Some moments, I have no doubt

The camping trip is over, and I watch the laundry in the machine, churning.

It's been a heart warming experience, these last few days.

Not for the camping, which was, quite frankly, horrible. But for the children I have met on the home ed drama camp. Each child, in their own way, shone in brilliance. Many have told us their stories, and they are ringing in my head. Children who were battered by the school system, who didn't fit, who couldn't understand the rules, who felt not part of a mass, but unique and different, an individual not catered for.

I might have once asked, How could that have happened? Here are amazing people, gentle, thoughtful, warm. But what system have we built that could not handle that? I have seen a system that could not handle that. It makes me sad, not angry. School is there for mass production. It is a factory flow. Individuality, uniqueness, these are difficult for mass production to handle. School requires fitting in the allotted slot, making the given sounds at the given time, living someone else's time.

But here are these children, many strangers to each other before last week, yet within hours working together shoulder to shoulder, creating a magical theatre in the woods, and their talents are on display. These children are sensitive, wise, happy, unique. They mix easily with children older and younger than themselves. They express themselves clearly. They feel safe. And this experience tells me, home education best fits us; it equips my children for a future that is theirs. It is the right thing for us to do.