JUDGEMENT OF LORD JUSTICE WARD CONCERNING THE FAMILY : PT 12
Click Here For A Warning Concerning This Judgment
THIS IS THE JUDGMENT OF LORD JUSTICE WARD IN THIS CASE WHICH
HE GAVE IN CHAMBERS ON THE 26TH MAY 1995 BUT WHICH IS BEING
HANDED DOWN IN OPEN COURT TODAY. IT CONSISTS OF 295 PAGES
AND HAS BEEN SIGNED AND DATED BY THE JUDGE.
THE JUDGE HEREBY DIRECTS THAT NO TRANSCRIPT OF THE JUDGMENT
NEED BE TAKEN AND THAT THE VERSION HANDED DOWN MAY BE
TREATED AS AUTHENTIC.
THE JUDGMENT IS BEING DISTRIBUTED ON THE STRICT
UNDERSTANDING THAT IN ANY REPORT OF IT NO PERSON (OTHER THAT
COUNSEL AND THEIR INSTRUCTING SOLICITORS AND THOSE PERSONS
IDENTIFIED BY NAME IN THE JUDGMENT ITSELF) MAY BE IDENTIFIED
BY NAME AND THAT IN PARTICULAR THE ANONYMITY OF THE CHILD, A
WARD OF COURT, AND THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY MUST BE
STRICTLY PRESERVED.
SIGNED:
THE RT. HON. LORD JUSTICE WARD DATED 19TH OCTOBER 1995
W 42 1992 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
FAMILY DIVISION
PRINCIPAL REGISTRY IN THE MATTER OF ST (A MINOR)
AND IN THE MATTER OF THE SUPREME COURT ACT 1991h
Lord Justice Ward
Berg was recognising that the large proportion of children
in The Family was presenting them with a crisis. Were they
to use the children to be out on the streets with the
parents selling tapes and posters - which neglected their
training (he did not like to use the word "education") - or
were they to recognise that caring for this large mass of
children was more important than having everyone on the
streets witnessing? It was a challenging question to which
The Family responded by tending either to open schools or to
gather the children from several homes together to form a
school home. The Family's educational curriculum was
strengthened by the introduction of a new uniform Home
Schooling Programme. The children were marked and assessed
and records kept of their progress and this had the great
advantage of enabling children to move from home to home,
indeed from country to country whilst still maintaining
uniformity of approach.
Bringing teenage children together inevitably led to some of
the disaffected sowing the seeds of dissension. To contain
it, The Family established a series of "Victor Programmes",
about which I must later deal specifically.
The problems being experienced by the young continued to
demand much of The Family's attention. In 1990, Maria had to
acknowledge "the trials and difficulties" that her 11 year
old daughter Techi had been going through and these together
with "the keys to helping her overcome them" were published
in the "Techi Series." As things got worse and worse with
Techi, Maria began to feel:-
"The whole Family is now in a very similar stage with their
Jetts and teens. You may have been able to commit the care
of your children to other teachers, helpers and overseers,
and in many cases, you've virtually had to do that in order
to fulfil the different ministries to which the Lord has
called you. And in some cases you're still not going to be
able to spend very much time with your children because for
the Lord's work's sake you have to either be apart from them
or devote most of your time and energies to other
responsibilities and ministries."
Her response to the dilemma was:-
"If we want to avoid having all our Jetts and teens becoming
dissatisfied, confused and rebellious "problem cases", I
think we're going to have to re-evaluate our entire
structure, and consider re-vamping and overhauling our
entire present method of handling them! In fact it might be
time to have a big revolution in all of our homes and
schools."
In April 1991, Peter Amsterdam wrote the new "Back to the
Basic Home Requirements". So far as education was concerned,
"Scholastics" in The Family terminology, the compulsory
requirement for Jetts and teens was a minimum of 12 hours of
scholastics each week though only 6 hours would be required
for teens who were up to par scholastically for their age.
He added "teens 16 years of age or older, who are doing
fairly well scholastically, are no longer required to have
scholastics, but could possibly use the 6 hours weekly for
ministry training."
