Yes, there was another news article (Perth News I think) with more details (and a little video clip of him being interviewed arriving at court) but now I can't find it. They're older kids and able to decide for themselves. If they have their parent's permission I think it's fine that they don't attend school.

You can appeal if you don't get approval to homeschool but you can only appeal twice and if you still aren't registered to homeschool then you must register in a school. Maybe that's what happened. The article just said he tried to homeschool and couldn't get along with the moderator - I took that to mean the moderator didn't accept the activities they were doing as acceptable.

He represented himself and his argument was odd - it was based on something along the lines of the "right of children in poverty". He's pretty alternative and went barefood to court wearing only white. That shouldn't make any difference though.

There is this one:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa ... daughters/

not sending his children to school has been found guilty of breaching the Education Act.

Hans Ulrich Meier, who prefers to be known as One, has said previously that children should be able to spend time outside having fun instead of being locked away in classrooms.

He was today given a conditional release order when he appeared in Midland Magistrate's Court.

Dressed in white and walking barefoot, Meier told the court that he had never refused to send his children to school, it had been their choice.

"Teaching has become something of a sit down, shut up and listen," he said.

Jemirah and Alisha, now aged 15 and 14, have hardly set foot in a classroom in the past few years.

They tried home schooling but that was abandoned when Meier had a disagreement with an Education Department moderator.
Meier’s two oldest sons, aged 17 and 19, also chose not to attend high school.

The court heard that his two daughters, Jemirah and Alisha, had only attended one day of school between June 2008 and April 2009.

By law children between six and 15 years of age must attend school.

If Meier breaks the conditional release order with a similar offence he will be fined $300 for each of his daughters.

He was also ordered to pay costs of $2271.

Meier, of Ellenbrook, faced a maximum fine of $2000 over the two charges laid by the Department of Education and Training.

In July last year, Meier told The West Australian that children should be able to spend time outside having fun instead of being locked away in classrooms.

"(At school) they have to wear a hat and put poisons on their skin before being allowed in the sun," he told the paper. "Children are being denied their freedom by keeping them in schools as batch numbers for society."

Asked what his children did with their extra time, Meier said they had fun by watching videos, listening to music or drawing and did their own learning.

"There are books galore in my house to do with what they want to do," he said. "They are not hanging around the streets. They don't drink, don't smoke, they stay indoors."

Meier said he was "blessed" to have been able to spend so much time with his children and was prepared to speak on behalf of other parents who wanted to teach their own beliefs at home.
Letting his children stay home had saved taxpayers an immense amount of money, he said.

thanks for posting that sam. he does look like a bit of a whacko. actually, he looks like many of my friends

Lol MF he looks like people I know too...

I think his argument was fairly logical. It is one thing to just shut up and try to satisfy them (govt reps) - if they are flexible, this is easy, but on the other hand if your AP or Mod, like mine, just don't think that unschooling, natural learning, whatever meets their requirements then there is no room to move. Personally I can't just lie and submit some bullshit plan that I wont stick too because a. they will see I haven't followed it when they come back and b. how can we get acceptance for this kind of legit learning if we just tell them what they want to hear all the time.

Thanks Sam! Some of the comments on that story are ace!

Yeshe, how do you know your moderator doesn't support natural learning? In any case, I'm not sure they compare plans with evaluations...I've never heard of this. Even if you didn't follow your plan and you had evaluations of what your child had done, I bet you'd find a lot that fit into the requirements.

Yeah, I know I preach to the converted but...
Currawong, my AP said that what we do is ok, but we have to do more formal work, but to me that is the opposite of what I want to do and how DD learns best. The AP is an ex-teacher and believes in the system. I only recieved 6 months rego this time because she doesn't get what we are doing. I considered giving her what she wants and just getting registered, but it hasn't worked because I can't lie and DD just won't learn like that.

That's my blabbering story, I mean, it's really about this guy, but I can see why it's hard to home school really.

I think I was lucky with my AP, moderator person. We totally bull shitted on our curriculum, but she though it was ok and rego'd us for 1 year. Then when it was time to re-rego us they sent us a letter saying to contact them or they'd assume we had enrolled our kids in a school Guess what we did

I have to say that I agree with you all when you say that he should have shut up and played the game, gotten what he needed and THEN made a stance when they couldn't touch him - well ... ykwim.

I totally get where he's coming from but the way it's reported shows how the bulk of people view his stance. I wonder what will become of him and his kids.