A modern day fairy tale, very thought provoking.

[Runnerbean]

here

no, its not thought provoking - its argument inspiring thats for sure.

its writen in a wasy which suggests that those parents who send their chilren to school - do so knowing that these schools are ferral rabbid environments and the on ly mention of the parents of these ferral and rabbid children are those that abuse the teachers.

whilst your children skip merrily amongst woods and trees taking in a 'natural' education as opposed to the farmed education that you describe.

and its bollocks and quite frankly fucking offensive

Rather boring instead of though-provoking.

I find it more than a little patronising too.

And incidentally I have no problem with home-edding and would if for a moment I felt dd was being let down by the "farmer". Probably wouldn't spend our home-edding time making plasticine figurines of the key characters of the argument though

I think it's only something that Home-edders will "get".

Hiya Runnerbean!!!

Sorry - I didn't really cotton on to it being in home-ed topic rather than education generally.

Surely though if it's only something that people already home-edding will 'get', it isn't really that thought-provoking?

Just put my hackles up, so sorry if I was rude.

Hi Kaytee,

Silly me and there's me thinking it was a HOME-ED thread!
I should have put a warning up NOT to read if you are NOT a he'r, or perhaps I should just stick to my yahoo forums.

I understand that those not HEing would find it offensive. It is a response by the HE community to the offensive and patronising assumptions about their attempts to HEd their own children currently being made by the wonderful Baroness and the Badman. Neither of whom do not HE, do not know anything about HE, and have no intention of HE.

Nah Runnerbean,
stay here, it's fun

btw is the group on this Friday?

and good morning to you 2kidz

Morning Kayteee! Hoildays nearly finished but not for us! I'd like to know if friday's happening as well?

yes, i agree. Should you not want a different opinion you should have made that clear.

I understand perfectly what this is with regards to. As he piece began i thought it was going to be a rather funny mockery of something being done by the government on a sector it clearly has very little knowledge about - and doing this under the guise of protecting children from child abuse as the best excuse.

now, i do think HE needs some form of regulation (ofcourse)but i was calpping my hands with glee at the parody...until the comparisons with other schools

the baroness cries

teachers are being attacked
parents being abusive

and he kids - well they are so lucky they get to breath 'fresh air'

clever images - 'fresh air' as opposed to a factory industrialised system

natural to describe HE

its all very 'we're so much better than those (abusive shit parents) who send their kids to state schools'

Custardo,
sorry you feel offended by it but it's really a reaction, imo, from some HEers who are sick and tired of being told how to bring up their own children. You'd understand if you felt that you were being told how to run your life too I think.

I'm amazed at how many people feel that it's their duty to suggest that my education choices are "wrong" but it happens quite a bit. Now the government are trying to throw their weight around and the so-called "panel of experts" (who have been given the power to decide how my family will live in the future) do not know the first thing about HE!!

But that article tells me MY education choices are wrong too!

Not a terrible clever article really. All the pro-HE arguments are simply based on why school-education is bad, not really on why HE is good.

It makes the same mistake ironically that Badman makes - that the majority (all HE-ers)need protecting because of the actions of a minority (those that allegedly HE to cover up abuse of some description). The article says that becasue of the minority (crap schools, teachers and parents) then the majority (i.e. most schools, children and parents) must be awful, wicked and incapable of helping create decent fulfilled members of society.

Oh this is so depressing, why does this always have to be a ruddy bunfight.

School is a great choice for many, HE is a great choice for others. Every single one of us has made the educational choice we believe to be the best.

As long as everyone is made aware of all the options available, why on earth does someone making a different choice indicate they think they are better than anyone else?

The only thing that winds me up is when people who clearly don't know the first thing about something try and impose their views on my life and curtail my rights.

That applies to people who have chosen school telling HE parents exactly why they have got it wrong, but it also applies to HE parents setting everything up into this mythic battle against a system they dislike.

It's all so flaming unneccesary. I HE because I want to, because my children enjoy it and thrive in it.

We didn't choose this because we hate school, we made a positive choice that had nothing at all to do with school.

I appreciate some families have gone through the mill to come out of the school system, but I really don't think it helps anyone to set HE up as the anti-school thing.

It's education - at home, at school, in life in general. It's not a competition.

Well, I'm an HEr at the moment, and I don't think that this kind of "school is terrible" attitude is going to win us any friends. Most schools, most teachers, most parents, most pupils will not recognise this description of how terrible and uncaring the system is. Yes there are problems, but that doesn't mean that the experience of school is a terrible one for most people.

The impression which this type of article gives of HErs is not one which I want to be associated with, and I don't think it will help non-HE parents feel any empathy towards our choices. I don't HE because school is terrible, or because my ds was "factory-farmed" while he was there. I HE because it is the right option for him at this point. I want parents to have the freedom to have that choice, and responded to the consultation explaining why additional powers were not necessary. But if you want non-HE parents to think we have a valid point, then alienating them by rubbishing a system which they have chosen to support is not the way to go about it.

We HE. I don't feel a need to justify it.
I think the problem is the age old one of one bad apple ruining the barrel- one bad news story, one poor school, one bad HE experience shared with the nation, and everyone is labelled as a bad school or all HErs are labelled as bad. School is fine where it is fine and HE is fine where it is fine. Education is key and parents should be aware of their options without it being a case of choose HE because school is bad or choose school because HE is bad.