Wales has an amazing heritage of non-conformity. That is religious non-conformity, of course, but it does not stop there. When people resist government attempts to restrict the spread of ideas or control the way people think in one area it always spills over into others and education is the obvious one. In 1846 for instance the things that horrified the commissioners appointed to look into the state of education in Wales were the social standing of Sunday school teachers and the theological content of what was being taught by them. Never mind that vast numbers of Welsh people were suddenly becoming literate; what concerned them was that, no matter what his social standing outside the Sunday school, a man would be allowed to teach there if he was considered able by the Sunday school members. The commissioners also objected to the abstruse (in the commissioners' opinion) theological and biblical points which Sunday school classes discussed. The government commissioners recognised that they had no control over the ideas and philosophy being taught in these schools and they did not like it.
Sadly things here in Wales have not changed much. The only difference is that in the Victorian Era the Commissioners were English and the education they objected to, being carried on largely in Welsh, was to their utter frustration therefore, impossible for them to control. No wonder their report emphasised the need for education in Wales to be carried out in the English language! Today the Welsh nation has control through the Welsh Assembly of its own educational agenda. Those who fought for and won dignity and recognition for Welsh language, culture and ideals would have been horrified to find that all that has happened in education is that the mantle of those 1846 commissioners has been taken up by the Welsh Assembly Government. Like the commissioners, the Welsh Assembly Government has firm opinions about what should be taught to the rising generation. Like them it finds, frustratingly, that there is a group of educators, whose personnel and curriculum it cannot control. Who am I talking about? Well, parents like me who quite simply carry out their duty to provide education for their children by doing it themselves. For years this has been going on – rank nonconformity if you like – right under the government's nose and they can't do anything about it because, as they are forever whining, they don't even know who these children are. Why should it be the government's business what philosophy, what moral principles, what ways of thinking we teach our children for goodness sake? I think this is a good situation: governments don't have much of a record in this area when you look at history and I see no evidence of anything having changed. Not surprisingly the modern incarnations of the 1846 commissioners are not comfortable. They propose a register of all children “not in school.” They will gather the information from medical records (think about that for a moment: it has staggering implications) and their avowed aim is to see all children safely in their clutches in school. They will use this to inspect, monitor and eventually coerce. Maybe gently at first but in the end, if our ideals, principles and philosophy don't line up with theirs, it will be a school attendance order. What is the point of home education if we have to deliver the same stuff as schools? We home educate because we want to teach different things differently – just like those old Welsh Sunday schools. And don't think all this does not affect you if you educate your children by sending them to school. No, this is everyone's issue. At the moment we all have freedom to educate at home without interference if we want to. If we send our children to school and then become dissatisfied with what goes on in school, we can remove our children and teach them ourselves. This freedom has an effect on schools. It ensures that the “commissioners'” agenda in the classroom is at least moderated to the extent that it does not trigger a large exodus from schools to home education. Once the “commissioners” are setting the agenda at home as well as in school, the escape route is gone. Whatever they do in school there will be no escape – so they can do what they like with no fear of an exodus. And if you are not in Wales? You can't breathe easily just because you are over the border either. The great and the good in all political parties are watching Wales from Westminster, and it won't be long before it's your turn. Perhaps you think I am exaggerating. Maybe it is not such a big issue and the Welsh Assembly Government have a point. I have to tell you that, in a chilling echo of 1846, they have Sunday school teachers (yes, Sunday school teachers!) in their sights now too. All paid youth workers in churches are going to have to register with the Education Workforce Council under new proposals and there are plans for volunteer workers to be covered in subsequent legislation.1 This is not about safeguarding; it is about conformity and we are in Rights of Man2 territory here, slap bang in the middle of what was at issue in 1846. If your children do not go to Sunday School, that's not the point. A government that systematically tries to control what is taught even in Sunday schools is not going to respect any of your cherished beliefs either if they don't line up with theirs. Is anybody standing up to all this? Non-conformists of any type are hard to herd. Home educating parents are (funnily enough) extremely busy just educating. However, there is a group of families in Wales advocating for parental primacy in education and freedom for families to make choices about the best interests of their children. Families First in Education Wales is following what is being said by ministers and other politicians in the Welsh Assembly about their intentions to change legislation in regard to elective home education and is standing up – for you. If you live in Wales, whether you educate your children at home or not – indeed whether you have any children or not – I would urge you to go to their website and get behind them. This issue affects us all. On a personal level I would disagree profoundly with Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus. But when he writes “He, who allows oppression, shares the crime,”3 I'm one hundred percent behind him. 1Source: Christian Institute Briefing May 2022 2 Thomas Paine The Rights of Man (1791) 3Erasmus Darwin, The Botanic Garden II (1791)
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