First they came for the home educated, then they came for the schooled children....

Home educators have been (and still are) under attack by the government in their attempts to brainwash all children into becoming standardised adults according to the design of ministers and their advisors.

Now the attack is being widened to include schooled children, having discovered that a national curriculum and standardised lessons don't actually work they are instead proposing to bully parents into doing their dirty work for them.

Under new plans, schools will be given more power to deal with 'problem' pupils by applying to the courts for parenting orders backed up with fines up to £1,000 if this fails to curb the problem behaviour.

What a cheek! They force the children into school, create an environment which leads to the social problems they supposedly despise and then punish the parents for failing to control their children in school - a place where the parents are not supervising the children and the whole regime is run by the school staff!

GREAT - THEY FAIL YOUR CHILD AND YOU GET PUNISHED!

Write to your MP and express how you feel about this, I'm sure it won't be the last brilliant idea to come from Ed Balls and co - What next?

READ more at:-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5673632/Parents-of-unruly-children-face-1000-fines.html

OFSTED worried about sexualised children

OFSTED are worried at increasing numbers of primary school pupils showing sexualised behaviour.

What a surprise, I don't think! The government has been foisting ever increasing amounts of sex education on children, they recently announced that sex education should be compulsory for all children from the age of 5.

Can't these people understand? Are they so isolated from reality in their ivory towers that they don't realise that if you push sex at children then you will arouse curiousity and of course the children will want to experiment.

Children will mature and develop awareness about sex at different ages and over a long period of time. Like most things, sex education is best driven by the child and not pushed at them by teachers following a standard curriculum regardless of the child's maturity or preparedness for the lessons being pushed at them.

The state should stay out of the minutia of children's education and let teachers get on with what they've been trained to do - teach children according to the skills they have been given as teaxchers and according to their knowledge of what their pupils are ready to learn instead of treating education like a factory line which can be standardised and automated according to some grand plan.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jun/23/sexualised-pupils-primary-schools-ofsted
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article4795056.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/27/sex-education-contraception-schools

Yet another child dies through the experts failure to act!

Whilst the government is seeking to include ever more families in 'tick the box' surveillance and monitoring databases, seeking intrusive monitoring and control over innocent families, they are ignoring the fact that they cannot adequately deal with the known cases of children being abused!

Poor Demi Leigh was known to child protection agencies, neighbours had phoned to express concern about her, her mother was a known drug addict. What did the authorities do? - they decided that the case could be closed, they didn't do their job! The result - Demi died at the hands of her babysitter.

We can never be sure that following the right procedures would have saved Demi but we do know that she wasn't even given that chance, her mother should have been supported and the authorities should have been involved in this little girl's life to ensure that she was being properly cared for.

We now get all the usual "lessons will be learned" rubbish.

We get told after every death of a child that "lessons will be learned", they never are though are they? There will be a bit of a shake up, new procedures will be written and the next child will be failed just as tragically as all the others.

Yet the authorities want to trawl for ever greater numbers of children to check up on, adding to the workload of social workers who cannot cope with the caseload they already have, this will simply lead to more children being failed, more tragic deaths as innocent families are bullied and harrassed to prove that they are not harming their children......

First they come for the home educators,
Then they came for ...... Who's next?.......

The home education review has nothing to do with home education but it has everything to do with drawing innocent families into the child protection system where they will be harmed by officials who SHOULD be protecting children like Demi.

http://www.renegadeparent.net/post/Badman-and-Balls-have-stitched-us-up.aspx
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8120560.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8120525.stm

Well the Tories seem to be going in the right direction...

I'm not a lover of political parties, I would prefer to see parliament comprised of wholly independent MPs who truly have the interests of their constituants and the country at heart.

Having said that, we have a party political system in this country, I don't hold any particular allegiance but must admit that I'm currently hearing good things from the Tories.

I've previously said that the Tories have made some promising noises but nothing concrete, I now read the transcript of a speech by David Cameron where he makes some bold statements:-

• The next Conservative government will revoke the unjustified and unreasonable powers that let people enter your home without your permission.
• We will change the law that allows councils to snoop on people for trivial matters.
• We will review the use of the Terrorism Act's Section 44, and the stop and search powers contained within it.
• We will change the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to strengthen the right to trial by jury.
• And we will review the operation of the Extradition Act - and the US/UK extradition treaty - to make sure it is even-handed and works both ways.
  
