Warning: Incompetency strikes when your child turns 7.
When my child was born I informed the government of his birth. The government accepted without quibble, that I am capable, willing to and understand the responsibility of raising a child.
Oh, the years of bliss (and yes, frustration). I saw my child grow and develop. The joys of him taking his first steps and saying his first words.
I managed to guide him in his learning and today he can run, climb trees, and have conversations. He can even identify shapes and colours!
He asks questions about the world around him, and I answer him. If I don’t know we do research on it (ask his dad, visit the library or Google it).
But how I dread him turning seven. According to the Department of Basic Education, unless I enrol him in school, I will lose my ability to raise him and he will lose his ability to learn.
He will now have to be taught in order to receive an education. My home will become a dangerous place, no longer fit to educate a child in. I will lose my devotion to his education.
The beliefs and values in which I’ve raised him as well as the society in which he has functioned for almost seven years may no longer be acceptable.
I will have to ask for permission to continue the task of educating him. My home will have to be inspected.
I wonder how this will affect my brain and home? Will the part of my brain that is concerned about his education and well-being shrivel up and die?
I assume the parts occupied by his younger siblings remain in working order as the government is not questioning my ability to raise them.
Do I have to segregate my home so that he does not accidentally infect the area occupied by his siblings and endanger them?
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The DBE has assured me that they know what is in the best interest of my child.
And maybe that part of my brain might still be functioning just enough that they can entrust me to teach my child. If I follow their guidelines and a curriculum approved by them I will be able to teach him.
Not to educate him though. See, they will guide me as to the values and beliefs he should be taught. As well as to the content and the skills he should acquire.
I’m so grateful. I no longer have to apply my brain and can thus save some of it’s functioning parts for his siblings.
Yes, they are concerned about the well-being of my child. It is not about control.
PS: This malady afflicts only home educators.