Remember, remember

I think that one channel - I can't remember which - played the film 'V for Vendetta' on November 5th this year. Although the last few years we have faced dangers from the forces of the mighty governmental machine to grind home educators into the dust of history at the moment it's all pretty quiet. Or is it?

What is happening in those halls of power? I don't necessarily mean the Westminster ones. I mean the real halls of power referred to by Neil Tayor, one of the infinitely wise members of the home educating fraternity around the world. He speaks at a conference on Home Ed. and you can find his illuminating words here:

http://www.home-education.biz/blog/education/european-home-education-conference-2011-neil-taylor

Back to 'V for Vendetta'.

The character, V, has hacked into the communication system in London to give the country his views on the state of Britain. This is a quote from that film.

"Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine — the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.

There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression.

And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.

How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than 400 years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest that you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked.

But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot. "

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)

If only we had a 'V' in our world.

Wondering why we home educate

Yes, I do. Wonder why. We home educate.

Such a strange unnatural thing to do. Keep your children near. Know their screaming laughter.

They are upstairs now. Rocking the rooms with their joyful outbursts of sheer love of living.

They are laughing fit to burst, heartily, with gusto.

Laughing hard.

I never heard them laugh like that during the long, cold days of schooling.

Not that joy-filled absolutely untethered screamy laughing that makes your lips slide upward just to catch the merest whisper.

That makes your tummy jiggle because it is joining in the fun.

Laughter is, like flu, infectious.

Infection and contagion, of the positive kind.

I home educate because my children laugh, because they burst out with joy in the middle of the day, because no one tells them to 'be quiet' or 'do your work' or get out and go to the Headteacher's dim and dismal office.

One day, when I was in high school in Canada, a teacher screamed abuse at a sixteen year old boy. The boy stood, red in the face, then turned to her and said: "I don't have to take that kind of thing from you."

She screeched louder. "GET OUT! GO TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE RIGHT NOW!"

Teacher was cross - not at anything he had done - she was just in a mood that lesson and he was handy to shout at.

The boy disappeared, presumably to go to the Principal's office. He was thrown out of school for a few days. Expelled, of course. I thought that unfair. I wished I was strong enough to have stood up too and marched out. Supported his cause. Told her, the teacher, that she was wrong. Anything. But I didn't.

Too afraid of shouting teachers.

The boy was right. The teacher was wrong. No one should have to be the butt of someone's sheer bad temper. Even a sixteen year old. Even a high school pupil. Even a kid.

This comes a little late but I say now John Diamond, you were a hero to me that day. I will never forget that you stood up to a misguided authority figure and you told her the truth. Thank you. I wish I could've helped you. I wish I had been true to myself and my beliefs. I respect you for that, John Diamond.

Wherever you are I hope you've had a good life thus far. I hope you've kept your sense of self, your idea of fairness.

This blog entry is for John Diamond, one of my real teachers.