The dangers of Home Schooling

Home schooling is big over here on Vancouver Island. There are companies set up to support children whose parents elect to have their children educated at home. Whole Government supported mechanisms exist to assist parents to teach their children properly. It seems to work.

However, home schoolers in the UK find their right to educate their children at home threatened by 'The Badman Report'. If certain provisions within said report are enacted into UK law (As seems the fashion at present), any parent who wishes to educate their children at home rather than in the notoriously sporadic UK state education system will have to jump even more hoops than at present, with little or no support from outside agencies. In fact, it appears that some outside agencies would be actively trying to take the children of said parents away and put into the opaque UK 'care' system under the catch-all excuse of 'child abuse', whether 'abuse' of a child exists or not. UK Social Services appear to be highly ineffectual in preventing such abuse. Furthermore, the State has such a grip, that even the slightest contravention of good parenting practice can earn a parent an 'at risk' flag on the Criminal Records Database.

Might one point out the dangers to children and families in general at this point; there are already many reports of bogus, or 'phantom' Social Workers using false credentials to enter private dwellings and 'examine' children. Two of the most recent reports come from Greenwich and Derby. If you lose the right to refuse 'officials' entry to your home then you leave yourself wide open to charlatans who may be abusers, and who can tell forged ID from genuine without installing a card reader outside your front door? I've had people (Purportedly Child Services) trying to barge their way into my house before (I think I even blogged about it) and I stood my ground because a) There was no baby in the house and b) I'll be fucked if I let them in without some kind of appointment. In addition c) I'm not convinced that care homes are the right place for children. Especially babes in arms.

Now I've seen the inside of a local authority juvenile care home, and I wasn't too impressed. A friend of a friend was 'incarcerated' in one (Yet could more or less sneak out when he pleased), and we went to visit on a couple of occasions. At no point were myself or my friends (A bunch of six foot plus hairy, greasy bikers) challenged by staff. However, I will state that this was in the early 1980's, and I cannot speak for how these places are run nowadays.

My point being is that to try and take people's children into care, as alluded to by some UK politicians, just for the 'sin' of wanting to educate them yourself, is a most illiberal act. Whose children are they? Not the State, or has someone reintroduced slavery into the UK and not told anybody?