1992 saw the beginning of what The Family regarded as
"unprecedented persecution". It caused them publicly to
state their position and policy on education. Their belief
was that:-
"Education is primarily the process of learning to apply
God's work to help us more fully understand the purposes of
God in life and appreciate Him and the wonders of His
creation."
The Bible is central to the children's education and it
forms the cornerstone of their curriculum. Their educational
objective is:-
"To foster total dedication to God and Christian
discipleship in all of our children while helping them to
acquire the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to lead
happy and productive fulfilling lives in His service. ... We
would view any attempt to impose totally secular values and
secular perspectives on our children as a serious disregard
for our spiritual belief and an infringement of our
religious rights, aimed at destroying our religion, as well
as placing our children in serious moral danger."
They believe that true education should not be confused with
simply acquiring knowledge:
"The Bible warns us that worldly wisdom and knowledge are
not only considered foolishness to God, but are not able to
deliver or transform the human spirit; in fact, they do not
even bring happiness to a man at all.... The most essential,
meaningful and rewarding education one can receive in life
is obtained through a prayerful study of God's word and by
letting Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwell in him and instruct
him and lead him into all truth, knowledge and
understanding. ... We translate this (a Godly education)
into practical terms by providing our children with a
multi-faceted education: Christian and ministerial training,
practical vocational training, scholastics, physical and
social developments. Our Christian ministry and cooperative
life style help provide an ideal home-based learning
environment in which to accomplish these educational
objective."
The changes suggested by the DTR did not wholly achieve
that. By January 1993, it had come to Maria's attention that
a number of the teens and young adults still had legitimate
concerns about The Family, especially regarding the role
they had to play in it. The "Personal Encouragement
Revolution" (the PER) was published in June. The Summit 93
proposed changes to the DTR scholastical requirements. It
defined scholastics as mainly referring to formal assigned
study time in three R's and the three G's. This was reduced
from 12 to 8 hours a week. The junior teens were to have a
minimum of 4 hours of scholastic study plus 4 hours of
vocational/ministry study, down from 12 hours a week, but
junior teens (ages 14 and 15) who were up to par
scholastically and senior teens (ages 16 and 17) were
required to have a minimum of 4 hours study time a week
(vocational/ministry study and/or scholastic, as chosen by
the teen).
In his letter to me, Peter Amsterdam expanded upon The
Family's educational philosophy. He told me that in January
1994, Maria convened a meeting of a number of WS and CRO
educational representatives who made a number of
recommendations to enhance the educational content in the
children's lives and to "facilitate participation in local
national secondary education examinations", to "research the
possibility of taking outside training in subjects they need
help in" and generally, to "make greater use of local
educational opportunities," and to "be as supportive and
accommodating as possible of our children's individual
desires for special training." He said:-
"This is a massive undertaking and it will take time and a
great deal of financing to fulfil these goals, but senior
leadership is committed to implementing the above measures."
The oral testimony on matters of education:
All are agreed and there is no issue about the fact that the
very young children receive a wholly satisfactory education.
In my judgment, The Family are entitled to greater credit
than just that. I find that the young develop their reading,
writing and arithmetic skills at an earlier age than their
contemporaries outside the communities. Moreover, I am
satisfied by the evidence of MM, that there is a very wide
variety of games, activities, arts and crafts gathered
together in the "activity books", which would stimulate as
well as entertain the young.
It follows that I have no qualms about the education S has
probably already begun to receive and the education he is
likely to receive over the next several years of his life.
The education of the children at a secondary school level is
quite different. The case against The Family is summarised
by one of its recent defectors, JG who expressed his concern
in these terms:-
"Children suffer - you grow up in a one way street with no
other thought of anything else to do except to be a
missionary."
I must bear that evidence in mind when looking at the
isolation of the children within The Family. I must also
bear in mind the evidence of another defector, SC, that
though life is geared to being a missionary, The Family
"seem to be working on it (education) a lot more."
The crucial question for my decision is whether they are
working on it hard enough. Their own expert witness Doctor
Millikan is "not without some reservations concerning the
education of the children above the primary school level."
