IF you tolerate this, then YOUR children WILL be next.

Earlier this year I made This post which referred to an article in the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK here;

The Coming War Against Home Schoolers

To summarise the above, the British Government saw fit to launch an inquriy into Home Education provision on the unsubstantiated allegation that Home Education was a potential cover for child abuse. A smear of the worst kind, playing on the biggest fear of every responsible parent.

The inquiry has now been completed, and a report making recommendations has been issued.

The report is draconian. It is written in such a manner that removes any freedom of education from the parent, and practically expects them to comply with the English and Welsh National Curriculum in the home environment, writing a written plan that is acceptable to the local eduication authority for their childs education on a yearly basis, and having to reapply - again on a yearly basis - to educate at home, based on whether the education authority deems that the previous years plan has been successfully carried out. If the assement is returned unsuccessful, the child will be forced to return to the school environment (regardless of why they were hom-educated in the first place mind, school phobia/bullying/abusive teachers notwithstanding) Non compliance will result in state action against the parent, potentially labelled as child truancy (for which a parent in the UK can be fined or sent to prison) and - even more disturbingly, because of the way the report was undertaken, there is a potential for such actions to be labelled as "abuse".

Disturbing as that is for Home Educators, who pride themselves on their autonomy, ingenuity and nurturing of their childrens education by means other that battery schooling, the report goes one stage further - and this is where it gets into Civil Libery Infringement.

I remind you here that the basis of the enquiry was the smear that Home Educators may be teaching at home to cover up potential abuse. This is how the report plans to tackle that issue

We believe that local authorities should interview children within 4 weeks of home education starting, after 6 months has elapsed, and thereafter at least annually to assess the quality of education provided and ensure that children are safe and well. The local authority should visit the premises where education is conducted, and question the child about the education provided, although at least 2 weeks notice should be given before the visit is conducted. The local authority should have the right to carry out the interview without a parent being present, if this is judged appropriate, or alternatively if the child is vulnerable or has particular communication needs, in the company of a trusted person who is not the home educator or parent/carer.

Report to the Secretary of State on the Review of Elective Home Education in England
(Emphasis mine)

In other words, the government wants to send inspectors into a Home Educators own home, and interview their child, without the parent/carer being present at the time, using the basis of a report into a completely unsubstantiated smear in order to do so.

That isn't government. Thats creating what you want for your own ends, and then contriving to accomodate it, using public fear and smearing to do so.

And - taking the issue a stage further (just in case you believe that this only refers to Home Educators), British Law is based on precedents. How soon then - after this is brought into statute law - will it be extended to enable mandatory "Home Inspections" of all families?

It appears that "New Labour" in the UK has, at its heart, some particularly "old communist" values.

The Home Education review is open for comment and consultation until 24th July 2009.

Further Reading

Home Educators Made to Register (BBC News)
Home education clampdown 'an infringement of civil liberties'(Telegraph Article)
Independent review of home education
Consultation document
Sometimes its peaceful (Home Ed Blog)
Parents who home educate children to be forced to register (Guardian Article)
Get tough on home tuition to weed out abuse, says review(Guardian Article)

[edit on 14/6/09 by neformore]

I was thinking about what complete BS that your government even started this campaign of defamation against parents....

Good luck to you guys, and us across the pond. The most important job in the world, should be as a parent.... As a teacher. As both.

Well, I wish there was a way for junk like this to be turned around. But usually once a government starts with it, they wanna continue to take it further and further.

Star and Flag. ATS seems slow, hope you can get more attention to this.

To play devil's advocate here, it is a FACT that if kids are homeschooled then they are not going to be socializing daily with the same group of peers and teachers, and this actually IS the perfect cover for child abuse, where the abusers would not have to ever worry about others finding out or noticing.

On the other hand, I was homeschooled until 9th grade, and it worked pretty well for me, as I'm sure it does for many thousands of others.

