E received her law course results and she got a good pass. The personal feedback about her essay was somewhat disappointing to her until I pointed out that the law students had been set up to fail. Why else would the course demand a rigid word count? My daughter could have (and did) write an essay twice as long as that required then pruned it ruthlessly.
We said, "You have passed a difficult course with a good grade. You were seventeen when you decided to take the course - a University level course - and you passed. This is a magnificent accomplishment so please, please be proud of yourself."
E has great difficulty in being proud of her accomplishments - they are never quite good enough, even though she does exceptionally well. I shall carry the pride for her. I am proud of her huge efforts, her diligence, her determination, her persistence even when she is feeling unwell, her questioning heart and her sense of justice.
She deserves every success. I know it has been hard for her to stand outside the coddling, infantilising cocoon of school and still make her way. No one submits your work for you. No one arranges your exams. It is a lonely road in many respects, but, when you have reached your goals, you can tell yourself that "I did it my way." To do it despite society's pressures must develop your character. To succeed despite the constant chant that 'School is best' is a massive accomplishment.
I salute all home educating young people in their homes, in their friends' and neighbours' and acquaintances' houses as they go about building a real community. I salute them in their places of interest and anywhere they go. They are all magnificent. They are all such examples to us of what people should be. I salute them.
And to their parents: teach your young to recognise, understand and give love. Teach them to listen and watch. Teach them logic. Teach them to respect themselves and other people, and you will have taught them everything of worth that one human can pass to another.
May you all succeed in whatever you choose to succeed in this New Year, and on into the future.
I wish you all happiness and good health, and an exceptionally good 2011.
Friday, 31 December 2010
Friday, 24 December 2010
Happy Holidays
If you celebrate Christmas, please enjoy yourselves on December 25th. If you do not celebrate Christmas, please enjoy yourselves anyway.
Give a thought to those who are huddled in the snow in this deep wintertime. Whatever they have done or not done, do they deserve to freeze?
Spare a moment to think how to enlighten the cosmos, and shine your candle - no matter how small - into the dark regions of this most beautiful world.
Be peaceful. There is nothing worth fighting about; not land, not money, not possessions.
Remember that we are all one. We were born in the Big Bang that generated the Universe, and we are miraculous mosaics of stardust.
No one is other. No one is not you. You are everyone and everyone is you.
Be kind. If you cannot love someone, try to understand him. If someone hurts you, forgive him because you damage only yourself in hating him.
Cherish your children. They are your most tender gifts to yourself.
Have a lovely, peaceful, caring Christmas.
Give a thought to those who are huddled in the snow in this deep wintertime. Whatever they have done or not done, do they deserve to freeze?
Spare a moment to think how to enlighten the cosmos, and shine your candle - no matter how small - into the dark regions of this most beautiful world.
Be peaceful. There is nothing worth fighting about; not land, not money, not possessions.
Remember that we are all one. We were born in the Big Bang that generated the Universe, and we are miraculous mosaics of stardust.
No one is other. No one is not you. You are everyone and everyone is you.
Be kind. If you cannot love someone, try to understand him. If someone hurts you, forgive him because you damage only yourself in hating him.
Cherish your children. They are your most tender gifts to yourself.
Have a lovely, peaceful, caring Christmas.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Thick, thick snow and World War II
Six days to go before the day. Christmas which I perennially misspell as Christams.
Our heating has been belting along, bless its tiny boots.
My mother's heating went off at 10:00 o'clock last night. She put the electric heater on, and surrounded herself with hot water bottles. Surprisingly, she slept and this morning she rang me.
She's lucky we live within a two minute walk. Elderly, bent over, unable to hear or understand a lot of what she hears, my mother is now tiny and very frail. She was young during the years of World War II, recalls it all with horror, says it should never happen again, deplores the fact that many, many regions of the world are torn apart by war in these modern days.
My mother is a survivor. She is a heroine: she and other young women chopped tree after tree down during the years 1942 to 1946 to send them to be made into pit props, telegraph poles, ladders, newsprint, and other such necessary items. Timber Corps women were part of the Women's Land Army.
