You are a mother. Consider this:
You decide not to send your child to a state school because you don't believe that the national curriculum is the best way for your child to learn.
Or:
You choose not to send your child to a state school because you're dissatisfied with the general standard of local provision and you would rather not lie and be criminalised.
Or:
You send your child to a state school and they are bullied so badly that they visibly wither before your eyes. Perhaps they contemplate - or attempt - suicide.
Or:
Your child with special educational needs is put into a mainstream state school that fails to accommodate him. He is so terrified by the new regime that he spends an entire double lesson cowering in a science bench cupboard. You are called into his school to discuss how you will remedy his disruptive behaviour.
And rather than scraping the money together for private school fees, you choose to home educate your child, in one of a myriad of ways.
Do you think that it is acceptable that refusing the offer of state education categorises you as mentally ill? Or is that more than a little bit wrong? Is it something of a return to the days of labelling independent minded and critically thinking women as hysterical and in need of sedation and confinement? Husbands, brother and sons - prepare the attic!
Here is evidence submitted by Dr Paula Rothermel, FRSA, to the Select Committee Inquiry into the Badman report on elective home education in England:
At our first interview Mr Badman was interested in what I had to say.
His opening question was to ask me if home educating mothers suffered
from Munchhausen's by Proxy. I thought this to be a curious starting
point - that of questioning whether home education is a symptom of
mental illness. I am not medically qualified, but I was able to inform
Mr Badman that there is no research evidence available that I am aware
of, which makes this link.
Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome? For the simple act of refusing state services? W, one might ask, T F?
Münchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), referred to in the DSM-IV-TR as Factitious Disorder by Proxy, is a disorder in which a person deliberately causes injury or illness to another person (most often their child) usually to gain attention or some other benefit.[1][2] Münchausen by proxy has been described by some as a form of extended child abuse.[3][4] The motivation is to assume the sick role by proxy.[5] It involves physical abuse and medical neglect.[6]
Of course, aside from the likely illegitimacy of MSbP in the first place, the most notable thing about this mass diagnosis by independent expert Graham Badman is that until recently the vast majority of home educating parents were more than happy not to "gain attention or some other benefit". They desperately wanted to be left alone to pursue their freedom to educate their children as they saw right and fit - often without "support" of any kind from the local authority.
But now, things are starting to change - and rapidly. These parents are willing to take up a platform and be heard. Intelligent and articulate people in other countries are taking note and joining the protest. They understand the profoundly anti-freedom, anti-family agenda that we are being subjected to. They recognise the many assaults on our proper and natural desire for family closeness and privacy - that are driven, at least in part, by men like Badman who might not actually be the expert they claim to be, nor as independent as they would like us to believe.
We parents are committed to ensuring that all parents understand the implications of the slithery words and snake oil recommendations of men like Badman. He and his master Balls are ruthlessly pursuing their own agendas. They are not listening to children. They are not listening to parents. They are not listening to teachers or social workers. They are not listening to their fellow politicians. They are not listening to anything other than the sound of their own because-I-say-so voices, which in turn tell us that we must be instructed in their way of the world - or else.
Well, or else. That's my choice. Let's see what it looks like, shall we?
Also covered at Sometimes It's Peaceful, Magpie's Nest, Nothing, Exceptional, Freedom in Education Under Threat, Grit's Day, Three Degrees of Freedom, and Blogdial.
