Well, it's beautiful here in France. We are in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by rolling fields, with only cows to keep us company - oh, and a lizard who lives behind some slate in the exterior wall.

We spent yesterday journeying, and whilst I've not been writing much, I've been able to keep up to date with blogs. In home ed world...

Carlotta made my day with this wonderful post triggered by TES coverage of the review...

And Gill voices concerns about Stephen Heppell's involvement on the panel here. I can only nod my head vigorously in agreement.

Now, back to relaxing. I've got a lot to catch up on.

We're travelling over to la belle France later on today, so I thought I'd leave you with this link.

It's a US-centric post from the website Change.org, exploring the possibility of increased regulation for homeschoolers. Here's a quote to give you a taste:

"Member Andrew Cantrell has started an action, "Reform the laws regulating homeschooling - protect every student's right to education," that addresses concerns I've had about homeschooling: What if the parents of home-schooled children teach the earth is 6,000 years old, that Creationism Intelligent Design is science, that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is not a hoax, on and on? How do we protect home-schooled children, in other words, from uneducated parents? "

My own opinion is that whilst I disagree with Creationism being taught as science, I also disagree, for example, with many of the implicit lessons that are taught in schools, particularly in relation to knowledge, learning, power and authority. This is in addition to the questionable content of parts of the national curriculum. So the question might as well be:

"How do we protect school-educated children... from uneducated educationalists?"

By the way, the comments are well worth the read.

Well, I’ve just seen the local news and this item.

• A woman removes her 86 year old mother from a nursing home.
  
• She spends thousands of pounds converting a room in order to care for her at home.
• Social Services decide that the vulnerable woman is now at risk.
• Social Services attempt to enter the property and access is refused.
• Police arrive at the property with a battering ram.
  
• The elderly woman is removed from the property and wheeled away by social workers who deem it appropriate to throw a towel over her head in the process.
• She is now back in the care home, against her daughter’s wishes.
  
• A spokesman from Birmingham City Council concedes that in putting a blanket over a frail and confused elderly woman’s head, the social workers had acted inappropriately.
  

I know little of the family’s personal circumstances, but I am assuming that the daughter chose to remove her mother from the care home because of genuine concerns about care standards, rather than to wilfully abuse her (upon further reading, this absolutely proves to be the case).

I am also willing to bet that the care this woman receives from her daughter is as good as, if not better than, the care delivered by any institution. However, I am not a social worker, just a reasonable person with a modicum of common sense. Which is why I no longer work in local government.

When is this going to stop?