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
Friday, 10 December 2010
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.
Monday, 22 November 2010
Freedom
I like the way that I don't usually have to plan anything.
Sometimes, of course, I do. Outings, dental visits, walks, talks, dish-washing, when to pop the heating on... Those kinds of things. And this year I'm thinking about Christmas shopping in two doses because, although they are sisters, my daughters are different and enjoy different things.
But, mostly, I have freedom to decide what it is I wish to spend my time on. My time is my own. It is a commodity owned by me. Not so in schools where your time is micro-managed down to seconds and you have to do all kinds of things that you can't be bothered with, find irritating or just plain hate. But no-one's giving you the option to refuse or offer palatable alternatives.
E. is just finishing her piano practice and is off to study some Japanese, and then, she says, she'll wash her hair. She has the freedom on the whole NOT to be at someone else's beck and call; not to have to do things she finds annoying or boring or that eat up her time to do other things that she finds interesting and enlightening or fun.
She is free to determine her own schedule. Her own life.
What a tremendous gift for Christmas. Or any time at all.
Home educating is a gift I say thanks for all year round.
Sometimes, of course, I do. Outings, dental visits, walks, talks, dish-washing, when to pop the heating on... Those kinds of things. And this year I'm thinking about Christmas shopping in two doses because, although they are sisters, my daughters are different and enjoy different things.
But, mostly, I have freedom to decide what it is I wish to spend my time on. My time is my own. It is a commodity owned by me. Not so in schools where your time is micro-managed down to seconds and you have to do all kinds of things that you can't be bothered with, find irritating or just plain hate. But no-one's giving you the option to refuse or offer palatable alternatives.
E. is just finishing her piano practice and is off to study some Japanese, and then, she says, she'll wash her hair. She has the freedom on the whole NOT to be at someone else's beck and call; not to have to do things she finds annoying or boring or that eat up her time to do other things that she finds interesting and enlightening or fun.
She is free to determine her own schedule. Her own life.
What a tremendous gift for Christmas. Or any time at all.
Home educating is a gift I say thanks for all year round.
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Nothing to fear, nothing to hide
As you know, if you have followed my blog posts, an ex-friend tried to tell me that 'If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.'
It's what is called a false dichotomy. Either you have something to hide and therefore you fear discovery or it's OK because you aren't doing anything that anyone could possibly disapprove of and you don't care who knows what.
Of course, there's another possibility and that is that you just want your doings, whatever they are, to be private.
I'm quite a private person. I don't like to have people watch me eat, laugh or frown. Sorry, that's just the way I am. Private, shy and quiet. At least, that's the old me. The old me is being constantly upgraded and superceded.
(That is the real me, not the assumed me for public consumption who will leap upon people who threaten my children's freedom and 'engage' them if necessary. The people, not my children. My youngsters are usually engaged, thanks).
So nothing to fear, nothing to hide (deliberate reversal). We have lots to fear. The ceaseless trampling of freedom in the name of other stuff like safeguarding. The unholy rush to protect civil servants' jobs by 'making work' by vilifying parents and telling parents that they suck and they must do better. They can attend courses which makes everything all right then. The make-work principle reaches up into all areas in politics, I believe, because I don't think politicians really know what they are supposed to do.
Just a thought: Do we even need them? Politicians. Would we miss them if they weren't there?
Wouldn't it be nice to try a year without Whitehall? No cuts, no policy writers, no Hansard.
Would we want it all back?
If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear.
Yeah, right.
It's what is called a false dichotomy. Either you have something to hide and therefore you fear discovery or it's OK because you aren't doing anything that anyone could possibly disapprove of and you don't care who knows what.
Of course, there's another possibility and that is that you just want your doings, whatever they are, to be private.
I'm quite a private person. I don't like to have people watch me eat, laugh or frown. Sorry, that's just the way I am. Private, shy and quiet. At least, that's the old me. The old me is being constantly upgraded and superceded.
(That is the real me, not the assumed me for public consumption who will leap upon people who threaten my children's freedom and 'engage' them if necessary. The people, not my children. My youngsters are usually engaged, thanks).
So nothing to fear, nothing to hide (deliberate reversal). We have lots to fear. The ceaseless trampling of freedom in the name of other stuff like safeguarding. The unholy rush to protect civil servants' jobs by 'making work' by vilifying parents and telling parents that they suck and they must do better. They can attend courses which makes everything all right then. The make-work principle reaches up into all areas in politics, I believe, because I don't think politicians really know what they are supposed to do.
Just a thought: Do we even need them? Politicians. Would we miss them if they weren't there?
Wouldn't it be nice to try a year without Whitehall? No cuts, no policy writers, no Hansard.
Would we want it all back?
If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear.
Yeah, right.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Some stray thoughts after reading Kelly's blog post
Kelly's blog, in case you haven't discovered it before, is here:
http://kellygreenandgold.wordpress.com/
She is talking about notification which is a scary concept for me, and I wondered why. Then I thought if I am a sovereign being why do I have to notify anyone when I make a move?
It's simple. If I and I alone am in control of my child's education, why do I have to allow a school to let the local authority know that I am removing my child from their register?
Doesn't letting the LA know imply that the LA is in charge of my child's education?
Yet the law makes clear that it is me who will be sued if my child believes she has not been offered an adequate education for her needs. So what has the LA to do with my child's education?
If we visit a doctor, that doctor may prescribe and advise, but that doctor is not in charge of my child's health. I am. I can choose to procure the prescription for my child and listen to his advice, then again I could leave that doctor's list to find someone else. Or I can opt to employ a homeopath to help with a health problem. I could do many different things to ensure that my child becomes and stays healthy.
That an LA can look into the provision of education, and has the power to deny me the right to home educate seems, to me, to make a mockery of the fact that I am controller of my child's education.
Completely contradictory, isn't it?
http://kellygreenandgold.wordpress.com/
She is talking about notification which is a scary concept for me, and I wondered why. Then I thought if I am a sovereign being why do I have to notify anyone when I make a move?
It's simple. If I and I alone am in control of my child's education, why do I have to allow a school to let the local authority know that I am removing my child from their register?
Doesn't letting the LA know imply that the LA is in charge of my child's education?
Yet the law makes clear that it is me who will be sued if my child believes she has not been offered an adequate education for her needs. So what has the LA to do with my child's education?
If we visit a doctor, that doctor may prescribe and advise, but that doctor is not in charge of my child's health. I am. I can choose to procure the prescription for my child and listen to his advice, then again I could leave that doctor's list to find someone else. Or I can opt to employ a homeopath to help with a health problem. I could do many different things to ensure that my child becomes and stays healthy.
That an LA can look into the provision of education, and has the power to deny me the right to home educate seems, to me, to make a mockery of the fact that I am controller of my child's education.
Completely contradictory, isn't it?
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