"By July 1943 there were 87,000 Land Girls and they were joining at the rate of 4,000 a month. Despite this, in 1944 the government, led by Ernest Bevin, declared that Land Girls would be excluded from post-war education and training schemes. This led to protests and strikes, and Lady Denman resigned. However, Her Majesty the Queen made the people aware of her support for the WLA and eventually the government was forced to compromise. A Land Army Benevolent Fund was promised £150,000 and resettlement grants of £150 were agreed, but Land Girls received no medals for their services. The much prized uniform was taken back. One was only allowed to keep greatcoats and shoes, but only if the greatcoat was dyed blue· "
My mother loved her greatcoat. She said it had style and suited her. You would think they could've given those young women their coats as a small thank you, wouldn't you?
In 2000, for the first time since the World War II ended, the Land Army women were invited to the cenotaph to remember their fallen friends, brothers, fathers, uncles, cousins and sweethearts.
They were honoured in 2008 by the Labour government issuing a badge for the Land Army and Timber Corps girls. Gordon Brown said:
"We have been slow to thank you. We could have done this years ago but I'm pleased that we can do it now. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude."
Scotland went one better, erecting a life-size bronze statue of a Timber Corps girl in the forest near Aberfoyle in 2007.
I was pleased to be able write an article for Ancestors magazine about my mother's experiences in the Timber Corps. In the inimitable way that some mothers have, she read it and commented: "Well, that was better than I expected."
Here and now, for my little mother, for all the women who undertook heavy manual labour, left their families, lived in huts, trudged through snow, laughed at adversity and saved thousands of tons of space in British ships for food and necessary supplies, I dedicate this blog entry.
To you wonderful women - God bless you, wherever you are.
Our heating has been belting along, bless its tiny boots.
My mother's heating went off at 10:00 o'clock last night. She put the electric heater on, and surrounded herself with hot water bottles. Surprisingly, she slept and this morning she rang me.
She's lucky we live within a two minute walk. Elderly, bent over, unable to hear or understand a lot of what she hears, my mother is now tiny and very frail. She was young during the years of World War II, recalls it all with horror, says it should never happen again, deplores the fact that many, many regions of the world are torn apart by war in these modern days.
My mother is a survivor. She is a heroine: she and other young women chopped tree after tree down during the years 1942 to 1946 to send them to be made into pit props, telegraph poles, ladders, newsprint, and other such necessary items. Timber Corps women were part of the Women's Land Army.
"By July 1943 there were 87,000 Land Girls and they were joining at the rate of 4,000 a month. Despite this, in 1944 the government, led by Ernest Bevin, declared that Land Girls would be excluded from post-war education and training schemes. This led to protests and strikes, and Lady Denman resigned. However, Her Majesty the Queen made the people aware of her support for the WLA and eventually the government was forced to compromise. A Land Army Benevolent Fund was promised £150,000 and resettlement grants of £150 were agreed, but Land Girls received no medals for their services. The much prized uniform was taken back. One was only allowed to keep greatcoats and shoes, but only if the greatcoat was dyed blue· "
My mother loved her greatcoat. She said it had style and suited her. You would think they could've given those young women their coats as a small thank you, wouldn't you?
In 2000, for the first time since the World War II ended, the Land Army women were invited to the cenotaph to remember their fallen friends, brothers, fathers, uncles, cousins and sweethearts.
They were honoured in 2008 by the Labour government issuing a badge for the Land Army and Timber Corps girls. Gordon Brown said:
"We have been slow to thank you. We could have done this years ago but I'm pleased that we can do it now. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude."
Scotland went one better, erecting a life-size bronze statue of a Timber Corps girl in the forest near Aberfoyle in 2007.
I was pleased to be able write an article for Ancestors magazine about my mother's experiences in the Timber Corps. In the inimitable way that some mothers have, she read it and commented: "Well, that was better than I expected."
Here and now, for my little mother, for all the women who undertook heavy manual labour, left their families, lived in huts, trudged through snow, laughed at adversity and saved thousands of tons of space in British ships for food and necessary supplies, I dedicate this blog entry.
To you wonderful women - God bless you, wherever you are.
Friday, 10 December 2010
Tuition fee fight
I salute the students.
I thought the power to revolt was dead in the water. I thought it had disappeared beneath the oceans of Brittania. Drowned and dead.
Apparently not. The students are out in this filthy weather shouting their slogans, resisting being kettled by the arms of the state (police).
Using the right they have to say 'no' in a peaceful demonstration.
I think they are marvellous.
