"I assume that the home-schoolers in the US who support Ron Paul are concerned about government interference."

Right in one, Mr. Bartholomew. But not just concerned- in some states, home-schoolers report constant tension between themselves and the local school authorities. We're fighting against the somewhat accepted belief that educational authority is the domain of government instead of the parents. The current problems that German home-schoolers are experiencing are indicative of what American home-schoolers will face if we're not willing to keep an intrusive and ever-increasing government out of our homes.

Posted by: Shana Kluck at November 18, 2007 12:25 AM

We all need to ask "What is education for?" (NOT "What is school for?"). All young people need to know how to face the world and cope with it successfully. That means they need to be able to know how to read, write and do simple arithmentic; they need to know something about the society into which they have been brought, i.e. its history (how it came to be the way it is), its laws and legal system, its topography (how to get from A to B) and why that makes it different from other parts of the world (geography), personal hygiene and domestic science and so on. All these things it should be possible to learn by the age of 14 or so (except, perhaps, for the severly mentally handicapped). The only statutory role for the government should be to ensure that these topics are known and understood - in short, to set the exams for the School Leaving Certificate. How these topics are learnt should not be the business of government, other than to ensure that affordable facilities to learn them are in place for all. Much of this (all in fact) can be learnt at home, provided that parents have the means and time to do it. For those that don't, schools are appropriate. Vouchers that follow the pupil are the most efficient way of maximising parent and pupil choice. These establishments should need no inspection or supervision from government other than setting the exams for leaving.
Once the School Leaving Certificate (a certificate of competence, mark, NOT of academic prowess) is passed at the age of 14, NO MORE SCHOOL. Young adults (for that is what they are - they are currently infantilised by being in government or regulated institutions to at the age of 16 (soon to be 18 in the UK?) when they are free to leave with NO qualification whatever) can now move on to Personal Education when they go to teachers (not schoolteachers) to learn whatever they wish and BE PAID to do so.
How this could be achieved is explained in Chance of a Lifetime: how the other half loses by Jonathan Langdale and myself (Best Publications Ltd.). A dedicated website www.wotnoschool.com provides a longer abstract and links to Amazon etc.

Posted by: John Harrison at November 19, 2007 10:53 AM

Let's hope that English home educators can keep this freedom. We hear today that the DCSF Guidelines on Elective Home Education are due out at the end of this month and that they will, at the very least, include more on recent legislation for the safeguarding of children.

Could this mean that we will be subject to ad hoc visits from Social Workers and Education Welfare Officers? Perhaps. Local authorities in some areas are already trying to use 2004 welfare legislation and guidance to insist that every home educated child is subject to a Common Assessment, which represents a massive incursion by the state into private lives of families:

http://archrights.wordpress.com/2007/10/21/whats-ecaf-then/

Posted by: Carlotta at November 20, 2007 08:58 AM

I'm currently thinking through home-schooling - with the birth of our first child imminent. It seems crazy to be thinking about school so early, but in order to get a place in a 'good school' at five, you have to send them to the nursery at three. Three!

Why on earth are we sending children to school at the age of three? (unless of course we don't actually like children - which seems to be more and more the case. They stop us earning money, curse them. And they have to be fed. And they can't earn money for at least eighteen years...)

At three, children are in large classes and spend a long time learning to sit down and be quiet. This, I guess, is good preparation for adult life.

When I mention to others that my wife and I are considering home schooling, they look at us like we're completely mad - or survivalist Zionists out in the Nevada desert. When I ask about the benefits of state education, the only thing they really say is that your kids meet other kids and learn to fit in. It seems odd that the billions spent on state education is only really useful as a way of kids meeting each other. Letting them play on the street with each other would achieve the same thing for free.

Let's pray that this control-freak government doesn't sink its claws into the home-schooling domain.

Posted by: James Cary at November 30, 2007 09:28 AM

On reading your book I wondered if you had found the American home school movement as part of your research. I have read that folk from a manual labour/ non college background who home educate have had the most success relative to background as they work so hard at it and are rescuing their kids from such under achieving schools. Read Dumbing Us Down by John T Gatto if you want a history of parental resistance to state schooling.

Helen Balfour

Posted by: Helen Balfour at January 10, 2008 11:33 AM