• ... the next Conservative Government will scrap the Contact Point database of children's details.
• We will scrap the ID Card scheme.
• And we will remove innocent people's records from the DNA database.
• ... because there is no complete list that can tell us exactly what data the government collects, we will create a new 'right to data' so that further datasets can be requested by the public.

All good stuff, I'm sure he can go further if pushed.......

Most of all I want to see all this, and more, written down in the election manifesto and actually becoming reality if they win the next election.

It's been a long time coming, maybe the politicians themselves are starting to realise that they've gone too far and the people will not wear it any longer.

Raed the speech at:-
http://www.conservatives.com/News/Speeches/2009/06/David_Cameron_Giving_power_back_to_the_people.aspx

What has the government got to hide?

I have just read an excellent article by Ian Dunt at www.politics.co.uk.

He highlights how the politicians have been taking away more and more of our liberties and privacy whilst working very hard to keep their activities secret.

He finishes with some good advice - to get the Tories to pin their colours to the mast and specify what they will do if/when they get into power next year, so far they have made some encouraging noises and general promises but nothing concrete. I don't think we can trust any party to have our best interests at heart over their own so we need concrete committments, we are not prepared to trust vague promises that can be forgotten all too easily.

http://www.politics.co.uk/interviews/legal-and-constitutional/comment-what-has-the-government-got-to-hide--$1304954.htm

Virtual courts and chain gangs......

Jack Straw recently announced a pilot scheme for 'virtual courts'. The idea being that instead of the accused attending a proper magistrates court, the whole thing could be dealt with in extra quick time via video links, I suppose the next logical step is to dispense with the hearing altogether and automatically find the defendant guilty without all this inconvenient legal process we hear about.

Alongside this, the use of chaingangs... sorry that should be "intensive Community Payback" will be extended to even more unemployed offenders across England and Wales where they will have to carry out demanding work for at least 18 hours a week. This will ensure a significant loss of liberty and free time for more offenders, who must now wear branded orange jackets so the public can see that justice is being done.

So I suppose they think that wearing a 'branded orange jacket' will embarrass offenders into not committing crime in the future ..... in my experience this will be seen as a badge of honour amongst the gangs, afraid Jack Straw has no concept of how to deal with people, has he actually ever met any ordinary folk or is his world confined to the lofty atmosphere of Westminster?

READ MORE at:-
http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease120509a.htm

Now I'm sure I'm seeing things

Been mootching around the net a bit today and came across a SOTT article linking to a CNN broadcast floating around youtube.

I'm sat here shaking my head and finding it hard to believe that people in Toledo, Ohio have been issued with parking tickets for parking their car on their own driveway!

A local law makes it illegal to park a vehicle on unpaved surfaces, so those people with gravel drives were automatically breaking the law even when they were on their own property!!

We need to reign in our politicians NOW before it is too late and we find ourselves subject to similarly obscene regulations!

WATCH AT:-
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/187021-Parking-In-Your-Own-Driveway-Illegal-in-America-2009

How long before they do the same over here?

Applicants for jobs with the city authorities of Bozeman, Montana are having to provide details of any websites, online groups, blogs & social networking sites that they participate in together with all their usernames and passwords so that the city can carry out 'background checks' on them!

Armed with this information the authorities would not only be able to access a person's entire online life but also the personal information of facebook friends etc.

Obviously they don't consider any privacy to be permissable at all, which kind of contradicts the Montana Constitution, Article 2, Section 10 of which, reads "the right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest."

Yet more hypocracy from the politicians?

How long before we see this happening over here?

READ MORE at:-
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/187147-City-in-Montana-requires-job-applicants-to-hand-over-all-social-network-logins-and-passwords-for-background-checks

Adoption targets - Another tick in the box?

It looks like social workers in London are still at it, having failed dismally to protect baby Peter from abuse they have now gone over the top and taken a pair of twins away from their parents before they even left hospital.

