UK.gov hoovers up data on five-year-olds

Home educators first, then the rest of you

First, to Sean Timarco Baggaley's comment that the government was elected three times, remember that in the last election, only 22% of the electorate voted for them (and of course the rest did even worse) - I think that's the smallest share of the electorate in the records for over a century, possibly ever in our parliamentary system.

Ciaran McHale is absolutely right about home education. Legislation to control them is the thin end of the wedge and I expect to see home inspections for all pre-school children before long, especially if they don't go to nursery. If you think I'm going over the top, look at what is planned for "safety inspections" with snoopers entering your homes: http://bit.ly/1pRgTZ

A growing number of smart people educate their children "otherwise than at school" ; home education sometimes conjures-up a picture of a child locked away with wierdos - but in fact, home-ed children usually have better social skills because they mix with a range of ages, not just a narrow year group.

Unfortunately, the government have decided that such dangerous, independent-minded thought must be regulated, inspected and licensed. You might argue that this is appropriate, but most of us doing this are trying to escape the declining standards, worthless tests and police-state tactics described here and by other posters. Why would we want some CRB-checked (like the Plymouth nursery toddler rapist) dimwit telling us how to educate our child?

After an initial attempt by the government in the so-called "Badman Report" to smear home educators as child abusers, a close inspection by mathematically-minded HE parents showed that the statistics were complete crap - if anything the incidence of child abuse among these families is lower than the average for the general population. However, the government has decided to go ahead with legislation because these children are "vulnerable" - as if those in school are not.

There's plenty of research to show that home educated children do better than average.

They learn to socialise without the usual school pressures and of the 40-50 HE kids I've met, I don't recall seeing any of the needy, spoiled or intimidating brats that seem to be increasingly common generally.

The outcome I've seen from others that take this approach is a breed of sociable young adults that go on to do degrees (often in difficult subjects like maths and science or engineeing), start businesses etc., and make a useful contribution to society.

But the government want to stop all that to ensure uniform mediocrity.

I recommend home education; it works well for us, but you may have to be prepared to stand up for yourself against petty state bureaucrats, although I suspect most Register readers are smart enough to handle them.

If you think this is for you, or even if you'd like to reserve the right to do this or support freedom for home educators, please consider supporting one or both of these petitions to parliament:

http://bit.ly/H0pzy - Freedom for Family Education

http://bit.ly/1nWSna - Declaration to Parliament - Notice of Refusal to Co-operate

@Anonymous Coward - Home educators first, then the rest of you

Spot on! I know it has become a bit of a cliche but Pastor Martin Niemöller's poem sums up what is happening with the database state...

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Substitute, junkies, gypsy-travellers, Muslims, home-educators, carers, vulnerable adults, domestic extremists, all children ( tomorrow's adults) or wtf you like...

Home ed forums has some lively discussions on the surveillance issues - and of course info on life without school.........

http://www.home-education.biz/

Thinking soberly

First reaction: shout aloud about snoopers, control-freaks, Big Brother etc. Second thought: this is much too serious for me to allow myself the luxury of more satire or righteous indignation.

So, firstly is this really New Labour at work? And, as a concomitant question, does that mean that the Tories (or the Lib Dems, bless their little cotton socks) would get rid of this pernicious stuff? My belief is that the climate created by New Labour - especially in their wholesale eradication of civil liberties - has made this sort of thing possible, even made it seem desirable. I do NOT think that they have actually done this. This particular horror is partly a result of the database technology.

There's a certain type of person who looks at a mass database (say, for example the DVLC) and says, "Could we use one of those to keep details of every child in the country?" On being assured that it could, this person says, "Names, addresses, dates of birth, legal guardians?" "Oh yes," says our DB expert, "Anything you want." "School records?" "No problem, just link in it through .."

But our control freak has already stopped listening, and has started to add in, "Health records, home environment, if the parents smoke, diet, possible mental health problems, behavioural disorders." He or she has a vision of all of this making huge numbers of charts showing the link between being smacked at home and performance in maths tests, or drinking cocktails of toxic additives and truanting. And, as any academic will tell you, your data may not tell you what you want to hear, it may not even tell you anything remotely useful, but someone, somewhere will find a use for that data.

A week ago I would have thought that I was indulging in alarmism or theatricality, but the details about that questionnaire are truly frightening - all of the things I mentioned are in that or in the other massive childsnoop database.

And now the police and the bureaucrats have been shown what they can do, and discovered that this government will not only let them do it, but encourage them, I do think that any government is going to stop them. I do not believe that any government is going to TRY to stop them. And I also think that the police will demand, and get, full access to this database "to protect the children", even when that "protection" means using all the databases to get any dirt they can on anyone for any reason. Your children's schools have joined the list of those who are duty-bound to spy on you.

And, yes, I do mean that seriously.