This from AHEd.
Send Jim Knight a postcard (and anyone else you want too!) It would be
great if he got a sackful for valentines day, but don't worry if
you're a bit later, let's just get him to sit up and think about what
he's saying!
Links to the postcards and posters at the bottom of the email.
Jim Knight MP
House of Commons
Westminster
London
SW1A 0AA
or at his constituency address
42 Southview Road
Weymouth
Dorset
DT4 0JD
or email:
jimknightmp@...
If you want to write to your mp or local paper to tell them what
you're doing and why here's a sample letter you may or may not wish to
use.
Dear .......
I am writing to you in support of the "I'm an Anomaly" campaign by
Action for Home Education (AHEd.org.uk) which aims to prevent the DfES
introducing legislation that would damage our children. I enclose a
copy of the postcard that home educating families have sent to Mr Jim
Knight for Valentine's Day.
DfES continues to respond to serious questions about the validity of
the proposed consultation on the statutory framework regarding home
education with a stock reply in which we are told we are an "anomaly"
"at odds with the Every Child Matters agenda". We do not find this
acceptable, and would very much appreciate your help in challenging
DfES about their woeful treatment of our minority group.
Home Educators are fed up with being patronised when we ask serious
questions, we are sick up of being told we are not stakeholders in
those consultations which could impact heavily upon us and
potentially damage our children, and furthermore we are outraged by
the DfES using the Every Child Matters agenda to try to turn Home
Education into another version of the spectacularly failing, one size
fits all system that is state controlled education.
"As James Bartholomew writes in "The Welfare State We're In"
"The troubles that arise when the government decides what should be
taught (and how) keep on mounting up. The government makes mistakes.
There is a kind of totalitarianism about it which is repellent in
itself. Education and intellectual activity should be open and involve
debate and different ideas. Let a thousand flowers bloom. Don't let us
have a government deciding what is good education and what is bad."
Home Education maybe an "anomaly" in the eyes of the DfES, and indeed
we agree it is incongruent but it would be a very shortsighted
government indeed that chose to bring it "into line" with state and
independent schools and we will vehemently resist any such action.
Besides being a perfectly suitable education choice, proven to be
efficacious on many levels, sometimes Home Education is the only
safety valve families have available to them when school harms or
fails their children.
There are already perfectly adequate laws in place which can be used
if it appears that a child is not being educated according to their
age, ability aptitude and special needs, and the government should be
spending their time ensuring that LAs act within these laws, instead
of attempting to change those laws to accommodate ultra vires practice
and prejudiced ambitions.
Yours