When I knew nothing about home education – the first 19 years of my life – I was inspired by a family I met, in 1987, (English/ South African, as it happens) who lived in rural county Kilkenny. They educated me as to the right (which I believe to be universal) and which the far-seeing drafters of the Irish Constitution – Bunreacht na hEireann – made explicit in Article 42:

THE STATE ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THE PRIMARY AND NATURAL EDUCATOR OF THE CHILD IS THE FAMILY AND GUARANTEES TO RESPECT THE INALIENABLE RIGHT AND DUTY OF PARENTS …

So well expressed, so clear!

What we see now, 38 years later, is a country where many families, who would like to have a parent at home in the younger years of their child’s life, school-attending or not, find that not only can a family NOT be sustained on the earned or social welfare income of one parent, but that even with 2 earning, keeping a roof over their heads is an ever more challenging balancing act.

Yet everything we have studied and learned about psychology, child development and the group care for children, suggests that the crucial early years (minimum 3) are best served with the sustained, consistent and dependable attention of 1 loving human. Instead of our public policy making this lifestyle accessible for those who might choose it, the government decides to use our tax money for more subsidised group care of children.

If parent’s desire to spend more time with their babies and young children continue to be dismissed as financially unattainable, what sort of a future are we creating?

One where the needs of the “economy” rule the care of the young and vulnerable?

We ignore the obvious needs of babies, for maternal and paternal care, at the very cost of what it means to be human, what a caring society might look like..

The families I meet, who manage the balance between having a parent available, and still paying the bills, could teach the department of finance important lessons in priority setting. Those who direct and enact public policy, who claim to care about what sort of a culture we are raising our young in, could take note, and prioritise the health (in the broadest definition of that word) and wellbeing of all our citizens.

As Bunreacht says :

Article 42: Education. Section 1. The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.

If only the words in this document and the careful thought behind them, were given more weight than mere words on a page!