tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49573001529480924902024-03-13T15:08:37.257+00:00Three Degrees of FreedomDanaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.comBlogger266125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-27154567886826771832018-03-20T19:38:00.003+00:002018-03-20T19:38:36.506+00:00Some thoughts on the Lord Soley bill<span style="font-size: large;">It's funny what you get inspiration from.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I was, and am, reading The Successful Self by Dorothy Rowe who, among other things, trained as a Child Psychologist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of the main concerns I am chewing over is what I chewed over last time: Lord Soley's bill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As I read the book I came across this sentence: 'We can explain other people's behaviour soley in terms of whether they are like us, and if they are not, we say they are mad or bad.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Does that explain the hostile nature of some people in society to home educators?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When I mentioned that we educated 'otherwise' to folk I barely knew (who did not home educate) I had the impression that they drew away their metaphorical skirts. We weren't like them. We were mad. Or bad. Or both. But we were certainly 'other' - not like them, not in their tribe, beyond the pale.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So we have a great deal of interference in home education (LAs would love to register and monitor, even more than they do now without real authority). Add to that the nasty press coverage making much of the otherness with the deaths of children which had little or nothing to do with the mode of education. How often do you read 'Schooled child dies of ......., in ....? But, should there be a home-educated youngster involved and the mobs are stirred up and baying for the symbolic hanging enacted by registration and monitoring.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But, back to Dorothy Rowe. In a list, she defines a successful self as being<b> "not engaged in a constant battle to avoid the threat of the annihilation of the self."</b> I've put that sentence in bold because it has a two-fold meaning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My eldest girl had just that struggle at school. How many ways others in the school environment tried to annihilate her. By physical attacks, yes, by emotional abuse, yes, by ignoring her altogether, yes. She was not allowed to be a 'successful self' until she and I sat down together and I asked 'Would you like to be home educated?' After thinking a bit, she said: "Yes."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My younger daughter, when asked the same question, also said yes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Out of school, they were no longer engaged in a constant battle to avoid the threat of the annihilation of the self. That is what home education brings. Freedom to study what you want, to discover what you like, to understand who you are, without the ceaseless and ridiculous demands of a bureaucratic system gone mad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The bureaucratic system tries constantly to break into home educators' lives. It says home educators must be registered (they don't need to be). They should be monitored (why?) They have to learn what WE want them to (prove that what you want them to learn will help them to avoid the threat of the annihilation of self and we can talk). The very intrusion of the state that encourages young people to fight to retain their self-hood is NOT welcome in my house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My days of home educating are behind me, but I still deny that the state has any business reaching its grubby and guilty paws into home educators' lives. Indeed, once it has breached the innocent sanctum of the ordinary home educating domicile, it will be game over for ANY parents and ANY children. It is a wedge to open a gateway for private firms to pry, and for the state to numb the active and interested minds as much as they do at school.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">State functionaries go fix the schools. Make them havens of learning and hives of educational fascination. Make them safe places for children and adults who seek to facilitate learning. Then we'll talk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Or maybe we won't.</span><br />
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Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-22189248966461924282017-11-27T19:58:00.001+00:002017-11-27T22:23:16.339+00:00Lord Soley and the registration and monitoring of home educated children and familiesOh, Lord Soley.<br />
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He was active during Badman times (2009-2010), and he doesn't appear to like home educators or the fact of home education altogether.<br />
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A lot of home edders will know that a bill has been put forward by Lord Solely in the House of Lords. It's a private member's bill and the talk is that it's unlikely to be successful. But who knows?<br />
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The consequences of changes proposed are discussed here: http://sometimesitspeaceful.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/home-ed-bill-hl11-2017-faq.html<br />
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Now there are so many things wrong with this bill and the Lord himself seems to be an inveterate enemy of home education.<br />
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Is it a coincidence that Wales seems to be busy having another bash at home educators too? It's been driven there by the Children's Commissioner.<br />
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The attacks are reminiscent of Badman's over-the-top Review of Home education in 2009 which was stripped of its glory, fisked, gutted and utterly shamed by MPs, Lords, home educators and various lovely supporters of educational freedom. That didn't stop it nearly becoming law.<br />
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The state doesn't like home education, of course, because home education shows up their pallid and parlous excuse for educational provision. But, as an ex-home educator, I can say home educators are not just going to sit by and allow the freedoms of their children to be taken away by Lords, Ladies, MPs or anyone else.<br />
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The media, naturally, have been joining in the hunt with their articles about home educators (generally, unflattering, I'm told, but I haven't read them). Equally, the good Lord Soley himself is concerned about all these unlicensed and uncontrolled schools that are, supposedly, radicalising home educators. Most of this talk is highly insulting to our Muslim home educators who just want to do better for the children than the state schooling can do.<br />
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Wouldn't you think with the UK in a terrible state on all sorts of points, that officials would<br />
be interested in putting other things right instead of picking on a group that, mainly, already gets things right?<br />
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At any rate, home educators are readying themselves for yet another fight for their children to be educated in peace. Speaking in favour of the status quo, here's what two homeschoolers in two other countries have to say:<br />
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Russian homeschooling leader Irina Shamolina said that H.L. 11’s philosophy is unpleasantly close to that of the former Soviet Union, which she experienced as a child:</div>
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“We in Russia are shocked by the totalitarian spirit of the approach the government of GB is taking in treating the natural right of the parents to raise and educate their children the way parents prefer to do it. The situation is taking place in the country which proclaims itself to be a model of a true democracy!”</div>
