#homeedinsight

We love home education in our family. We primarily adopt the philosophy that kids (and people!) learn best when they want to learn. We spend some time on the basic building blocks of math, reading, and writing, so that our kids have the tools they need to learn whatever they want. Most of our days are spent crafting, reading, exploring outside, and learning about this new place we call home. So, when we went to the #homeedinsight picnic last week in Cheltenham, we made "The World is My Classroom" T-shirts for the kids to wear.

My friend organized the picnic as part of a national day of home ed awareness and lobbying in response to some fairly terrible proposed legislation regarding home ed here in the UK. I don't know enough about politics here to say whether it will pass or what will happen, but I do know that all across the United States and Europe there is an increasing push for the government to take over child-rearing. 

Generally, I think, people who advocate for government oversight of children have good intentions. They think the government will do a better job than some parents. International media often jumps on extreme stories of abuse or neglect, and if the family involved homeschools their children, they target homeschooling as the problem. (In recent months, the Turpin case in California is a perfect example of this.) Statistics show, however, that kids are much more likely to be abused (not to mention bullied!) in school settings. On average, homeschooled kids are much safer than those in school. But critics still point fingers at the extreme examples. And then to protect these few children, they pass laws that blanket all homeschoolers with increased government oversight. 

This allows for hundreds and thousands of children to be subject to the whims of government bureaucrats who think they know what is best for them.  And it is not harmless. Many parents homeschool their children because they have suffered in a traditional school system, or because their children have unique needs that don't fit well with the standardization inherent in any government system. Increased government control always reduces a parent's ability to meet their own child's unique needs. And when it becomes absolute, as it is already in some countries in northern Europe, it can even lead to the government taking children away from parents over philosophical disagreements about how children learn best. In my opinion, the issue is not so much about home education, but about the sanctity of home and family, and who ultimately decides what is best for their kids. (And yes, I realize there is a whole separate conversation to be had about how to protect vulnerable children--an obvious necessity for any moral society.)

The picnic (and others like it across the country) was part of the #homeedinsight social media movement to show home education in action and to counter the idea that homeschooled kids are hidden or neglected and that homeschool families are secretive.

Mostly, it was a lovely afternoon climbing trees and painting faces with friends. The pictures aren't great, because most of my better pictures have lots of other kids in them, and I didn't want to post pictures of other kids on the blog. We met in Pittville Park in Cheltenham and played most of the afternoon. All of us had so much fun I think we're going to do it regularly, national day of action or not!