11th October
On 11 October there was an article about home education (the ‘unschooling’ variety) in the Guardian which gives a mostly sympathetic and balanced account of the subject. The article can be found on the Guardian website here. Alice Khimasia and her four sons are featured along with various comments and views from families, academics and others.
The article also mentions the Local Government Association’s recent call for registration of children who are educated at home. Calls for registration and monitoring of home education have been resisted fiercely by home educators in the past because these measures would lead inevitably to state control of home education and loss of families’ freedoms. Councils already have ample powers to address any problems which come to their attention. It seems very unlikely that the Government will consider that home education is a priority when they have many other serious and high-profile educational issues to tackle during the lifetime of this parliament.