badgermind

This evening we had an unusually clear sky in Stromness, so following one of the regular reminders from Colin the Mathmo I walked down towards the Ness to see if I could see the 17:37 flyover of the International Space Station. Once it had disappeared I carried on as far as the George Mackay Brown memorial garden, with a clear view of Mars, Jupiter, and a waxing crescent moon above Hoy.

Yesterday was a fasting day, so this morning a walk before breakfast, up to the reservoir, down to the cemetery, and along the shore back to Stromness.

I have today written to my MP using the words below to express my opposition to the proposals for home education contained in the Children Schools and Families Bill which has its second reading on Monday 11 January.

Freedom for Children to Grow

Education Otherwise on the proposals

Letter organised by Brighton home educators - please sign if you feel able

As you are aware the Children Schools and Families Bill has its second reading on 11 January. I believe the approach taken in the Bill to home education is oppressive and requires complete re-thinking. Although governments should protect children against abuse and can reasonably expect that home educated children attain basic literacy and numeracy and are prepared to take their part in society, they should accept that there is more than one way of achieving this.

(1) It introduces a licensing system under which permission will be required on an annual basis to home educate. The criteria will be prescribed by secondary legislation or left to the discretion of the LEA.

(2) It gives the LEA powers of access to the home and to speak to the child alone.

(3) It requires regular home visits and assessments.

(4) In the proposed legislation and related discussions there are phrases such as "harmful to the child's welfare" and "safeguarding concerns", without a requirement to produce evidence before an independent court or tribunal in case of dispute.

Parents educate their children at home for various reasons. They may be unhappy with the approach taken by schools, with its regimentation, inflexibility, lack of concern for the individual child and frequent testing, and wish to educate their children with more freedom and autonomy. Another is the fear that the culture within a particular school may lead their children into a life of apathy, antisocial behaviour or crime. A third is that their children are being bullied and the school is unable or unwilling to control it, and a fourth is that their children have special educational needs which are not being addressed within the school system. In the last three cases the fundamental issue is that the schools on offer are not providing an education suitable to the child's needs, and there is not an issue of balancing the rights of the child (to receive an appropriate education) against the rights of the parent.

Some LEAs are supportive and others not. Many parents have had experience of teachers and LEA staff who do not understand the existing legal framework and are unsympathetic to home education.

The problem with a discretionary licensing system is that LEAs may use it as a means to attempt to replicate school approaches, which for many home educated children are almost by definition not working. Some teachers and LEA officials find alternative approaches to school threatening and may simply want to use whatever powers they are given to make life difficult for home educating families. Children coming out of school, particularly where they have had a bad experience or there is bullying involved, may require a period of de-schooling before they regain their ability to make choices and their education really takes off again. Interviewing them and asking about programmes of work at this point is counterproductive.

It is not clear to me that the proposed power to interview the child alone has been considered properly. Abuse is properly the concern of social services and the police rather than the LEA, and interviewing in this context requires a great deal of sensitivity and training because of the devastating impact on children if mistakes are made either way. In particular there need to be safeguards and protocols, particularly with younger children, to prevent the interviewer either putting ideas into the child's mind or having appeared to do so in such a way as to provide a successful defence in an actual case of abuse.

Any child might reasonably ask or expect for an independent witness or friend to be present. In addition children on the autistic spectrum may exhibit behavioural patterns which look like the consequences of abuse when they are features of their condition. They may find being interviewed highly distressing without a trusted person present.

There also appears to be a concern that the education provided may be insufficiently like school and this is a way of catching the parents out. The saddest feature about this legislation is the lurking idea that parents cannot be trusted to exercise their judgement in matters of education and are potential abusers unless proved otherwise. Asking children to inform on their parents has always been seen as one of the more shameful aspects of totalitarian societies.

Mandated regular visits and assessments with prescribed agendas (rather than as and when appropriate) are intrusive on the vast majority of caring home educators, as well as using resources which would be better occupied in supporting parents rather than checking up on them.

Unless there is clear access by parents to an independent tribunal before powers are exercised, with a possibility of legal representation and cross examination of LEA officials under oath, there is a risk of gossip, prejudice and simple mistakes of fact masquerading as professional opinion.

