Tracy Oldfield

Forwarding this as requested. The Home-ed laws in Ireland are
becoming tighter and tighter, and as case law tends to be what
rules, as it were, this is a very scary precedent, and needs fighting.
Any help to Donal at the addy below, please!
Thanks for your indulgence,
Tracy

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 23:59:45 +0100
Send reply to: UK HOME EDUCATION SUPPORT LIST <UK-HOME-ED@...>
From: Donal O Callaghan <donaloc@...>
Subject: Dear Tracy!
To: UK-HOME-ED@...

<<<This comes up quite often on the unschooling list I'm on.>>>

Hi Tracy!
I wonder if you would mind putting my query re/ socialisation
studies
to your unschooling group? Is it a U.S.A. group? I'm trying to
spread the net as wide as possible in the hope of finding something
substantial. If you get any replies, I'm at mailto:donaloc@...

I hope you can help-
Warmest good wishes
Donal
___________________________________________

Dear Group,

We are extremely concerned about the verdict on Thursday in Chris
Best's case (in Ireland). The following letter was cc'd to me:
<<<Dear
Debra, Many thanks for the email. Unfortunately the Judge decided
against us. She seemed to think that because William is a shy and
sensitive boy that it would be better for him to be in a place where
he can interact with other children - ie school. Personally I think
that school is one of the reasons why he has a problem interacting.
To
be honest I think that the Judge just couldn't bring herself to
dismiss the case and she just had to find something to justify her
decision. She couldn't do it t on the standard of education and so
she
did it on the socializing. The solicitor said afterwards that she was
very wrong in her decision so he is still behind us, and even the
reporters afterwards were saying that it didn't make sense. I hope to
get a copy of the Judgement which I will forward to HEN [Home
Education Network]. We are going to appeal the decision as I have
absolutely no intention of sending William to school against his
wishes. >>>

We fear that the authorities will use "socialisation" as their excuse
in the future for insisting that "every child's educational needs
would best be met in school" .

So we are investigating whether there is any research out there on
the
relative merits of socialisation in school and socialisation in the
home. Paula Rothermel, Amanda Petrie and Alan Thomas are all
being
contacted for their advice.

If you have any ideas about lines of inquiry we could pursue, please
let me know!

Bws
Donal
------- End of forwarded message -------