Home Schooling and Control Freakery

I've always thought that people who went in for home schooling were gluttons for punishment: it's an heroic vocation but not easy one. There is a whiff of eccentricity about it, and often a note of single-issuism. But to each his own. These are harmless people who love their children.

A friend has alerted me to proposals that the Education Department wants to bring in:

• A duty for parents to register children educated at home.
• A duty for parents to meet with the local authority annually.
• Powers to require access to the child for welfare checks.
• Powers to require access to the child to assess educational development.
• Powers to require the child’s work to be inspected.
• Powers for DfES to set curriculum content which must be included in the educational provision.
• Powers for DfES to set standards and methods of teaching

Is there any aspect of our lives that the Government doesn't want to control?