Dear Editor,
Your correspondent's comments on the government’s current Consultation and Call for Evidence on Home Education in the June issue of en are very shrewd, picking up as she does that this is really about ‘the general freedom of a parent to make choices about their children’.
Parents indeed home-educate for a variety of reasons, many opting for it in order to make more suitable provision for their child(ren) with learning difficulties. One can only hope that the government will be more willing to address the lack of funding and support for such cases within the state system as a result of consultation responses highlighting these matters.
But your correspondent hits the nail on the head when she urges all Christians to sit up and take notice of this consultation because here, regardless of their view about home education, state intervention into family territory is the real issue. This affects us all now and will do so increasingly in coming days, unless we stand together and raise a clear defence against state overreach into areas of parental choice and authority. Times have changed quickly – a combination of a different mind-set amongst civil servants/public sector workers about their remit, and the pressure for the universal imposition of new Fundamental British values mean that Christian parents need to be mounting guard over their children and protecting their ancient liberties.
Mandatory registration overturns the principle that parents are primarily responsible for the education of their children. This issue of principle is why Christian parents who send their children to school should be concerned about the implications of the proposed changes – they signal the end of teachers acting in loco parentis and their status being redefined as in loco civitatis. Please pray for the Lord to be merciful to the children.
Yours truly,