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Polish homeschooling leader Marek Budajczak was also deeply critical of the U.K. proposal, saying:</div>
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“[T]here are two opposite political mentalities in Europe: the British one (inspiring citizens’ freedom) and the continental one (of Prussian origin). Changing legislation on home education in England and Wales would equate expelling fundamental parents’ rights in favor of statism. We in Poland know the destructive consequences of the last one. England shouldn’t become a secondary Europe; they should be faithful to their own political heritage.”</div>
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From https://www.hslda.org/hs/international/unitedkingdom/201707120-british-lord-targets-homeschoolers-for-repression.asp</div>
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<br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-50731606477049867462017-08-01T19:09:00.000+01:002017-08-01T19:09:00.777+01:00So proudI am so proud of both of my girls.<br />
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My youngest is a brilliant artist and a caring, loving human being.<br />
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My eldest is academic, and a deep thinker who also cares.<br />
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About four weeks ago, we watched as she, gowned and capped, crossed the stage to receive her<br />
scroll.<br />
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Yes, she graduated. From her four year course. With three awards. One was for the highest<br />
marks in her school, the second was for the highest marks on a dissertation and the third<br />
was a distinction in Japanese.<br />
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OK, I will own it- I burst into tears at least three times.<br />
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And now I watch with amazement and awe as my daughters fly into the wide blue of their<br />
respective skies to be the eagles that they are.<br />
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Fly high and proud, my beauties. Enjoy and live your lives in peace and harmony.<br />
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Bless you both.<br />
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Your mother is so proud of you.Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-31914284230229434772016-04-20T18:15:00.000+01:002016-04-20T18:15:12.307+01:00You know, I look back in disbeliefIn about 2004, we were seriously considering home educating our girls.<br />
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I happened to know someone who was already home educating her girls so I asked her loads of<br />
questions about home education.<br />
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I already knew it was legal.<br />
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She told me about Education Otherwise which I thought was an institution. At first, I didn't understand that it was 'staffed' by volunteers, by those who had gone ahead on the challenging road that is less travelled.<br />
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It took me a while of asking questions on lists. I think my yahoo list was my best friend during that<br />
time.<br />
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Someone always answered my questions for which I am very grateful. Sometimes it took people a<br />
few hours or even days to get back to me, but they always did.<br />
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A lot of those people no longer home educate: their children are grown. Unfortunately, some of those incredibly patient souls have passed on.<br />
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To every one of you I extend a hearty thank you. You taught me more than you know. You taught<br />
me the true meaning of giving someone time. You taught me how to think like a free person. You taught me about the law as it applies to home education (and other things, now and then). You taught me patience. You taught me to trust my children and my gut instinct. You taught me the real deep meaning of community. You taught me that no style of education fits every child. You taught me the value of talking to my youngsters and REALLY LISTENING.<br />
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I have no doubt that you taught me so much more than what I've just listed.<br />
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Thank you. With all my heart, I thank you.Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-41657382806196007842016-01-07T00:35:00.002+00:002016-01-07T00:35:48.519+00:00New threat to home education - or a whole load of extreme bunkum?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hello, it's a New Year. I hope it's a good one for you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What will it hold for home educators?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">What it often holds for home educators - threats and confusion or so it seems at first glance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Home educators could be filling their children's minds with poison. They could be 'radicalizing' their children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They could be making them do the dishes. OK, I threw that in because we know that 'making' your children do the dishes (wash the dishes, for our American friends) could be a very dangerous thing. Or no it couldn't.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;">A senior government source said: “There has always been the freedom in this country for people to educate their children at home. Many people do it very well. But we need to know about where the children are and just to be certain that they are safe.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">“For every parent doing a brilliant job, there may be someone filling the children’s mind with poison. We just don’t know, we don’t have reliable figures.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/12060355/Home-schooling-crackdown-over-extremism-fears.html</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Home educators 'could be' letting their children get over the dreadful time they've had at school, or they could be touring the country learning about regions and districts and flooding and overworked water courses and environmentalism... You see how one subject naturally leads to another.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">People home educate for different reasons, not one of them appears to be turning those children into radicals. For a start, what is a radical? Maybe they mean someone who doesn't like fracking or Nicky Morgan, Education Secretary, the current incumbent in a long line of people seemingly unaware of anything that home education actually is (in the UK, home education is not generally referred to as homeschooling, although various families 'home school' as in they have 'school at home').</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Indeed one wonders immediately just who this unnamed source is? 'A senior government source? Care to guess? Perhaps Heather Brooke, the amazing reporter who brought us all information about the expenses claimed by Members of Parliament might tell us, but this spokesperson is sheathed in mystery. Perhaps it is the government tea lady in the Houses of Parliament. One can only guess..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Many people home educate very well apparently. How nice, how soothing, that remark just sets you up for the fall, does it not? 'But we need to know about where the children are and just to be certain that they are safe'.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Strange that, when many children who are in care (that is cared for by governmental appointed agents) go missing. These children are not in their parents' care but are LOOKED AFTER children, in the 'care' of the state.