He accepted findings of Doctor Watson-Munro in Victoria,
Australia who formed the opinion that the children were well
adjusted and well educated but:
"His only reservation (which was not a serious one) was
similar to my own, that the educational environment was less
than full. For the teens, the educational materials
available are limited to a narrow band of publications
emerging from fundamentalist, creationist framework although
it must be said that there is a concerted attempt within The
Family to address this situation. They are at an early stage
in developing educational materials for this age range. They
are in a sense growing up as a movement with their children
and what I observe is a change to greater diversity in the
education."
I am satisfied that the strident strictures in the early
"You are what you read" and "Book Burning" letters are not
rigorously enforced and nor rigorously observed by the
young. Perhaps they never have been. Berg may have sounded
off in "The Advantages of Having Children" (May 1978) that:
"Much of that expensive Montessori junk is not even worth
putting in your house". ... Stick to the New Testament and
the Mo Letters and teach the children at home. Take the
children litnessing take the children provisioning in every
single home. Then the kids will be getting the best school
possible every day".
MM endeavoured to teach by Montessori methods. SC used to go
to the library when he was at the teen school at Wantage.
The bookshelves at the Ward's home have books from the local
library upon them. I am, however, equally satisfied that the
children are not wholly free to pursue their intellectual
interests as they wish. The education now seems based around
"Program Studies" being prepared by the Christian Vocational
College. The most cursory glance at it will reveal the heavy
reliance placed on The Family literature for teaching over
the whole range of the syllabus, from history and geography
to current affairs and physical education. This is less than
satisfactory. There is a dearth of good literature
available. EM a childcare expert in the family, told me that
there was a wide range of books that were available in the
homes but when pressed, and pressed again, she could not
recall a single title. Some material is absolutely
prohibited. I can understand that Darwin's "Origin of the
Species" might be proscribed material but I confess to being
less able to understand what untold harm Greek mythology
might do. In such a narrow environment an enquiring mind
suffers:-
(a) because the material to broaden it is not readily
available and in some aspects is not available at all.
(b) because generally speaking, enquiries are frowned
upon on the basis that curiosity is the product of a
doubting mind and doubt allows the Devil to take it over.
I am satisfied, however, that there is an awareness, which I
find to be a growing awareness, that studying for public
examination is permissible, indeed advantageous, but at the
moment any such public participation takes place within a
very narrow compass, if it takes place at all. The movement
towards it may be strongest in America but there is evidence
of it beginning to happen in this country. LA and VB and JL,
spoke of this development with varying degree of enthusiasm,
which I have to treat with caution in the light of the heavy
emphasis The Family place upon the deficiencies they
perceive elsewhere in state education. For example, MM was
insistent on exhibiting to her affidavit an inordinate
number of press cuttings reporting one school disaster after
another or one educational failing after another in "system"
schools. JL's antipathy seemed to stem from a murder at the
school attended by her sister's children. They use these
examples is to condemn secular education. It is not the most
rational approach. I am far from accepting that "system"
education is perfect - it never can be - but the leadership
should not allow their judgment of what is best for their
children's rounded education to be clouded by the
exaggerations of the Traumatic Testimonies.
I have to accept that parents within The Family are entitled
to educate their children at home. It is necessary,
therefore, to see how well they are doing it. I have the
benefit of a report of the Local Authority who conducted an
investigation at my direction pursuant to Section 37 of the
Children Act 1989. As part of that investigation officers of
the Local Education Authority visited The Family for one
school day. They reported as follows:-
"The educational activities are planned with reference to a
defined, carefully structured and sequential programme of
work that is used in all Family homes. Content is detailed
for each identified level of ability and strongly reflects
the religious and moral beliefs of The Family. Extensive
guidance is provided for the adults who use the programme.