The existence of disabilities or special needs should not automatically be seen as raising concerns about a child's welfare. There is a risk of parents being under pressure to deliver what schools could not, particularly where a child has significant disabilities or special needs and will never attain outcomes desired for children in general. Where a LEA is unable or unwilling to make adequate provision for a child with special needs, or even to provide a safe space free from bullying, a parent may reasonably come to the view that the education they can provide, even if not optimal, is a better choice than having a child come home traumatised each day (or even worse, committing suicide)

While browsing Mind Hacks today I found Language Log which contained the following:

original cartoon
cartoon translated to Icelandic
recent cartoon on similar theme.

If any of you in London are interested in learning about runes, I suggest looking at this course by my good friend bluemagpie at treadwells bookshop.

Flyer for September rune course

(Thanks to madda_gaska)

Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

In my case a close tie so have added both :)

"Healing occurs in the process of relinquishing whatever interferes with compassion."
Ecstatic Body Postures by Belinda Gore (introduction by Felicitas Goodman), section on the Carchi Woman Posture, based on an Ecuadorian pottery figure.

"Thorolf sought Bjorn's friendship and followed him round everywhere."
Egil's Saga 35, from the Sagas of Icelanders.

This was the title of an inaugural lecture by Robert Archer at Kings College this evening, discoursing on Cervantes, translation and his passion for Ausias March (a Valencian poet from some time ago). The warp side is a metaphor by Cervantes for reading a translation into a closely related language. While drinking tea before and wine after I was able to admire a small exhibition on China seen through the records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with texts on tea of various kinds and engravings of Emperors and famous Jesuits.

To quote from Thomas Shelton's 1620 translation in the speaker's handout: "Methinks this translating from one language to another, except it be out of the queens of tongues, Greek and Latin, is just like looking upon the wrong side of Arras-hangings; that, although the pictures be seen, yet they are full of threads that darken them, and they are not seen with the plainness and smoothness as on the other side. And the translating out of easy languages argues neither wit nor elocution."

I am off to Leeds for the day tomorrow morning on the way to treadwells, so am aiming for an early night!

Just returned with Mrs Badger from an enjoyable evening at Pintxo People organised by sassygoth24 for the Brighton Meetup Group. Was able to drink Catalan beer (from Moritz) in Brighton, so don't have to go all the way to Barcelona just for the beer! Have brought bottle home and am attacking label with dictionary.

Both of us are struggling to move into work mode as the end of the weekend approaches. Enjoyed discussing Conrad's Secret Agent at bibliogoth this afternoon, and met silkyraven, who was chairing. Unusually, the rail replacement buses were running reasonably well between Brighton and Haywards Heath, and although I find reading on buses can bring on travel sickness I was able to almost finish the Secret Agent on the train up to Farringdon and to read part of Helrunar by Jan Fries on the way down. Came home to find that Mrs Badger has decided I need advice on goth music and has emailed a friend with experience of Slimelight and Whitby...

After a cheese hunting expedition to Neal's Yard (some Irish goat, some Sussex sheep and some English Stichelton), I persuaded Mrs Badger by mobile to go for a drink this evening. The rest of the train journey was spent alternately dozing and reading Phil Hine on Condensed Chaos. We met outside the Dover Castle but ended up in the garden of the Sir Charles Napier (The Greys has its attractions but involves walking up the hill afterwards). When I first came househunting in Brighton, two years ago, I bought an extra ticket the day before so elder cub could come as well, but she decided on the morning itself not to go, so I invited my mother instead. She coped well with Brighton's hills for someone in her late eighties and we had lunch (I remember looking at stilton and salad) in the same beer garden - one of the few times I persuaded her to go into a pub. I now wish I had taken a photograph of her then, more so as she is no longer with us. I am planning to go through my collection of images in the winter and look for one to represent her - for some reason one from fifteen or twenty years ago seems right to me now - showing her as older rather than younger, but still vigorous and active. Our drinking was interrupted by a phone call from Ocado delivering early, but by the time we arrived home younger cub had taken it all in and was putting it away. We discussed the article on Robert Cochrane in the newly arrived Pagan Dawn, and I had a good look at Joe Griffin's website on why we dream.