Many readers of this blog will be aware of what’s been happening regarding homeschooling in the UK over the past six months. We hope to publish an article in Life Learning documenting the situation. But for now, see my posts at my personal blog Challenging Assumptions for background: June, July and October, or do a google search for more detail.

The bottom line at the moment is that the British government has accepted recommendations that place primary responsibility for assessing the suitability of education and the welfare of the child on the state, rather than the parent – with no prior evidence that either is unsatisfactory. This intrusion and major inversion of previous practice has, not surprisingly, struck fear in the hearts of homeschoolers (as it should in the hearts of any freedom-loving citizen, homeschooling or not, parent or not.)

Unfortunately, fear often breeds confusion and internal dissent. I don’t know if it was the government’s intent to divide and conquer, but I’ve been watching from the sidelines with sadness and frustration as typically passionate and wonderfully opinionated homeschoolers have turned on each other and the various factions have been disagreeing internally. However, the government’s “war” on homeschooling makes it vital that people put their disagreements aside and work together to preserve these basic rights that the government is bizarrely trying to remove. So I am pleased today to see the issuance of both a plea to cooperate within the movement and a refusal to cooperate with the government’s proposed requirements. I hope every homeschooler in the UK reads this message and takes it to heart. The rest of the world is watching this government and is standing behind homeschoolers in the UK.