Taking back our children

It's time.

Time to choose.

Are our children ours?

Or theirs?

We're all used to the stories by now. Children denied education for having their hair cut an eighth of an inch too short for charity. Children banned from using slang within the school gates. Pupils unable to choose the GCSE subjects they wanted to study. Children made to have their fingerprints taken.  Children in trouble at school for eating a biscuit. Child banned from taking photos of her own lunch. Child banned from eating lettuce-less sandwiches. 

Overzealous, perhaps. Controlling, certainly. But on some level it's accepted that while you're using the government-organised service, their way goes.

But what about when their desire for control goes too far? What about when it steps over that line? Your doorstep. Into your own home. Your private life. Your family. 

This isn't speculation, or anti-government hysteria. It's here in black and white. They want to regulate and licence an area of parental responsibility. Monitor regularly. Revoke rights if you decline to comply. If you say, no thanks, they're my children.

This affects us all. Not just home educators. When the government crosses that line, changes the fundamental basis of who is responsible for your children, the repercussions are everyone's. At the moment the law here supports parents as being responsible for their own children. Government agencies have ample rights to intervene if a law is being broken there (and it's been shown shown time and time again that they fail to use even these powers properly to fulfil the duties that they already have).  If Wales changes this basic tenet (and you can be sure that England would follow), the state is then parent. Not you.

I for one will fight to make sure this never happens.

So it's time.

Time to choose.

Are our children ours?

Or theirs?

Shout it.

Scream it from the core of your being.

They're OUR CHILDREN.

And we're taking them back.

The consultation is here. Please, home educator or not, parent or not, fill it in and tell them NO, these are not the government's children. They are ours, and we will not comply.