96PM/s1600-h/bouw&maddy+003.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224492173588467538" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dUnYhRRsjchRVW7gFfNfc1fy8KHT2rLskAIhsamS6yLB9HApdiRsEWrzhXRRnMp6xatrA3zsy36hVEOIBUMWDLGYq4_1oCMLNxc0a2a_q9MbGUirrT9SbCVmPVivPEP8mYtA9Rf96PM/s400/bouw&maddy+003.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisvZlX4f86TGS_VjVYSc8xq7VMjqM5DvICWTO3ynQKwy7gQUrvFb_K2BLstR81ydUH4F-HpHsR1BqaX6Sc1QU0HjD6ZybtDdPc5Pqpn52rjk1XSZUod6KAo_ScYj-vk4_DLynMaiM9zWU/s1600-h/bouw&maddy+017.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIIBYTAPkZUTjd-_ICuDGocMWfGLkeJEObwr_7I7ftGjOZbczyEx0bqeafNsDgOttqvxfbxR1xkb2-4HHxiqDHfmasbF4-2r1Al4NHC-5awMnWIHgOnHPxTLtU7tB3dmvbVOBhbmM7fc/s1600-h/bouw&maddy+018.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxsyd6OT1DhdW-aiw73Aaq_4FQoMwHCqwMUz4ZCDdw2ScmstdJbbD3d0QXFjG70ERzVqey28tvLFqYhL6Q9OkdxmWTRy4pcWGxQr_VfzgyJyJ74BpMmkRjQEU25l-7SpKp62G_wkFst1w/s1600-h/bouw&maddy+021.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224492920972886658" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxsyd6OT1DhdW-aiw73Aaq_4FQoMwHCqwMUz4ZCDdw2ScmstdJbbD3d0QXFjG70ERzVqey28tvLFqYhL6Q9OkdxmWTRy4pcWGxQr_VfzgyJyJ74BpMmkRjQEU25l-7SpKp62G_wkFst1w/s400/bouw&maddy+021.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr7ljoDzacmqEEdKgmFEjMnd-oyRUbGMuSzN-s46QTxV2U1FvRTFd1z7PxPkUUOfmuSDS6yOD3HYrVQmG0jDZwMbcH1J5SH6NFzvzuZf0LTa1lKeCqVx-qcRT1aU8YROf2ITIWFwZtgXA/s1600-h/bouw&maddy+028.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioOyJD8CiLgZrwmyTnGRHTar22Fknr9X-qhMh5ZxwMqqTl_NEwPRXdq4p1mnYpiEN2XN1eNl2bkRraGoOt1tnxhgnrGo0apWp5mjT713RreEWeLzsG4YpzDWC-SvLJQZ9qYeyE97pwoHg/s1600-h/138_3859.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224493519424894082" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioOyJD8CiLgZrwmyTnGRHTar22Fknr9X-qhMh5ZxwMqqTl_NEwPRXdq4p1mnYpiEN2XN1eNl2bkRraGoOt1tnxhgnrGo0apWp5mjT713RreEWeLzsG4YpzDWC-SvLJQZ9qYeyE97pwoHg/s400/138_3859.JPG" border="0" /></a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5791568795360126379.post-2705531585296946602008-06-13T10:31:00.002+01:002008-06-13T10:48:39.101+01:00Never say never...<span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">I'm sorely tempted to change the name of this weblog back to Never a Dull Moment. Or I'll name it No Time to Blog. Yeah, that might be most appropriate.<br />I came back from Holland just before Myrna's birthday and we did manage to make it into a bit of a festive day, but to be fair it was nothing compared to the weeklong celebrations she usually likes to have. She was very understanding about it, and I know that's just how it was and all that, but still... I would have liked to make her passage into being a teenager a bit more special. But then again, we could do something special sometime in the summer, when hopefully things have quieted down a bit.<br /><br />It's probably obvious that my sister is not doing very well. And unfortunately with the hospital system being what it is, I really have to stay on top of things to make sure she's alright and being looked after and cared for in a way that she is happy with. Anyway, hopefully she'll be moved to a convalescent home on Monday and I'll be able to sit back a bit.<br /><br />My niece, in the meantime, has passed her exams with mainly top marks! I am so proud of her, she has worked really hard for it. And, bearing in mind that after I left she had to look after herself, the dog and the household all by herself, she did such a magnificent job. She has certainly grown up and found her feet, under extremely difficult circumstances!<br />There will be a ceremony for her receiving her diploma and I'll be going to Holland to attend, not only because my sister won't be able to go, but also because I myself want to be there for my clan-daughter. I've arranged it so that we arrive in Holland for my Mum's 77th birthday (yes, birthdays are a big thing in Holland!) and can go to the diploma ceremony a few days later.<br />I'm saying 'we', because this time I'm taking Myrna and Owen with me.<br />We haven't had a holiday for years and even though this isn't going to be a relax-and-only-do-things-you-really-want-to-do kind of holiday, I'm going to try and fit in a few visits to friends and family and to do some nostalgic outings.<br />With Myrna.<br />Because Owen is going to stay with his best friend for the whole time. He doesn't do travelling unless he really, really has to. And he only occasionally does the kind of visits Myrna and I plan to do quite a lot of.<br />Owen is looking forward to being with his life long friend and to do all the things they always used to do. And that includes climbing trees, digging holes, building tree huts, etcetera. Now that they're both sixteen I imagine Owen's friend would also like to do other, more 'grown-up' things... and Owen will go along with him.<br />This friend's family are very, very good friends of ours, too. The kind of friends where it doesn't really matter if you don't see each other, and sometimes don't even speak with each other for a long time, and then when you do meet or speak, you just pick it up again and carry on.<br />They've supported us from day one in our home educating adventure. Openly, hands on, fully.<br />They live in one of the most beautiful spots in Holland, on the embankments of the River Rhine, and they built their extremely eco-friendly house themselves. It's one of those very rare places in Holland where you don't have other people living close to you, with lots of nature, birds, animals and what have you around.<br />Owen has always felt very much at home and at ease there. In fact, when he was five years old and we were driving home after I'd picked him up, he said to me: "I don't understand why I wasn't born as M's child, because I really belong there."</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#006600;">This certainly inspired us to find a place with an equivalent amount of space and nature around us in this country.<br /><br />Myrna is looking forward to seeing old friends, too. And to visit places we used to go to when she was little, such as the Open Air Museum and the National Park. She's also very keen to take her keyboard and guitar and sing and make music with lots of people.<br /><br />A lot of my time will go to visiting my sister and making sure everything that needs to be organized and arranged is dealt with. And I am so looking forward to seeing her and being with her again. We're on the phone at least twice a day, and that's okay, but there's nothing like real life contact, where not everything has to be put into words.<br /><br />In the meantime it's a busy time here, with me trying to get my work finished four weeks before the deadline to be able to go to Holland, preparations for Myrna's participation in the Lanercost Festival and other concerts, Owen's Duke of Edinburgh activities with the Cadets, AL trying to find a suitable FE course whilst working hard at the same time, and all the 'normal' day to day things in a HE household. On top of that the building of the extension has started. If everything goes according to plan - does it ever? - that'll be ready in about eight weeks time. Owen will move in there and that will make his room available for a foster child.<br /><br />Aw heck, I'm going to say it again:<br />Never a Dull Moment!!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1