Dan's schooling

[GulPlum]

This is getting dangerously close to O.T. I'm not so sure where the 
limit is myself... :-)

Richelle Votaw wrote:

> As for schooling, David Heyman did say that Daniel had gotten into 
> a school that you have to do very well to get in and was doing very 
> well in that school.  If he continues to do well, I don't see it 
> being a problem for him to continue filming with the tutors intead 
> of "regular" school.  In fact, I was home schooled for most of my 
> schooling (all but four years), by my mother, and went on to 
> college, did very well there, if I do say so myself :)  Got a 
> Bachelor's degree, Master's degree, didn't hurt me one bit.

I'm not complaining about home schooling, and very much support the 
principle. In fact, so does British law, as the English education 
system is predicated on parents' right to educate their kids any way 
they wish. 

It's not a loophole, but entirely deliberate that the legal 
obligation is for children between the ages of 5 and 16 "to be 
educated", NOT for them "to go to school". Parents are perfectly 
entitled to withdraw their kids from any school (private or public) 
and send them to any other which will have them, or to educate their 
kids themselves or employ tutors, without the need for any 
bureaucratic steps whatsoever. All they need to, as a matter of 
courtesy, NOT of law, is inform any current school that their child 
isn't coming back.

It is down to local authorities to ensure that parents don't abuse 
the system, and the fact that they don't have enough staff to keep an 
eye on kids who are "taken out of the system" is perhaps one of the 
downsides, especially in cases where parents don't necessarily have 
their children's best interests at heart (regrettable, but 
increasingly common). 

All that said, if what I heard identifying Dan's new school is true 
(and I have little reason to doubt what I heard - I didn't come via 
the internet or the media), his parents are paying a LOT for him to 
be there, and indeed the school is very good and has very high 
admittance standards. If I was in their shoes and could see that he 
was doing so well with the on-set tutors, I'd forget about signing 
Dan up to an exclusive school and just employ the on-set tutors full-
time. Apart from anything else, it'd be cheaper. :-) Especially as 
Warners would probably pick up the bill for the months he spends on 
set...

Clearly Dan's parents consider his being at a *school* important, and 
I have a feeling that the fact that he's going to miss most, if not 
all, of the last term of his first year doesn't exactly fill them 
with pleasure. Missing most of his second year as well is probably 
more than they can accept. 

Changing the subject, I've just finished watching the premiere 
webcast - I got home earlier just in time for Hayman's & Columbus's 
speeches inside the cinema, so I missed all the glitz and glamour 
outside. Did anyone else make any speeches? The stream currently 
being provided doesn't include anything inside the auditorium. I was 
very impressed with the difference in Dan's attitude compared to last 
year, though - he no longer looked scared half to death, for 
starters. :-)