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/thousands-of-children-in-care-go-missing-every-year-8585289.html</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">The information was obtained from police forces in England and Wales by the NSPCC, and those figures can presumably be checked by looking at the FOI responses.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">So, obviously, children who are in the care of their parents (home educating) are not safe enough in the care of their parents but must be overseen by a state that loses children that it DOES have a duty of care for.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">What can one even say to that?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Just to be certain that the children are safe, says the senior government source. Why would they not be safe? They are with their parents or in other company like grandparents, friends, home educating groups, or doing what every child does like ballet or gymnastics classes or some such thing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Of course, when one starts to deconstruct the argument, one sighs deeply with complete and utter tiredness because it's the same old squawking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">1) We don't know where they are. So, when school breaks up for the summer, do you know where THOSE children are? No, of course you don't because you feel no need to. Or you know that to track every child in the country would be ludicrous or impossible or so time wasting and resource wasting that even the most patient taxpayer would shout 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH' and 'LEAVE FAMILIES ALONE' and 'STOP SPENDING MY HARD-EARNED MONEY ON RUBBISH' or some such thing. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">2) You do know where they are. They are in the care of parents who make a far better job of caring for their children than the state does. Remember a few lines back? Thousands of children go missing from state supplied care every year. It does not engender any particular belief that it would be better for every child if he or she was followed by the state at any or every moment of the day, does it? As a society, we can have no trust in the ability of the state to prevent harm to children since they lose them quite frequently and no one knows what is happening to those lost ones. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">3) You could know where they are. It isn't difficult to read a few deregistration letters which say that a child is no longer to be considered a pupil at a school but is now to be home educated. The schools really cannot have thousands of children deregistering every day, can they? Or the good people in the media would been letting us know about that. So the local authorities must know that children are being home educated because it is a school head teacher's duty to let them know. Equally, the perusal of a registrar's office in every area would give the birth information of every child in the area, and those who are not registered on a school roll might possibly be home educated.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">But why would you do that? Unless, of course, you are gripped by paranoia for which you should really seek medical help. The children who have been in the news often for tragic reasons were known by social services and, apparently, many other services who failed to intervene. So even knowing about children who were in real danger and at real risk the state could not keep them safe.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Actually, I do find the idea of extremism quite terrifying. It's more the idea that it is one of those concepts that can morph from one thing to another. Anything can seem like extremism to a conformist mind and a conformist mind is one that expects and even, demands, that children GO TO SCHOOL even if schooling is detrimental to a particular child. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">As to Islamic terrorism, how much terrorism can one pack into young minds? How would that translate into extremism or terrorism in the future because it is most unlikely that small children would be able to carry out terrorist activities? So you are speaking about children who, within a few years, will be able to be functioning as terrorists. But, surely, even if a young mind is poisoned - and what does that mean in actuality and how does one define poison in that sense - surely the poison is not necessarily something that will make you act. A loose analogy (very loose because, naturally, a Convent School education would not be suspected of poisoning a child's mind) would be my friend, M, who went to a Catholic School, despite being Anglican, because the school was situated on her road. She remains quite fond of the smell of incense and the beauty of Catholic churches, but follows no particular religion, and will often say that her conscience is her guide (which teaching could have come from many other religions).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">So what is this all about?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">I don't know. I have a few vague ideas. Possibly it's all smoke and mirrors. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Since OFSTED was mentioned in the article about home educating, it might be that OFSTED inspectors want a few more inspections to make. Of course, their remit is schools because schools are a service provided by the state and have to be inspected to allay parents' fears that their money is not being well spent. And, naturally, to inspect every home educating family they would have to receive more money. No vested interest there then. But, of course, OFSTED should not be inspecting or suspecting families. Families are not providing a service for money, far from it. Home education is done for love.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 23px;"><span style="font-size: large;">So is that an extremist view of a) OFSTED or b) the state schools?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">Or not an extremist view at all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">It depends on your definition, doesn't it?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;"> ..</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">i</span></span></div>
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Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-90684823405897835692015-12-21T16:54:00.000+00:002015-12-21T16:54:00.776+00:00Education of the oppressed<div>
"The radical, committed to human liberation, does not become the prisoner of 'a circle of certainty' within which reality is also imprisoned. On the contrary, the more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or enter into dialogue with them. "</div>
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That's from the introduction to 'The Pedagogy of the Oppressed' by Paolo Freire. If you've been reading other threedegreesoffreedom.blogspot entries you may, just may have noticed his name being mentioned once or twice.</div>
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We should all be humanised (or humanized) says Paolo, and, when you think about it, isn't that the best way to live? To be fully human is to recognise, respect and even cherish the humanity of other people. Once you respect others (you don't have to like them) you grow as a person yourself and you flinch from doing anything that negates their humanity. </div>
