**This blog post was written back in 2017. It’s interesting that we are currently (Nov 25) seeing another attempt at imposing controls over Elective Home Education, this time in the form of the proposed Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.**
I’m hearing it all over the place at the moment – more and more parents in the UK are homeschooling, and, allegedly, maybe even radicalising their children. According to Matthew Coffey, Ofsted’s Chief Operating Officer, elective home education is being used as an excuse to remove children from school and indoctrinate them. Channel 4 recently aired a show emotively named ‘Feral Families’ which featured an unschooling family. In the House of Lords, Lord Soley has introduced a private members bill with the aim of increasing checks on home educated children.
Our world is f*@ked up and it’s going to take a long hard look at the way we all behave to sort it out. We can’t solve extremism, or any other ‘problem’ by controlling, demonising or punishing people. We can’t force people to conform by monitoring or testing them, either.
HOME ED IN THE HEADLINES…
The people who’d like to curb, or even prevent, Home Education often don’t know much about it. This is clear to Home Educators in the uninformed arguments they use. It’s also clear that Home Education – and the fact that it is growing fast – frightens the hell out of people. I suspect that’s the real reason behind headlines like these –
‘Home education doubles, with schools left to “pick up the pieces” when it fails’,
‘Home schooling ‘loophole’ is driving children into the hands of extremist groups, warns Ofsted chief’,
and
‘Are ISIS-supporting parents indoctrinating their children through homeschooling?’. *
NO REGISTER FOR HOME ED KIDS
The problems in the headlines are no doubt real in a tiny number of cases, but home education has nothing to do with this stuff. In the same way that listing everyone that owns a kitchen knife won’t stop knife crime, registering Home Educated children won’t solve the problems of indoctrination or extremism of any kind. A register of these children will do nothing more than cost money and it’s a slippery slope to the loss of privacy, choice and autonomy for all British citizens.
OUR F*CKED UP WORLD NEEDS CHANGE
Our world is f*@ked up and it’s going to take a long hard look at the way we all behave to sort it out. We can’t solve extremism, or any other ‘problem’ by controlling, demonising or punishing people. We can’t force people to conform by monitoring or testing them, either. The problems in the world are too big for any one person to deal with. But we can lessen the pain and conflict in our own tiny circle by nurturing compassion and doing our best to take informed actions.
HOME EDUCATION AS A SOLUTION NOT A PROBEM
Anyone who ends up Electively Home Educating has either seen the cracks in the official narrative, or is about to. It begins when you question ‘the curriculum’ and what it is that children really need to know to be ‘successful’ adults. What exactly is successful, you ponder, and before you know it, you’ve done away with textbooks altogether in favour of deep conversations about politics, being excellent to each other, and the meaning of life. You’re teaching your children to think for themselves and to think twice before accepting orders from anyone else.
This, of course, is deeply troubling to the majority of people. If they even agree to take the time to consider why someone would reject conventional education, they’re opening the floodgates to a whole new view on life, and that can bring some pretty uncomfortable feelings.
If I no longer accept the idea that the only way forward is for decent folk to do as they are told, get good exam results, then work hard in a steady job to pay for a ‘nice’ car and a holiday somewhere warm every summer, what should I believe? I might have to start accepting some responsibility for the way things are. I might have to consider not only that I can make a difference in the world, but that I should make a difference; in fact, it’s my moral duty to try my bloody best.
RADICALLY OPEN-MINDED
So yes, I’m radicalising my children. I’m educating them to be radically open-minded, radically thoughtful, and to take radical actions. I’m following their lead and taking the time to partner them as they deal with the injustices they notice in our world. I’m trying to lead by example rather than being yet another ‘authority’ telling my kids what to do. It seems to me that many of our ‘authorities’ are getting it wrong and that relying on our own individual judgement and compassion is probably a better path. Our future will need free-thinking individuals with open hearts and big ideas. I believe my kids are growing up to be part of that future. I’m doing everything I can to make sure I don’t get in their way.
UPDATE 2025: The fight continues. The proposed Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is the latest attempt to control home educators. If you care about freedom, make your voice heard and speak out against the bill.
*https://schoolsweek.co.uk/home-education-doubles-with-schools-left-to-pick-up-pieces-when-it-fails/
https://www.rt.com/uk/408895-homeschool-terrorism-radicalization-isis/
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