Just Enough and Nothing More

Where Education and Parenting Collide

Homeschool Regulations and the Importance of Local Cohesion

15 December 2009 One Comment

With the UK government working hard to clamp down on those potential criminal homeschoolers, it begs the question - how can we ensure our homeschooling freedoms? With the wide range of US states’ homeschool regulations as examples of what kind of regulation is possible, it’s not easy to find the “perfect” set of laws (or absence thereof) that keep homeschooling freedoms while appeasing the non-homeschooling officials who worry about what those freedoms might give us.

There is a lot of information on the internet, by people who have been in the trenches and by thought leaders, but not all of it is objective or even rational. It’s up to us to decide, with the data we have, what to fight for and how to fight for it.

But it’s also up to us to decide to work with all homeschoolers, whether they agree with us or not, because, without that unity, we have no power whatsoever against the force as strong as fear and the government (which aren’t always mutually exclusive) if they so decide we are a threat to… someone. Not only that, we have to be united because if we not all sending the same message to law and policy makers, they will probably only listen to the loudest voice. And that voice may not have every homeschoolers’ interest in mind. Or worse, they will ignore everyone and do what they want regardless of what we might write in our letters.

There is a great blog post about state-wide cohesion, over at kelly green and gold, and I encourage you to read it in order to understand a bit of homeschooling politics, and of what it takes to keep our freedoms. If you don’t think you want to be involved in homeschooling politics, too late. If you’re a homeschooler, you’re automatically involved. So, head on over and get more information to put the puzzle together. And if you can, support our fellow UK homeschoolers while they fight their mega battle against powerful forces impressing themselves on the populace contrary to reasonable arguments against their actions, and direct proof that they fudged numbers and ignored opinions to get their way.