Home education in Britain
Most home educators in Britain favour autonomous curiosity-driven learning, vs formal homeschooling.
Law
The right to refuse medical treatment
Whatever argument you apply to adults about refusing medical treatment should apply to children too.
Home education law—Phillips v Brown
Every Education Act since 1870 has clearly intended to place upon parents a substantive duty to educate their children. Therefore, if it were ever found that some legal loophole made that duty vacuous or unenforceable, Parliament would rush to plug the loophole.
Treat information about local education authorities with caution
One family’s experience with the Local Education Authority is no guide to how it will be for a different family.
How defining yourself in terms of injustice sabotages your life
When one is the victim of a great injustice, there is a tremendous temptation to define oneself, and one’s life, at least partly in terms of this injustice. The victim mentality is a terrible mistake because it sabotages the vital process of learning how to have a happy life, solving problems as you go along.
What to do if you get a visit from a social worker or CPS
What I (NOT A LAWYER) would do if we received a visit from a social worker, CPS, education welfare officer or other state official who might be in a position to take my children away against their will.
‘Influence’ versus ‘coercion’
If I disagree with the substantive theory assumed by your word choice, you can’t expect me to build that substantive theory into my language, because if I were to, I would be being forced to lie or contradict myself every time I use your term.
Children’s rights and the law
The standards used to judge legal competence differ when it comes to children. How could the law take children more seriously without disastrous consequences?
What does the UK do about homeschoolers not educating their kids?
In the UK, at least thirty per cent of school leavers (age sixteen) are functionally illiterate. Taking a wider view of schools’ success and failure, I’d say the proportion of children our schools fail is nearer eighty per cent, if you consider how little children learn in schools, and how little love of learning children end up with after eleven years’ schooling.