Assessment and recording are built into the programme based
on the six week marking period. Accomplishment sheets are
maintained for each child for each period with accumulative
record sheets also being maintained. Regular reports are
made to parents of the children. The records were
conscientiously maintained although the YC (young child)
group had less in the way of documented records due to the
recent changes in adults assigned to them. The teaching
staff employed laid emphasis on children working under the
close directional instruction of the adult. However, the
small teaching groups enabled a great deal of discussion,
questioning and flexibility so children had the opportunity
to follow particular interests within the parameters set by
the adults. Work with the teens laid more emphasis on
independent enquiry although the sources and reference
material provided are carefully defined in order to reflect
the values and beliefs of The Family. Opportunities were
being taken to make use of learning opportunities provided
in the community and one of the teens had recently attended
at a local education authority maintained community college
on food hygiene. In discussion the adults responsible for
the teaching all expressed interest in the children taking
up the new opportunities that are being developed for
external certification/qualification. The Family are
interested in extending their knowledge of general national,
vocational qualifications as a means of adding 'substance'
to their own internal qualifications....There is an
extensive collection of books and videos to support teaching
and learning that are located in the various parts of the
house used as teaching bases. There are many sets of
encyclopaedias and BEKA books available. These tend to
promote views and values that are consistent with those of
The Family. The variety of other books is similarly
controlled and early reading materials were concentrated on
one rather dated scheme. The children are given the
opportunity to use several public libraries and are guided
in their choice of reading material. The rooms and furniture
used for teaching purposes were all suitable for the range
of activities that were being undertaken. Information
technology resources are extensive and suitable software is
available for all the children with data bases for the
retrieval of factual information, word processing facilities
and drill work/games for basic numeracy and literacy all
being used during the time of the review. Resources for
imaginative play were less in evidence in the teaching areas
and there were few facilities for practical science enquiry
or to support investigative work in mathematics and
technology for the younger pupils. The extensive
opportunities afforded by the large grounds for physical and
recreational activities have been recognised.....The
standards of work and achievement that the review observed
were in line with norms expected for the age and ability of
the children. In particular the children demonstrated good
standards in oracy, numeracy and literacy, and their
attitudes, behaviour and relationships both with the adults
that taught them and with each other were excellent. The
older children were able to work without close supervision,
whilst the OC/JETT group gave an excellent example of
co-operative and collaborative work which also demonstrated
the ability to evaluate, modify and polish their own work
and progress. The children were encouraged to question, to
think and to find out for themselves, although this operated
clearly within the values, beliefs and principles aspired by
The Family. Adults took their tasks seriously and were
concerned to discharge their responsibilities effectively.
The use of praise was particularly evident in all the groups
observed."
Their conclusion was that:
"From the review undertaken, the review team are of the
opinion that the education provided:-
? is undertaken within the strong and explicit framework of
values and principles aspired by The Family;
? is based on a strong relationship between adults and
learners in a controlled safe and secure environment;
? next, whilst there may be concerns about the effect on the
children in the long term of being isolated to some degree
from a wider community, nevertheless on a day to day basis
the education provided offers activities that are broadly
suited to the age, ability and aptitude of the children and
which enabled the children to achieve standards that are
satisfactory or better."
That report was prepared in November 1993. It seems that a
year later further visits were made. This further report
stated the following:-
"The curriculum followed is one that is prescribed for all
Family homes, is American in origin and extensively
documented. It lays heavy emphasis on the basic skills of
numeracy and literacy through set and structured programmes
of work in reading, language, arts and mathematics. There
are other programmes in modern foreign languages, science,
art, music, Bible reading, social studies, geography,
history, health and physical education. The curriculum is
also influenced by the national curriculum. The adults have
consulted the recent draft proposals made following the
Dearing Review into the National Curriculum and expressed
interest in any support and advice the local education
authority might be able to offer.....The range of the
curriculum is broad and balanced in most respects. The
teaching of art is confined mostly to colouring and drawing.
To a certain extent science lacks coherence and the adults
recognise the need to include more practical and
investigative work....All the adults take their
responsibility seriously and appear to be keen to do their
best for the children".