Reading the article, it sounds like this couple didn't have much of a clue about looking after little babies but then how many other new parents find themselves in the same position, with this tiny bundle totally dependant on them but not quite sure how best to go about it? Parents like these need support and advice, the kind of thing that luckier parents would have had from their parents and grandparents.

Instead, social workers have waded in, removed the children, and placed them with foster parents, and following one of the infamous secret family court hearings may now be put up for adoption.

One of the accusations made against the mother - she seems to have an "anger problem"! BLOODY RIGHT she does! If somebody tried to take my children away I'm sure I'd have a major "anger problem".

I suppose these babies will bring the council a couple of steps closer to meeting their adoption targets and they'll get a nice fat bonus from the government, pity about the family but think about the managers performance related pay - that's all that matters, doesn't it?

About time we had a big change in the way this country is run!!!!

What we need to happen, is for these children, and others like them, to sue the authorities for the damage done to them and the loss of their natural families. Afraid that is the only language the people in power understand - hit them in the pocket using the courts they so love.

Read more at:-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1194332/They-took-away-twins-Id-joked-birth-spoilt-body.html

Education - The bigger picture

Home educators are quite rightly up in arms over the recent review carried out by Graham Badman and used by Ed Balls to justify imposition of draconian measures for monitoring and control over how parents will be permitted to educate their children.

However, I've had a nagging feeling that this is part of a divide and conquer strategy that seeks to ensure that ALL children are indoctrinated according to the policies of the state regardless of the culture and beliefs of the family.

I now read about the 'apprenticeships, skills, children and learning bill' which gives 153 instances of new powers to Ed Balls and John Denham as the two secretaries of state in the bill's sponsoring departments.

Whilst politicians are paying lipservice to voters by promising devolution of power from the centre to the people, this bill gives central government more control than ever before over what and how our children are allowed to learn.

The bill gives the secretary of state the right to define, for example:-

the content of certificates for apprenticeships

to stipulate which courses, other than maths, English and ICT, students aged 16 to 19 should be entitled to study

to direct a local authority to "provide information about accountable resources held, received or expended" by its schools

to specify the maximum amount of compensation that an employee is entitled to should his or her employer be found by an employment tribunal to have illegally denied him or her the right to training

to stipulate, for qualifications for young people aged 19 or over, the minimum level of attainment in literacy and numeracy needed "to operate effectively in day-to-day life".

the power to set "minimum requirements" for qualifications including, potentially, the ability to specify which textbooks pupils study.

It gives 22 powers to the secretary of state in relation to a new quango, the Young People's Learning Agency for England, including the right to direct its actions, and 32 similar ones relating to the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, which is to replace the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Ofqual supervision

Even Ofqual, which is being set up to be independent of ministers and will report to parliament, will have to be aware of 15 powers given to Balls and his successors in relation to its work. These include the ability of the secretary of state "to direct areas of government policy to which Ofqual must have regard in performing its functions" and to appoint the first chief executive.

Ed Balls will be able to direct local authorities to issue "warning notices" if he believes standards are unacceptably low, to replace governing bodies and even to intervene when local authorities are deemed unlikely to be effective in improving schools "which may in the future be low-performing" (not necessarily low performaing now but may do so in the future!).

Never before have politicians had so much power, not only to deal with current issues but increasingly to determine that there may be a FUTURE problem and wade in to deal with it as they see fit. Sounds increasingly like Orwells concept of 'mind crime' with big brother overseeing everything we do, say or even think!

We have to oppose these efforts to micro manage our lives and take away our freedom to live our lives or even to think 'wrong thoughts'.


READ MORE at:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jun/02/education-bill-ed-balls
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/feb/25/schools.edballs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/mortarboard/2009/mar/13/lords-balls-red-tape

Health and Safety Madness

A poll by Teacher's TV has revealed some of the insane rules imposed in schools in the interest on "Health & Safety".

One of the craziest is one school requiring its pupils to wear safety goggles before handling Blue Tack, others include:-

Teachers barred from sending troublesome pupils to standin the corridor as this is a fire risk.
The three legged race is banned as "too dangerous"
No footballs in the playground
Shaving foam is not allowed to be used in art projects in case pupils drown in it.
Egg boxes cannot be used for art projects in case children catch salmonella.