From the sublime to the ridiculous. From fifty percent of this country's young people being encouraged to go to University now we have anyone whose parents aren't loaded struggling a) to get in and b) not to be encumbered with debt for twenty five years.
Punish the poor and the middle class when they never benefitted from the good years, but, oh yeah, make them pay in the bad years.
I believe that the bankers etc. organised the terrible chaos we're in. How else were they to stop paying savers the rates the savers were owed?
Protest on, my young friends.
"They (the youngsters), like many others from across the country, had just spent the day protesting or lobbying or saying a speech, all in the hope the government would listen."
They don't listen, darlings. They only listen when you agree with them, when you're one of them. They aren't there for you, my children. We, home educators, could tell you how deaf they can be, how frustrated you all would be.
Protest on, even though you think you may have lost. You will carry the day.
Life is stirring in all of us. The knowledge of fairness is raising its head. The sense of something wrong is dawning.
"There were shouts of 'I can't breathe' and calls for medics for those with bleeding heads who had been hit by baton-wielding police. Ian Dillets, a student from SOAS said:
"Everyone is cold and hungry and would like to go home, but we're not allowed to go home. There are a lot of people now standing around saying if they're not going to let us out we might as well go and get angry.""
Are our children to be treated like criminals? Who are the police protecting? The rights of the state to do whatever it damn well pleases. We are more than the state. We are greater than any Parliament.
Times are indeed a'changin'.
"Tim Mortimer, Leeds University Union Activities Officer, said he had great trouble seeing Simon Burns, his local MP for Chemsford yesterday:
"I rang and emailed him several times but he managed to wrangle his way out of it saying as he was a minister he didn't have time to meet with his constituent. It's a bit upsetting. MPs are condemning any kind of violent action but were not allowing people legitimate means to get their point across.""
Maybe he doesn't represent you, Tim. Who does he represent then? Who are these people? What is this system? These are questions that Tim might be asking himself tonight. The questions we all should be asking. Don't we deserve better than this? Don't our children deserve better than this?
Quotes from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leeds/2010/dec/10/student-tuition-fees-protests-leeds-view
I thought the power to revolt was dead in the water. I thought it had disappeared beneath the oceans of Brittania. Drowned and dead.
Apparently not. The students are out in this filthy weather shouting their slogans, resisting being kettled by the arms of the state (police).
Using the right they have to say 'no' in a peaceful demonstration.
I think they are marvellous.
From the sublime to the ridiculous. From fifty percent of this country's young people being encouraged to go to University now we have anyone whose parents aren't loaded struggling a) to get in and b) not to be encumbered with debt for twenty five years.
Punish the poor and the middle class when they never benefitted from the good years, but, oh yeah, make them pay in the bad years.
I believe that the bankers etc. organised the terrible chaos we're in. How else were they to stop paying savers the rates the savers were owed?
Protest on, my young friends.
"They (the youngsters), like many others from across the country, had just spent the day protesting or lobbying or saying a speech, all in the hope the government would listen."
They don't listen, darlings. They only listen when you agree with them, when you're one of them. They aren't there for you, my children. We, home educators, could tell you how deaf they can be, how frustrated you all would be.
Protest on, even though you think you may have lost. You will carry the day.
Life is stirring in all of us. The knowledge of fairness is raising its head. The sense of something wrong is dawning.
"There were shouts of 'I can't breathe' and calls for medics for those with bleeding heads who had been hit by baton-wielding police. Ian Dillets, a student from SOAS said:
"Everyone is cold and hungry and would like to go home, but we're not allowed to go home. There are a lot of people now standing around saying if they're not going to let us out we might as well go and get angry.""
Are our children to be treated like criminals? Who are the police protecting? The rights of the state to do whatever it damn well pleases. We are more than the state. We are greater than any Parliament.
Times are indeed a'changin'.
"Tim Mortimer, Leeds University Union Activities Officer, said he had great trouble seeing Simon Burns, his local MP for Chemsford yesterday:
"I rang and emailed him several times but he managed to wrangle his way out of it saying as he was a minister he didn't have time to meet with his constituent. It's a bit upsetting. MPs are condemning any kind of violent action but were not allowing people legitimate means to get their point across.""