Edit: Just reread the op and I have to say I think you're overreacting tremendously. This does NOT signify a 'coming war against homeschoolers' and the terms of the gov. interview of the kids seems very reasonable to me

[edit on 14-6-2009 by Gamechanger]

We homeschooled until 5th grade. Best thing we ever did.

Homeschoolers are always under attack either by those who don't understand what it is or by the government (the NEA are huge lobbiests and they don't like homeschool because it takes away $$$ from them).

Home School Legal Defense Association ... check them out.

Home page

All things legal in regards to homeschool.

Originally posted by Gamechanger
it is a FACT that if kids are homeschooled then they are not going to be socializing daily with the same group of peers and teachers, and this actually IS the perfect cover for child abuse,

Your 'fact' is wrong. So is your conclusion.

Homeschooled kids DO get daily socializing. Check the link I provided in the previous post. Most homeschoolers engage in at least two out of the home activities per week in addition to being active with the neighborhood kids and other homeschoolers through homeschool groups.

Case in point - our daughter was homeschooled. She was on the YMCA swim team, the YMCA Art Club, and she went to the homeschool group get togethers. The swim team had practice 4 times a week (year round) in addition to weekend meets. Art club met every Wednesday.

She was VERY well socialized.
So were all the other homeschoolers that we know.

The cry from those that don't like homeschool (not necessarily you gamechanger) is that homeschoolers are backwards socially or something. That's simply not the case. Homeschoolers have PROPER socialization and plenty of it.

As for child abuse ... the greatest number of abuse cases come out of public schools. THAT is a fact.

reply to post by Gamechanger


I would disagree and say that I believe that your "fact" is absolute fiction. A child being homeschooled is entirely likely to have the same teacher every day in the person of a parent who is doing the teaching. The same for socializing with peers.

I was also homeschooled and there was absolutely no lack of socialization in my life. I was friends with all of the kids in my neighborhood, active in many community organizations, local theater, sports (which I hated, but not for lack of availability), church youth group, and other homeschooled kids getting together for field trips and socializing. That homeschooled kids suffer a lack of socialization is really very largely a myth and not at all the rule, but the exception. As much social interaction as many homeschooled children have, it seems like it would be enormously harder to hide abuse than to be able to get away with it.

The general theme, when I asked, is that parents choose to homeschool largely for academic reasons. The parents want to ensure that their children are receiving the best possible education that they can provide. Testing would also seem to indicate that this can be a definite advantage to a child in preparing them for the future. Admittedly anecdotal, but every year I tested 2 to 5 years ahead of the public school average with how much depending on the subject. However, research shows that my anecdotal evidence is commonly what is found when homeschooled children are academically tested.

That the government is trying to undermine what can be a very academically advantageous start to a child's future is scary and the lengths to which they are proposing to go even more alarming. I truly hope that this can be halted in some way! I worry that if this can't be stopped that it will absolutely happen here in America, too. Especially since homeschoolers are frequent targets already here. Those doing the targeting would love to have this kind of power.

Take care,
Cindi

[edit on 6/14/2009 by Glencairn]

This government, and I suspect that Cameron would be exactly the same, have every intention of using state education and The National Curriculum as part of the dumbing down and conditioning of society.
Educating at home takes away this control.

The National Curriculum teaches pupils a series of 'facts' which they learn verbatim.
Any attempts to encourage pupils to think for themselves and formulate their own opinon's are actively discouraged and frowned upon.

They are producing a society where people do not know how to question.

I think it should be everyones right and choice to decide if they should homeschool their child and the childs choice to want to be home schooled or not. So i say we should leave the decision up to the child unless they are to young to decide.

I guess the state owns the children ,and the people are nothing more than cattle to bread .

Alright, I meant that it is entirely possible for homeschooling to be used to cover up abuse. How is that not a fact?
I know, and I am physical evidence of, the fact that most homeschoolers do fine.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Your exactly right! Homeschoolers do get plenty of socialization.

My sister and I were homeschooled for a couple years. My sister for four years and myself for one.