Is there no common sense left in this country?

Read more at:-

http://www.teachers.tv/node/35404

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1194055/Pupils-wear-goggles-handle-Blu-Tack-health-safety-reaches-ridiculous-new-heights.html

Is this Britain or Stalinist Russia?

If you read this quote:-

"If a family wishes to cremate their loved one in anything other than a shroud, the funeral director should contact bereavement services so this can be discussed to clarify what type of garments the family wish to use."

You might be forgiven for thinking that it applies to some communist dictatorship and is not something you need be concerned by.

In fact, the quote comes from Kirklees council who claim to be concerned about emissions from the cremation of the deceased, thus, if you wish to see your father or son cremated wearing his favourite football strip or your child taking her favourite teddybear on their last journey you are likely to be 'refused permission'.

How dare these jumped up little Hitlers interfere in our most personal and private matters in this way, how much pollution do they really think clothes or a soft toy are going to create especially when compared to thematerials used to make the coffin in the first place. This is gross intrusion to deal with a tiny problem with emissions, how sad that our council employees are taking this opportunity to bully families at their most vulnerable.

Read:-

Ken Frost's comments at http://nannyknowsbest.blogspot.com/2009/06/nanny-bans-clothes.html

The Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1193306/I-wouldnt-seen-dead-Council-forces-relatives-cremate-loved-ones-anti-pollution-eco-shrouds.html

Review proposals breach the Human Rights Act

Bishop Hill, raises an excellent point:-

Since the Human Rights Act states:-

...the State shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.

Is it the intention of the government to breach the Human Rights Act? Since to implement the findings of this review takes away the freedom of parents to provide an autonomous child centred education.

Let me get personal

Time perhaps to get personal and real.....

We home educate, our children went to school for a time BUT THE SCHOOL SYSTEM FAILED THEM!!

Our children were suffering constant major meltdowns all the time they were in school, we tried working with the school and various specialists but got frustrated that nobody would recognise that the system was damaging our children and it was even implied that it was somehow our fault, that we were doing something to prevent them learning in school!

Our children came out of school unable to read, write or understand maths, our youngest had become so harmed that it has taken us 5 years to get over her phobia of reading to others.

Our education has been totally autonomous, our children learn what they want to learn - we do not push them in ANY direction.

Yes there have been times when we have doubted ourselves, we have feared that we maybe should be pushing them - will they grow up to resent our approach?

I can honestly say that those fears are a thing of the past, within a few months of leaving school barely able to read a sentence our eldest was devouring Harry Potter books, he now reads newspaper articles and criticises their misuse of punctuation. He has played in the junior chess world championship, he writes visual basic programmes for fun and finds higher level GCSE maths papers "easy" - if he was still in school he would have another 2 years before looking at them. Our youngest is enjoying drama and is currently rehearsing for her 3rd public performance, she has come from being unable to read (and terrified to try) to touch typing with a speed and accuracy that few professional typists could match.

Far from being "hidden away at home" our children are out in the community, I am able to bring them in to work to interact with a wide range of adults, they meet many people when we visit museums or are just out and about living life.

There is NO distinction in our family between 'education' and life, we DO NOT plan our activities in advance. If our children want to find out about something we will help them do that in whatever way seems most appropriate at the time. Their education is full and rich with variety, completely tailored to THEIR 'age, aptitude and ability', which just happens to be exactly our obligation under the law.

If the authorities think that we are going to impose some other system on our children, which I think will restrict them or even be harmful to them, they had better think again! I am completely prepared to go to prison over this issue and so is my other half, how many home educators does this government anticipate locking up?

My message to the government - PUT YOUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER.

Our state schools are failing so many children, it hurts to see so many leaving school with such poor education that they are consigned to menial jobs and the prospect of having to spend yet more of their precious lives seeking the knowledge and learning the skills that should have been nurtured in them during their childhood.

Our children will never EVER attend school unless THEY choose to.

Badman Review of Home Education

The home education review by Graham Badman has been released, it would seem that we have been stitched up again!

