Why the Badman Report is not ‘reasonable’
This will be a huge change in the law: it is not innocuous; it is not reasonable; it is not a minor adjustment. This is a sea change in the way parents are going to be able to raise their children in the UK.
At the moment I am most concerned with local authorities deciding what constitutes a suitable education for my children. School versions of education where children are empty vessels to be filled with data do not sit well with me: I know that children learn best when they are engaged and interested and ready to learn. When they can pick their own topics and enjoy the experience. When they can ask questions about dinosaurs or spiders at nine o’clock at night and have an adult discuss rather than talk at them. We have family chats about everything under the sun: why the Nazis came to power? what makes the earth spin? the concept of infinity etc. That back and forth conversation is how children learn best. But my nine year old son isn’t ready to write yet. So despite the fact he can argue about mathematical concepts with adults and knows more about natural history than I do, and is articulate about his emotional needs and can light a fire without matches, he would fail to meet the literacy standard set by Mr Badman.
I don’t send the children to school because I don’t want them schooled: I want them to retain their excitement and curiosity about the world. I don’t care what exams they take or marks they get: I want them to be happy and proud of themselves and confident in their choices. So I am really concerned that their education is going to be measured with a ruler that has nothing at all to do with their own benchmarks and achievements. And that they could potentially be sent into a failing school system if a LA officer disagrees with me that happiness and self-awareness is more important than being able to write at a set age or ticking other people’s boxes.
