I have been making a few notes on what we do and discuss. It is exactly the same set of things as a couple of weeks ago before the transition to being back in a formal place of education.
So as a result I realise that although we have been home educating completely autonomously for 6.5 years, all the notes I took and typed up for the Local Authority are useless. They are not evidence for home ed occurring at all. Just for living in a family household with me.
So what is home ed then? The absence of a greater authority than the mother and father? No, because I have been hyper-aware of the presence and threat of the Local Authority over our lives. There has been a big cloud of disapproval, fear and misunderstanding following us around for all this time from family and acquaintances. At best, confusion and awe.
My presence and commitment? That could be it. When H was deregistered both times, he instantly developed this look of a flower turning towards me as if towards the sun.
Yet this time H has gone to a place of formal education he has not switched off psychologically as he did last time, 6 years ago.
I still don't feel I have put my finger on it yet. So what is autonomous home education? What is it about home education which makes it such, beyond the legal status? Is it purely a legal construct? No more than that? All that fear, over a nebulous contemporary human definition?
Help me out in the comments box.
---
It is Monday morning now and I think there are 2 parts to this: the legal framework and the parent/child bond of loyalty and trust. The most important of those is this bond. If anything gets between the parent and the child it causes damage to both sides, irrespective of the type of education. If choosing home ed is the way to get the poison out of the relationship, then so be it.
No comments:
Post a Comment