Strange times

Oh what strange times we live in.

Today we have an emergency budget. Let's face it, as a country we're now looking for the change we dropped down the side of the sofa. Mixed feelings - yes, "something" needs to be done, but it would be better if the "something" affects other people and not me. The NIMBY attitude?

And watch the hypocrisy. People who were in government not so long ago and spending money wildly (eg: on the really pointless Badman review?) now saying that they would do things differently and the sums are wrong. Can't help wondering who got the country into this mess - or at least, who was supposed to be in charge when all the financial disasters happened? If GB was saving the world, what went wrong?

It's reassuring, isn't it, to find that normal life is still there? Last Thursday the Independent reported how Ofsted said that home educators should be forced to register. Not again ... has the season for hounding home educators restarted so soon? And why does every article about home education seem to have a photo of parent and child sitting at a table writing or looking at books? Haven't journalists heard of socialisation? Why not have a picture of children playing or running round, exploring castles or just building sand castles or playing with Lego to develop their interest in construction?

No, hang on - this isn't normal life. Look what happened next .... Graham Stuart MP, the chair of the Education select committee sent a press release which put Ofsted in its place! It's reported here and just read what he says:

'It is astonishing that the Chief Inspector of Schools should stray onto home education and get it so wrong. In Ofsted’s official press release she says that “it is extremely challenging for local authorities to meet their statutory duty to ensure children have a suitable education”, when they have no such duty. Parents, not the state, have the statutory duty to ensure that their children have a suitable education.'

Although CYPNow didn't include all of Graham's quotes, he went on to say “I find it deeply concerning that, after months of work, the Chief Inspector should make such a basic mistake and so utterly confuse the duties of local authorities and parents. Parents who home educate deserve our respect and awe at their dedication and achievements, not the relentless suspicion of an over mighty state.”

Have I strayed into an alternative reality? Ofsted's chief inspector getting her knuckles rapped and home educators praised by an MP?

Graham Stuart rocks! How can someone who isn't a home educator be so in touch with the realities of home education? This is rare! THANK YOU, Mr Stuart. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

Never mind, it's not all good news. Yesterday there was clarification about Local Authorities funding college courses for home educators - or not, as the case may be: "It is for the LA to decide whether to fund the provision: they have the discretion to do so but are not required to do so".

Well, I think we all know the answer to that one - the money may be there, tucked away down the back of a Local Authority black hole sofa bought in a DFS half price sale, but the will to actually provide the money to fund a course for those misguided home educators certainly isn't. Not a chance. Though they've made the right noises, it's called passing the buck (but not the pound, certainly not to fund home educators).

Oh, and as for Christine Gilbert, the Ofsted boss who got it so wrong about whose responsibility it is to ensure a child receives a suitable education - well, it seems she's digging in her heels and refusing to go according to the Telegraph.

Strange times indeed. At least there's Wimbledon - if a Brit does win I'll know that it really is an alternative reality.