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I think a lot about schools. I've had quite a lot to do with them throughout my years. I've attended one school or another for primary, secondary and, perhaps you could even say. tertiary education. I've gone back to school for evening classes. My children went to nursery, first and secondary schools. When I think of the schools, I flinch because all I can remember is the dehumanising qualities that stand out in them. The raising of hands to ask permission to perform a natural function like go to the toilet. The inability to be yourself, the real you, and not just the rough-tough social you who doesn't care that no one hands you a Christmas present, in the schoolyard where everyone is watching, and what that lack says to all the young people around you: it says that you're dispensible, unnoticeable, uncared for...invisible. Unpopular. You don't see, say or do 'the right things.' You don't sound the same as everyone, walk the same, like the same music, actors, films, books... You constantly measure yourself by the yardstick of another or others and cannot match up. You are not accepted. You do not exist, but the simulacrum who interacts with peers and teachers and assistants has to be you - yet not you.</div>
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For the most part of the day, you do not exist. You are not verified. You are not validated. You are not loved.</div>
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Then there's the passing of knowledge to one group from other knowledge sources and this is what Paolo calls 'the banking system of education.' A teacher deposits knowledge in his or her students. </div>
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The teacher narrates, the student listens. There is no room for problem-solving, no room for 'we' (the teacher and student as problem resolvers). There is no space for dialogue. The teacher deposits the fossil of his or her knowledge into the pupil, and the pupil must receive it in silence and without enquiry and without testing. It seems to me mendacious that although we report and aver that we cherish scientific enquiry and the mind that challenges everything we actually encourage the opposite. Schools never request different, thoughtful, challenging answers from their pupils; they want the 'right' answer and they will discard the thinkers' responses as 'wrong' answers. Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison in their book, 'How Children Learn at Home' tell us that one home educated student went to school and was thoroughly astounded that the teachers, not the pupils, asked the questions in class.</div>
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"Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorise mechanically the narrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into 'containers,' into 'receptacles' to be 'filled' by the teacher. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are.</div>
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Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize and repeat."</div>
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Paolo Freire details the 'banking' system of education, and we all know what a mess the banking system itself is in at the moment, don't we?</div>
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I'll give him the last word here: "In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance upon others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence."</div>
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Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-38066383191286521622015-11-18T18:19:00.000+00:002015-11-18T18:19:15.075+00:00The unsinkable hatred for home education and the Titanic<div>
The Unsinkable Titanic</div>
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In 1912 there was a myth</div>
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The Titanic proud and tall on sea</div>
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Was unique, constructed specially</div>
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Would she sink? That could not be!</div>
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There was a firm belief</div>
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Too strong for minds to down</div>
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That powerful and proud vessel</div>
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Could never ever drown</div>
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Watertight her hull was</div>
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Designed it was with care</div>
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Safe as your own house</div>
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Furnished with grace and flair</div>
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Yet no match was she</div>
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The big ship laden</div>
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The last unhappy cruise</div>
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Voyage of the Iron Maiden</div>
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Take care what you believe</div>
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Trust neither government nor knaves</div>
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Think of the unsinkable Titanic</div>
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Large and rusting beneath the waves</div>
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by Diane Varty<br />
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Myths are powerful. Myths can make us believe anything we secretly wish to believe. Myths can be dangerous. Myths can obscure the truth. Myths can bind us together in hating any group we choose to hate.</div>
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From Psychology we know that prejudice about a family of another colour can be dispelled by knowledge of that family, by seeing people as individuals, as human beings with needs, as sentient beings with their own paths, as just Joe and Mary Ellen.</div>
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We can look past the myths that chattering government can jeer at us about home education. We who home educate are the experts and the bearers of knowledge.<br />
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But it gets very tiring to do it over and over and over.<br />
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Leave home education alone. It has never done you any harm.</div>
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Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-71513960862465792112015-10-29T23:29:00.003+00:002015-10-29T23:32:12.237+00:00They don't get it at all<span style="font-size: large;">I have just been looking at the survey about home education in Ireland.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It makes me thoroughly sick, and I'm afraid I filled in some of their spaces with rather snarling comments.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They don't get it at all.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They are not responsible for children's education, these authorities. Parents are. PARENTS or guardians.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Not the average, deficient box-ticker.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They do not understand at all.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So I'll try to explain.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It's this: You cannot, but cannot, stop a child or a young person or, even, an adult from learning. The human brain is set up to learn, and does it without stinting or taking one moment off. In other words, it is always learning, always taking in, always processing. It's a form of computer. One normally without an off switch.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You can try not to learn. Go on. Have a day not learning. Don't assimilate any fact. Don't think. Don't sing, dance or twitch because you might learn from your singing, dancing or twitching.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You can't do it, can you? Well, try not learning for three hours?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Manage that? No, I thought not.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With two seconds of consideration, you will know that humans cannot NOT learn.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">After two seconds of consideration, you will think why on earth do authorities want to force learning down children's throats?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What do they get out of it?