Maybe he doesn't represent you, Tim. Who does he represent then? Who are these people? What is this system? These are questions that Tim might be asking himself tonight. The questions we all should be asking. Don't we deserve better than this? Don't our children deserve better than this?
Quotes from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leeds/2010/dec/10/student-tuition-fees-protests-leeds-view
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Music to my ears
Last week, I was in the same room where E was playing some new piano music. She struggled with it.
After thirty minutes, she came away from the piano and eventually, after a chat, she went off to do something else.
Yesterday, E sat at the piano and played the new music. Beautifully. Perfectly. Effortlessly. I was quite transfixed.
After her practice she said that she had found that, most times when she struggled to understand a topic or produce work, if she left and went back to it, she could do it. It was as if her subconscious had been beavering away on the topic.
I have a theory too that, now and then, you just aren't ready - mature enough - to do something. It just isn't the right time. I know that happened with me and Maths. I couldn't do it - always had trouble and grief. Following bucket loads of frustration, I left it alone. But, a few years later, I could solve the Maths problems and wondered what had been wrong before.
Well, there was nothing wrong. I just didn't hit the right time. I was not yet mature enough to cope with the questions.
Recently, E passed her Grade 5 Theory test with a mark of 83% and received a merit. She has her new shiny certificate. E is now determined to bring her piano playing up to the same level, and she will because she wants to.
I am, once again, so proud.
After thirty minutes, she came away from the piano and eventually, after a chat, she went off to do something else.
Yesterday, E sat at the piano and played the new music. Beautifully. Perfectly. Effortlessly. I was quite transfixed.
After her practice she said that she had found that, most times when she struggled to understand a topic or produce work, if she left and went back to it, she could do it. It was as if her subconscious had been beavering away on the topic.
I have a theory too that, now and then, you just aren't ready - mature enough - to do something. It just isn't the right time. I know that happened with me and Maths. I couldn't do it - always had trouble and grief. Following bucket loads of frustration, I left it alone. But, a few years later, I could solve the Maths problems and wondered what had been wrong before.
Well, there was nothing wrong. I just didn't hit the right time. I was not yet mature enough to cope with the questions.
Recently, E passed her Grade 5 Theory test with a mark of 83% and received a merit. She has her new shiny certificate. E is now determined to bring her piano playing up to the same level, and she will because she wants to.
I am, once again, so proud.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Police abuse children
Yes, I meant to say that because I'm angry. Are police allowed to abuse children? Only if those children are protesting which - I really thought, I really did think - that any citizens of this damned country could do. March peacefully. Carry banners. Protest. Disagree. You know that kind of thing.
But I should have remembered the miners. I should have recalled that square in China where the tanks rolled in. We thought we had the right to say no to something that affected us.
Well, we were sadly mistaken, weren't we?
"It's the coldest day of the year, and I've just spent seven hours being kettled in Westminster. That sounds jolly, doesn't it? It sounds a bit like I went and had a lovely cup of tea with the Queen, rather than being trapped into a freezing pen of frightened teenagers and watching baton-wielding police kidney-punching children, six months into a government that ran an election campaign on a platform of fairness. So before we go any further, let's remind ourselves precisely what kettling is, and what it's for."
That is from here:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/11/children-police-kettle-protest
My children weren't there, but they might have been because they think that you can protest, you can carry banners here and that the police just stay on the sidelines making sure that everything is OK.
They'll know different when they read Laurie Penny's feature.
They'll know that abuse only happens when social workers say that your parents are abusing you. They'll know it's one big CON that government cares for you. Any government. They care only for corporations. The little guy can go get kettled.
I hate this country. I've never said that to you, my dearly once-loved, beautiful country. I hate you.
But I should have remembered the miners. I should have recalled that square in China where the tanks rolled in. We thought we had the right to say no to something that affected us.
Well, we were sadly mistaken, weren't we?
"It's the coldest day of the year, and I've just spent seven hours being kettled in Westminster. That sounds jolly, doesn't it? It sounds a bit like I went and had a lovely cup of tea with the Queen, rather than being trapped into a freezing pen of frightened teenagers and watching baton-wielding police kidney-punching children, six months into a government that ran an election campaign on a platform of fairness. So before we go any further, let's remind ourselves precisely what kettling is, and what it's for."
That is from here:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/11/children-police-kettle-protest
My children weren't there, but they might have been because they think that you can protest, you can carry banners here and that the police just stay on the sidelines making sure that everything is OK.
