Parents denounce plans to limit homeschooling

Home school illustration.

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• During the presentation of his plan to fight separatism, Emmanuel Macron announced the imminent end of home schooling, unless there is medical justification, to curb the growing phenomenon of dropouts.

• Parents affected by family education are angry.

• According to them, homeschooling keeps the pace and balance of children and is necessary when children are unhappy at school.

• It is also a choice of life, involving the whole family, which is called into question.

Emmanuel Macron's speech left families practicing home schooling in shock.

By unveiling his plan to fight separatism on Friday, the president announced the imminent end of home schooling, unless there is medical justification, to curb the growing phenomenon of school dropouts.

" It is a necessity.

I took a decision, undoubtedly one of the most radical since the laws of 1882 and those ensuring the educational mix between boys and girls in 1969 ”, explained the Head of State.

The call for testimonies that we launched after the announcement of this measure, collected more than 900 comments from families in the misunderstanding, even angry.

Compulsory schooling is unthinkable for families practicing family education (IEF).

Because according to them, it is a question of the happiness and the balance of their children, especially for the little ones.

“Getting up too early, fatigue, children out of step with the group… The school cannot adapt to each individual's particularities, and when this is too burdensome, family education is a precious solution”, explains Marie, who keeps her 3-year-old daughter at home, after doing the same for her 6-year-old son, now in school.

"School didn't suit me"

Other parents also promote IEF as a solution to a school phobia, bullying problems or learning disabilities, such as dyslexia.

“Our 8-year-old daughter started to feel bad at the end of last year at the idea of ​​going to school,” says Elodie.

Stomach aches, panic attacks, night terrors, she cried every morning.

We took her out of school, she follows the school program thanks to the Cned and she feels much better.

School is not for everyone.

It is an aberration to want to make it compulsory.

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At 34, Margot has fond memories of her seven years of learning at home.

“From when I was 7 to 14, school didn't suit me,” she recalls.

Forcing me to go would have been deleterious and counterproductive.

I returned to college when I was ready and had a fulfilling education.

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"The amalgamation between fundamentalists and homeschooling is unacceptable"

Emmanuel Macron estimates the number of children undergoing home education at 50,000, a figure which, according to him, is increasing every year.

For Jean-Pierre Obin, Honorary Inspector General of National Education, the President's decision is a "good surprise".

"It was time to have such a limitation measure, because there are too many students in nature, in underground schools," he told AFP.

"We are checked * every year and the amalgamation between fundamentalists and homeschooling is inadmissible, retorts Marie.

Leave us the freedom to respect the rhythm of our children, within the legal framework.

We are not asking that we be allowed to do anything, but that we are allowed to choose how to raise our children.

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"A life project for the whole family"

Another concern of families is to see the organization they had put in place and their life projects shattered.

"So I am completely overwhelmed," laments Marie.

I reorganized my whole professional and personal life when compulsory education was increased to 3 years in order to practice family education.

So we sold our apartment and I quit my job in order to have a professional activity that gives me time to educate my son.

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"It is a life project for the whole family, because it involves a particular organization as well as important economic sacrifices, career progression, etc., adds Josué, a former school teacher who has stopped working to devote to the education of his 5 year old son.

Seeing such a life project sacked because the President of the Republic, on the grounds of a few rare abuses, amalgamates family education and Islamic fanaticism plunges us into a mixture of deep disarray, anger and loss of confidence in political authorities .

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"We are not a caricature"

“We are not self-sufficient marginalized people,” Auriana claims.

We are not a large family who deplore a dramatic drop in the level of French children in dictation, and would like to see the blouse, the lessons of morality and things return.

We don't want to make our children into learned monkeys.

We are not anti-vaccines.

We do not live in a cloister for fear of seeing our children rub shoulders with “real world” violence.

And above all, we are not sectarian ... In short, we are not a caricature.

We are not responsible for the excesses of an extremely minority fringe.

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* Families practicing IEF must declare themselves every year to the Academy to which they are attached and to the town hall.

They are subject to two types of checks: a social survey carried out every two years by the town hall and an annual educational check carried out by the Academic Directorate of National Education Services.

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