Game Changer.

This could change the face of home education, home schooling, unschooling (delete as personally applicable) as we know it….in Italy.

The exams are NOT a legal requirement.

Can I repeat that for effect…with drum roll please.

The exams are NOT a legal requirement.

However we are in Italy, so expecting something simple, tidy and automatic in terms of bring reality and on paper requirements into line is not that reasonable ( :

Basically there is a ministry circular that states home schoolers must sit an annual exam. It does not cite a law, just baldly states the obligation exists.

There is a relevant law, but guess what!

 It says our kids have a *right* to take the exam.

No mention of our kids *having* to do it, a case rather of the school  having to provide the exam should we desire it.

How cheeky is that LOL. 

(that is an ironic LOL by the way, I don’t thinking it is haha funny at all. The jammy baskets pulled a fast one on me. I find that not gigglesome at all. But it is ironic LOL as a response to the discovery of slight legal fudging, or a month long chunter…and I’m too busy for an extended chunter at the moment).   

A right becomes an obligation with slight of hand with a side serving of innocent, wide eyed blinking in place of citing an actural real live law to back up their commandment from on high.

Jammy gits got away with it as well.

I have to admit, even after I read the relevant law and circular about a 100 times thinking “there must a be a tiny clause somewhere that contradicts the letter and spirit of the law and supports the circular”…but no. It really is that bald faced.

I even tortured entertained one of my students (who happens to be a lawyer) by making him read it all a million times to confirm that, no I’m not mad. The ministry is making up obligations they can’t enforce because there are no legal teeth to add bite to this regulation based woof.

So watch this space, cos I am about to inform my school  director (in the nicest possible terms) that we do not wish to exercise our right to an exam and we do not accept said exam is obligatory.

Being in Italy, even with my personal "legal eagle" giving me the go ahead, this could turn into a tussle. Don’t forget I’m dealing with the same director who told me (what feels like a half a bleeding century ago) that homeschooling was totally illegal here and I would end up in handcuffs if I tried to do it. So I’m pretty sure he won’t just take my word for it. 

I've found bureaucracy here can get a bit shouty and “do as you are told plebe! How very, very dare you argue and demand fact checking!!!”,  before gracelessly conceding some 6 weeks later “oh actually, as you were, seems you weren’t wrong, never mind, don’t hold your breath for an apology for the initial misinformation or you’ll end up turning blue and your head will explode” .

I’ll blog it as it happens.

(chanels Katie Adie like mad)

(imagines self in flak jacket with microphone outside of school breathlessly reporting that we have permission to meet the dictator director)

If it all goes well and research thus far translates into practical application, everything changes.

You want to come here and unschool your kid, follow your own country's curriculum, or just not replicate the Italian ministerial curriculum in terms of great gobs of grammar and text analysis...... all without fear of exam performance hanging over your head, you’ll be able to.

So wish me luck.

Cos I’m going over the top chaps.

(end hyperbole)