My sister was very active in several different groups, she even played on the JV tennis team at our local high school in her freshman year.

Hello,

I hate to say it but I agree with the Government on this one. Homeschooling for the minority will be great but only for the ones who are truly gifted. It's easy to say you were home schooled and interacted with society, but what about the kids who live in the middle of nowhere or who have stricter parents? They'll miss playing for school sports teams, school social events etc.

A lot of the parents who do it are the ones who are fearful for their kids in the school environment so it's their decision then slowly brainwash the children in to thinking that is what they want.

School is a vital part off life where you learn so much more than education where you get to meet people from different culture's and gain a wide variety of friends.

As home schooling being a cover for child abuse, in this day and age i'm sure that's the reason for a few cases of home schooling whether you want to be believe it or not!!

reply to post by Gamechanger


Your fact is wrong sir or ma'am.

I find your generalization to be insulting and cruel to the parents of home schooled children.

I have known a few home school adults in my time and they are probably the most intelligent social people I have ever met.

Originally posted by Mark2009



As home schooling being a cover for child abuse, in this day and age i'm sure that's the reason for a few cases of home schooling whether you want to be believe it or not!!

Lol. I'm sure you're basing that on speculation and emotion, whether you want to believe it or not!

In this day and age? wtf? You think that things like this haven't been happening for thousands of years? NOW, we have greater access to information, and the means to share it once we've seen it.

You want to take rights away from people based on "mights" and "what-ifs".....scary.
I'm from a small town, and i used to socialize with a lot of the homeschoolers. When you're a kid, you might get made fun of a bit more, but now, they're all productive members of society with excellent critical thinking skills.
And they all are deeply involved with their families, which is an extremely important thing.

Very worrying, and what is even more worrying is that parents who do not home school do not understand why this is so dangerous for themselve s and their family. Perhaps becuase they have not learnt to think out of the box.

We had to homeschool our youngest child who is still homeschooling at present. We had to mount a 'rescue operation' to get her out of a school in which she had been bullied and knocked about for years. We tried to get her into another local school, but they were all over subscribed and we had no choice but to home school her.

Too many british schools are violent hell holes and I hope our experience will help those who look down on home schoolers understand the measures we had to take.

From the beginning at our daughters school she was bullied. A pretty and slight girl, she was an easy target for 'chav' backward children who were used to being pushed around by foul mouthed, foul behaved parents.

The teachers noticed what was happening. But when we mentioned our unhappiness they said that they had noticed and they thought she was used to being pushed around....after all, she had older brothers. Surely they must push her around! Not in our house!!!

So, the teachers attempted to protect her.

On and off throughout the last five years she has come home distressed because one incident or another or physical attack.

She reached year 4 and her excellent class teacher resigned as she couuld not longer stand the bad behaviour of the boys in her class and her assistant, an experienced retired male teacher also resigned and refused to come in to help out any more.

A new teacher was hired. She was a petite little old lady who stood no chance and the class quickly detriorated into utter chaos. No learning took place simply riot control. The bad boys, two in particular were off and on sent home for half a day but never expelled.

After much discussion with the head teacher she decided to get a male head teacher in to take control of the class. He tried! By God he tried! But my daugher was hit regularly, she began hyperventilating and having asthma attacks on her way to school that were frightening. Her health detriorated.

Finally, one of the particularly bad boys began groping and sexually assaulting the girls in the class. He was 'told off'! I kid you not, this boy suffered NO consequences. The class was told that he 'could not help it' and they would have to learn to tolerate boys like him. There was no protection for the class and the teacher began to blame the girls for the violence and assaults they were suffering.

The final straw for us was a friday afternoon. I saw the bad boy running happily out of school and a scowling teacher was waiting for me at the door. He called me in and told me my daughter had been attacked but it was her fault. She had made 'eye contact' and looked over to the side of the room where the bad boy was and she also put a book up to cover her face to stop the bad boy punching her in the face. This was proudly watched by the teacher. He stood there proudly announcing that he had observed my daughter's behaviour and that she had defended herself instead of going to him, the teacher and telling him. Then he complained that she had dared to ask to go to the toilet after the attack! How dare she!?

