One might be forgiven for hoping that a professor of law & wife of a solicitor, whose family were murdered in nazi concentration camps, might have a sense of fairness & justice, rather than herself be someone who furthers the persecution & propaganda waged against a minority group.
One might be forgiven for believing that a peer, who was a speaker in debates for The Coexistence Trust, on Jewish- Muslim relations and political engagement, might be prone to furthering "co-operation and good relations" between people of differing faiths & cultures, rather than promoting sterotypes & displaying intolerance & racial prejudice.
Tonight I listened to a prime example of the horrific attitude of members of the Nu 'bourgeoisie' (from 6hr20min) toward those upon whom they seek to reign their tyrrany.
I kid you not, the sheer arrogance & blatant ignorance displayed IS frightening...
This 'Lady' said that she has determined to immerse herself in the topic of home education because she feels that the parents of home educated children have attitudes of "rage", "resentment" & "superiority" & "contempt for the state in all its manifestations". To her mind the case against registration & monitoring of HE has been furnished with "arguments that must have been used in the late 19th century" and aired the opinion that such "do not paint a good picture of home educators".
She dismisses the "massive representation" by home educators (approximately 200 commenters on her blog) as a 'lobbying' group & expresses doubt as to how "representative" their views are. She particularly seems to dislike accusation of 'totalitarianism' against this government and can't fathom such a "mishmash of ideological views" from this herd of "middle class" proletariat. She accuses home educating parents of that most heinous crime, "rejection of state interference" & most offensively of "indifference to the rights of the child".
Deech assures us that her motives are to "speak up for the rights of the child" & 'convey' these rights to the 'oh, so misguided' home-educating parents by "ensuring that every child who is not being educated at school but, purportedly, at home, is registered" & hopes that ContactPoint, can be used to 'track "all those born in and who arrive in England after birth".
She goes on to quote the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child & the European Convention on Human Rights to the end that "education in all institutions must conform to standards laid down by the state", that these must be "state regulation of the education that the child receives" & that "the parents do not have stand-alone rights to determine that education in any way that they wish without state regulation"
Whilst grudgingly acknowledging "that that the child has the right to express his or her views" & "the rights of parents to have their children educated in accordance with their views" she upholds the decision of the EU court that Germany was entitled to ban home education (as it has since Hitler was in power) &claims that it "is the duty of home-educating parents to secure for their children the education pledged in international treaties". Some concern was voiced also that English might not be the primary language of choice for such families.
Baroness Deech proudly furthered her claims of compassion toward the poor home educated children she is so very worried about, by comparing their right to be seen to the law of 'Habeus Corpus'..."Habeas corpus must extend to our children as well."
In short, this means that she views home educated children as 'prisoner's who deserve the right to be to "produce"(d) in order to ascertain their well being & to have the validity of their detention determined by those in authority.
She purposefully conflates education with child abuse, casting doubt as to whether "children can just learn autonomously without being taught" & accuses home educating parents of 'experimenting' on their children "in a way that may blight their only chance in a lifetime to be presented with the knowledge and life skills that they will need". Afterall, home educators, in her opinion, are potentially sacrificing a "career outside the home", paying for "for all the outings and extracurricular activities that are usually provided by the school" & potentially causing "girls in particular" to believe that marriage & a lifestyle which does not involve being a mere wage-slave of the state, to be a desirous thing.
Her solution for such is that there be the "right (for 'officials') to visit (your home) without warning" & that "the child should be sent to school at once and not allowed to continue at home, pending appeal."
Furthermore she would like to ensure that the child's 'rights' are applied by compelling the child "to be seen alone by an inspector" every 3-6 months & states that a childs "fear" of such a meeting is "no excuse" not to do so, afterall, as she says, it is unlikely that they would go through life without being forced to encounter & be questioned & inspected by "doctors, dentists, (&) repair men" (?!?*wtf?!#).
Furthermore she would like to ensure that the child's 'rights' are applied by compelling the child "to be seen alone by an inspector" every 3-6 months & states that a childs "fear" of such a meeting is "no excuse" not to do so, afterall, as she says, it is unlikely that they would go through life without being forced to encounter & be questioned & inspected by "doctors, dentists, (&) repair men" (?!?*wtf?!#).
In summation of her heartfelt speech on assertion of the 'rights' of the child, she says:
"Your Lordships should not be deterred by the strong wording of the home education lobbyists. There needs to be a way for the home-educated child to be seen and heard, for samples of his or her work to be produced and for rigorous tracking of existence and outcome."
Ruth Deech is considered, by some, to be a learned academic & bioethicist. This crossbench 'Life Peer' spent a large part of her working career as a 'Tutor in Law' (those who can't...Deech) & currently presents a series of public lectures on family relationships and the law in her position as 'Professor of Law' at Gresham College in London... She claims that she failed her history A-level because "our teacher had leukaemia and only one out of seven of my year passed".
Daughter of the late historian and journalist Josef Fraenkel & once chair of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, she was tagged by 'The Observer' as "the 107th most powerful person in Britain" and by channel 4 as no.26 on "The God List" ("the fifty people of faith in Britain who exercise the most power and influence over our lives"). She was also a former governor of the BBC & is a founding Trustee of the 'Mandela Rhodes Foundation' (Common Purpose?).
5 comments:
What a very silly lady.
She reminds me of the type of old bird they have in committees just to keep them sweet. They let her prattle on about topics of which she has no direct understanding, roll their eyes, smile encouraging at the poor old dear, pat her wrist, tell her 'well done' and then ignore everything she has said, because despite it being easier to let her think she's adding to the debate, she's clearly potty!
She has pointed to her own blog herself, and in doing so, has made herself look ridiculous, because no one reading the feedback she got would come to the same conclusions, and if they do, well, they're clearly potty too!
Much love Tracy M
Obviously Mary Poppins never crossed her threshold
The weasel words of Badman and Balls can sound reasonable to those who don't think too hard about the implications of what they say. After all, no-one really wants children to be at risk. But this outrageous woman may be doing us a favour by highlighting the ridiculousness of all their positions. We can but hope.
Great post, Lou. You wrote what I wanted to but was too angry to research properly. Thank you for keeping a cool head.
Thanks for your comments guys.
Trust me Kelly, I was far from cool headed when i wrote this (hence the typos & crap punctuation) but after sitting up until stupid o'clock digging the dirt on the Deech I was too knackered to be energetically angry & slept like a baby ;)
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