(D) For All the Good it May Do...

[catyak]

Anyone want to sign one of the government petitions about home education?

It calls on them  to reject the Badman Review on home education, a deeply flawed document (the evidence to discredit it is mounting) and not the sort of thing that a competent government should be using to formulate policy.

Please write to your MP on the subject as well - "

Comments

[sidheag]

Could you provide some links to reasoned argument about why this proposal is bad? I've seen a lot of hysteria over it, but I do not actually see why it is "outrageous" or even a bad idea. I am, genuinely, willing to be persuaded. I support home education, but am also concerned about some home educating parents (I could name names, though it wouldn't be anyone on my FL!) who are not, in my view, providing the kind of education to which all children should be entitled. (I know, neither do all schools. Two wrongs don't make a right.) I even know personally of one case in which physical abuse was involved, and was in fact boasted of by the parent concerned. (Yes, I reported it. No, I don't know that it made any difference.)

[catyak]

I've added some links to the original post

[sidheag]

Thanks, I'll have a look at the links tomorrow (too late tonight). I'm not talking about young children not getting proper education - I'm absolutely on board with the "no need to rush" argument. Biggest category is parents who only expose their children to creation "science" not real science. I put depriving children of science education in the same category as depriving them of food: neither is something a civilised society should permit, and it is not acceptable to ignore it happening on the grounds that it doesn't happen to very many children.

Abuse, yes, can happen in school, can still happen at home even if the child is at school: but still, going to school gives a child access to adults other than the parents to whom they can complain. Not all parents are going to be as stupid as the one I reported, stupid enough to announce the abuse on the web.

[catyak]

Ah well, there you're making the other common mistake. Most home educated children see plenty of adults in their daily life. Although it's called 'home' education, much of it happens outside the home. Do you think that a visit by a stranger for a couple of hours once a year for an inspection is going to uncover abuse? Given how many children are abused and don't say anything about it even when at school and away from their abusers, it is extremely unlikely that any real cases will be uncovered by short annual inspections.

As for creationists, Darwin will get them in the end. We apparently have one such family around here, where the child challenged a speaker on the subject of the age of the Earth and pointed out that all the books were wrong. I suspect that such children don't stand a chance even if sent to school. Given the poor standard or modern science teaching in schools, even the state is depriving children of a proper science education.

D