Looking at this hysterical man, I realised that he had finally lost the plot and all in all there was no hope in this class, this school and possibly the whole of society. I said nothing.

My daughter never returned to that hell hole.

I want to know, since we tried to get her into other school, if those who say, school is good, school gives socialisation skills, do what the government says, would have allowed their own child to continue with the kind of torture my own daughter suffered for years.

As a home schooler she is thriving!
The school, the government....they could NOT protect her and I could not allow the abuse to continue.

reply to post by Elliot


Great post!! Star for you!

Homeschooling is the right of the parents. Many families live in an area that would force the students to attend a less than acceptable school environment.

We are reaching a situation where parents may be forced to send their children into an abusive, meaning mentally, physically, emotionally and even sexually abusive situation every single day at risk of being sent to prison if they do not comply.

It is sickening and terrifying that we are being ruled by monsters with no sense of right and wrong and no moral dignity in that they would abuse the very innocents they pretend to attempt to protect....from the very parents who have had to and want to protect them.

Something very bad is happening in our society. Family, husbands, fathers, mothers are being painted as the abusers, when in fact only the minority are abusers. In an ill thought out attempt to protect the minority of children who are at risk, the majority are now at risk of being thrown 'to the sharks'.

If the government can prove that children who go to school are never at risk of abuse, then perhaps they have a point. But since this will never be the case we can only assume another agenda is in progress.

Let's remember that the Nazi party of Germany banned home schooling in the 1930's and we all remember what their agenda was!



[edit on 14-6-2009 by Elliot]

[edit on 14-6-2009 by Elliot]

reply to post by Ace High
Thanks Ace High!

We are very worried that we will have to return our daughter to school and that the same problems may commence again!
We are frightened by the government report though we are registered already with the local education authority and they have already come and inspected our education and decided we are providing our daughter with a good education.

But we fear that her safety will be out of our control.

All parents, home schooling or not should be very concerned about what is happening!

Excellent subject matter, very well started by the OP and a couple of the contributors.

This is just another side of the sick society that our Britain has become. It's a part of a larger issue which is endemic throughout our society. Unachievable aims, approached with narrow minded and unsustainable policies can only produce misery of this scale.

I was bullied and attacked at school, I know exactly the sort of misery 'Elliotts' poor daughter went through. It does sound an extreme case of school failure however. It is becoming more common, and there is nothing the current society can do about it.

I've created a group called the GreenShirt Group to tackle exactly this sort of thing.

The Para.

reply to post by Elliot


A heart rendering yet all too common story.

The British education system is a PC dominated, festering cesspit which produces drove upon drove of unthinking drones.

There are plenty of good teachers and educators who would be more than capable of helping produce well balanced, reasoned and free thinking individuals who are equipped to survive and contribute in a positive manner to society.
Unfortunately they are out numbered by the PC driven, liberal, wishy-washy apologists who dominate our education system and who have contrived to impose The National Curriculum upon us.
There is a complete lack of discipline and social awareness and responsibility.

I know of a pupil who reeived an 'E' when asked 'What is your opinion'.
When the pupil challenged his grade he was told that it was incorrect, to which he replied, 'No, that is MY opinion', the teacher still did not grasp the point the pupil was making and told him what his opinion should be, according to The National Curriculum, and any future challenges to the teachers authority would result in disciplinary repercussions for the pupil.
Meanwhile other less academically capable students were allowed to run amok during lessons due to the complete unwillingness to discipline them.

Unfortunately home schooling is not an option for the vast majority of people; they have neither the financial resources, the time or are simply unaware of the option.

The education system in the UK, like a lot of British society, requires urgent review and radical reform to meet the individual needs and that of a progressive and developing society.

[edit on 14/6/09 by Freeborn]