Little Star Homeschool

Got back from town and had a scan through this month's (September 2005) Nursery magazine published by Scholastic. I buy it now and again because it has great large format posters inside, this time its an alphabet one and Robert is using it to look at while he writes the letters in his name.

In the 'news' section there is an alarming article telling me that children under 3 in nurseries may be branded as potential criminals if they show 'that they are not under control.' Nursery staff will be trained to spot potential criminality and keep this on file which will no doubt be passed through the education system. Talk about give a dog a bad name.

Will parents be informed that their child is branded a potential criminal?

Will the records be passed from nursery upwards and eventually to the child's first employer?

Will the records be passed to the police, family therapy, social services, etc. which could result in a child being forcibly removed and placed into care or possible compulsory adoption?

What concerns me is the thought that the child may be judged by the actions of the parents, if they look poor or scruffy it will be too easy for teachers to assume they are criminals and their children will be too without evidence of any criminal record. Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty' ?

I think this is the final clincher that convinces me home ed is the right choice for Robert, possibly the only choice. It is not that I am unconcerned whether he could turn out to be a criminal type or out of control, we all worry about the influences from society on our kids but where will this all end? Remember the Victorians and their passion for phrenology to identify potential criminals, this is not progress its regression. I attended a very strict all girls senior high school with an extremely old fashioned moralistic headteacher who believed if the uniform was deviated from in any way chaos and immorality would ensue. This kind of thinking is extreme, rediculous and only encourages rebellion in children.

I'll get off my soapbox now.