The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

THE LAST DITCH

Lies, damn lies and government statistics

Published by Tom

on

Children educated at home at severe disadvantage, study shows | Education | guardian.co.uk.

These conclusions are based on a sample of just over 1,000 children. Who selected that sample and on what criteria? Have children who are simply absent from school (because their neglectful parents can't be bothered to send them) been included alongside children whose committed parents have made a positive – and challenging – choice to educate them themselves?

For now, the authorities say they will always license parents unless there are clear negative factors. How long does anyone think it will take before the ideologues of the public sector start refusing licences to those who simply do not conform? If they apply the same criteria they use for adoption, for example, how many home educators will qualify?

Just as nationalising health services has led to the state thinking it owns our bodies, so nationalising education has led to it thinking it owns our children. This is brewing into a disaster.

5 responses to “Lies, damn lies and government statistics”

  1. Demetrius Avatar
    Demetrius

    What has happened here? Way back, if parents opted to educate children at home, it was routine duty and practice for check ups by appropriate local authority staff to make sure that education in one form or another was happening. It was a legal duty that the Local Education Authority had to comply with, and had existed for many decades.

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  2. Moggsy Avatar
    Moggsy

    First they establish the principle that you need their permission to do something but lyingly suggest it will never affect you…
    Then they tighten the noose you didn’t notice them slipping over your head till you are not allowed, without so much jumping thru hoops most can’t make the effort.
    Finally you just are not allowed, full stop, because there is no demand for it and you are a weirdo with something to hide for even thinking about it.

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  3. David Davis Avatar
    David Davis

    You can’t allow people to home-educate their children in a Stalinist State. This is because they might not teach the truth.
    Also, children are State-Property, for resource-management, for employment, and for breeding with. They can’t be allowed to be corrupted by the mere animals who brought them into being, with notions of critical thinking or freedom of thought in any way.

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  4. Renegade Parent Avatar
    Renegade Parent

    You can find properly researched statistics regarding abuse and electively home educated children here:
    http://ahed.pbworks.com/LiesDamnedLiesStatistics
    Graham was disingenuous to say the least regarding those figures and when rigorously challenged by a member of the select committee he could only bluster.
    Today when those statistics (supposedly the evidence upon which his recommendations do – or don’t – hinge) were revisited, Barry Sheerman, labour chair, actively prevented it from being discussed further.
    Really, if you want an insight into a Stalinist state, watch again on parliament.tv. But have valium/shotgun handy.
    And Demetrius – the law hasn’t changed. It is not as you describe, but there are already powers to check that a child is being provided with an education that is suitable according to their age, ability and aptitude. What Moggsy said applies – the noose is tightening, and palpably so.

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  5. Moggsy Avatar
    Moggsy

    I figure the Labour state runs more on Fascist lines underneath it all, with maybe Stalinist methods to put the fix in politically.
    Who says politicians don’t learn from history.

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Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.

Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.

He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that

“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

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