Fighting For Our Freedom To Home Educate (AGAIN!!!)

 Here we go again, another year and another chance for some job justifying back benching MPs to try and push through a home educator register. 

Basing their arguments on the tired old claptrap of socialisation, radicalisation and fairness (blah blah blah) that has been continually refuted by members of the home ed community they insist on heaving that mangled old excuse out on a yearly basis along with a clearly biased agenda and unfair legislation. 

Watching the latest - a panel discussing yet another potential home ed register that involved only 1 (I kid you not) representative of the home educating community. 1!! This in itself is despicable and I wonder where the true desire to get a picture of what it means to home educate is? It certainly shows a pre determined agenda and doesn't seem very democratic, merely a chance to force through their ill conceived opinion it seems with a complete disregard for a balanced viewpoint from the other side. 

I wonder how many of these pushers have any real knowledge of home educating families. Have they spoken to any? Met any? Been to any home educational meet ups? Discussed the needs of those home educators and what they would like to see? Listened to their reasons why they don't use the school system? 

How can forcing them onto a register solve anything? What is the real issue they are trying to solve by making hundreds of perfectly capable and responsible parents sign their kids up to yet another form of monitoring? 

Something which by the way is already freely available given that every birth needs to be registered in England anyway, how difficult is it really to cross reference that at school age with kids registered to a school? That will easily give the authorities all the information that they require, why invent a new money costing procedure? 

My other major issue is that so many children are already known to the authorities through schools and they are still being neglected, abused and let down by their parents and the authorities so why will a new register change any of the so called issues they are reportedly trying to tackle when one they currently have doesn't even work very well? They spout that it's too costly to provide support and yet they can muster up some funds to get everyone onto a list, how is that going to benefit society or leave the world a better place? Why can they not use the funds that would be put towards this monitoring to actually help benefit the provision of home educators? What about data leakage issues that have been had recently? what about inappropriate use of intrusion on home ed families with no viable reasons? Where do lines get drawn when it comes to monitoring? First a register, then checks, then exams, then a complete ban? 

The main question is, what is the hidden agenda? What are the real reasons why this is such an issue? In the grand scheme of children not that many home educate really, why panic about them? Why not look at the reasons and try to improve schools and the educational offerings? Why not look at what their electors (that's us, we voted them in to follow our needs as a society) why not listen to us and what we need from education and then work towards a solution that fits us all? why is no one doing that, why are none of these 'representatives' of the good people actually asking these questions and instead abusing their positions of power by trying to force through legislation that only fits their narrow minded view of a topic. (On that note how many other legislations have also been imposed upon citizens because it's the opinion or benefit of a handful of MPs who have only presented a one sided view on the topic?) 

Is it control?

Is it an outdated viewpoint from MPs who aren't up to date with the modern ways of living and the trends in society

Is it a prejudice against those that home educate, because they are people who have chosen a different path

Is it anti freedom?

Is it anti families, children DO NOT belong to the state they are part of a family and are the parents responsibility until they reach adulthood. It is not for the state to dictate how they are born, fed, raised or educated, as it is also not the state's business to dictate to us as adults. How can this type of thing even be enforced?

Is it harassment, getting a new enquiry every year or so despite it not being implemented previously, with clear and succinct reasons as to why it is unnecessary surely is harassing a certain section of society with nothing more than a stubborn 'axe to grind' with that community and only a desire to enforce their opinion and will upon those who believe otherwise?

Is it MPs misunderstanding the difference between home educating and off rolling by schools and also illegal schools, because there's a real difference! You can introduce a registration process but let's be honest those who have malicious or neglectful intent are not going to use a register are they? Car insurance is mandatory but let's be honest if you're going to drive without a licence then you're sure as hell not going to bother insuring your car!  Dog licences went through something similar, they were scrapped 30 years ago because they also didn't work. They were largely ignored by the irresponsible dog owners hence why they are no longer around... 

 So what can we do, as a collective group?

We can petition, start a single but meaningful and succinct petition that cannot be buried and has to be acknowledged.

Lobby our MPs, give them well thought through evidence as to why home education works, why we've chosen it and if needs be meet with them in person to show them the face behind the message.

Continue to lead by example, our children and how they act and develop is our finest example of how well home education can work, it's a lot of responsibility on our shoulders, but then we've already accepted that by home educating in the first place right? The more people whom we come into contact with who can see first hand how we're managing home education and how happy our children are the harder it is for these archaic, closed minded individuals to preach their negative spin on this topic. People can't buy into a few miserable MPs fears if they've seen and got to know first hand a happy, cohesive home educating family in person.   

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