In 1950’s Britain, home education was something unheard of, and not spoken of, or written about. It was expected that all parents would want their children in school, and this was not questioned. That is, until a mother named Joy Baker, living in Bedfordshire with then four children, simply decided that she did not want her children to attend school, as she judged, based on her own experience that “The time spent in school in imparting quite useless instruction to minds that cannot possibly really understand it, and at best can only retain part for a limited period, appears to me an appalling waste of the most valuable period of all human life.” (Children in Chancery, 1964).

What followed was years of harassment by local authorities, in Bedfordshire and Norfolk, where the family eventually settled. Joy had to decide very quickly whether this was a battle she was willing to fight to its conclusion, or whether to give in to immense pressure and intimidation and send her children to school. When Joy realised that the law actually supported the duty of a parent for the education of children, she set about defending her stance with persistence and vigour – a battle which involved 10 years of court appearances, correspondence, and a traumatic incident where her children were removed from her care temporarily.

Joy argued: “It is this that gives me the ability and the right to educate my children – that I care for them – that I am in a position to judge the results of what I am doing daily, hourly – that I have no hidebound red-tape system that takes no regard for the effect on the individual – that I can, and do, devote to their education and to their welfare all the hours of my life.” (Children in Chancery, 1964)

Joy so articulately expresses what so many parents come to discover, as the true beauty and value of home education is revealed to them. Her fight to secure the rights of her children to be raised and educated by a caring, invested parent inspires and motivates us.

Today, in 2024, we find that local authorities and the government are still as intent, as they were then, on trying to limit and control the natural rights of parents to care for their children and prepare them for adulthood in a way that is best suited to the child. Whilst no-one questions that there are some children who need, or want, state provision and oversight, the issue is essentially about the balance of power between parent and state.

As parents, we might argue that we give birth to our children, nurture, and care for them, and that the state’s involvement in our freedom to continue to do so until they are adults should be strictly “light touch” unless there is reasonable cause for them to intervene.

Parents are uniquely placed to know their children intimately, and to be 100% invested in their child’s well-being and the adults they will become. The parent has the vocabulary, knowledge and experience to champion for their child, and loves the child enough to care about their future – their happiness, their ability to sustain themselves, and their integration into adult life.

Over the last few years, the government, education department, local authorities, social services, Children’s Commissioner and others have all taken it in turns to find ways to cast home education in a negative light, sometimes bending the truth, and ignoring solid evidence to the contrary. There have been numerous attempts to increase state oversight over home educators, for example the Schools Bill in 2022, and the Draft Guidance consultation which ended in January 2024 (findings not yet published). The General Election of July 2024 has seen the Labour party elected into government, and their long-held plan for a compulsory register for home educated children has been confirmed through the King’s Speech (Children’s Wellbeing Bill), and so the question arises now for home educators: Do you want the State to have more say in how your children are educated than parents?

We currently enjoy great freedom in respect of choosing home education, but those rights and freedoms are coming under threat, and we can no longer hope that those threats will go away.

Ronald Reagan once said: “But freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.” (Speech given before the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce on March 30, 1961).

How do we ensure that our children will enjoy the same freedom that we do? Will future generations be free to choose how their children are educated? This battle sits firmly in our laps right now, and how we respond to this challenge will determine the outlook for those who come after us.

It is not a time to say, “Oh well, I’m already known to the local authority, so I don’t see this as a big issue.” But we must consider how shifting the balance of power between parent and state opens the door to greater interference, greater oversight, and even losing the choice altogether.

It is not a time to say, “I’m finished my home educating journey, so it doesn’t really affect me.” But what about your grandchildren, and their children and future generations?

It is not a time to say, “I’m sure that the government’s intentions are not sinister, if we have nothing to hide then surely they will leave us alone?” This is not about whether we have something to hide or not – it’s about what we want to protect: our families, our children, our lifestyle, our culture, our values, and our rights and duties.

It is not a time to say, “I don’t have time to get involved in pushing back. I’m sure there are others that can handle that.” No doubt Joy Baker had better things to do, but if she had not invested so much time and energy into her own battles, officials would have trampled the law and human rights to force her to conform. She knew that if she did not take up the fight for herself and her children, no-one else would.

We will need all home educators in England to come together and make sure that our children are represented, our voices heard, our freedom maintained.

Let’s take up the baton from Joy Baker (and other strong and fearless parents who have faced down challenges to their freedom to home educate) and bravely continue to fight for that which we believe is right for us, our children, our families and our communities.

“People will tell you that freedom lies in being cautious. Freedom lies in being bold.”

Robert Frost (The New Yorker, 13 December 1952)

Juliet English is one of our team members here at Streams. Find out more about Juliet here.