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Email forwarded to the site via email chain from Pastor Martin Niemöller
Dear All
I don't know if you are aware of the new Children's, Schools and Families Bill which is currently making it's way through UK parliament. The second reading of this Bill will take place on January 11th and has huge implications for family life in the UK, and for civil and parental responsibilities and rights.
The Bill contains proposals which will seriously threaten Home Education in the UK, and are potentially damaging to the lives of thousands of home educated children and their families.
There are many diverse reasons why parents choose to home educate their children, but for many children, home education is an absolute lifeline;
Each week: 450,000 children are bullied in school
Each year: more than 360,000 children injured in schools
Each year: at least 16 children commit suicide as a result of school bullying
Each year: an estimated 1 million children truant
Each year: more than 1 in 6 children leave school unable to read, write or add up
(
http://ahed.pbworks.com/Anomaly-Figures)
One size really does not fit all.
Despite the government's recent U-turn on other matters concerning CRB checks, in direct response to these proposals, OFSTED have recommended that home educating parents be CRB checked before being given permission to look after their OWN children - this is all without the need for any evidence, or even suspicion, of wrongdoing. And these proposals will not just affect the home educating community, they open the door for dramatic changes to be made to the lives of ALL children and families in the UK. These proposals turn on its head the premise that it is parents who have the primary responsibility for the welfare, education and upbringing of their children, and hands this responsibility to the state instead.
They make a mockery of the 'innocent until proven guilty' theory that justice in this country is supposedly founded on.
Please take the time to read this open letter to The Guardian and The Times, and consider signing it.(before the 8th January)
http://bhhe.wordpress.com/diversity/
and also to sign this urgent petition before the second reading of this Bill on January the 11th.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Home-ed-families/
DO NOT be fooled into thinking this will only affect Homeschoolers in the UK. This WILL affect ALL families everywhere - it will just start with Homeschoolers in the UK if we don't stand together and put a stop to it.
"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out
—because I was not a communist;
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."
Pastor Martin Niemöller
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
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