They'll know different when they read Laurie Penny's feature.
They'll know that abuse only happens when social workers say that your parents are abusing you. They'll know it's one big CON that government cares for you. Any government. They care only for corporations. The little guy can go get kettled.
I hate this country. I've never said that to you, my dearly once-loved, beautiful country. I hate you.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
We went yesterday. The buses had changed their routes so we were forced to trek up and down in the freezing cold and driving rain to arrive at the cinema.
The cinema was graced by eight people other than ourselves, not one a giggling adolescent phoning her boyfriend or chatting behind her hand to her friend. We had the latter pleasure during the last Harry Potter film.
I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and had a short snicker at the line: "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide".
"Introducing 'educational reform' and a programme of 'evaluation' -- the motto being "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide" -- he {Voldemort) uses murder and oppression to set about creating the perfect pure blood society."
http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/113/1133326p1.html
I think Joanne Rowling has captured the social engineering/education/ media entrainment to the Labour message perfectly with her Potter series, whether or not she affects to support the Labour government with her gifts of money. I recall sitting watching the situation at Hogwarts, under the tender unmercies of kitten-loving, bow-wearing gargoyle Dolores Umbridge in her triumphant and terrible march through the school and seeing almost the same situation that we, home educators, were facing in the UK.
I was uncomfortable, even as I chuckled because it was too close. Really too close for comfort.
"The Muggle-Born Registration Commission was set up by the Ministry of Magic following Lord Voldemort's takeover on 1 August 1997. The public goal of the Commission was to force all Muggle-born wizards and witches to register with the Ministry, then undergo interrogation as to how they "stole" their magical power from "real" wizards and witches. The true purpose of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission was to imprison and degrade Muggle-borns. Dolores Umbridge was the head of the commission. "
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Muggle-Born_Registration_Commission
The scene where Filch was standing on a long ladder hanging up the new edicts banning this, that or the other will stay with me forever. The apparently pleasant but deeply vile character, Umbridge, reminded me of certain people who wished to deprive others - home educators, for example - of liberties they were accustomed to. She was convinced of her own rightness, and never swerved from what she saw as her duty to repress and punish.
I am a Harry Potter fan. I see that the series is rich with allusions to the recent plight of home educators. I know that much of the Harry Potter series is clever, entertaining and funny; however, it will always make me shiver just a little.
The cinema was graced by eight people other than ourselves, not one a giggling adolescent phoning her boyfriend or chatting behind her hand to her friend. We had the latter pleasure during the last Harry Potter film.
I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and had a short snicker at the line: "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide".
"Introducing 'educational reform' and a programme of 'evaluation' -- the motto being "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide" -- he {Voldemort) uses murder and oppression to set about creating the perfect pure blood society."
http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/113/1133326p1.html
I think Joanne Rowling has captured the social engineering/education/ media entrainment to the Labour message perfectly with her Potter series, whether or not she affects to support the Labour government with her gifts of money. I recall sitting watching the situation at Hogwarts, under the tender unmercies of kitten-loving, bow-wearing gargoyle Dolores Umbridge in her triumphant and terrible march through the school and seeing almost the same situation that we, home educators, were facing in the UK.
I was uncomfortable, even as I chuckled because it was too close. Really too close for comfort.
"The Muggle-Born Registration Commission was set up by the Ministry of Magic following Lord Voldemort's takeover on 1 August 1997. The public goal of the Commission was to force all Muggle-born wizards and witches to register with the Ministry, then undergo interrogation as to how they "stole" their magical power from "real" wizards and witches. The true purpose of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission was to imprison and degrade Muggle-borns. Dolores Umbridge was the head of the commission. "
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Muggle-Born_Registration_Commission
The scene where Filch was standing on a long ladder hanging up the new edicts banning this, that or the other will stay with me forever. The apparently pleasant but deeply vile character, Umbridge, reminded me of certain people who wished to deprive others - home educators, for example - of liberties they were accustomed to. She was convinced of her own rightness, and never swerved from what she saw as her duty to repress and punish.
I am a Harry Potter fan. I see that the series is rich with allusions to the recent plight of home educators. I know that much of the Harry Potter series is clever, entertaining and funny; however, it will always make me shiver just a little.
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