HOME EDUCATION CONSULTATION RESPONSE

I would like to object to the proposal to create registration and inspections of home educators. An Englishman's home is his castle but his children are his responsibility, not the state's.

The magna carta enshrines the separation of rights between church and state without interference from the state. These are hard won rights. The responsibility of parents to be parents is given solely to parents, by God, not by the state. The state consists of public servants ordained to office by the public, one serves the other, not the other way round. If a parent chooses to educate his children outside the national system and curriculum, it it his divine right, his constitutional right, his natural right, and his democratic right in a free society.

This is what gives birth to a diverse (as opposed to a homogenized and repressed) society, free from political and socialising agendas, which ultimately gives rise to the multi-faceted and creative perspectives of a truly exciting community. Many of our greatest artists, musicians scientists and thinkers were generated outside the the accepted structures of the available state education. Einstein for example. This gives rise to thinking outside the box. We need to seed society with free thinkers. This is what makes every country rich with culture. This is what made Great Britain one of the most creative nations in the industrial world.

To impose a curriculum, or even inspections upon those who care so much for their children that they take on the burden of their education, is to point resources in the wrong direction.

Parents who home educate generally make greater sacrifices in time and energy towards their children's educational growth than those who hand them over to the state.

Does the state care more than a parent?

There are already mechanisms for the care of neglected children provided by the social services. Home education is far from the minds of those who have no time or care for their children. I can only assume that those of the state who want to regulate home educators want to impose a value system and agenda generated by the state. Is this not what democracies guard against. No, let us not follow party political ideologies and homogenize education for all.  Let us see what  the flower beds bring us outside the city parks and gardens.