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What can they possibly do by forcing children, or TRYING to force them, to learn? The only reasonable </span><span style="font-size: large;">answer is that they want children to learn to hate learning.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Unlearned people - even though that is an impossibility, being unlearned - er, let's call them people who aren't learning what they want to - are more rootless, less settled, unhappy, often tempted into doing things they shouldn't.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Easily led.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ready to do things they might regret.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Getting into trouble.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe that's the key. A totally actualised society where everyone learned everything freely would be impossible to rule. People would just reject being ruled because they would be quite able to rule themselves without being treated like children at school. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So maybe that's the reason that authorities don't like home educators. What do you think?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">http://www.newb.ie/parent_guardian/education_outside_school.asp</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">If you want to home educate, you must register your child.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Again, the state, butting in: http://www.newb.ie/downloads/pdf/guidelines_assessment_education_outside_schools.pdf</span><br />
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Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-76823857018246319982015-09-23T23:56:00.003+01:002015-09-23T23:56:25.180+01:00New Vistas<span style="font-size: large;">Do you know that thing you were dreading?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That thing you tried to put out of your mind because it would hurt and chafe?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The thing that someone you love was going to do and really, deep deep down, you didn't want them to do it?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The going to Japan for a year thing. The going to Japan for a year and not being home FOR A WHOLE YEAR.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Until next September.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">E has gone. She went to Manchester to meet another student who was also going to Japan, and the other student was going to the same university in Japan. Then they both got on a plane to Amsterdam, then another to Japan Tokyo, and then another to the city near the university that they are going to. For a year.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I cannot imagine not hugging E for a whole year. I cannot imagine not seeing her other than on Skype. For a year.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But it's what she wants. She has wanted this for years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is her dream.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So I'm happy for her. But kinda sad for me.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But happier for her.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And what a year of discovery and change it will be for us all.</span>Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-2653074326220839042015-04-18T16:40:00.001+01:002015-04-18T16:40:22.833+01:00Ten years ago today<span style="font-size: large;">Ten year ago today. Ten years ago. Today.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We began home educating.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We thought we had to use school books. But we didn't have to. Unless our children found them interesting.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We thought we would get into trouble for stepping into the unknown. But we didn't. We found we could breathe. Really breathe. And be fascinated. By everything.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We thought we 'should' study certain things. But we didn't. Unless my young ladies wanted to.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We thought that we were alone. But we weren't. They were there. All over. All educating.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We thought home educators would be different. They were. They were lit up with joy. They moved how and when they wished. They were interested in so many areas. They taught us that children are born learning and love to learn, when they are not forced to.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We thought perhaps that you just learned from workbooks. You can. But you can learn from everything, everywhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We thought it would be brilliant to be different. It was. But only when we stopped thinking like one of the schooling families that we once were.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We knew we would never, ever regret home educating. We haven't. Not once. Never. And we NEVER will.</span>Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-86930860989285986752015-03-27T16:44:00.000+00:002015-03-27T16:44:25.136+00:00Been on facebook<span style="font-size: large;">Where have I spent my time since the last blog entry?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Facebook. Quite a lot.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Google. Trawling for research materials.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Home or on Skype. Talking to the young people.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Living quietly.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I really like it when people come onto the lists on facebook and say that they are thinking of home educating (or, often, 'homeschooling') and then I tell our stories or I tell them how good it is or I tell them they might consider reading John Taylor Gatto - anything of John Taylor Gatto's writings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And then they leap into space and find great joy and that their wings are filled with thermals.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We really haven't recovered from the three blows to mortality, two in the last year, and the final one in January. Some things take their time, and these qualify as some things.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But, my youngest girl is doing lots and lots of research into lots and lots of areas, and my eldest is thriving at university, but really really really tired because she expends so much energy and is learning and growing so much.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I'm savouring the spring, watching the birds, listening to nature gearing up for its festivals of renewal.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Beautiful. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I'm trying a new train track for my mind, and I'm being more mindful and more grateful. And I'm attempting the rather unusual path of enjoyment. Enjoying things? How can I?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And I find that I can.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We're still learning. We all still learn at any age. Every age. Everywhere. Everytime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Oh, the joy. The joy!</span>Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-3388523333295898492015-01-12T19:11:00.000+00:002015-01-12T19:13:25.338+00:00Would I home educate if I were an abuser?Would I home educate if I were an abuser?<br />
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Certainly not.<br />
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Home education brings too many people out of their ordinary minding-own-business status.<br />
<br />
They can't leave you alone.<br />
<br />
I must admit, a lot of folks have admired my courage, some have told me that they wished to GOD they had home educated their children or, in a few cases, their grandchildren.<br />
<br />
