Was it a good thing to say this? Or did I just sound a bit chippy?

[bran]

I went to a presentation at my ds's school for parents of children moving from pre-school into reception. One of the first slides shown had the comment "From the age of 5 children are legally obliged to attend school" (I may be paraphrasing a bit, it may have said parents are legally obliged to send children to school). I pointed out that they had to be educated from the age of 5.

Most of the parents there were (like me) not British and it's possible that they didn't know that there is no legal requirement to send a child to school. Equally I'm pretty sure that most of them (again like me) probably wouldn't want to home ed.

Did I do good, or was I just a bit rude and picky?

No, I think what you said was OK. They made a statement that was false, and you corrected them.

They should have said that children are legally obliged to be schooled ... in whatever environment is the most appropriate.

But I guess a school isn't ever going to say that, are they!

I think thats fine, you were only pointing out a fact which can be very important to others who might not be in the know.

Oh good. The woman giving the presentation did say "Yes, that's right", but her tone of voice suggested that it was a trivial and annoyingly pedantic thing to have said. She may just be a brusque type of person though, or have been nervous presenting.

You are quite right to say it, it seems very sloppy to make such a basic mistake at the start of a talk.

Yup I think you did the right thing - she was talking about the law, after all, it's got to be correct!

Who was the woman giving the presentation?

I really don't mind how people educate their children, but am passionate that accurate information about home education, is 'out there'.
Then families can make the right choice for their family.

Well done you for pointing this out.

One of my children was doing a Sociology AS level, when the tutor said the same thing.
My child, being formerly home educated, said "No that isn't correct".
the teacher insisted it was.
My dc said, "No actually -Section 7 of the 1996 Education Act states;
The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable ?
(a) to his age, ability and aptitude, and
(b) to any special educational needs he may have,
either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.?

Tutor agreed then this was so, but said it is very difficult and you had to be inspected, show work up to a certain standard etc etc.
My dc, put her right on that too-very politely apparently.

Big discussion followed, apparently amongst the other young people, about this big lie that they all believed, that you have to go to school.

I agree - people tend to casually talk about 'school-age' children and the school-starting/school-leaving age and I think the assumption that school is the only legal option is very ingrained.

Like you, Julienoshoes, I have no particular feelings about how people should educate their children (I have one school-educated and one home-educated child) but I get annoyed when people are given misinformation.

So it was good that you spoke up, bran.

My nephew (16) visited at the weekend, and we were talking about the fact that we are considering HE for our nearly 4 year old. He is taking sociology A level and apparently they have recently been "doing" HE ! He said that all the students in the class were amazed that it was an option, they had always assumed they had to go to school. (My nephew thinks HE sounds good!)

Yes, I think you were right bran.

You were right to point it out BRANHopeit wasn't a teacher getting snippy about it...dosen't bode well for students if they something correct[ie disagreeing/pointing out the facts]

It wasn't a teacher doing the presentation, it was an admin type person (I'm not sure what her job title is).

I do worry a bit about when to nit-pick and when to just leave things alone. I was that annoying child who interrupts adult conversation to say "actually, that's not right . . .". DH spent years telling me that often people are happy with their misconceptions and don't always need to be corrected before I saw his point of view.

I had a bit of a flashback to school days when the presenter did that "I'm restraining myself because I'm a professional, but you're quite annoying" tone of voice. She should probably get used to it though as the school has recently relocated from a crypt under a church to an office area with lots of financial institutions and is growing rapidly, so I imagine that plenty of the parents will be nit-picking, stickler for detail types.