Home Education

When I talk to people about Home Education I get a variety of responses:-

There are some who didn't know it was legal ("Can you do that! - Don't you have to be a teacher?")

There are some who think it is wonderful but not for them ("I couldn't cope with the kids being home all the time").

There are some who think that it is a terrible thing to do ("Don't you think you are messing with their future? But how will they make friends?" etc)

There are a few who perk up with interest and want to know all about it and say what a wonderful thing we are doing.

It is a great deal of work to home educate and I know that it doesn't suit all families (a few have tried HE and then gone back to school), I take my hat off (if I wore one) to those with the confidence to try it and then admit that it didn't work for them.

I was schooled conventionally as a child, I know that many of my teachers really should have chosen a different career, some were bad, some were awful, some were plain damaging to the kids in their care! (there were also a few real gems and I want to say thank you here to those few).

I remember the bullying that went on, the teasing and taunting that some children were subjected to, the constant pressure to not stand out from the crowd (who amongst you would have admitted to your school friends that you enjoyed learning a subject?).

I can remember countless lessons doing nothing but copying from the blackboard or reading set chapters while the teacher went off to do his admin (or have a quick fag).

Most of my learning I have achieved since leaving school and usually in response to a problem I have to solve or some topic that fires my imagination.

Home education (for us) is all about this latter way of learning, we allow the children to choose their topics and we do our best to facilitate their interest, often learning a great deal along the way ourselves!!

There are as many methods of home education as there are home educators, the main thing that they have in common is the freedom to choose the methods that work best for them in their own individual circumstances.

The government would love to strangle that individuality as there is nothing more frightening to those in power as the danger posed by a thinking population who may dare to question decisions and laws (should we really go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, is it really democratic to propose locking people up for up to 90 days without evidence of guilt or even without a crime being committed - just the belief that the person MAY commit an act).

There are many who quote "well if you haven't done anything wrong then you have nothing to fear", try telling that to the Birmingham six or the many other victims of miscarriages of justice, some of whome never ever get their lives back.