But now, as soon as look at you, social workers and, even, police are at the door.<br />
<br />
It can be ignorance. "I didn't know it was legal to home school."<br />
<br />
Yes, it is legal to home educate.<br />
<br />
"I thought your child was at risk."<br />
<br />
At risk of what? Getting an education?<br />
<br />
Schools that enable bullying call the police in. Pity they weren't bothered when your child was hit in school by another child.<br />
<br />
It's a waste of police resources.<br />
<br />
Neighbours who have never shown any interest in children before find their caring side and ring social services who are, seemingly, judge, jury and executioner.<br />
<br />
Back off.<br />
<br />
Leave an honest, loving set of parents alone and let them live and learn.<br />
<br />
It's all wrong.<br />
<br />
Or maybe home educators are just easy targets.<br />
<br />
<br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-79138591027023829522014-11-07T14:18:00.000+00:002014-11-07T14:18:27.797+00:00Trying to tip the 'can't do' into 'can do'Life is going on.<br />
<br />
For some of us.<br />
<br />
My family has had two major losses this year.<br />
<br />
Death is instructive. There's the dealing of it in terms of practical tasks, and there's the missing someone and wondering if you can still put one foot in front of the other, and why there is no river of tears and a drowned pillow every morning.<br />
<br />
You have to cope with your own feelings and still help others with their feelings.<br />
<br />
And feelings are shape-shifters. One time they are this and another, that.<br />
<br />
But you are learning how to deal with the shape of your life after.<br />
<br />
Day by day<br />
<br />
Does anyone know how to do it?<br />
<br />
I can't do it. But I must, I will and I can.<br />
<br />
And, what helps, is concentrating on the idea that I'm going to write a book about home education.<br />
Lots of lovely research.<br />
<br />
Lots of thinking.<br />
<br />
And a nice feeling.<br />
<br />
<br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-17666375296749009452014-09-07T16:41:00.001+01:002014-09-07T17:59:11.203+01:00The Great GattoI'm breathless after reading John Taylor Gatto who is one of the columnists on the link below.<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
Again.<br />
<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.homeschoolnewslink.com/">http://www.homeschoolnewslink.com/</a><br />
<br /><br />
<br />
Fantastic.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-85653599488200784282014-08-22T23:15:00.002+01:002014-08-22T23:47:55.564+01:00The latest<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we approach the beginning of another school year for most young people, I thought it would be fitting to present the latest available statistics on bullying.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are here:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"</span><br />
<ul style="background-color: #0f0f0f; color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;">
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">45% of young people experience bullying before the age of 18.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">26% of those bullied have experienced bullying on a daily basis.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">40% of respondents reported being bullied for personal appearance 36% reported being bullied for body shape, size and weight.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">39% have never told anybody that they are being bullied.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">51% were not satisfied with the bullying support that they got from teachers.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">34% reported being bullied for prejudice based reasons (homophobia/ racism/religious discrimination/disability discrimination/cultural discrimination/transphobia).</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">63% of respondents with a physical disability were bullied, and were more extremely socially excluded.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">61% of respondents have been physically attacked.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">30% have gone on to self-harm as a result of bullying.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">10% have attempted to commit suicide as a result of bullying.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">10% of respondents reported been sexually assaulted.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">83% said bullying had a negative impact on their self-esteem.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">56% said bullying affected their studies.</li>
<li style="list-style-type: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top;">41% of those who had never been bullied achieved A or A*grades in English. 30% of those who had been bullied in the past achieved an A or A* in English. 26% of those being bullied achieved an A or A* in English. The trends were similar across Science and Maths."</li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>The figures are from The Annual Bullying Survey in the UK (2014)</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>http://www.ditchthelabel.org/uk-bullying-statistics-2014/</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>3,600 13-18 year olds from 36 schools participated in the survey.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>My mother maintained that she was never bullied. I know that I was. Sometimes I don't want to understand people who bully another person or people. I just wish they would stop. I wish they would use their time in positive ways and stop making other folks' lives a complete misery.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>I wonder that, since I was bullied at school many years ago, the sad old song is still being sung.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>It's time to see alternatives.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>It's time to stop the song.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>It's time to teach youngsters that they can, must, treat everyone with respect, even if they don't like them.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>I don't know how teachers can do that.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>But I know that, within the family, there can be respect from one person to another.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b>I know that home education grows you as a sentient being, a being who can feel someone else's pain. And, when you feel someone else's pain, you don't bully. It hurts too much.</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="color: #727272; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-84231685222442772592014-06-26T11:10:00.002+01:002014-06-26T11:17:33.354+01:00How much is enough?I've just been captured, for the millionth time, by facebook and by general browsing, and I've come to the conclusion that a lot of folks who home educate have the same question.<br />
<br />
"Is my child doing enough?"<br />
<br />
Or, put another way, "Is my child being lazy and not completing what he or she should be?"<br />
<br />
Or, "How much is enough work? How much should Bub be doing?"<br />
<br />
We're all conscious of time and the 'achievements' not only of our own children, but the neighbours' and our children's friends and, well, anyone really.<br />
<br />
Odd, isn't it?<br />
<br />
When you do accept that children are the most amazing beings who are learning during their waking periods and, probably, during sleep times too, then that question isn't worth asking.<br />
<br />
Your child, my child, anyone's child has an internal set-up of his or her own. You can't hurry love, as the song would have it, but you can't hurry learning either. It happens naturally, when the individual is ready or when the time is right. As a facilitator of learning, you can have all the pieces of the jigsaw present, but you<br />
cannot force the person to put it together. The learner is the best arbiter of his or her learning.<br />
<br />