The Inspector observed the secondary age pupils and reported
this:-
"During the morning of the visit, the four children worked
under the supervision of LA who had planned a number of
different activities. The pupils participated well in a
discussion on violence on television (stimulated by
newspaper articles) and produced a short written summary of
their opinions. The children went on to discuss the
dramatisation of a story and, despite the age differences,
all children participated and were involved in the task. The
children talked about other activities and projects and
performed an impromptu song followed by a dance. From the
evidence in portfolios of work, science is more
investigative than practical, but information technology
skills were well developed. The children were following a
course book for GCSE mathematics and extend their work by
using a bank of activity stored on computer software."
Of the primary age pupils, the report observed that:-
"All the pupils were achieving at least standards that would
be expected nationally of pupils their age and beyond. The
pupils were keen and eager to participate and clearly
enjoyed the activities. They were attentive throughout the
session, responded well to challenge of the tasks and
related well to each other and to the teacher. The session
had good pace, AG clearly enjoying her role and had planned
and prepared the material well and took into account the
differing ability of the children. She was clear and precise
in her instructions, developed the learning points well,
praised and encouraged the children as they responded and
was firm when necessary."
There was a second group of younger children working under
LA:-
"The session began with handwriting practice. Standard of
control and letter formation was at the level expected
nationally and all the children could write in a fluent
classic style....The two boys in particular were very
contributive; they showed a wide range of general knowledge
and drew on other learning to add to the discussion."
Of the resources the report said:-
"The range of resources to support teaching and learning is
adequate. There is an extensive range of video material that
links to the curriculum programme together with recorded
wild life programmes. There is an adequate range of books
and reference material, most of which reflect closely the
religious views and values of The Family. A range of musical
instruments is available, although equipment for science was
less in evidence. A wide range of appropriate books relating
to the national curriculum had been purchased from
booksellers for use with younger children. A more than
adequate number of computers and software is available.
Contacts and links with the local and wider community:
Although children from the village visit the home, most
friendships are within The Family. However contact outside
the home is achieved through a variety of activity. Some of
the older children give musical entertainment in other towns
and some have performed in the recent Diwali celebrations in
Leicester. The older girls have been to the local primary
school to watch the teachers as a 'pre-vocational' part of
their education. Some work has begun on looking at formal
creditation for the education provided and one of the adult
helpers has recently completed a 'clait' course in IT. The
police have also been approached to run a cycling
proficiency course and the local vicar is a regular visitor
to the home.
Conclusion
The standard of work and achievement seen during the course
of the visits is in line with the national expectations for
the ages and abilities of the children. Standards in the key
skills of literacy and numeracy meet those expected
nationally with some children achieving beyond. The
curriculum is close structured, clearly organised and the
adults work in close co-operation with each other. In many
ways the arrangement is that of a small private school with
a particular religious emphasis. Most of the children seen
were open, they relate well to each other and to the adults
who teach them and are only too happy to talk about
themselves and their work. The adults welcome the visits.
They were at ease and open in all the discussions; they were
happy to articulate their philosophy and appeared eager to
seek ways to extend the quality of what they were doing.
From the range of evidence available the educational needs
of the children are being met."
I accept those findings.
So far as tertiary education is concerned, I do not recall
evidence of any child who has gone on to further education.
Peter Amsterdam wrote to me:-
"It is likely that the pursuit of extended post-secondary
educational qualifications will entail temporarily stepping
out of D.O. status. It would be very difficult for a home to
provide the necessary resources to facilitate such courses
of education. The development of the TS programme should
make this option far more readily available and acceptable
to those who wish to pursue it".
Those who did would labour under a disadvantage because they
do not have the necessary grades at GCSE or at A level. From
the observation of those who have left The Family but wished
to pursue further education, I was left in little doubt that
they have the ability but struggle to catch up with the
formal requirements for entry to University. Many of the
adults have had the benefits of that further education
themselves but the very fact they are not able nor willing
to permit this privilege to their children is an indication
still of their conviction that the essential training is for
the End-time and that the end is nigh. It is a limitation on
the full development of the child. I shall turn to the
implications of this for S when I reach the concluding part
of my judgment.
[ Click Me ] Go To Part 11 . . .
[ Click Me ] Go To Part 13 . . .