Whilst home educators have been nervously awaiting the outcome of the review, it seems that it has been presented to all and sundry within the establishment, garnering support before being launched on the people it will affect most.

The review can be downloaded at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/_download/?id=6080

and Ed Balls response can be downloaded from http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/_download/?id=6081

We have not read the report properly yet but the little we have looked at so far has been very disturbing, essentially following the government trend to deal with people outside the established legal process by shifting the rules so that you become guilty of breaking a law you have no defence against; for example:-

The current position is that the LEA can determine (reasonably or maliciously) that you are not providing a satisfactory education and issue a school attendance order which you have the right to challenge in court. It is then down to the court to decide whether your education provision is satisfactory or not!

The new position (as far as we can see) is that you will have to apply to be registered as a home educator in order for your child not to be registered to a school, if the LEA decide that they don't like your education provision then they will simply revoke your registration as a home educator and your child will be enrolled with a school, if you continue to home educate then your child is truanting and you can be sent to prison! No recourse to the courts, no need to prove you have done anything wrong, they have decided, they have acted, you are now guilty and can be punished!!

Before any changes can be implemented, the government must now carry out a consultation, this can be viewed at :-

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1643&external=no

We need to take action NOW and do everything we can to tell this government that their proposals are outragous and totally unacceptable, many home educators have declared that they will not comply with the new rules even up to the point of being prepared to go to prison if necessary. We believe that the goverment may be opening the floodgates to legal action by home educated children for the harm done to them by the interference of state officials.

Hopefully it will not get that far and the state will recognise the mistakes they are making BEFORE the damage is done.

Suggested action:-

Respond robustly to the consultation.

Write to your MP.

Write to the DCSF.

Talk to people around you.

Contact the media.

If you have a blog, put your feelings online.

A British Constitution?

I've been wondering on and off for some time about the idea of a written constitution similar to that of the US.

There have been times when I've thought that our quirky system of common law seems altogether too haphazard and unpredictable, liable to the whim of senior judges. I've thought that perhaps if our 'rights' were enshrined in a written document then we could always hold any future government to account should they attempt to remove those rights.

Today I've been doing a bit of reading over at the Devil's Kitchen and came across an entry debating that same point. (For those of a tender disposition - he does tend to the odd swear word or several).

I'm now pretty convinced that it would be a tall order to put in place a written constitution that preserved our rights rather than restricted them and perhaps our system of common law is the best we can come up with so far ..... go read and think at http://devilskitchen.me.uk/2009/06/british-constitution.html ....... things are never simple are they?

Welcome to animal farm

What concerns me even more than our MPs ripping us off through their expenses (and goodness knows what other scams), is the way they seem to think that we ordinary people are some sort of subhuman species that need to be managed in much the same way as pets or zoo animals.

We are subject to or threatened with compulsory vaccination, compulsory ID cards, recording and monitoring of our every move financially, on the road or online.......

Now we have a new children's minister - Dawn Primarolo, who is responsible for children's well-being, safety, protection and care; family policy including parenting support; teenage pregnancy strategy; Sure Start, childcare and early education, the Every Child Matters agenda, and extended schools.

Reading her job description I would expect her to be a person who cares about the health welfare and wellbeing of children, putting their needs first...... imagine my surprise to read the article from the Daily Mail where she advocates "Why we should sterilise teenage girls ... temporarily at least". Saying "At what age? Well, doesn't 12 until 17 sound rather sensible?".

Who does she think she is? Better still - Who or what does she think we are? If I were a girl aged between 12 and 17 I would be seriously concerned about the prospect of being forced to take drugs to prevent my getting pregnant. What about the many women who have adverse reactions to the pill? what about our human rights to refuse medical treatment should we so wish? 

HOW DARE this woman think that she can treat us like farm animals!

As I have said before, the politicians need to remember that THEY are OUR servants not the other way around, if any politician dares to force my children to take any "compulsory" medication they had better be ready for my reaction because they might find their needle stuck somewhere they'd rather not have it!

Police State? A quiz

Over on the off-gridder site there is an interesting article for those who doubt that we are living in a police state, makes me think that Communist Russia had nothing on our beloved NuLabour.........

Take a look at http://off-gridder.com/2009/05/28/police-state-britain/