Education is free in that way. We all learn something when the time is right. We all learn what we need to when we should.<br />
<br />
Any force or coercion in teaching or learning is not only trying to control the learner, but it's counterproductive.Everyone has that secret hate: the dumb Physical Education lessons, the extra hard Maths that you failed because you didn't 'get' the previous step.<br />
<br />
So how much is enough? It's a meaningless question.<br />
<br />
Whatever you do is enough. If it's right for the learner, the learning will always be enough.Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-88860825379160062402014-06-14T15:48:00.002+01:002014-06-14T16:07:46.589+01:00MindfulI am mindful that I haven't posted for some time.<br />
<br />
<br />
We have suffered loss.<br />
<br />
<br />
Our lives have changed irrevocably.<br />
<br />
<br />
We are saddened. We are shocked.<br />
<br />
<br />
We are studying mindfulness.<br />
<br />
<br />
"After three years of study, the novice monk arrives at the dwelling of his teacher. He enters the<br />
room, bursting with ideas about knotty issues of Buddhist metaphysics, and well-prepared for<br />
the deep questions that await him in his examination.<br />
<br />
<br />
'I have but one question,' his teacher intones.<br />
<br />
<br />
'I am ready, master,' he replies.<br />
<br />
<br />
'In the doorway, were the flowers to the left or to the right of the umbrella?'<br />
<br />
<br />
The novice retires, abashed, for three more years of study."<br />
<br />
<br />
Mindfulness is attention to the present moment.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you don't pay attention to the 'now', what will you learn?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Quotation from the amazing book<em> Authentic Happiness</em> by Martin E. P. Seligman<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-373644903167990422014-04-16T11:13:00.001+01:002014-04-16T11:14:35.515+01:00The Fifth DisciplineIt's a book. The Fifth Discipline.<br />
<br />
Published in 1990, and it's about business. And life.<br />
<br />
A lot that goes on in business also goes on in life.<br />
<br />
Here's a quote from The Fifth Discipline:<br />
<br />
"Learning any new language is difficult at first. But as you start to master the basics, it gets easier.<br />
Research with young children has shown that many learn systems thinking remarkably quickly. It appears<br />
that we have latent skills as systems thinkers that are undeveloped, even repressed by formal education<br />
in linear thinking."<br />
<br />
What is systems thinking?<br />
<br />
Again, from that book:<br />
<br />
"The essence of the discipline of systems thinking lies in a shift of mind:<br />
<br />
*seeing interrelationships rather than linear cause-effect chains, and<br />
*seeing processes of change rather than snapshots<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Things aren't always straight-forward. Learning isn't. Life isn't.</span><br />
<br />
<br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-10703770770619777452014-03-24T16:38:00.002+00:002014-03-24T16:47:24.835+00:00Local authorities who want to monitor home educators<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">More
than 360,000 children are injured in school each year</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">450,000
children are bullied in school EACH WEEK</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">16
children commit suicide each year because of school bullying</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">An
estimated 1 million children truant each year</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">1 in 6
children leave school unable to read, write or add up</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And local authorities want to monitor home educators?</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I don't think so.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Figures from </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="http://ahed.pbworks.com/Anomaly-Figures"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">http://ahed.pbworks.com/Anomaly-Figures</span></a></u></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-72462806822801324312014-02-22T21:17:00.002+00:002014-02-22T21:17:25.445+00:00On Knowledge<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."</span><br />
<br />
Miles Kington (1941-2008), journalist. Quoted in Woman's Weekly, 11 February 2014.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That seems to encapsulate for me the difference between schooling and home education.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Home educators have the time and the space to develop wisdom.</span>Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-75773195899549211042014-01-24T12:07:00.002+00:002014-01-24T12:07:52.964+00:00I bet you thought I'd gone<span style="font-size: large;">I haven't.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Here's a thought from Augustine of Hippo that I came across while wandering around on a forum discussing money.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Not a bad maxim to live by.</span>.Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-78686881186966751382013-11-17T22:14:00.003+00:002013-11-17T22:14:54.554+00:00Naturally<span style="font-size: large;">It's probably something you've all realised, but home education is a natural extension of the family and day to day life.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It takes effort to pack one or more children off to the care (sometimes dubious) of schoolkeepers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It's natural to flow through a day as if there is no curriculum, and, actually, in our house, there hasn't been one at all.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To me, curricula are forms of control. Someone somewhere has decided what all children will be taught and will (not necessarily) learn.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">How do we choose what we want to learn, how do we choose how we want to learn?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Natural questions that rise up as we breast the waves of the day.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I would rather trust my children's instincts as to where they will spend their time (and it is their time) and their energy (and that energy can be stolen by society rules) than think that strangers - strangers, moreover, who have probably moved on from the education system - will be telling my children what to do every day.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And what to think.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I find it infuriating when outsiders try to say that children are indoctrinated by their home educating parents. It's rather two-faced to have a curriculum that denies choice to every schoolchild then complain that non-schoolers are being taught what parents want to teach.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The pot and kettle are both vying for the title of 'deepest shade of black'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As a young person, when you leave school your day might well revert to your control so why do parents not allow children to control and manage their days as soon as they can?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Naturally. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-18243087741744300062013-11-05T21:28:00.001+00:002013-11-05T21:28:43.793+00:00I can genuinely say....<span style="font-size: large;">I can genuinely say, looking back on the past few years - is it seven or eight? - that we've been home educating that I have changed and been changed so much by the whole process.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Long ago, I accepted what newspapers told me, what the neighbourhood gossip conveyed to me, what the internet induced me to read. Anything and everybody had a naive listener in me.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What has changed?