By Barbara

What if registration and monitoring are inevitable, as some “negotiators” would have us believe?

Surely that sentiment can only be expressed by someone who has given up, or who, for some other reason, is choosing not to fight against the destruction of fundamental freedoms that these compulsory measures would bring. The battle, for them, is already lost.

But the battle is not over. There is evidence of sheer determination on the part of many home educators who have given notice that they will not cooperate, and we could yet be victorious. Even if registration (i.e. licensing) were to be introduced, it would meet with costly resistance and challenge to the point of civil disobedience.

And what about the people who claim they are acting to “protect” our children, who assume they know best and insist that parents cannot be trusted?

There are dangerous beasts if you live in a jungle. There are always people with wicked plans and that these are often motivated by strong belief or emotion. I too am motivated by strong belief and by a relationship with my family. Sometimes wickedness succeeds and people carry out wicked schemes. It is to be resisted, one way or another, when you decide that the line has been crossed or when you can no longer tolerate it or cooperate with it. The tipping point is different for each person, as is the form of resistance. Negotiated terms with DCSF, for me and on the issue of my children’s lives, is not tolerable and I will fight this intrusion and encroachment, whatever it takes.

What if, as someone suggested just the other day, we can’t win? Is it not then better to negotiate some sort of compromise that we can bring ourselves, however unwillingly, to live with?

That is a counsel of despair, but for the sake of argument…

What if you cannot live with such a compromise? What if you cannot live with having forged your own chains? And what if your conscience tells you that it is immoral to negotiate away the freedoms of other people even if you think that you can personally live with the consequence? What of the suffering you inflict on others whose freedoms you have taken the initiative to negotiate away? And, when your children are harmed by the new regime, is it better to feel that you have helped to create it but that the alternative would have been worse and tell yourself it will not get worse? These are impossible positions that no one should be in.

I would ask this of those who say we should be aiming for something that is less intrusive to keep “them” happy: where, exactly, is the end of their piece of string? Look at what else is going on around with secret courts and the government putting itself in the position of primary controller and decision maker in all things that were previously understood to be the domain of family and those who had relationships with each other. They are displacing family relationships with bureaucracy as the superior model of all things excellent. If they have cooperation, they go further; nothing stands in their way.

This government has shown it will never be happy unless all our children are in school. Some compromisers and negotiators seem confident that will never happen, at least not to them, but why not? We are but one generation. We have one life to parent our children. Governments cross generations. They can play a long game.

Just Say No – and say it now.

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