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Me, for one thing. Having the time and the ability to question, to advance my understanding, to dig a little more, to apply logic and theory, to consult those home educators who strode across the largely untrodden terrain of home educationland before me. The giants who have gone ahead.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I've delved into subjects I never even heard of at school. I've read about really difficult concepts and re-read the words until I thoroughly understood what was being said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I have become sentient and aware. I have become ever more thoughtful and empathic.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I think I have started to see the fully actualised person, Danae, emerging from her shell of self-induced hypocritical beliefs and society-induced coma.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My eyes are open, and can use the sparkling new spectacles that I never knew existed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My children have led the dance, and I've cavorted alongside them, and also alone along merry alleys and paused in colourful colonnaded courtyards.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I'm me, yet I'm different. Improved, I hope. Always ready for the next bout of incomprehension on my way to the aha! moment of comprehension.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I've learned that freedom isn't just a word, it's life's breath.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I've learned that nurturing yourself isn't selfish, it's society's saviour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I've learned that home educating isn't just a thing to be done, it's everything and it's in everything.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And - ah, bliss - there's still more to come.</span><br />
<br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-86907313023985166842013-10-14T15:59:00.002+01:002013-10-14T15:59:33.505+01:00How teachers treat their students<span style="font-size: large;">Hello again,</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I thought I'd try to let you in on some thoughts I've been - er - thinking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I belong to a few groups, and regularly people join to say that they and their child or children are HAVING TROUBLE WITH SCHOOL. It's rarely about school stuff like little Piers can't 'get' Geography. It's often about how their children are treated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In case you are in any doubt - and if you've been kind enough to read my blog in the past you probably won't be in any doubt - I don't think that schools, in their present form, should have anything to do with children.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As I've mentioned, the Geography, History, Languages, etc. aren't often the cause of concern. The teachers and how they react to one, a few, a bunch or all of the pupils in their classes are.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now, it's many many years since I was at school (as a young person) and only a few since I was in an Adult Learning GCSE class to support my daughter by taking the course with her. During the science course, I was shouted at, by the teacher. Normally, I can establish a reasonably good rapport with people who are imparting their knowledge to me. I had done so with this teacher. But she shouted at me for putting two sheets in one of those plastic files the wrong way. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, I got it wrong. But I was already pulling them out to flip them over and start again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I looked at her and I thought, 'I no longer allow anyone to so disrespect me for committing the heinous crime of making a simple and undeadly mistake, especially one I'm already about to correct'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I nearly challenged her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Something stopped me. The wild, stressed look in her eyes. The exasperation on her face. The response to the too-much-all-the-time that teachers are faced with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So I kept quiet. I forbore to let rip at her during the class. I made a choice not to correct her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Later, I did have a gentle word, and she apologised as one adult to another because we respected each other and were, largely, equal.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What happens, though, to young people who are 'slagged off' in a class full of their friends, schoolmates, enemies and who are not equal and not able to have a reproving word after class.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What happens when the balance of power is totally unequal? As in school. All day long. Every day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Teachers should never abuse their power, not to seduce, nor to reduce those under their care because they will never know what type of damage and what sort of anguish the children in their power may endure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">When you get a parent who is responsible for providing an education to his or her child or children, the sheer knowledge that parent has about his or her offspring can inspire and improve every day they learn. I'm not saying it's always easy, but I am saying it's very likely to be respectful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Respect for the learner is surely a building block of learning success.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">That's what I've been thinking about during these rainy days of autumn.</span><br />
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<br />Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4957300152948092490.post-73852849044356361022013-10-01T14:59:00.002+01:002013-10-01T14:59:59.873+01:00A little bit about Harry Potter and the home educated Weasleys<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I like the Harry Potter series. It's interesting, and also is a hugely successful series spanning the globe with its impact. I also like that the children of the Weasley family, a major part of the whole Potter phenomenon, were home educated before they went to the wizarding school, Hogwarts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Harry Potter is very lucky to know the Weasley family. He is mothered by the constantly caring and loving Mrs. Molly Weasley who is one of the few to give him presents on his birthday. She knits him sweaters, treating him like the other boys in her family of six lads and one daughter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But Mrs. Weasley is not just a traditional motherly and comforting character: she has immense skill with her wand and vanquishes one of Lord Voldemort's most evil lieutenants - the vicious killer Bellatrix Lestrange.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Arthur and Molly Weasley have raised seven wonderful children at The Burrow, their cosy smallholding where chickens and gnomes roam. The boys are all individual and are all successful in their own chosen fields. Bill is a curse-breaker for Gringotts Bank, Charlie is a dragon-tamer, and Percy works for the Ministry of Magic. The twins, Fred and George, start a wildly successful wizarding joke shop and Ginny Weasley is the youngest daughter, competent witch, and last child of the family. Eventually, she marries the heroic Harry Potter</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, they did well, these Weasleys.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And why not?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">They were loved. Their parents loved them enough to carefully and assiduously create a home and a life wherein the children felt safe and supported enough to learn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And that, in home educating families, isn't fiction.</span></div>
Danaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02708356268039456397noreply@blogger.com0